Today I will be reviewing three slim leather cases for the Apple iPhone 4. Two of them are made and sold by Turkish manufacturer Beyza Cases and the third is from Sena Cases. All three are marketed as “slim”.

Introduction

Being a dedicated iPhone fan, I have been through quite a number of different cases the last couple of years. I have tried flip cases, hard shell cases, folio cases, rubber cases and pouch cases. What I have learnt is that pouch cases are what suits me best. They are in general not as bulky as other cases, they don’t get stuck in my pockets like rubber cases do and they provide a good shelter for my little baby (yes, the phone).

What is important to know about leather cases is that they will expand after a while (like all things leather usually do). Therefore it’s important that the case is really slim fitted and not made of leather that’s too soft (which will expand even more). In other words; it’s a good sign if you have to use a little force to push the phone into a pouch leather case the first times that you use it.

The Contenders

OK, so let’s start with the looks. Here are all three cases in a shot together:

The first out is Beyza Cases’s “Apple iPhone 4 SlimLine Wave Case“:

Beyza Cases’ “Slimline Wave Case” is available in four different colors. You can find shots of all colors combinations at their website (link above). This case felt like very high quality, even more so than the other two cases in this review. I have to say that I didn’t particularly like the color of this case and neither did some of my friends. I did a check on their website and the other color combinations available for this case all suited my taste better. My brain kept making references to horses and stables during the trial period with this case (doesn’t their logo look somewhat like a horse shoe too?).

The design is really neat though with an opening at the bottom of the case which means you can keep the phone in the case when charging it and also that it’s easier to push the phone out of the case. Since this case was really slim fitted and made of quite sturdy leather, I had to use a little force to get the phone in and out of the case the first couple of times. After two or three days the leather had expanded enough to let the phone slide in and out of the case pretty easily.

The second case is also from Beyza Cases and it has the very catchy name of “Apple iPhone 4 Retro Super Slim Stripes Vertical Case“:

This case is also available in different colors which you can browse at the company’s website. Our test model was white with blue stripes, a quite sporty look which made me think about fast cars. I appreciated the design but I think it would have been even better without any stripes at all. A got some comments about it and they were all positive. One potential problem is the color of the case which is a rather bright white. I am not known for being careful with my gadgets but after a couple of weeks use it still looked great so it shouldn’t be a problem for most users.

This case also felt very slim fitted but not quite as much as the other pouch from Beyza Cases. I used this case for a period of three weeks and during that time the leather expanded just enough to make the phone slide in and out as it should, it never became too sloppy.

As you see from the images it has four air ventilation holes in the bottom which is great because many IP4 users have reported that their units can become rather hot during charging. I have never experienced this myself but no smoke without fire, eh?

The last case is from Sena and it’s called “Sarach UltraSlim“:

The last case in this review is from a more renowned manufacturer (at least to me); Sena Cases. I have previously owned their ULTRASLIM case for the iPhone 3G S and I was very satisfied with it because it was really slim fitted. Therefore I was a little bit disappointed when i first put my phone into Sena Case’s Sarach UltraSlim case; it slid in a little bit too easy and when I turned the case upside down (pointing the opening towards the floor) my phone slid out of it (if I didn’t keep some pressure on it from my hand). That can potentially be hazardous for your phone, at least if you can sometimes be a little flimsy with you gadgets (like the editor).

The leather is really soft and has a creamy color (the first image reflects the real color best) and the stitchings are made with a brown canvas like thread. There is no question that this case looks great and like the other two cases, the quality of the leather feels luxurious. After a couple of days use, I noticed that the stitchings on one of the side endpoints was a little loose so I took matters into my own hands and tied a little knot which kept it in place for the rest of the trial period (not really a big issue).

Conclusions

The case with the best fit was Beyza Cases SlimLine Wave Case and second best was their Retro Super Slim Stripes Vertical Case. Although I was a little disappointed with the fit of Sena Cases Sarach UltraSlim case, it grew on me after a couple of days and I ended up being a little more careful with my phone (a good thing, right?).

The luxurious feeling was similar with all three cases, from the moment you take them out of their boxes to when you first slide in your phone. I just love the rich smell of leather which lasted the entire testing period.

When it comes to looks, I preferred Sena’s Sarach UltraSlim Case and the runner up was the striped case from Beyza Cases. This is of course subjective and another person may have it the other way around.

I wouldn’t feel comfortable recommending one of the cases over the others because they are all very functional so it really comes down to what design you prefer. I can definitively recommend all three cases if you are looking for a high quality case which will last you the entire life cycle of you iPhone 4.

Written by: Fredrik Engdahl, TestSeek.com

Summary: Logitech Wireless Desktop MK710 is a keyboard/mice combo with some nice features like a laser mouse, long battery life and good ergonomics, but I also found some issues with it.

INTRODUCTION

Normally when we review mice or keyboards we go for high end stuff directed towards gamers. This time we are instead looking at an office/multimedia type mouse and keyboard combo, the Logitech Wireless Desktop MK710.

