IronLaw | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Sun, 07 Nov 2010 14:15:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png IronLaw | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 GTX 580 spotted in the wild, orders being placed https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/ironlaw/gtx-580-spotted-in-the-wild-orders-being-placed/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/ironlaw/gtx-580-spotted-in-the-wild-orders-being-placed/#comments Sun, 07 Nov 2010 13:57:16 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=22318 KitGuru has been trawling the web for new information about the Fermi series since we first touched a GTX480 box at CeBIT back in March. Now a barrage of flags on forums across the globe indicate that real people are able to buy and own the GTX580, as well as systems for less than £1,000. …

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KitGuru has been trawling the web for new information about the Fermi series since we first touched a GTX480 box at CeBIT back in March. Now a barrage of flags on forums across the globe indicate that real people are able to buy and own the GTX580, as well as systems for less than £1,000. We went hunting, this is what we caught.

One of our spies received a mail blast from YOYOTech and when we checked Google for YOYOTech and GTX580 we got Futuremark, Overclock.net and Bit-Tech among others all with pretty much the same info.

Overclock.net and others seemed to spot this 15 hours ago. Now we feel slow!

Here's the link that our contact received by email, but be aware that the GTX580 info KitGuru's interested in has been surrounded with ‘tinsel' and other offers. The salient parts are top and bottom of the page.

The YOYOTech site itself has home page banners for both the GTX580 card and the system. Performance wise, the image on the home page claims that the new GTX580 will be 30% faster than the GTX480 in 3DMark, which could be true.

Pic is some kind of placeholder but the specs look right compared to what Asus released last week

Clicking on the card link, the first thing we noticed is that the picture is some kind of place holder. The real card is rumoured to have a vapor chamber cooling system and so will look nothing like this. Also, if the technical specification provided is correct, it will be drawing 244w and 27cm long. So this picture is not real.

You get more info from the system specification here. It claims that the GTX580 will ‘Rip past the GTX480 like it's standing still'. Bold claim.

If you are an nVidia fan boy then the branded case chosen will be appealing.

There's a discrepancy about system memory speed between the specification next to the picture and the one underneath, one says 1333 and the other has 1600.

For £999 the system and spec look tidy enough, but we'd need to bench it to have any kind of opinion.

That brings us back to the GTX580 card. KitGuru predicted that the price would be £429 from the main resellers. Looking at the way Scan and eBuyer shimmied on the Radeon HD 6850 pricing (going low for launch and then popping up £20 or £30 in the days that followed) we might still be right.

KitGuru says: If these offers are genuine and the performance is up to 30% more than GTX480 with a new cooling system etc, then this will be AMD's toughest challenge yet at the high end. With the £399 price tag, the gauntlet has been well and truly thrown down for the Radeon 6970.

Comment below or in the KitGuru forum.

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ASUS leak reveals full GTX 580 specifications and price https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/ironlaw/asus-reveals-full-gtx-580-specifications/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/ironlaw/asus-reveals-full-gtx-580-specifications/#comments Wed, 03 Nov 2010 16:08:28 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=21936 KitGuru spends all day long scanning the interwibble for new and interesting information. Moments ago, all of the alarms in the KitGuru Labs chimed as a new web page went live on the Asus web site. KitGuru reveals all. Here's the screen grab:- So now we know that GTX580 will have 1.5GB of GDDR5 memory …

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KitGuru spends all day long scanning the interwibble for new and interesting information. Moments ago, all of the alarms in the KitGuru Labs chimed as a new web page went live on the Asus web site. KitGuru reveals all.

Here's the screen grab:-

GTX 580 specifications in full (and in Chinese!)

So now we know that GTX580 will have 1.5GB of GDDR5 memory via a 384 bit bus running at 4,008MHz effective.

Why do you need so much bandwidth?

Keeping the 772MHz GPU core fed with geometric data, that's why.

The price shown translates as £446 – which is damn close to KitGuru's existing, printed prediction!

