by Grigoriy Gubankov
04/15/2003 | 06:42 PM
X-bit Watch have been here and there and almost everywhere and for the sixth time we prepared something we consider interesting for you.
<%BANNER[article]%>Overclockers.com has got their hands on the Aquarius II, a water-cooling kit from Thermaltake. This thing fits perfectly into Thermaltek Xaser cases according to the manufacturer’s claims, but who actually cares? Two main factors that are taken into account when choosing a water-cooling system are: noise level and cooling performance. Yes, Thermaltake’s water-baby is stylish and rather quiet, but the observers have also discovered that it does not cool as good as other water-coolers they had tested before. Be sure to find more information as well as the pictures of the whole thing here.
If you want a cool cooler, but do not feel like ready to go with water-blocks and to mess with VapoChills, then you should have a look at more traditional solutions that still can satisfy the most demanding users with the hottest processors. Tweakers Australia recently reviewed Cooler Master’s Aero 7 “radial” CPU cooler that more resembles a blower and found out that it is rather noisy, heavy, but blows the air just fine and even creates strong air-flow near the centre of the heat-sink, the hottest spot that is usually left hot by conventional coolers. Blow here to read the full review.
Still remember Rambus? I believe you do. Hardware Accelerated has conducted an interview with Rambus’ Michael Ching, product marketing manager for the RDRAM memory line at the company. Rambus still has big plans and even wants to spread its products and developments onto variety computer devices. Find out Rambus’ explanation why you should choose RDRAM instead of a powerful CPU or GPU over here.
When the FireWire (IEEE1394) was developed, it was meant only for connecting PCs to digital devices requiring high-speed data transfer. Apparently, now FireWire can be used not only for connecting personal computers to other devices, but also for building high-speed home networks. VoidedWarranty teaches us how to build small-scale, but high speed 400Mb/s network for 4 computers. They discuss software called FireNet, which allows building FireWire network even if OS lacks FireWire support, along with speed increase compared to 100Mb/s Ethernet network and some very strange side-effects of FireWire network. A very interesting reading is located here.
Gaming in 3D crew uses an unusual approach to test thermal greases in its new article. Instead of testing thermal performance of pastes, which is quite similar among all high-quality products, they tried out some other very important behaviors of those sticky thermal interfaces, such as electric conductivity in wet and dry states (good thermal paste should not conduct electricity at all), spread (good paste must spread easily and neatly) and some other interesting points. The boys observed really quality grease like Arctic Silver 3, Nanotherm Blue II, Nanotherm XTC and Nanotherm EXP, so, if you are looking for thermal grease of your dream, you should read the review.
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