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600-650 watt power supply round-up: 25 models put to the test
AMD Details High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) DRAM Tech, Pushes Over 100GB/s Per Stack
AMD's high-bandwidth memory explained
An Introduction to HBM - High Bandwidth Memory
CM Storm Mizar Gaming Mouse
CRYORIG H5 Universal CPU Cooler Review
DeepCool Captain 360 Liquid CPU Cooler Review
Entry-level PC - May 2015
Fractal Design Kelvin S36 360mm Liquid Cooler Review
Lian-Li PC-O6s Review
Microsoft Lumia 640 Review
Noctua presents two asymmetrical 140mm CPU coolers
NZXT Noctis 450 with Kraken X61 Review
Origin Genesis PC Chassis Review – Part 2



600-650 watt power supply round-up: 25 models put to the test

When building a powerful system, we'd recommend going with a power supply of above average capacity. Although a 500W unit is actually capable of powering a pretty beefy system these days, choosing a 600-650W unit does offer a little more flexibility at only a modest price increase. Therefore, we tested 25 such power supplies, with prices ranging from $30 / £22 / €30 to $150 / £120 / €150.

About six months ago, we tested a substantial amount of 500-550W power supplies. Reviewing said test reveals that a power supply from the 500W range is powerful enough even for a high-end system featuring a Core i7 4790K and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980. However, if you want more, such as a Socket 2011 CPU, a GTX 960 SLI setup, or a whole lot of hard drives, having a little more power might come in handy. Power supplies from the 600-650W range would make for an excellent choice in such a scenario – and they just happen to be the subject of this test.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

AMD Details High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) DRAM Tech, Pushes Over 100GB/s Per Stack

High Bandwidth Memory is designed to address a number of limitations of current GDDR5 memory implementations. On many of today’s graphics cards, a relatively large number of GDDR5 chips are necessary to offer sufficient capacity and bandwidth. The need to use a relatively large number of chips means a significant amount of PCB real estate is consumed by the memory and its associated voltage regulators. In addition, routing the traces required for a wide memory interface on a high-end graphics card significantly increases the complexity of the design. The power requirements for an off-chip interface are typically higher than an integrated solution as well...

http://hothardware.us3.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=efc4c507c2cf964fc2462caca&id=d701b30aba&e=0c004f9c13]Read full article @ HotHardware.com[/url]

AMD's high-bandwidth memory explained

HBM is the next generation of memory for high-bandwidth applications like graphics, and AMD has helped usher it to market. Read on to find out more about HBM and what we've learned about the memory subsystem in AMD's next high-end GPU, code-named Fiji.

Read full article @ The Tech Report

An Introduction to HBM - High Bandwidth Memory

AMD has been teasing about its next-gen Radeon (R9 390X we assume) graphics cards and processors back in early May. It is without doubt that at least some of the upcoming graphics cards will be the first to feature high-bandwidth memory (HBM), let's call is the turbo-charged offspring to GDDR5 memory, used in today’s graphics cards.

AMD briefed press on HBA last week - High Bandwidth Memory, something they started working on roughly seven years ago. This new type of graphics memory is going to change the para-dime in the graphics industry when we are talking about using less power, smaller form factors but most of all increased & scalable memory bandwidth. In this article we'll dig a little deeper into the new technology.

We've talked about and mentioned HBM many times in the front-page news already. HBM is short for High Bandwidth Memory, basically a new technology that was invented and brainstormed many years ago. With fabrication technology shrinking the time was right for AMD to move forward with their first implementation of HBM. HBM v1 will be introduced soon in products that can not be discussed just yet. There are several advantages to HBM memory, but of course also some concerns. First and foremost, the memory bandwidth that this technology can potentially offer is colossal. But why the move to HBM?

Read full article @ Guru3D

CM Storm Mizar Gaming Mouse

CM Storm's newest gaming mouse is put to the test. Like previous high-end models from CM Storm, the Mizar features the 8200 DPI Avago ADNS-9800 laser sensor. The Mizar's design looks to harken back to the IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0, which is a good thing. We take it for a spin to see how it compares to recent high-end gaming mice.

