Introduction 

We are in an era where personal computers are becoming smaller with each passing generation; except for those whom like to cool or use their systems in ever more esoteric ways. As a result Intel has dropped the gauntlet with the Atom processor and with the formation of MITX as the de-facto standard for all small form factor systems, then we are in for some interesting times! The idea behind these systems is for low power consumption making them a green alternative to the larger computers but with the obvious sacrifice of speed and in some cases durability. 

The obvious applications for the above hardware are to use in a NAS (Network Attached Storage) box or a HTPC (Home Theatre PC) We all know that HTPC cases get very hot, due to the amount of power that is used in such a small confined space and with little airflow. However with each generation of the Intel Atom processor, then the power requirements are lowered ergo the heat.  

One company that has been amongst the forefront of the computer world is Asus. Previously known for their range of motherboards, graphics cards and more recently their netbook range; then it would be fair to assume that the aforementioned business has made an impact in the I.T industry and with their knowledge of producing quality ‘netbooks’ it is with hopes that this can be translated into the ‘desktop’ environment with the use of the Intel Atom processor.  

	Voodoo – Color shift Fan with 6 color changing pattern for optimal gaming experience.
	Vivid – Three color shifting fans creates most eye catching appearance.
	Vary – Adjustable fan speed control for performance mode or silent mode.
	Ventilation – Excellent thermal performance with optimized air flow.
	Vast – Support up to 11X5.25 drive bay or 5X5.25 and 6X3.5 with 2 iCage.

Since the beginning of Thermaltake in 1999, it has been at the forefront of creating new and exciting products at a time where most computer users were provided little to no choices for components. This may seem irrelevant, but in reality crucial to the performance of a PC.

Thermaltake Server Series solutions, with years of thermal experience and industry leadership, sets its goal on reforming total thermal management in server segment by formulating the perfect mixture of versatility, efficiency and thermal management with each respective server product category: Rackmount Chassis, Server Fixed & Redundant Power Supply and Server CPU Cooling Management Solutions.

With its comprehensive line of products, Thermaltake’s core customers can enjoy a one-stop-shop experience, reduce product design-in evaluation period and most important of all, flawless integration process. Each of Thermaltake’s strengths enables its customer to focus on their core business while taking advantage of the skills and efficiency of a single thermal management solution partner.

Our recent marathon of Thermaltake case reviews forges ahead with a look at the mid tower Armor A90.  “Created for Combat” is the motto Thermaltake has applied to this chassis, no doubt in reference to it’s rugged design and emphasis on gaming.

First up is a quick company profile of Thermaltake.  Once upon a time Thermaltake was known only for their cooling products, but in recent years they have expanded their product offerings to encompass a wide range of enthusiast products.  Headquartered in Taiwan, Thermaltake has a strong global presence in all major market areas. Here is a snippet taken from their web site:

“Since the beginning of Thermaltake in 1999, it has been at the forefront of creating new and exciting products at a time where most computer users were provided little to no choices for components that may seem irrelevant, but in reality crucial to the performance of a PC.

Thermaltake Server Series solutions, with years of thermal experience and industry leadership, sets its goal on reforming total thermal management in server segment by formulating the perfect mixture of versatility, efficiency and thermal management with each respective server product category: Rackmount Chassis, Server Fixed & Redundant Power Supply and Server CPU Cooling Management Solutions.

With its comprehensive line of products available, it enables Thermaltake’s core customers to enjoy a one-stop-shop experience, reduce product design-in evaluation period and most important of all, flawless integration process. Each of Thermaltake’s strengths enables its customer to focus on their core business while taking advantage of the skills and efficiency of a single thermal management solution partner.”

Follow along as we explore the Thermaltake Armor A90 Mid Tower Case!

Today sees the release of two new reservoirs for the water cooling enthusiast market. Designed around the popular Liang D5 and D5 vario these products are set to provide maximum compatibility whilst being user friendly.

The reservoirs attach directly to the Liang pumps, thus eliminating the need to install tubing from the reservoir to the pump itself. This saves the consumer money, space and time.