More details to follow!

KitGuru says: You gotta love the KitGuru spiders

Comment below or in the KitGuru forums

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Akasa DuoDock S & USB 3.0 PCIe Card Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/ironlaw/akasa-duodock-s-usb-3-0-pcie-card-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/hard-drives/ironlaw/akasa-duodock-s-usb-3-0-pcie-card-review/#comments Mon, 01 Nov 2010 12:19:29 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=21445 After an eight year wait, the third version of the universal serial bus (USB) is finally available on the retail market. Sadly because of the high pricing – low end and many mainstream motherboards often do not often incorporate USB 3.0 controllers and many enthusiast users are unwilling to perform a major upgrade to their …

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After an eight year wait, the third version of the universal serial bus (USB) is finally available on the retail market. Sadly because of the high pricing – low end and many mainstream motherboards often do not often incorporate USB 3.0 controllers and many enthusiast users are unwilling to perform a major upgrade to their system just for USB 3.0 support.

Some would say that the high speed of the USB 3.0 controllers is currently only really useful for file transfers. What if you are one of those people who already have a high end PC with USB 3.0 support and perhaps a few, unused hard drives sitting idle?

Akasa have created two products which are just right for enthusiasts who want to adopt the USB 3.0 standard and especially for those with a couple of external storage devices.

First, the AK-PCCU3-01 PCIe extension card which adds two USB 3.0 ports to any system with an PCIe slot to spare. Second, the DuoDock S, the upgraded version of the very versatile HDD docking station. We are going to examine both devices and their performance thoroughly in this review.

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Intel partners build 40km Sandybridge mainboard mountain https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/ironlaw/intel-partners-build-40km-sandybridge-mainboard-mountain/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/ironlaw/intel-partners-build-40km-sandybridge-mainboard-mountain/#respond Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:13:36 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=21296 Well. OK. Not literally, but it does seem that one man and his dog is ready with a set of Sandybridge mainboard launches. Only problem is that we're quite far away from the actual launch. KitGuru investigates and comes back with an explanation. The worst time to transition from one product to another is around …

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Well. OK. Not literally, but it does seem that one man and his dog is ready with a set of Sandybridge mainboard launches. Only problem is that we're quite far away from the actual launch. KitGuru investigates and comes back with an explanation.

The worst time to transition from one product to another is around Christmas. nVidia did it years ago with the Ti4600 and Intel did it last year with its mainstream Core parts.

Having learned from its mistake, Intel has laid a careful path across the Sandybridge, which will see products in stores around February – perfectly ordered and under control – and allowing for a nice run down of existing stock. So what's the problem?

Once the channel knows that something new is coming, the channel wants it yesterday. An advanced form of technology Tourette's takes hold and the major vendors find themselves clutching uncontrollably at the roadmap, eager to launch anything that have that works. And that's what we have right now.

Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and the other major mainboard players all have their designs laid down, tested and ready to go. Sure, there will be some production wobbles that need to be ironed out, but – from what KitGuru's hearing – Intel's next generation processor technology seems to be as solid as a rock and it's ready to roll out.

With IDC's Eszter Morvay predicting a healthy increase in PC shipments for 2011, everyone wants to make sure they're ready. But throughout the Christmas period, you need to be selling the existing technology. Tough wait ahead for the mainboard guys then.

KitGuru believes that any mainboard production issues will have been sorted within the next 2-3 weeks, leaving all of the major factories ready to begin full scale production through the end of the year.

Those boards will ship to the major PC manufacturers through December and January, ready to go into stores (inside PCs) around Valentine's Day.

So that begs a question for idle minds. How big will the Mainboard Mountain be by January?

KitGuru reckons it could be around 1 million units across the globe.  Serious stuff.

If we guess that a Sandybridge mainboard is 4cm high, then 1 million of these little fellas would touch the 40km mark.

