Month: March 2005

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Shuttle XPC SB81P: Loaded 775 BTX

It’s the first of Shuttle’s socket T SFF systems, and it is loaded to the gills with convenience and performance features. It borrows heavily from BTX layout without quite being BTX. Visibly bigger than its predecessors, with a huge (for SFF) 350W PSU, this Prescott-only machine is unfortunately quite a lot noisier. Frankly, we’re a

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Silverstone LC-11 media PC case

It is slick and sleek, pretty and small, with an odd twist borne out of functional (cooling) need: The motherboard goes in upside down. Supplied with a small 240W PSU and two 80mm fans, the LC-11 is pretty quiet, too, especially if you take care, but it takes only Micro-ATX boards. Ralf Hutter tries a

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A New Energy Star… in 2007

The U.S. Environment Protection Agency is moving to tougher Energy Star specifications for computers. For the first time, the spec will define efficiency in terms of power consumed while a computer is on, rather than just on standby. Preliminary conditions for desktop computers include the following: The PSU must be rated for >80% efficiency, and

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Seasonic S12-430: Beyond the Super Tornado

Seasonic’s S12 series was recently introduced as a replacement for the now >18 month old Super Tornado series. It shares much with the earlier series, but does everything just a little bit better. The 430, the middle of five models, is about the quietest fan-cooled PSU we’ve reviewed, by a small margin, and also one

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Raidmax RX-520XPW Power Supply

It’s a very consumer-directed “Feature-laden” power supply with windows, shiny silver finish, LED fans, a convenience AC outlet, reasonably quiet fans and big claims of low noise. Our first enounter with a Raidmax PSU did not impress us, despite all the bling.

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Arctic Cooling Freezer 4 heatsink/fan

The Freezer is Arctic Cooling’s “high-end” heatsink. At US$34 it is still relatively inexpensive, but is targeted at the performance market. Can this modest heatpiped HSF compete successfully in cooling performance while maintaining AC’s reputation for low noise established with their Super Silent series?

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Shuttle SN95G5: A64-939 SFF

It is not the first AMD Athlon 64 SFF barebones system from Shuttle, but it is the first to use a Socket 939 motherboard. We installed a 3500+ Winchester (90nm) core in a minimalist setup with a notebook HDD, played long in the BIOS and measured, tested and listened to bring you this review of

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