The products are available in two flavours, bay and tank designs.

http://www.xspc.biz/d5bayres.php

http://www.xspc.biz/d5tankres.php

This reviewer would be very interested to see what XSPC comes up with next.

Author Gilgamesh

Introduction

While heatsinks have become a common feature at Overclockers Tech since the start of this year, Prolimatech’s Megahalems never really made much of an impact in our testing. That said we did review the more expensive Mega Shadow variant that wasn’t worth the extra £20 premium over the original and didn’t perform too well on AM3 based systems compared to the Venomous X or Titan Fenrir. The Megahalems was and still is a cooler capable of serious cooling with high performance, high static pressure fans. The introduction of Cogage (Thermalright’s sister company) and their new Arrow cooler based on an update of the IFX-14 has all but taken the crown from the big boys and now reigns king here at OCT. However such coolers like the Arrow and Noctua’s NH-D14 are huge twin tower cooling beasts that are not compatible for most people regarding space requirements. What Prolimatech have done is they have brought a small sized (not pocket-sized) cooler that still will pack a serious blow with its 6 heatpipes and the ability to mount two 140mm fans. The Armageddon has some pretty big shoes to fill, but can it still perform with the best?

About Prolimatech

Prolimatech (founded in 2008 and based in Taiwan) stands for Professionalism exceeding beyond all Limits. We are here to challenge any limits that stand in our way to achieve what was thought to be impossible. Prolimatech incorporates integration of the aerospace resource-saving technology and advanced heat conduction technology to create the best heat absorption and dissipation solutions while pertaining to the science of aesthetics. Our never-ending quest is to satisfy every computer overclocker’s and every enthusiast’s needs for high quality and performance oriented thermal solutions for their high-end computer components.

Specifications

Size (LxWxH): 144x60x160mm

Weight: 1.65 LBS (750 Grams)

Heatpipes: 6x 6mm Sintered

Fan(s): Supports 2x 140mm or 120mm fans

Socket: Intel LGA775/1156/1366

Clip System: Bolt-Through with Back-Plate

Base: Polished Nickel Plated Copper

The fine folks at Thermaltake USA were kind enough to send along a Element G mid tower case for us to review.  The slogan attached to the Element G by Thermaltake is “Create For Pros”.  We are assuming that means the professional gamer as the pictures on the back of the box show several different gaming scenarios.

Lets start with a little company profile of Thermaltake to get an idea of what they are all about.

“Started from the passion for the DIY (Do It Yourself) concepts and the desires to realize the goal of “Ideas are originated from humanity; Realizing ideas is our belief. Thermaltake Technology was established in January, 1999 and has been market to the world with “Thermaltake brand name ever since.

The brand personality of Unique, Aggressive, Vivid, and Stylish makes Thermaltake an expert in creating Exciting things and Fascinating environment for gamers and enthusiasts, also Keep them Constantly High physically and mentally. Excellent technical expertise and integration ability, plus dare to experiment on the new possibilities give Thermaltake the source of authority in the market. Moreover, Thermaltake get close to consumers and observe lead users behavior and requirement, to design aesthetic and high quality products which will greatly improve system performance and bring the user to the up most potential. With innovative design and unique style, Thermaltake products spread rapidly among the enthusiasts in DIY market and soon become the number one choice for PC DIY enthusiast worldwide.”
Read on as we take a tour of the Element G offering by Thermaltake!

Introduction

Choosing the right memory kit for you isn’t easy nowadays – especially if you factor in the recent hike in memory prices. It’s getting harder to decide just what is value for money, and what is cheap and nasty. Patriot’s 6GB (3x2GB) 1600MHz CL8 Vipers for X58 systems are reasonably priced currently at £150.00 Inc VAT (£120 before the memory hike) which is supposed to offer the enthusiast speed and performance, but without the price tag. Aggressive pricing – but are they actually aggressive?