Read full article @ techPowerUp

CRYORIG H5 Universal CPU Cooler Review

Not that long ago CRYORIG sent us their flagship R1 Ultimate CPU cooler, which not only impressed us, but had a lot of cool technologies and other things we had never saw on a CPU cooler before. Now we are moving on to their H5 Universal CPU cooler, which as the name suggest is a cooler that will give you 100% memory clearance on mainstream sockets. While the R1 Ultimate was a dual-tower cooler, the H5 Universal has a single tower, but still retains much of the surface area of the R1 with its large fin design. The cooler itself features CRYORIG’s Hive Fin structure design, Jet Fin Acceleration System, Heatpipe Convex-Align System, and XT140 140mm cooling fan. Will this cooler be able to live up to the performance of the R1 Ultimate? Let’s get it in our system and find out!

Read full article @ ThinkComputers.org

DeepCool Captain 360 Liquid CPU Cooler Review

All-in-one liquid coolers, while being an incredibly easy way to get to liquid cool your CPU, are also generally boring when it comes to aesthetics, offering not much more than a plain black radiator and pump design. However, the subject of this review seems to breakaway from the norms.

Read full article @ TechnologyX

Entry-level PC - May 2015

Our guidelines for the Entry-level PC category are as follows. The entire computer system, excluding OS, should not exceed £420. Its primary, but not only, function is to provide a smooth and enjoyable online experience. This means that the cheapest processors won’t be enough, as modern web pages and internet applications do demand some processing power.

Additionally, the system has to be able to efficiently perform internet-related tasks. This includes basic photo editing (cropping and resizing to upload or send a photo) and extracting compressed files. At the same time the necessary background programmes need to be active, such as a virus scanner, a firewall, and anti-spyware software. The computer also needs to be able to efficiently run word processing software and administrative programmes.

Read full article @ Hardware.Info

Fractal Design Kelvin S36 360mm Liquid Cooler Review

Swedish Fractal Design already revealed its upcoming Kelvin CPU water cooling series way back at CeBIT 2014 in Hannover. At last year's Computex we saw the same prototypes again, scheduled for a summer release. Finally in December 2014 the retail versions popped up; Fractal Design added three AIO models to their Kelvin AIO line-up: a 120mm radiator T12 Kelvin, the S24 being the 240 radiator version and the flagship S36 as the triple fan version. Today we have a look at the latter version, the Kelvin S36. The AIO market is already pretty saturated with versions from Antec, Corsair, Cooler Master, Enermax and Swiftech. What makes this Fractal Design S36 stand out from the crowd? Time to explore the Sweed's high end product.

Read full article @ Madshrimps

Lian-Li PC-O6s Review

Brushed metal and glass sure do look nice...

Read full article @ HardwareHeaven

Microsoft Lumia 640 Review

Except for a few nuanced drawbacks, the Microsoft Lumia 640 is a solid phone. The Lumia 640, running on the Cricket network, dropped into my lap on Friday of last week. With our kids' school winding down, a couple birthdays and a college graduation, this last weekend was one of our busiest in a long while. I absolutely had no time to relax, and spent much of Monday just trying to recover from all the joy. But, for a product review, that actually turned out to be a good thing. I suspended use of my regular handset (the HTC M8 Windows Phone) and opted to use the Lumia 640 as my primary mobile device all weekend long. Interestingly enough, my hardware review actually turned into a test of Cricket wireless. But, I'll get into that in a minute or two.

For specs and pictures, check out First Look: Microsoft Lumia 640, and instead of going into a full, bit-by-bit of the hardware and services, I'll just give you an overview of the good, bad, and strange.

Read full article @ WinSupersite

Noctua presents two asymmetrical 140mm CPU coolers

Noctua today announced two new additions to its portfolio of premium-quality, quiet CPU coolers with 140mm fans. Whereas the NH-D15S is a high-compatibility single fan version of the elite-class dual tower model NH-D15, the NH-C14S replaces the proven top-flow cooler NH-C14. Both the NH-D15S and NH-C14S feature an asymmetrical layout in order to avoid blocking the … Read more.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc

NZXT Noctis 450 with Kraken X61 Review

The NZXT formula for creating the Noctis 450 appears to be quite straightforward. Take the impressive H440 (which was built primarily for low noise), enhance the LED lighting with the Under Glow strip lights we saw on the H440 Razer edition and finish the whole thing off with front and top panels that have been lifted from the NZXT Phantom.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Origin Genesis PC Chassis Review – Part 2

A few months back we brought you Part 1 of the Origin Genesis PC chassis. Part one is mainly an overview of the chassis while part 2 details the installation of the hardware. I approached the installation as if the Origin Genesis was a mass produced, readily available PC chassis. I used off the shelf hardware that I had on … Read more.

Read full article @ Modders-Inc