Here are the specifications:

The Wireless Desktop MK710 kit consists of the mouse Logitech Marathon Mouse M705 and the MK700 keyboard. It is possible to acquire the mouse separately, but the MK700 keyboard is only available in this kit.

The kit has some nice new features like the Logitech “Unifying” technology which I will explain further down in this review.

LOGITECH WIRELESS DESKTOP MK710: THE KEYBOARD

OK so let’s start by having a look at the MK700 keyboard and its features, which I must say are quite numerable especially considering that this is not a gaming keyboard. The first detail that catches the eye is the LCD screen; it alone makes this keyboard look advanced.

Another detail is the FN-key which allows us to assign multiple functions to a key. This immediately gives us double the amount of possible keyboard functions. The same idea is commonly used with notebooks. Yet another detail is the “Incurve Keys”, which means that the keys have a central concavity and softened edges.

There are two sets of multimedia buttons on the board. The first set is located to the left and right side of the LCD panel. Those are start/pause/stop/next/previous and the volume control buttons.

The rest of the multimedia functions are called by simultaneously pressing the FN button, a total of 16 pre programmed macro-keys which for instance start you mail client, starts your browser etc.

The monochrome LCD panel is centered in the top of the keyboard. The panel shows battery and audio sound level as well as if Num Lock or Caps Lock is active. The keyboard also features a soft and flexible surface to rest you palms on while typing.

Another nice detail is the on/off switch in the top right corner which is of course there to save battery. Logitech actually claims that the batteries for this combo will last for three years, and that goes for the mouse to.

The back side of the keyboard has two set of “feet” of different lengths. The back side also holds the battery compartment for two AA of 1.5V (included).

LOGITECH WIRELESS DESKTOP MK710: THE MOUSE

The included mouse is the Logitech Marathon Mouse M705, a wireless laser mouse of a smaller size than average laser mice. This mouse can be purchased alone from Logitech unlike the keyboard.

The Marathon Mouse M705’s body is made of plastic but the sides are made of rubber which gives it a nice feel in the hand.

The mouse has 3 buttons and the wheel which allows us to do scrolling both vertically and horizontally. This mouse incorporates one of Logitech’s newer technologies which enables “Hyper-fast scrolling” which can be practical many times. The small button just above the mice wheel controls how the scrolling is done, smoothly or by smaller “jumps”.

The laser sensor has a wavelength of 848nm and a resolution of 1000dpi. The laser sensor is placed a bit to the right which might annoy gamers which usually prefer to have the laser sensor placed centrally. But then again, this is not a gaming kit.

The pivot points are made of Teflon to maximize their durability and the displacement speed. The mouse feels balanced so they have succeeded in the placement of the pivot points.

LOGITECH WIRELESS DESKTOP MK710: ACCESSORIES

The manual is very good and explains in detail how to use the kit. For example the pages above explain the indications in the LCD panel and the Hyper-fast system scrolling of the mouse.

Above is a picture of the very small “Unifying” connector, which controls both devices and it is also possible to connect other Logitech peripherals which support the Unifying technology. Logitech has also included an extension cable for the connector which may come in handy if you are using a desktop computer placed under the table or somewhere else where the connector does not have clear view to the keyboard and mouse.

I would also just like to briefly mention that Logitech has included high quality batteries from Duracell in this package.

USER EXPERIENCE

I have used the Logitech Wireless Desktop MK710 during a month approximately. The general experience is very good, mainly with office tasks where the keyboard offers a very high comfort level even in longer sessions. What I have been most impressed by is the soft palm rest which really makes a difference.

The “Incurve technology keys” didn’t really make too much difference from normal keys but they feel a little softer for the fingers.

The weak point of the keyboard is the LCD panel which is just not powerful enough. It was hard to read what it said in a dark room or from a slightly skew angle.

In my view, the weak link in this package is the mouse. I am a gamer with big hands so I am used to big mice. This mouse is just too small for me. I know that many of you are used to smaller sized mice since you use mice indented to be used with laptops on the road, but I just cannot appreciate smaller sized mice.  Otherwise the mouse is exact and responsive.

The best thing about this rather advanced kit is really the simple fact of the extended battery life. Of course I cannot confirm that the batteries will last for three years but I can confirm that the battery indicator didn’t move from “full” during my testing period.

CONCLUSIONS

Logitech usually do solid products and they have succeeded here as well. However there are some minor faults which I recommend them to fix for newer revisions of this product.

One of the things that annoyed me a bit was the low luminosity of the LCD screen. In some conditions I just couldn’t read it properly. The second thing is the fact that the mouse just feels a little too small for a desktop set mouse. I would have liked to see a little better mouse at this price level, perhaps the Performance Mouse MX? Again, what you think about the size of the mouse is of course something that differs from person to person, but for me it was too small.

Overall this is a good kit though, especially if you can deal with a mouse of smaller dimensions. The long battery times; the Incurve keys; the padded palm rest are all things which are very convenient for a desktop kit. Also, we shouldn’t forget about the Unifying technology and the FN button.

The price level at around 100€ is a little steep for a desktop kit, at least in my opinion. If the keyboard had been of the ergonomic “natural” type it would have made more sense to me. Still, I do recommend this kit mainly for office workers who are sitting long hours in front of the computer and who need a wireless kit.