If you jumped out of a specially adapted space craft, in a pressure suit, at that altitude, then you could set 4 world records at once:-

  1. Altitude record for free fall
  2. Altitude record for balloon flight
  3. Time record for longest free fall
  4. Speed record for the fastest free fall – passing the sound barrier on the way down
On 16th August 1960, Joseph Kittinger jumped at 102,800 feet (31,300 metres). In the future, someone else might beat this jump and pass the sound barrier. Remember, they'd still be several kilometres short of the height of all the Intel mainboards that will be ready for the Sandybridge launch

KitGuru says: Product transitions are a pain. They are also a necessary evil. The transition to Sandybridge will happen on a planetary scale. While these new chips are unlikely to break the sound barrier, they are likely to trounce previous benchmark records by some margin.  Whatever the outcome when Sandybridge steps out, it will certainly be fun for the tech review sites!

Tell us if you remember butter mountains below

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Radeon HD 6800 pricing shambles https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/ironlaw/radeon-hd-6800-pricing-shambles/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/ironlaw/radeon-hd-6800-pricing-shambles/#comments Fri, 22 Oct 2010 09:02:27 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=20739 After working tirelessly for several days in the KitGuru Lab, our technicians are only now coming out into the grey autumn light and blinking like moles. With all of the reviews published, we now have time to analyse what just happened. The cards are great, AMD's partners worked overtime to make sure that KitGuru had …

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After working tirelessly for several days in the KitGuru Lab, our technicians are only now coming out into the grey autumn light and blinking like moles. With all of the reviews published, we now have time to analyse what just happened. The cards are great, AMD's partners worked overtime to make sure that KitGuru had plenty of different samples – and all of that is much appreciated. Hopefully, it all goes towards making your buying decision easier. But what the hell happened with the pricing?  KitGuru sets the Grumble-O-Meter to ‘high'.

Imagine you're a normal person (go on – try!). You have a regular income and lifestyle, but want to buy a car. You visit Honest John's motors and he presents you with a regular Ford Focus S-Max and an Audi Q7. Thinking the Ford is £15,000 and the Q7 is £50,000, you'd probably walk towards the Ford. But if they were the same price, then it's a no-brainer. You take the Audi (even if you just sell it, buy a Ford Focus S-Max and pocket the change).

Price is everything, because it dictates value. Lower price, more value. Simple.

Our point?

Price is everything when it comes to making a comparison.

If the AMD Radeon HD 6870 costs a consumer £205 inc vat (around$320), then that is a losing proposition and no one should recommend it.

New logo prepared/updated ?

KitGuru's market intelligence is strong and we know that the real price is going to be much more competitve, so we evaluated the product against the price that everyone should be showing in the next day or so. Which is around £179 inc vat (or $280 including sales tax). You can go up a little from there and still the result stands.

The same goes for the Radeon HD 6850. If it is going to be £160 inc vat ($250), then you need to think twice. But when the channel catches up and it sells at £139 inc vat ($210), then it is a winner in the way we described. By a long way.

Given that AMD has had an entire year to prepare for the launch of the Northern Islands products – starting with the Radeon HD 6800 series – KitGuru is a little confused as to why there has been any confusion with the pricing. Looking at the Scan web site this morning, you can see that some partners are still at the very high price points – while others (notably XFX) have been quick to update the channel.

We're not going to tell you to hold off buying: How much you pay and when you choose to make your purchase is your decision. But we will say that we're 100% certain that our guidance pricing is right and that you need to be closer to the low end of the scale than the high end – otherwise our recommendations do not stand. If we'd been told that the Radeon HD 6870 would be clear over £200, then we would have told you to consider it. Close to £170 and is it a must have. Same for the Radeon HD 6850. If you can get a 6870 for the same price, then no one should buy the 6850. It needs to be sitting at the right price point to get the KitGuru ‘Must Have' award.

