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Written by Mikhail Ivanenkov
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Sunday, 19 August 2007 |
We haven't messed with many TEC, or Peltier coolers here at the 'Cafe, instead we've gone with using either air cooled heatsinks or more conventional water coolers. In fact, the last TEC unit I had we could never get it to work and when we tried to contact the manufacturer we found out they went out of business 2 days after they shipped us the review unit. Today, we're going to change all that as CoolIT have sent us their Freezone cooler unit. I have to admit to being torn between being a bit skeptical, considering our past history with TEC units, and being very hopeful of this unit after reading of other people's experience with it.
The pad itself is a (pauses to count) 51 key pad (he had to count this several times, as fingers and toes only go up to 20 -- Ed.) which uses a mixture of letters, numbers, F-keys, symbols and function keys arranged in a free-form circular configuration. To break that sentence down into a jargonless form; it means there are a lot of different buttons, two of which can be used to control the system volume, laid out in a circular mish-mash.
The 120mm comes with all that the 80mm has except only one fan speed reducing cable, I have to say Noctua are very thorough here by insuring you have either screws or rubber grommet mounts, the choice is yours. The only thing I am not sure of is the color options are this and that’s it.
Whether you are interested in lifecasting, video conferencing or simply chatting online with friends or family on the other side of the planet, it all starts with a webcam. I tried using a webcam several years back and quickly gave up because the quality was horrible. It was like watching a photo slideshow in slow motion. Things have certainly come a long way since then and I am excited to try a "newer" webcam to see just how much improvement has been made over the years.
The casing of the EasyCap is made of a textured hard plastic that actually feels a bit lit rubber. There are numerous ventilation holes on all sides to help keep the capture chipset nice and cool, and an LED indicator to indicate use and power. Overall it feels very well made and durable enough to take anywhere with you.
The Moneual MonCaso 932 HTPC Case is dream case for a Home Theater PC build. It's looks fantastic, all aluminum construction, 7" touch screen LCD, memory card reader, one 5.25" drive bay, four hard drive bays, fits standard ATX motherboards and ATX power supplies. It also has excellent air circulation with the included four 80mm fans. It’s even comes with a Windows Vista Media Center compatible remote control. All-in-all this case rocks! Watch the video to find out more and check out the bloopers at the end.
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750W at Phoronix:
When you say "good power supply" to newbies, most just look at the wattage and buy the biggest wattage power supply for the cheapest price. This is a costly mistake. Slightly more experienced users will look for brands like Antec, Thermaltake, Enermax, etc. These are very reliable and perform well enough for most users. However, seasoned enthusiasts and overclockers know that few companies match up to the name PC Power & Cooling. The quality of their units has been legendary and the units are highly coveted components. Earlier this year OCZ Technology, a leading memory manufacturer with products we frequently review here at Phoronix, had acquired PC Power & Cooling. One of the products to come out recently since then has been the PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750W power supply. The PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750W has a massive 60A single rail (similar to the SilverStone Olympia OP650) and four PCI-E connectors. It is ATI Crossfire certified and the Crossfire Edition refers to its bright red paint job.
2.0 power cable. You better have two free USB 2.0 ports if you want to power and use the device over the eSATA interface. If you choose to utilize the USB 2.0 interface, you should be happy to hear that you won't need any additional power cables, as the device can be powered with that single cable. If you are willing to carry a power adapter around, Akasa sells one which will fit the P2NES. That way you only need to use one USB 2.0 plug to use the device.
Corsair VX450W PSU at HotHardware:
Corsair is taking much of the same technology which was prevelant in their HX-series power supplies and bringing it down to a lower price point. Earlier this month, they introduced the VX-series power supply lineup. This simple linup consists of 450W and 550W units, and are targeted at single processor, single graphics card systems who want near inaudible noise levels, solid power, and a reliable manufacturer name. We recently got our hands on the 450W unit for a trial run.
Over a 5 year period, nearly $70-$100 can be spent on wasted electricity from one power supply. Many in today's digital lifestyle have multiple computers, or computerized appliances, so even a 5% improvement over all of your equipment can mean hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars over time. I'm not an Al Gore-wannabe; I'm just pointing out that a slow leak of money adds up after a while. And it doesn't make sense to buy an exhorbitantly expensive power supply to combat the problem, because that's money out of your pocket, too.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 20 August 2007 )
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