Pros:

• Construction quality and materials
• Ergonomics
• Extra features
• Comfort of use
• Drivers with excellent functionality

Cons:

• High price
• Poor LCD screen
• Too small mouse

The final score is 81 out of 100 owls, and we give the “Logitech Wireless Desktop MK710″ our Recommended Award.

Author: Manuel González Fernández

Translator: Vince Emiloz Sanderson

Today I will be reviewing an external HDD enclosure from Icy Box called “IB-318STU3-B” (wonderful name). It has a USB 3.0 interface which should boost the data transfer speeds significantly, at least according to the specs.

INTRODUCTION

Only months ago, the third revision of the USB standard appeared. I’ve seen it called both “USB 3.0” and “USB SuperSpeed”. What is clear is that the new version includes several improvements compared to USB 2.0.

The most important update is of course the increase of the data transfer speed (theoretical) to 4.8Gbps (600MB/s) compared to USB 2.0’s 480Mbps (35MB/s). This is really a huge difference.

Another important change is the maximum power output of USB 3.0 of 900mA (500mA in USB 2.0), which will allow USB 3.0 ports to power a number of devices and accessories to laptops. In real world, this means fewer AC adapters to accessories like external harddrives, notebook cooling pads etc.

The really great news is that USB 3.0 is 100% backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1.

OK, enough details of the new USB 3.0 standard, let’s instead have a look at the specifications of the IB-318STU3-B:

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Below are some images of the accessories included with the IB-318STU3-B.  As you can see it’s nothing out of the ordinary: a manual; an AC-adapter; an USB 3.0 cable; the plastic stand and the rubber vibration pads.

ICY BOX IB-318STU3-B IN DETAIL

One thing about Icy Box’s products that always impresses me is their choice of high quality materials. This baby is made of aluminum in a nice matte black finish:

Because this is a 3.5 inch box I think it makes a rather big difference that it is made of aluminum instead of steel (lighter).

The ICY BOX logo is barely visible on the sides of the unit, which gives it a very classy and sober look

All the connectors and the power button is located in the back of the unit. There are no connectors or anything else in the front.

To open the case up you have to loosen a screw placed in the bottom of the unit.

As you can see there’s not much to say about the inside of this case. The control PCB has the AsMedia ASM1051 chip.

The installation of the hard disk couldn’t be simpler. Just anchor the HDD to the SATA data and power connectors and then fasten it directly to the chassis placing the vibration dampeners between the chassis and the HDD.

TESTS AND RESULTS

In a previous motherboard review I came in contact with USB 3.0 for the first time. The tests I made then were intended to clarify the potential of this new standard. Therefore, I will not have it as my main focus in this review.

Instead I am going to test the transfer speeds with two different disks, one with a SATA2 interface and the other with a SATA3 interface. The disks I am using in this review are a Seagate 7200.10 SATA2 320GB and a Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX SATA 3.0. My test system:

In order to realize the tests I used HD Tune 2.55, CrystalDiskMark 2.2 and HD Tach 3.0.4.0. I transferred a one big file of 3.3GB and also a folder containing 265 files with a total size of 596MB.

Here are my results from the software tests:

The results are indeed very good. We see a big difference between SATA3 and SATA2. In read and write speeds we are talking almost a doubled performance. USB3 has no troubles handling the higher numbers for SATA3. Clearly the bottleneck is now the disks we use. The question is: when will disks reach the limit of what the SATA3 and USB3 interfaces can handle? I doubt we will ever get there with mechanic disks, I think we will have to rely on SSDs to take things to the next level.

Here are the real world tests:

Again, what determines the transfer speeds is what disk we put in the IB-318STU3-B. We have to also consider that the hard disk in my test system is a SATA2 7200rpm disk which also limits the transfer speeds to and from whatever external disk we connect. I.e. the transfer speeds in the “real world” tests should be considered as not entirely reflective of the SATA3/USB3 standard.

I also did a measurement of the power drainage that the external drive had on my system. I used the SATA3 disk for this test. Below are the results:

The USB 3 standard is supposed to have power saving functions which are enabled when the disk has not been used for a while. However, I never saw any of this, the minimum consumption was constantly at 10W.

CONCLUSIONS

Icy Box has managed to produce a good looking, high quality HDD enclosure with the IB-318STU3-B. It features the latest version of both SATA and USB and it seemingly works perfectly. Furthermore, it was easy to install the drive and since it is fanless, there are no noise emissions to talk about.

One thing that annoyed me is the fact that an AC-adapter is required. I guess this is not anything I can blame this product for, but instead a limit of the USB3 standard. Another thing that might be on somebody’s wish list is some connectors in the front of the device. For me, it would only ruin the sober looking design, so I wont’t put it up on the con-list.

As an investment, at around 50-60 Euro it can’t be considered expensive, but remember you will have to buy a HDD to put in it as well.

Pros:

• Looks and design
• General quality with aluminum housing
• Supports SATA3 and USB3 as well as all the old SATA/USB standards
• Price

Cons:

• AC-adapter

The final score is 90 out of 100 owls, and we give the “Icy Box IB-318STU3-B″ our Editor’s Choice Award.