KitGuru says: We're struggling to remember a launch quite like this. The MSI Talon Attack and EVGA FTW versions of nVidia's stunningly good GTX460 were both around the £200 mark and tough to beat. At the same time, the 768MB [Thanks Shishir!- ed] versions of the GTX460 could be picked up from leading stores for around £120 inc vat. Everyone at AMD knew what the competitive landscape was. All they needed to do, with >12 months to get ready, was to nail the new 6800 series to the £139 and £179 price points. We think they will, but only after a few days. nVidia must be breathing a sigh of relief that this wasn't executed with precision. Could have been a killer blow. Even at £149 and £189, they are still good – but you need to consider the purchase a little more.

Comment below, full on rants in the KitGuru forums.

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Akasa Venom Cooler Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/cooling/ironlaw/akasa-venom-cooler-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cooling/ironlaw/akasa-venom-cooler-review/#comments Thu, 21 Oct 2010 07:45:34 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=19604 Enthusiast PC users are rarely satisfied with the performance or appearance of reference bundled CPU coolers. These coolers are either not good enough, too loud or lack aesthetic appeal to be installed inside a very carefully designed system. This alone explains the huge demand for aftermarket cooling solutions and the great number of products available. …

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Enthusiast PC users are rarely satisfied with the performance or appearance of reference bundled CPU coolers. These coolers are either not good enough, too loud or lack aesthetic appeal to be installed inside a very carefully designed system. This alone explains the huge demand for aftermarket cooling solutions and the great number of products available.

Akasa has been busy releasing many new coolers this year and today we will take a look at yet another new product from them, the Venom CPU cooler.

Akasa designed the Venom for enthusiasts who want to combine high thermal performance with relatively silent operation and aesthetics.

Manufacturer features and specifications

  • Performance 12cm PWM fan in killer Viper yellow
  • 4 high capacity 8mm heatpipes with direct CPU contact
  • Award winning S-FLOW fan blades provide 30% more airflow
  • Smart design allows for a 2nd fan for extreme performance
  • Rubber fan mounts for easy installation and quiet performance
Socket type Intel LGA775, LGA1155, LGA1156 & LGA1366

AMD Socket AM2, AM2+ & AM3

Cooler dimensions 120 (W) x 96 (D) x 160 (H) mm
Heatsink material High grade aluminium fins, copper heatpipes
Weight 805g
Installation Screws and backplate (Intel & AMD)
Fan dimension 120 x 120 x 25mm
Fan speed 600-1900 RPM (PWM controlled)
Max airflow 83.63 CFM (141.75 m³/h)
Max air pressure 2.98 mm H2O
Noise level 6.9 – 28.9 dB(A)
Current rating 0.17A
Voltage rating 12V DC
Bearing type HDB (Hydro Dynamic)
Fan life expectancy 50,000 hours
Fan connector 4pin PWM
Product code AK-CCX-4002HPV2
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nVidia offers the constant smell of burning bridges says AMD https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/ironlaw/nvidia-offers-the-constant-smell-of-burning-bridges-says-amd/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/ironlaw/nvidia-offers-the-constant-smell-of-burning-bridges-says-amd/#comments Thu, 14 Oct 2010 08:58:18 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=19894 KitGuru is asked more questions about the graphics market than anything else. Seems like you lot love a good fight – and the Heavyweight Championship is fought in the land of shaders. In the spirit of pushing things together until they get heated and critical mass is achieved, we sent a set of (apparently) inflammatory …

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KitGuru is asked more questions about the graphics market than anything else. Seems like you lot love a good fight – and the Heavyweight Championship is fought in the land of shaders. In the spirit of pushing things together until they get heated and critical mass is achieved, we sent a set of (apparently) inflammatory questions to Intel, AMD and nVidia. The Radeon folk replied first. In charge of presenting their version of the world was Richard Huddy who is pointman for his company's DevRel team. In no particular order, here's what Huddy had to say.

“I'm confused as to why you'd want to upset people. Historically, with nVidia, there's the constant smell of burning bridges. Over time, they seem to damage relationships everywhere and, in the long term, if hampers them”, said Huddy when we asked about the differences each company has in approaching developer relations (DevRel). Bold stuff.

