Xigmatek's First Chassis Looks to be a Winner

Xigmatek isn't a company that's been around too long, three years in fact, but with the products they've released so far, they've earned the reputation of a company that produces worthwhile products. Their Thor's Hammer CPU cooler, for example, costs half as much as Thermalright's Ultra-120, but is claimed to perform just one degree worse. That's what I like to see.

At Computex, the company was showing off their first-ever chassis, the Midgard, which is set to compete with the likes of the Cooler Master 690 (which we reviewed here). It features a pure-black paint scheme (100% internally as well) with orange on some of the components. Plus, from what I see, it also features a mostly tool-less installation - a big plus.

Though it may just be a mid-tower, it has room for seven 120mm fans for the ultimate in cooling-ability, and includes two with the stock chassis. Even cooler (at least to me), is that the included fans feature orange blades and white LEDS, the latter of which we don't see often enough. I assume that once the chassis is made available, you can purchase additional copies of the same fan, although I'd expect them to me more expensive than typical models.

The best part of the chassis might be the fact that it's going to retail for around $75. That's rather incredible given the robust design and great color scheme. It's not often that the inside of a chassis has so much attention to detail, even on some higher-end models. The Midgard should become available within the next month or two, and we'll be sure to get one in to put it through its paces.

GeIL's DBT Ensures Long-Lasting Memory

At GeIL's booth, the company didn't have a whole lot to show off, but what was easily the most interesting was a wall chock-full of their Black Dragon RAM, all seemingly being stressed. They were showing off what they call DBT, or Die-hard Burn-in Technology, a proprietary setup that allows them to put modules under accelerated stress, to make sure that the customer won't end up with a faulty product.

The DBT is run in a warm room of about 60°C, and regular kits are stressed for at least three hours, at their "stock" settings, whatever they may be. If after three hours the kits haven't died, they pass the test and are packaged then shipped out. The company said that since they implemented DBT, RMA rates have dropped from 0.5% to 0.1%. Seems small, but given the number of modules the company ships, that saves a lot of money in the long-run.

Also of interest was the company's Cyclone memory cooler. Unlike most RAM coolers which look boring and  simply stack two or three fans on top of the memory, the Cyclone features a unique design that the company promises is far more efficient than other solutions on the market.

Ideally, the Cyclone should be paired up with heatspreader-equipped RAM, and once installed, the heat will run up to the cooler and dissipate quickly through the numerous fins. This cooler also features only a single fan, and we are promised that it's near-silent (it was impossible to tell on the show floor). As an added bonus, the fan also features LED text as it spins around, giving you information on your temps and rotational speed. You can also add your own text if you like. The Cyclone is available now, and retails for around $30.

SilverStone's Feature-Rich $100 HTPC Chassis

Want to build a powerful HTPC but don't want it to hog all the room in your TV stand? That's SilverStone's goal with the GD04, a new home theater chassis that offers enough of what you need to build the ultimate HTPC, but for a very reasonable price (~$100). And if you don't mind the front of the chassis being plastic rather than aluminum, you could get it even cheaper (~$80).

One key thing to mention here is that the GD04 isn't as deep as most HTPC chassis'. Although I don't have the exact dimensions on-hand, comparing this to other similar chassis' at the SilverStone booth, I could easily spot the size difference, and this is no doubt going to appeal to many people.

But what about airflow? I had the same question, and apparently SilverStone put in much thought and care into the design, that when fully installed, the GD04's airflow and efficiency can match that of their full-towers. It's designed in such a way that it compresses the warm air so that it escapes quicker. The result is a very powerful machine that won't overheat.

Care was even given to those who want to use extra cards that are not required to be plugged into the motherboard, such as an ASUS Xonar audio card that can be equipped with a daughter card. In that instance, the card would be installed in the back left corner, making accessing it a non-issue.

In the image above, you'll notice that a full-sized GPU is installed, and apparently there is no limit. I was told virtually any graphics card today will fit, and heat won't be a real issue. There's also room for up to three hard drives, so storage isn't going to be an issue either. Overall, the GD04 impressed me quite a bit, because for $100, it looks good, has a keen design and is small, yet won't cause your components to overheat. If this thing has a fault, it's not obvious to me.