Thanks goes out to Icy Box for letting me review this HDD enclosure.

Author: Manuel González Fernández

Translator: Vince Emiloz Sanderson

Synology Disk Station DS210j is a fantastic NAS (Network Attached Storage) for your home with a ton of interesting features.

INTRODUCTION

Synology is a company that has specialized in NAS devices and has quite an extensive catalog of products which basically covers every need on the market. Today I will be reviewing one of their newer products, the “DiskStation DS210j” which is primarily intended for use in home networks. This product really has o ton of interesting specifications which are available at their website.

The specifications of the DS210j are doubtless impressive but the really interesting thing about this NAS is the accompanied control software which enables all the extra features. We will go into that more extensively later in the review.

DS210j IN DETAIL

Bundled with the DS210j chassis are the following accessories: a bag with screws, an AC adapter, an installation CD and a manual.

The Synology Disk Station DS210j is a quite small unit with attractive aesthetics which will not scare away even the most sensitive Apple users. The housing has room for two 3.5” or 2.5” disks.

There are two buttons altogether. One to power on the system and the other executes backups of the devices that are connected to the USB ports. The LEDs in the front panel indicate the state of the system. There’s a power LED, two hard drive LEDs and a LED for the network status.

I like the fact that Synology has included a USB 2.0 port in the front which makes it easy to plug in units like mp3 players and USB pen drives.

The back part of the Disk Station DS210j holds two more USB 2.0 ports; a network port and the input connector for the AC adapter. Above the AC adapter input hole is a small reset button.

The last important element is the 70mm fan which cools the hard drives. According to the manufacturer, the noise level is only 24db. The fan is manufactured by Evercool and the model number is “EC7025L12ER”. More stats from the manufacturer regarding the fan; consumption level at 1.68W; the rotation speed is 3000 rpm; the air flow is 28.2 CFM and lastly the expected life length is 40000 hours (more than 4 years when the unit is power on without interruption).

The bottom of the unit has 4 rubber feet which lift the box a couple of millimeters off the ground. This allows the fan exhaust to work as efficiently as possible.

INTERIOR OF THE SYNOLOGY DISK STATION DS210J

To open the case you slide of the sides backwards, no screws are needed.

From the images below you can see the two drive rack where the hard drives should be installed. Each drive is connected by a SATA-2 connector (SATA300). These connectors are then connected to the control PCB through a PCI-E x1 connector.

The placement of the fan is quite good although it would have been even better if there was more free space between the fan and the drives.

The installation of hard disks couldn’t be easier. I just slid them into place and secured them with the screws to the rack.

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION

Synology’s “Disk Station Manager” (DSM) is the software which controls the unit. At the time of this review the last stable version was 2.2. I just inserted the CD and the installation process more or less took care of itself.

The system is accessed through a browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc ). The first window is the “Writing-desk” which has icons for all the main applications.

The first thing to do is of course to format the installed drives. This is done by following a guide which carefully explains the different options available to us. One of the most important things to decide is whether to run a RAID 0 or RAID 1 configuration. For you who don’t know what that means I can tell you that RAID 0 means that the disks are run in “parallel” mode which will theoretically almost double the performance. In RAID 1 mode, the disks are “mirrored” which means that exactly the same info is stored on both drives, so if one breaks you will always have all info secured on the remaining drive.

Once the volume has been created, the next step is to go through all the configuration options. When I did this I noticed that there was an overall update available (DSM 2.3 beta). I didn’t hesitate to install it once I had read all the new features it included.

SYSTEM CONFIGURATION WITH DSM 2.3

The menu looks quite different in DSM 2.3 compared to DSM 2.2. The start icons are; Management; File Station; Audio Station; Surveillance Station; Web Station; Photo Station and Online Resources.

If you are interested I really urge you to check out the demo version of the DSM 2.3 software running live over at Synology’s website.

When you click one of the icons, the sublevel of that icon opens up with a myriad of setting to consider. There is really an incredible amount of useful options and features. I am truly impressed with how they have managed to squeeze in so much in this program. I will only be able to present a few things that I used myself but believe me, there is much more.

You can turn on a log over who has been connected to the system and it even logs which actions the user took while connected. For instance, you can see which files where copied or moved from and to which location on the disk.

Another great feature is that you can setup the system so that it sends you a text message to your mobile phone or an email when it is triggered by an event of your choice, for instance if one of the disks is failing.

There are also the options to make updates of the software, reset to factory defaults, install external modules like an e-mail server, web statistics server and there’s even a small phpMyAdmin module which means you can install MySql and run this unit as a small web server with a database.

The installation process of any of these applications is as easy as with the basic program. All you have to do is start the process and the rest takes care of itself.

There is an extensive menu for setting user privileges for internet access which is great if you want to use is in an office environment.

DSM 2.3 enables us to create up to 512 users in a total of 128 different groups. The system is very flexible, it not only lets you set user privileges on us group level but also on different users within the same group.

Furthermore it is possible to setup up to 256 shared archives to which you can assign different user rights.