It's worth mentioning here that along with a couple of geniuses called Doug and Servan, Huddy helped invent DirectX in the first place while working for a company called Rendermorphics. Shortly afterwards, Servan and Doug went to a small software company called Microsoft and Huddy joined an organisation called nVidia. Here endeth the history part.

Huddy shows his true colours

While Microsoft lays down the environment for the development of PC games with its DirectX API, there are differences in each company's hardware and drivers which means each is better at some things and worse at others. Then there are the consoles. nVidia had the original Xbox graphics and the Playstation 3. Intel had the first Xbox CPU. AMD (ATI) has the Wii and Xbox360 graphics. Proper mish-mash of styles and abilities.

Huddy told us how many software development studios are actively trying to balance all of these combinations, “We're open to working with anyone, but realistically, we spend most of our time with the 100 or so studios who will be able to put a game into the charts”. Why use that distinction? “These games are going to sell in volume, so more people will be impacted if the code can be improved. It's an intelligent use of our resources”.

How many of these top studios does AMD work with ? “All of them. My team is scattered across the globe and, between us, we're fluent in more than 20 human languages. Any developer that will impact the market, regardless of where they are based or how large a company they are, will get help from AMD”.

Just one more quick checks on Huddy's background to confirm if he's been doing all this DevRel stuff long enough to have an opinion, “I spent 4 years helping to run develop relations with nVidia before moving across to ATI and I've been with this team for the best part of a decade”. OK. Experience established. Let's continue.

“With one exception, every game released through to 2012 will have been developed on AMD's Radeon
We asked Huddy about the ways in which differences in hardware design translate into the DevRel push. “AMD being able to deliver DirectX 11 hardware into the hands of developers a full 6 months ahead of nVidia, means that with one single known exception, every game released through to 2012 will have been developed on AMD's Radeon hardware. that gives us a huge advantage”.

Despite the name, these Radeon things are no good at all in removing stains from your clothing at low temperatures

“Even after nVidia finally began seeding production Fermi cards, many of the DX11 game development projects were already well underway on AMD hardware. The result is that many of those games will, quite naturally, be tuned for the Radeon series”. Logical statement form Huddy.

We wanted a specific case where DevRel would be used to make the most of a company's hardware. Huddy gave us a pearl.

When all you have is a hammer, then everything in the world looks like a nail“.

Sounds like a wise saying, but what does he mean?

“We're speaking with every development studio in the work that's likely to create a piece of software that makes it into the charts. All of them are telling us the same thing. nVidia is pushing a single message and that's tessellation“, explained Huddy.

“Tessellation is about enriching detail, and that's a good thing, but nVidia is pushing to get as much tessellation as possible into everything”. Huddy reminds us of the problem you get when adding too much salt to your pasta. “Tessellation breaks your image components down in order to add more detail at lower levels and, when it's done right, it can be stunning”.

Huddy says that you can have too much of a good thing, although at KitGuru we're not entirely sure if that applies to sun tan lotion models or gold bullion bars or genie wishes

Huddy then got scientific, “These days, the most typical resolution for serious gaming is 1080p. A resolution where you have 1920 dots left to right and 1080 from top to bottom. That gives you around 2 million pixels' worth of work onto the final screen. However, you actually end up working with a much larger picture, to allow for things like light sources and shadow generators that are off screen in the final image, but which still need to be accounted for. The same goes for situations where something is in front of something else, but you don't know that at the start, so you end up doing work on pixels that may or may not make it to the final cut”.

“Overall, the polygon [Triangle – Ed] size should be around 8-10 pixels in a good gaming environment”, said Huddy. “You also have to allow for the fact that everyone's hardware works in quads. Both nVidia and AMD use a 2×2 grid of pixels, which are always processed as a group. To be intelligent, a triangle needs to be more than 4 pixels big for tessellation to make sense”.

