Hardware Roundup for Feb. 23

The new Corsair water cooling kit has been released and a few websites have the first looks! Hexus had this to say about the kit: “The Corsair Nautilus500 is the simplest watercooling system we’ve come across. The external, all-in-one nature, carried on over from the HydroCool series, means that you don’t have to mix and match parts; the hard work is done for you.” PC Perspective and HotHardware also take the new cooler for a test drive.

If you like your computer cases to be expensive, then you will want to check out AnandTech and Bit-Tech today. Each look at the new CM Stacker 830 from Cooler Master, and Anand pits their case against the Thermaltake Tai Chi. Both of these cases are packed to the brim with features, but the price always holds me back. Speaking of expensive, Tech Report takes a hard look at two great Opteron CPU’s, the low end and top end Dual Core. They found that the 180 beats the Pentium D 950 across the board in all of their benchmarks.

Cases & Enclosures
• Cooler Master CMStacker 830 – Bit-Tech
• TT Tai Chi vs. CMStacker 830 – AnandTech
• Vizo Opera Media Enclosure – Pro-Clockers
• Zalman HD160 HTPC – Red & Blackness

Cooling
• Corsair Nautilus 500 – Hexus
• Corsair Nautilus 500 – HotHardware
• Corsair Nautilus 500 – PC Perspective
• Swiftech H20-120FB Rev. 3 & Danger Den Acetal Maze4 GPU Block – 3D Xtreme

Motherboards & CPU’s
• AMD’s Opteron 165 and 180 Processors – Tech Report

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• 3Dconnexion SpaceTraveler – XYZ Computing
• Icemat Siberia Black Headset – techFEAR
• Logitech G7 Laser Cordless Mouse – Virtual-Hideout
• Plantronics Pulsar 590A Bluetooth Headset – Think Computers
• Steel Series 5H USB – Design Technica
• Thermaltake Purepower Power Station 520W – Legit Reviews

Video Cards & Monitor
• ASUS Extreme N6600GT Silencer – Legit Reviews
• Asus EAX1800XT TOP – 512MB – Xtreme Computing
• Powercolor X1300 128mb PCIE – XS Reviews
• PowerColor 128MB Radeon X800 GTO – Big Bruin

Etcetera & Contests
• A Beginner’s Guide to Air Cooling Your Smokin Hot Computer – Bona Fide Reviews
• Fedora Core 5 Benchmarks – Phoronix
• Mainstream System Building Guide – OCIA
• VooDoo PC Aria Media Center – HardOCP