You can also setup the unit as a FTP server, a media server and it’s possible to connect it through SSH (putty). Note that you don’t have to choose which function to use, you may use them all at the same time.

Synology has also done a lot of thinking about the security. For instance, you can limit the number of simultaneous connections; limit the maximum use of total bandwidth; only allow https connections; setup firewall restrictions etc…

The Internet connection setup menu is especially interesting for more advanced users who want to be able to access the unit from any computer on the internet. A good way to do this is if you have a dynamic DNS which most of us normal users do, is to use the DDNS setting in conjunction with a service like dyndns.org.

Another very interesting addition by Synology is the option to install MySQL databases, which conjugated with phpMyAdmin gives us an excellent platform to create a small web server by also installing a CMS. Officially Synology offers compatibility with the following systems:

The application menu is also very interesting since it is really here the real use of the unit comes to life. Synology has done a lot of good updates with their own systems for storing, downloading and handling media content like movies and music. They have also extended the support for third party applications.

In the menu there is not much to do of course but to choose from a myriad of options to activate or deactivate (again). For instance you can active the DLNA and or DMA functions which makes the unit compatible with other media units supporting those formats. I’ll get back to this further on in this never ending review…

I haven’t yet said much about what should be considered to be the main function of any NAS; the backup function.

Considering what I have written so far about this unit, it will surely not come as a surprise that Synology has integrated a lot of features for performing this task as well. It is possible to make backup of selected folders on different computers on the network, databases etc. Again the flexibility is impressive.

There is also a menu for making backups of selected folders on the units we have connected to the 3 USB ports.

APPLICATIONS IN DSM 2.3

As I said above the real usage with the DiskStation DS210j comes to life with its applications for music, photos, blogging, downloads, FTP, web cam surveillance etc.

“Audio Station” lets us organize the household’s music in one single unit, yet access it from all computers in the network and replaying it without needing to do anything else but connecting to the NAS. No external players are needed or anything. It is also possible to access music on other computer’s hard drives and replay it through the user interface of the NAS. More importantly, Synology has added the functionality to connect and listen to music from Internet radio stations like SHOUTcast.

“Download Station” could work as a substitute for all people who have a server running at home 24/7 downloading stuff from the Internet. It supports well know technologies like; BitTorrent, FTP, emulate, RapidShare, Megaupload etc. During my test I had no problems what so ever with “Download Station”, the interface is intuitive and it works like it’s supposed to.

“Photo Station” is basically a photo gallery program which enables us to organize our photographs into folders and make neat looking presentations. The only thing which I must object to here is that I couldn’t find out how to view the photos in full screen format. I don’t know if it’s at all possible, what I do know is that I couldn’t find out how to do so.

TESTING

So far I have only studied the software for the DS210j. Now it’s time to dig a little deeper and check out important features like the units data transfer speeds and its power consumption.

I tested the data transfer speed both over the USB 2 ports and over the network. Sadly, I only had access to 100Mbps hardware which must be remembered when you analyze the test results below. To be clear, this NAS unit supports gigabit LAN. I used 2 Seagate 7200.10 320GB hard drives with 16MB cache in RAID 1 mode.

The obtained results are illustrated in the graphs below:

I think the results are very good indeed, especially considering that I used a 100Mbps network. The transfer rates were considerably lower when transferring many smaller archives but this is normal with mechanical hard drives.

I was less impressed by the numbers I reached when doing file transfers over the USB 2.0 ports. The theoretical transfer speed is around 30MB/s but I didn’t reach levels anywhere near that. I was somewhat surprised by this and redid the test but got the same result.

In order to test the power consumption of the Synology Disk Station DS210j, I used an ordinary watt meter. Here are the results:

The medium power consumption was around 30 Watts which should be considered OK. However I think that the 7 Watts are quite high for the idle mode. This should probably be due to that the hard drives are really never completely turned off, but only set to “hibernation”. Overall I think these numbers should interest people who are running servers at their homes. Maybe it’s time to throw out the server and replace it with a NAS?

The noise level of the fan is not by any means disturbing although you can still hear it even when you are two or even three meters from the NAS.

CONCLUSIONS

Impressive. That is the word I would choose to sum up the DiskStation DS210j. It is a product of great quality, with excellent characteristics and a great functionality.

Some things which I would like to see improved is the detail in Photo Station that you cannot see the images in full screen mode. Secondly, an even quieter fan would have been nice. Other stuff on the wish list would be a greater USB transfer speed and lower power consumption.

The unit goes for around $200 – $250 on the internet but then it’s a diskless system which means you will have to put up some more for the disks. Considering everything it incorporates, I think it’s a bargain.

All in all, I will have to recommend this product to everyone looking for a NAS for your home.

Pros:

• Nice looking design
• 3 USB 2 ports
• Great software
• Good overall transfer speeds
• Nice price

Cons:

• Nothing serious

The final score is 95 out of 100 owls, and we give the “Synology DiskStation DS210j″ our Editor’s Choice Award.

Thanks goes out to Synology for letting me review this cooler.