Interesting enough, but why are we being told this? “With artificial tests like Stone Giant, which was paid for by nVidia, tessellation can be done down to the single pixel level. Even though that pixel can't be broken away from the 3 other pixels in its quad. Doing additional processing for each pixel in a group of 4 and then throwing 75% of that work away is just sad”.

Huddy touched on benchmarks and we know he will be biased in this department. Knowing he has a built-in bias, we asked him what makes a good benchmark. “It needs to be reproducible, so you get the same results time after time. It also needs to test a new feature. What's the point of replacing a benchmark with a new one that tests exactly the same thing? Ideally the new benchmark should add something, maybe improved visual quality, so that the user experience is better”.

Searching for the truth in graphics benchmarks gets you into deep water

So far, no mad rantings or foaming at the mouth, “If you're testing a graphics chip, then try to avoid testing the CPU. With the new cards, it should be a Shader Model 5 test so that you can get an idea of how future games will work”, said Huddy. “Lastly, we all know that code changes constantly before launch. For a benchmark to be really good, it should be created on the final launch code”. Maybe even after the first patches have been released ?

Thinking about the $2M that nVidia paid to buy Crysis 2, we asked Huddy if he thought that nVidia now has a huge DevRel team working putting as many tessellation calls into the game as will fit.

Huddy declined to comment directly on that game, but he did speak about the Batman Arkham Asylum AA fiasco which saw 2 versions of the game released in quick succession following a global flame war across some of the most influential graphics forums on the planet.

He explained, “Batman used a deferred rendering engine. That creates a special situation for applying anti aliasing. There are well known ways of doing it and, as luck would have it, there is a vanilla implementation that works equally well on AMD and nVidia graphics hardware. Let me be clear, this method is well known, works well on AMD and nVidia cards and there is a minimum impact on performance for the customers who have bought the game”.

“Instead of releasing unified code that works on every customer's card the same, nVidia got the first release of the game to detect if the installed card was a GeForce or Radeon and, if it saw a Radeon, it would turn off the AA feature”, said Huddy.

“The only person this harms if the customer who spent their hard earned money on a brand new game, believing that Batman Arkham Asylum had been written to work as well as possible on the customer's system”, he pointed out.

Smoother these days, apparently

“This highlights perfectly the fundamental difference in thinking between AMD and nVidia. We would never do that”, said Huddy. “nVidia needs to learn that you should always put the gamer's experience ahead of your own ego. Issues like the deliberate and unnecessary reduction in image quality seen in the Batman Arkham Asylum situation, shows that nVidia is willing to single out half the market and nobble their experience. That's just not right. You should never harm PC gamers just to make yourself look good”.

Huddy told us that the publisher re-evaluated the situation in light of the flame-war and, a short while later with no huge effort, a different version of Batman Arkham Asylum appeared on the market with perfect AA on Radeon cards. Nice.

KitGuru says: We have a follow up piece coming soon in which Huddy shares his views on why nVidia makes a bad partner all round. Informed comment or rampant vitriol? You choose. Just be assured that we've opened up the same ground to Intel and nVidia and we're keen to see what they have to say about the game development market and the role that they have to play in delivering our gaming experiences.

Friendly fire below, fire and forget in the KitGuru forum.

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Spire TherMax Eclipse II Cooler Review https://www.kitguru.net/components/cooling/ironlaw/spire-thermax-eclipse-ii-cooler-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/cooling/ironlaw/spire-thermax-eclipse-ii-cooler-review/#comments Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:10:13 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=9675 High performance coolers are much loved by the KitGuru audience and today we are going to review a cooler from Spire, a European manufacturer. This is a product we believe our readers will find rather intriguing. After all, the company claims that “this towering cooler is built to deliver the best thermal performance – guaranteed”! …

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High performance coolers are much loved by the KitGuru audience and today we are going to review a cooler from Spire, a European manufacturer. This is a product we believe our readers will find rather intriguing. After all, the company claims that “this towering cooler is built to deliver the best thermal performance – guaranteed”!

