Daily Reviews Summary 12/03/07

The SteelSeries is a line of gaming peripherals with many market segments, with the headphones being probably the most popular one. Whenever we are talking about gaming headphones the first thing that comes to mind when gaming headphones are mentioned are usually those that cover the entire ear, thus efficiently isolating the player from the outside world. These headphones have a different approach.

In this review we will be looking at NZXT's brand new Alpha mid-tower case. Not only is this case one of their more simple and compact designs but it is also one of the few enclosures in this price range that is 8800GTX compatible

HTPC cases are getting pretty popular. I have one, which is a pretty nice case, but the cooling is so limited that I wouldn't consider putting my main rig in it. As far as features, it is pretty plain Jane, it mainly looks like it belongs with other home theater components, although there were some optional multimedia features that it didn't come with. GM Corporation, LTD, from Seoul, Korea, a company that has been specializing in cases for over a decade, has produced an HTPC case called the Noblesse K-1 Muse, advertised as "Multimedia all-in-one PC case". Will this case have enough features to earn the title "multimedia case", along with satisfying the needs of the enthusiast? We'll see.

Today, we get to look at one of their most unique heatsink designs yet. The Thermaltake V1 CPU Cooler is a departure from your standard heatsink designs with its elegant copper structure that resembles a great oriental hand fan rising from the middle of your motherboard like a great big copper wing. Did I mention that it glows blue? Now the burning question: Is this product all show and no go, or is it show and…go? Let’s find out!

The Power Strip is a pretty cool feature that can come in quite handy. It really serves as a power HUB spreading out power to more peripherals efficiently. The users that will purchase this case will most likely want to install some form of light such as LEDs, Cold Cathode Tubing, or Neons. All of those extras will need power and that Power Strip will work great for quick connections. You won't have to go digging through your power supply wires to find power. This feature will hopefully show up in future revisions.

Growing up, there really was no toy or educational tool that had as much lasting value as Lego blocks. I could spend all day pressing those bricks together, constructing every from very boxy sports cars to massive forts for my little Lego soldiers. In some ways, the Kingston DataTraveler Mini Fun USB Flash Drive cashes in on this nostalgia, because it features a clicking cap system that looks a heck of a lot like Lego. In fact, If it weren't for the $62 price tag, some people may mistake the tiny wonder for a piece of Lego.

Ever since Heatpipe Direct Touch (HDT) technology was first introduced in exposed copper heatpipe coolers such as the Zaward VIVO, Xigmatek HDT-S1283, and OCZ Vendetta, overall heatsink sizes have been reduced while the cooling performance has dramatically improved. Not eveyone is a believer in the new cooling technique, and some manufacturers have stuck by their tried-and-true designs. Benchmark Reviews has received the Scythe Mugen 5-Heatpipe CPU Cooler SCINF-1000, and the practice of "bigger is better" will be put to the test.

All I can say is wow! I think the scores for this RAM speak for themselves. It surpassed the other sets in fifty percent of the tests, and came very close in the rest. The margins are big in the tests where it came out on top, which shows the true speeds of this set of RAM. The RAM installed and booted with no problems and ran 100% the whole time. During overclocking I could not get the memory to go over 1200MHz, even with upping the voltage a little and loosening the timings.

I didn’t think to record the running temperatures of the previous case to compare this one too, but in terms of noise, this one is ridiculously quiet. The supplied 120mm fans are rated at 16dbm(!) and the loudest component in the case became the CPU cooler fan. This was a nice result.

The NF-P12 is a new 120mm fan with several improvements for very silent operation. Noctua claims the NF-P12 has been specifically designed for
high-impedance applications such as processor coolers and watercooling rigs and features "psychoacoustic" improvements to make it less annoying to the human ear.

With its new hybrid cooling design for the XT, Zalman has lost the traditional silence of the previous Reserator systems, but gained significant cooling performance. The Reserator XT is indeed a worthy successor to the Reserators of the past and boasts easy installation, attractive styling and superb materials and workmanship. Digital monitoring of fluid temperature and fan/pump speed control are welcome features, and the mechanical flow indicator adds a visual confirmation of coolant flow rates as well.