Author: Manuel González Fernández

Translator: Vince Emiloz Sanderson

Prolimatech sent us the Mega Shadow, an improved version of its “Megahalems” with extended compatibility and some aesthetic modifications.

INTRODUCTION

Prolimatech was created by a group of cooling enthusiasts in 2008. When they released their Megahalems cooler they got a lot of buzz from news and reviews sites all over the world.

The “Megahalems” can be derived from the “Nehalem” chip name (Intel) and the cheer size of the cooler. You should definitely check out reviews of the Megahalems at testseek to see what the buzz was about.

Prolimatech’s latest product will be on display today, the “Prolimatech Mega Shadow”. I’m thrilled to have the work of fellow cooling enthusiasts in my hand and it’s going to be very interesting to see what its performance results will be.

First of all, let’s have a look at the specifications:

BUNDLE

The packaging is very good with protective foam around the heatsink as you can see from the images below.

Prolimatech provides everything you need to mount this heatsink on Socket 775, 1136 and 1156.

The heatsink doesn’t come with a fan which enables the user to choose whatever fan they wish. They have however included clips for mounting two 120mm fans. Prolimatech recommends that you use a fan with a rotation speed of 16000RPM if you want to have the max performance with this cooler. For a balanced performance they recommend a fan with a rotation speed around 800-1200RPM.

Other included accessories are the needed screws and mounting brackets and Prolimatech’s own Thermal Compound, the “Prolimatech PK-1”.

IN DETAIL: PROLIMATECH MEGA SHADOW

The Prolimatech Mega Shadow is a “tower” type cooler of extraordinary dimensions (170mm x 74mm x 158.7mm).

This baby weighs in at 790 grams (without a fan) so you will need to have fastened it good for it not to risk to hurt your motherboard or CPU (if you install it in a tower case).

Check out Prolimatech’s product page for the Mega Shadow to get some extra details of this cooler.

The Mega Shadow is made in black nickel which has a very pleasing look and feel to it. Otherwise the cooler’s design is almost exactly the same as the Megahalems’. The cooler is constructed of two independent towers which each are crossed by six heatpipes of copper with a diameter of 6mm.

According to Prolimatech, the distance between the fins has been optimized to produce the maximum heat dissipation.

In the top part of the cooler we can see the logo stamped into the fins. To me, this is a nice detail which gives me some kind of warm feeling in my chest of appreciation of the product.

It’s actually possible to install two 120mm fans on this cooler, one on each side.

The base of the cooler looks mean with the massive heatpipes crossing from side to side. It reminds me of the cylinder of a Harley motor cycle.

The heatpipes have been welded to the copper base which is the traditional method and different from the HDT system (Heat pipe Direct Touch) which has won more and more popularity lately.

The finish of the back plate could not be better, the polish is of excellent quality and the mirror effect is striking.

INSTALLATION AND TESTS

The obvious difference between the original Megahalems and the Mega Shadow is the black Nickel finish of the latter one. Nevertheless, the greater compatibility of the Mega Shadow makes it more attractive. The compatibility with LGA 775, 1156 and 1356 is naturally an extra selling point compared to “Megahalems” which only is compatible with socket 775 and 1366.

There is also a special mounting kit for AMD users which can be bought separately. This kit will make the Mega Shadow compatible with AMD sockets AM2/AM2+/AM3.

I installed the cooler on an Intel 1366 system.

Because a back plate is needed for the installation, I had to take the motherboard out of my case in order to complete the installation. I wanted to get this cooler secured tightly to the board for maximum stability and contact with the CPU.

Check out the images below to get a grasp of the installation process.

I actually had to resort to the manual to get the installation right. With it as support, I didn’t run into any problem at all and the installation process took me no longer than 5-10 minutes.

I chose to install two fans on the Mega Shadow because I wanted to see what it could perform if I really pushed it.

In order to analyze the performance of the Prolimatech Mega Shadow I used this test system:

In order to load the CPU to the maximum I used the software “Prime 95” during 20 minutes. I tested the fan with both 1 and two fans to get a reliable and relevant result.

The temperatures were measured with CoreTemp. The tests were made in a room temperature of 20 ˚C. I did the tests with the Intel Core i7 920 at 2.7GHz; 3.06GHz (overclocked) and 4.02 (really overclocked).

I set the voltage in BIOS to 1.16V when I ran the CPU at its normal speed and to 1.26V when overclocked. I deactivated “TurboBoost” but left “HyperThreading” activated.

I used the “Scythe Gentle Typhoon 120mm” fan in my tests and the rotation speed was set to 1450RPM.

Here are the results of my tests:

Obviously these are spectacular results. At no moment we reached critical temperatures, not even at 4GHz. This is truly remarkable since the Intel Core i7 920 can be run at 80°C – 85°C without risking anything.

Also, remember that I used software which loaded all four cores to 100% simultaneously. In reality this will almost never happen. Therefore these maximum temperatures are truly the extremes.

The results point to the conclusion that the gains by using two fans are minor. I actually found the Scythe Gentle Typhoon fans to have a great balance between cooling performance and noise level at 1450RPM.