Claiming that your product can guarantee the ‘best’ thermal performance is a very bold marketing claim, especially when the MSRP is €38.95, around half the price of massive class leading air coolers such as the Noctua NH-D14. Spire named this cooler the TherMax Eclipse II, successor to their first DT (direct touch) cooler, the TherMax. In this review we will thoroughly examine the cooler and test its overall performance, which hopefully will be in par with Spire's claims of greatness.

Manufacturer features and specifications

  • Five (5) 8mm all copper U-shaped direct touch heat-pipes
  • Straight lined heat-pipes allowing air to easily pass through
  • 46 stamped aluminum wide fins for best surface rate
  • Dimpled surface fin for increased heat transfer rate
  • Black-Nickel coated heat-sink to preserve killer looks from oxidation
  • Two (2) 120mm BlackStar 9 blade fan design
  • High Quality, Long MTBF Japanese No.1 Ball bearing
  • Anti-Vibe universal rubber fan mountings (crews)
  • Supports AM2/AM3 socket 939/940/ 775/1156 & 1366 incl. Intel Core i7 Extreme 130W
Dimensions
Heat sink : 131×70×152 mm (l × w × h)
12VDC Fan : 120×120×25 mm
Material Alu fin + CU heat-pipe DT base
Heatpipe Five (5) 8mm all copper U-shaped direct touch
Bearing Ball bearing
Rated speed
Cooler : 2200 RPM +/-10%
Only Fan : 2200 RPM +/-10%
Rated power 4.2 W
Rated Voltage 12 V
Noise level 29.0 dBA
Air flow 93.3 CFM
Current 0.35 A
Connector 3 Pin
TDP 150 W
Thermal resistance 0.091 oC/W
Thermal Grease BlueFrost – SP802 blue grease(Injection Tube,0.5g)
Static Pressure 3.35 mmH2O
MTBF 50000H
Application
Intel : Celeron D ~ 2.93 GHz (340J)
Intel  : Core 2 Duo ~ 3.33 GHz (775 Dual-core)
Intel : Core 2 Extreme ~ 3.2 GHz (775 Dual-core)
Core 2 Quad ~ 3 GHz (775 Quad-core)
Core i3 ~ 3.06 GHz 1156
Core i5 ~ 2.66 GHz 1156
Core i7 ~ 3.2 GHz 1366
LGA775 ~ 3.93 GHz (Prescott)
Pentium D ~ 3.4 GHz (775 Dual-Core)
Pentium EE ~ 3.93 GHz (775 Dual-Core)
AMD : Athlon 64 FX-74 (K8)
Athlon II (AM3)
Athlon X2 (AM2/AM2+)
Phenom ~ 9950 GHz (AM2/AM2+)
Phenom II ~ 9600 GHz (AM2/AM3)
Phenom II ~ 8500 GHz (AM2/AM3)
Operating Temperature 30~70 oC
Storage Temperature -10~40 oC
Warranty 5 years
Packaging type Color Box
Package includes FAN / Clip 1 set / SP-802 grease / Manual
N.W 0.822 KG
G.W 1.3 KG
Life hours Ball: 50.000
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How computer power supplies work – KitGuru Guide https://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/ironlaw/how-computer-power-supplies-work-kitguru-guide/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/ironlaw/how-computer-power-supplies-work-kitguru-guide/#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:49:44 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=8131 KitGuru takes the subject of power supplies very seriously, this is why we have a dedicated team behind the scenes, experts in their specific fields to produce some of the most detailed power related reviews online. Today one of our resident experts ‘IronLaw' will explain exactly how a computer power supply works. While this can …

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KitGuru takes the subject of power supplies very seriously, this is why we have a dedicated team behind the scenes, experts in their specific fields to produce some of the most detailed power related reviews online. Today one of our resident experts ‘IronLaw' will explain exactly how a computer power supply works. While this can be a complex subject matter, if you take your time reading it you will find it is not a ‘dark art' subject, or something impossible to understand. We hope this will be both educational and informative.