About Patriot

Patriot Memory builds a full range of memory module and flash memory products, offering a perfect blend of quality and value. Established back in 1985, Patriot has since grown rapidly in the current market with their latest range of memory and SSDs. Patriot Memory ensures that every module meets or exceeds industry standards. The manufacturing process begins with high-quality components and ends with rigorous functional testing to ensure each module’s reliability and compatibility. Patriot Memory modules are approved by leading motherboard and system manufacturers such Intel, Tyan, Supermicro and Iwill.

Manufacturers Specifications:

• Extreme Performance PC3-12800 (1600MHz) 8-8-8-24
• Patriot Viper Heat Shields with integrated ACC (Aluminum Copper Composite) technology
• 100% Tested and Verified
• BTT Tested to ensure maximum performance
• 10 Year Warranty
• RoHS Compliant

Thermaltake recently upgraded their Toughpower line of power supplies to the new and improved XT series.  The XT series power supplies come in 575, 675, 775, and 875 watt varieties, all of which feature a modular design.  Today we will be taking a look at the Toughpower XT 775 watt version.

Company Profile

“Since the beginning of Thermaltake in 1999, it has been at the forefront of creating new and exciting products at a time where most computer users were provided little to no choices for components that may seem irrelevant, but in reality crucial to the performance of a PC.

With its comprehensive line of products available, it enables Thermaltake’s core customers to enjoy a one-stop-shop experience, reduce product design-in evaluation period and most important of all, flawless integration process. Each of Thermaltake’s strengths enables its customer to focus on their core business while taking advantage of the skills and efficiency of a single thermal management solution partner.”

Sound cards: an industry that has long been dominated by the likes of Creative; with their Sound Blaster series of add-on devices. One could say that using the aforementioned company products is a mixed bag as they blessed us with decent voice synthesis to replace the old Adlib cards. Since then Creative has dominated the market with a slowly increasing line of products. However the other side of the coin is that a rising company back in 1992 (around the time when Doom was launched) going by the name of Advanced Gravis released the Ultrasound range of cards (or GUS was its friendly moniker) they for a short while gave Creative a run for their money with its first generation wave table cards, programmable musical instruments etc. However the world was hooked like sheep onto the Sound Blaster name and despite having a big name in the music world and being technically superior in every way, the advanced Gravis Ultrasound died a lonely death! This reviewer remembers this sound card with great fondness.

Recently Creative has courted controversy by deliberately disabling certain features in their drivers so as to cause complications in Windows Vista. This was done in order to force owners to purchase their Alchemy software which re-enabled those same features again. A gentleman known as Daniel_k discovered this issue and re-enabled the features again, by the use of a software hack. Creative then threatened to prosecute the aforementioned gentleman; however this all back-fired when Daniel reported this to the press and instantly Creative shares dropped by seven percent overnight. Anyone whom uses Creative sound cards will freely recognize the bloatware drivers and the issue of the aforementioned drivers causing a slower boot up time.

Today Overclockers Tech can possibly offer the consumer an alternative by Asus, namely the Xonar Essence ST! Billed as a musicians sound card first and a gamers card second, one can not help but be thrown back to the year 1992 and the era of the Advanced Gravis Ultrasound!

Thermaltake offers a wide variety of computer chassis to fit almost any system configuration and price point.  Today we are going to take an in-depth look at the V3 Black Edition Mid Tower.  Given it’s suggested retail price of a mere $49.95 USD, the V3 Black Edition case is at the lower end of Thermaltake’s chassis offerings and is definitely an affordable option.

About Thermaltake

“Founded in 1999, IPO in Taiwan Stock Exchange since December 2007. Thermaltake Inc. a multinational company pioneering in PC Thermal Solution, Award Winning State of the Art PC Power Supplies and revolutionized PC chassis. The company revolutionizes the PC market by creating, innovating and implementing the most efficient solutions in its technology. Thermaltake also participates in various environmental conservation programs to help save the mother Earth. Today, Thermaltake has expending its well known brand throughout the USA, Germany, Taiwan, China, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and Canada, soon to be in every continent.”

Follow along as we take a tour of the V3 Black Edition case, install a system into it and share our impressions.