As a little curiosity I also ran the CPU at 3.4GHz without HyperThreading enabled. The result was quite significant. With the HT activated the average temperature was 63°C, with HT deactivated the average temperature was 56°C, which is considerably lower.

CONCLUSIONS

The performance of the Mega Shadow is fantastic; no one can ever claim anything else. Compared to the Megahalems it looks better and has a better compatibility list. The only real competitor has to be the Thermalright TRUE Black (Revision C) which also is a huge cooler with excellent performance.

This is an amazing product no matter how you look at it. The only thing about it is its price at around $80 which is a lot of money to put out for a CPU cooler. If you consider that this cooler can actually compete with water cooling systems, then the price doesn’t seem that high. No matter the prize, I have to give this product my highest recommendations.

Pros:

• Exceptional performance
• Mounting system
• Lovely finish and design in black Nickel
• Good compatibility list

Cons:

• High price

The final score is 96 out of 100 owls, and we give the “Prolimatech Mega Shadow″ our Editor’s Choice Award.

Thanks goes out to Prolimatech for letting me review this cooler.

Author: Noel Íñiguez Fernández

Translator: Vince Emiloz Sanderson

AMD is back with a new medium range card which promises a good price/performance ratio, the Radeon HD 5670.

INTRODUCTION

The first member of the Evergreen family hit the market back in September (2009). AMD has since then not said much about what would follow.

AMD chose to release the 5670 card at last week’s CES 2010 event. The 5600 series chip is called Redwood and currently only includes the Radeon HD 5650 and 5670 chips. The 5600 series is clearly directed to the mid range segment of the market as illustrated in AMD’s release strategy below. AMD has release two versions of the HD 5670 card, one with 1GB GDDR5 and another with 512MB GDDR5. This review covers the latter one.

The 5600 series adopts the technologies of its big brothers like ATI Stream and ATI Eyefinity. Here are AMD’s own words about their new “ATI Stream” technology:

ATI Stream technology is a set of advanced hardware and software technologies that enable AMD graphics processors (GPUs), working in concert with the system’s central processors (CPUs), to accelerate enabled applications beyond traditional graphics and video processing. This enables balanced platforms to run computationally-intensive tasks more efficiently, providing a better application experience to the end user.

The 5600 series also has full support for Microsoft’s DirectX11 API. I guess most people buying a graphics card in the middle range segment don’t really know what the big deal is but anyone interested in the GPU industry knows that if you want to see the latest innovations in gaming you want to be on the latest DirectX train.

AMD ATI RADEON HD 5670, ENGINEERING SPECIFICATIONS

The test sample I will be reviewing today is a generic AMD ATI Radeon HD 5670 512MB GDDR5. It is a pre production unit which AMD sends out to selected publications before other outfitters’ versions hit the store shelves. I am actually a bit late out with my review, but hey, what’s the hurry anyway?

Here are the specifications for the HD5670 512MB GDDR5:

IN DETAIL: AMD ATI RADEON HD 5670 512MB GDDR5

I’m not going to spend too much time rambling about what the card looks like since most outfitters will be mounting their own cooling solutions. In short however, the card has a one slot cooler which is great and expected with a middle range card.

The card is manufactured with a 40nm technology which is great since it will increase its energy efficiency and decrease the generated heat in relation to performance.

A good thing about the fact that this card is fairly small and thin is that it fits in smaller cases suitable for HTPC and media PC projects. The length of the Radeon HD 5670 is 170mm.

The card has no PCI- Express power connector which should be considered as something positive I guess. It means that the card will never draw more power than what the PCI-Express bus can handle.

The 5670 generic card has 3 connectors; a Display Port; a HDMI and a DVI connector. It supports the “ATI Eyefinity” technology which means you can use monitors on each connector simultaneously.

The HMDI connector support s HDMI 1.3a which means full support for Dolby True HD and DTS Audio Masters.

TEST SYSTEM

I used my normal test system for this review, here are the specs:

And here are some screenshots of my configuration:

During my test I set the in-game graphics settings to the highest quality. I set the filter settings to “medium” because of the fact that this card is not intended for people who “must” have the filter settings to max.

For those of you who are not too familiar of how to measure the performance of a graphics card, here’s a table with frame rate numbers and what they actually mean in real life gaming experience:

TEST: BENCHMARKING SOFTWARE

I always do the tests with the benchmarking software first because it often gives a glint of the overall performance of the card. In this case the results tell me that the performance of this card is a bit above what I had expected from a medium range card in the new AMD generation.

As a comparison a Nvidia GT 240 GDDR5 card I have tested in the same system obtained around 7000 points in 3DMark 2006 and in my last review of a GT220 card (a card more towards the lower end segment) it achieved 6700 points. The Radeon HD5670 card came in at 11700 points which exceeds the NVIDIA cards by quite a lot.

As I have experienced with all the DirectX11 compatible cards I have reviewed, the performance diminishes with the jump from DirectX10 to DirectX11. This is strange because “higher performance” is one of the major selling points with the new API from Microsoft.