Power supply units are perhaps the most neglected piece of equipment in the history of technology. It is no overstatement to say that they are the most critical part of almost every electronic device as they are the one component which is absolutely vital to their operation. Almost no technology equipment can operate without them. That is because no equipment can actually operate by directly using the utility grid AC voltage, which also varies in level and frequency depending on your position on the planet. It is the power supply's job to convert that AC voltage to another form, suitable for the equipment. Or, to be even more accurate, the definition of a power supply is that “it is an apparatus designed to convert one form of electric energy to another“.

Several people may believe the power supplies are limited to computer applications. That is incorrect since almost every piece of technology needs a power supply to operate. Some examples include your phone charger, your TV, your alarm clock and any other electronic household equipment. Users are simply not aware of the presence of power supplies because they are often integrated into the equipment. They are not replaceable because those devices have no expandability or upgradeability and are (hopefully!) designed to exceed the product's lifetime. For example, you cannot replace the power supply of your TV because there is no way to upgrade or expand your TV and force it to require more power, meaning that ultimately there is no reason to perform a power supply upgrade. Computers are an entirely different matter; they are fully expandable and customizable, meaning that not only each and every one of them has different power needs but that the needs of every single computer can be altered several times during its operational lifetime.

A power supply transforming the utility grid AC voltage to DC voltage for the equipment to use must perform certain functions at the highest possible efficiency and at the lowest possible cost. The basic functions usually are:

  • Rectification – Convert the input AC voltage to DC voltage.
  • Voltage transformation – Adjust the supplied voltage to the required levels.
  • Filtering – Smoothen the ripple of the supplied voltage.
  • Regulation – Control the supplied voltage regardless of line, load and/or temperatures changes.
  • Isolation – Electrically isolate the input voltage source from the output.
  • Protection – Prevent any damaging power phenomena from reaching or take effect at the output.
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Understanding the different UPS systems https://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/ironlaw/understanding-the-different-ups-systems/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/power-supplies/ironlaw/understanding-the-different-ups-systems/#comments Sun, 20 Jun 2010 09:10:18 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=5600 There are many UPS systems available to the home and business consumer … however many people aren’t aware of the differences. It is very common for even an experienced enthusiast to be confused over the different UPS styles or even be unaware of their existence. Additionally, a large percentage believe that there are only two …

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There are many UPS systems available to the home and business consumer … however many people aren’t aware of the differences. It is very common for even an experienced enthusiast to be confused over the different UPS styles or even be unaware of their existence. Additionally, a large percentage believe that there are only two types of UPS systems, “on-line” and “off-line” UPS, and they believe that UPS are designed only to protect computers.

If we were to tell you that there are at least seven different types of UPS systems and that a few of them are able to power entire buildings or industrial facilities, would you believe us?

What is a UPS?

UPS stands for “Uninterruptible Power Supply”, which is an electrical system designed to monitor and, if necessary, regulate the main power source of a load and provide emergency power to the load whenever its main power source fails without any interruption to the load's power feed.

UPS systems find use wherever power generators are ineffective. A power generator needs some time to start, ranging from some seconds to many minutes depending on its size. A UPS will provide power to the load instantaneously, allowing it to continue its normal operation.

For business/industrial applications UPS systems and generators are being used side by side because the runtime of UPS systems is very limited but nevertheless is more than sufficient to power the load until the generator (or any other auxiliary power source) come online.

Because of their instantaneous reaction, UPS systems are being used to power any critical load. Critical computers, data centers, medical and surgical equipment, emergency lighting and military equipment are but a few examples.

The technology and manufacturing advancements of the past 20 years made some battery-powered UPS types affordable by small businesses and home users, therefore it is quite common to find a sub-£70 UPS protecting a small home or office PC.

Today we are going examine the five most affordable types of battery powered UPS systems, those which are affordable by home consumers and small businesses and suitable for power computer/electronics equipment.



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