Giving Intel's ULV Processors a Quick Spin

Earlier this week, we posted about Intel's upcoming ultra-low voltage mobile processors, which boast some incredible claims. Imagine having a 10" - 13" notebook that lasts up to eight hours on a single charge while still retaining reasonable performance to get work done. That's essentially what Intel is expecting to deliver once products hit the market.

There are a few reason reasons this can be accomplished. First is the fact that these ULV CPUs are not Dual-Core, but rather single (Core 2 Solo). The second reason is the lower voltage, as the name suggests. Third, the overall CPU frequency is also low, and in the case of some of them, even lower than Intel's own budget Atom processor (though the two can't be compared).

During my travels, I noticed a few ULV notebooks sitting about at MSI's booth, so I stopped to give one a quick test drive. I didn't note the notebook model, but I'd guess it to be a 13" offering, with the equipped CPU being the Core 2 Solo U3500, a 1.4GHz offering. In the brief time I spent with the notebook, I have to say it felt quite speedy, much more so than I expected. It will take a lot more in-house testing before I can conclude on that, though.

Oddly enough, the notebook I was using didn't have its power cord blocked (it did have the USB ports blocked), so I was able to give it some quick testing. I loaded up a few applications (Calculator, Solitaire, Chess, Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, Notepad and Remote Desktop), unplugged the machine and walked away for about 20 minutes.

During that 20 minutes, the notebook wasn't touched, and none of the applications were actually used. As for the WiFi, although the adapter was active, it wasn't connected to a network. With all said and done, you can see that with 90% of the battery left, Windows estimated it to be another 5h 25m.

While not quite the 8 hours I was hoping for, there's a few things to bear in mind. First is the fact that each configuration is going to be different, and tweaked differently. Then there's the fact that the WiFi adapter was active, and not disabled, and also the that I had multiple applications open hogging the memory. With what I saw here, I'd be very willing to believe that under light loads, this notebook could last 8 hours.

Still, for a typical scenario where one works while on the go, 8 hours doesn't look too likely. The upside is the fact that if these notebooks are as affordable as Intel claims, then being able to pick up a 13" notebook that lasts six hours on a single charge is simply amazing. The 12" HP dv2 I just picked up that lasts three hours is looking a wee bit outdated.

Tech Roundup - June 5, 2009

Motherboards & Processors
• AMD Athlon II X2 250 and Phenom II X2 550 - EXTREME Overclocking
• AMD Athlon II X2 250 and Phenom II X2 550 - Legit Reviews
• AMD Phenom II X2 550 - Neoseeker
• ASUS Maximus II Gene - Motherboards.org
• ASUS P5Q Pro Turbo - Motherboards.org
• ASUS P5Q-VM - iXBTlabs

Displays & Video Cards
• Sapphire 4890 Vapor-X - Overclock3D

Memory & Storage
• Kingston HyperX 6GB DDR3-2000 - PureOverclock
• OCZ Summit MLC SSD OCZSSD2-1SUM120G - Benchmark Reviews

Peripherals & Gadgets
• Coolmax PS-224 LCD Power Supply Tester - techPowerUp
• Microsoft Wireless Desktop 3000 - i4u

Cooling
• CoolJag Falcon II Low Profile CPU Cooler - Think Computers

Chassis & Power Supplies
• AZZA Solano 1000 Chassis - PureOverclock
• Cooler Master HAF Mini 922 - DeXgo
• Cooler Master Silent Pro M 500W Power Supply - Think Computers
• Cooler Master Storm Scout - Hardware Logic
• NZXT Rogue Small Form Factor Gaming Chassis - Tweaknews
• Thermaltake Toughpower XT 750W Power Supply - Bigbruin

Competitions, Complete Systems & Et cetera
• OCZ Neutrino DIY 10-inch Netbook - TweakTown
• Samsung SC-HMX20C 1080p HD Solid State Camcorder - Tweaknews