Month: August 2006

QMicra from PC Design Lab: SFF Super-sized

A high end SFF case from PC Design Lab recently arrived at the SPCR lab. It may be Small Form Factor (barely), but it’s got room for four drives, two graphics cards, an ATX power supply and tall heatsinks. It also comes with several silencentric features that set it apart from the competition. The question

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Aerocase Condor: A Massive, Passive VGA Cooler

Aerocase stands out: It’s a Wyoming-based, silence-inspired heatsink company with an all-woman management. They’re taking on the multinational tech industry with a lot of guts and a passive VGA heatsink that’s bigger than anyone else’s. The Condor does not have the power of mass marketing and worldwide distribution to spur it on, but it’s worth

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Measuring Heatpipe Efficiency

A new contributor reports on his efforts to determine the efficacy of the Borg 6mm HES (Heatpipe Extension Set) by mCubed, designed for use in their passive home theather PC cases. The author’s aim is to design a secondary backup system to aid a 1U HSF in cooling the CPU in an extremely low profile

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Thermalright Gets Back on Top with the Ultra-120

Thermalright’s Ultra-120 is designed to take on the biggest, coolest heatsinks on the market — and win. But, like most performance heatsinks, it has closely spaced fins that are designed to do well with lots of airflow. That doesn’t always square well with SPCR’s goals for low-airflow systems. We’ve put it head to head with

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Apack ZeroTherm BTF80 & BTF90 CPU Heatsink/Fans

They may look like motorized butterflies, but the ZeroTherm BTF80 & BTF90 from Apack are intended to be more than just ornaments for system builders with a feminine side. Chances are you’ve never heard of Apack, but this Korean company has been doing business with majors like Samsung and Intel for a few years, and

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Jani’s Big Quiet Wood Case PC

Here’s a DIY quiet PC project story by a Finnish teen who has the distinction of being the youngest SPCR editorial contributor to date. The project involves another custom-built wooden case (not the first at SPCR), exotic woods, a cardboard box, and some help from Jani’s father.

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Mushkin XP-650 power supply

Is it memory or a power supply? The latter, from another memory brand wading into the crowded PSU market. The XP-650 has one of the most appealing packages this reviewer has seen for a power supply, and it is immaculately presented. Is there substance for quiet computing beneath the gleaming polished visage?

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