TEST: GAMES PART 1

The Radeon HD 5670 actually turns out to be even more powerful in the first batch of games that I had expected based on the results achieved in the benchmarking tests. I was actually somewhat surprised that this medium range card, at a price level below $100, could move these games with great fluidity.

Games like The Last Remnant, Street Fighter IV and Devil May Cry 4 actually ran really well no matter what level of graphics quality setting, resolution or filter I set. Even Resident Evil 5 ran OK

TEST: GAMES PART 2

A strange thing about the results above is the case of the games STALKER: Clear Sky and STALKER: Call of Prypiat. The first one uses DirectX10 and the second DirectX11. STALKER Clear Sky (DX10) offers a very limited gaming experience while STALKER: Call of Prypiat (DX11) has much better results. I mean, those games are part of the same series. It raises questions like: is DirectX11 more efficient than DirectX10 after all? Or; do these two games have different 3D motors? I am afraid I cannot answer those questions for you, just thought that I’d bring it to your awareness.

There are however clearly two games in this batch which this card cannot handle; Far Cry 2 and Crysis Warhead. The performance of the Radeon HD 5670 in Far Cry 2 at a resolution of 1680×1050 (without filters) at 41.04 FPS just isn’t good enough and far from the results I achieved with the Sapphire HD 5750 (61.57 FPS).

Still, the Radeon HD 5670 demonstrates a remarkable performance in very demanding games. If we can live with not always running the games in the highest resolutions with filters enabled, then you will not be disappointed.

HD VIDEO

In order to analyze the performance of the Radeon HD 5670 when replaying HD video I measured the average CPU load (%) during a 5 minute period while playing HD content. I did the measurements in two resolutions: 720p (H.261) and 1080p.

The excellent results are really thanks to the ATI Steam technology. It is great to see such a powerful card with such small dimensions. It makes the card ideal for a HTPC.

OVERCLOCKING, COOLING AND CONSUMPTION

Overclocking is always exciting (at least for me) but I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about this card since all I had to work with was the ATI Catalyst application. I did however reach a decent 9% increase of the GPU (775 MHz) and a 9.5% increase of the original memory frequency. This was the max numbers I could set in the ATI Catalyst application which leaves some room for other outfitters to unlock a greater overclocking.

The cooling system of this card fulfills its task. We must consider that is just a generic sample of the card so none of the outfitters fancy cooling solutions are present. The temperatures that you see in the graph below at full load are high but they are actually what I usually see with a new reference model AMD ATI card. We will just see what the different outfitters can come up with in terms of cooling solutions for the 5670 chip and what they can do with the temperatures.

The fan is automatically regulated and its rotation speed is around 28% when the card is in idle mode. Below 40% the fan is imperceptible but above 50% it is perfectly audible without ever getting as annoying as fans on high end cards.

The use of the new manufacturing technology at 40nm gives this card a better efficiency ratio than previous generation of graphics cards. In the real world this means an improvement of the performance at the same power consumption levels. Or the other way around; a lower power consumption at the same performance level. According to AMD ATI, the idle mode consumption should be 14W whereas the typical consumption in operation is at 61W.

I measured the total power drainage of my system in idle mode and overclock mode which is illustrated in the graph below. I cannot tell you if AMD ATI’s number are correct or not.

RESULTS OF THE TEST WITH OVERCLOCK

Of course I ran some tests with the overclocked card as well, here are the results:

As you can see the results show a slight increase of the performance. For instance the gain in Crysis Warhead was around 1.5 FPS and in Far Cry 2 the increase was around 3 FPS. In reality this doesn’t mean much.

CONCLUSIONS

OK, so this card is clearly not a high end gaming card, but the big question is if it’s powerful enough to be of any use for us gamers? I would say definitely yes! If you can accept playing FPS games without filters you will be satisfied with this card. Hard core gamers will however have to go for the next price level.

What is great with this card is that AMD has managed to squeeze in all the new technologies which we saw in the 5800 series, like the ATI Steam, DirectX11 and ATI Eyefinity. That fact combined with the fact that this card is quite small makes it ideal for anyone looking for a graphics card for HTPC project.

This card will start to sell around the $100 level which I feel is very affordable considering its capabilities.

Pros:

• OK performance
• Low noise level
• Low power consumption
• Single slot card
• Low price

Cons:

• None really

The final score is 89 out of 100 owls, and we give the “AMD ATI 5670 Radeon HD 512MB GDDR5″ our Recommended Award.

Thanks goes out to AMD ATI for letting me review this card.

Check out alternatives of the Radeon 5600 series at testseek.com

Author: Manuel González Fernández

Translator: Vince Emiloz Sanderson

ZOTAC GeForce 220 with 1GB GDDR3 is a new card targeted towards the low end market. It has a customized cooling system and should satisfy most consumers looking for a card with good High Definition capabilities.

INTRODUCTION

In July 2009, NVIDIA began the transition to a 40nm manufacturing technology with two new models destined for the low end market: the GeForce GT 210 and GT 220. They were actually never destined to be sold as full retail cards but as the market has developed, NVIDIA now has full retail version of both of them.

The basic model (GT 210) has the “gt218” GPU which has 16 “CUDA cores”; a 64-bits interface; 512MB GDDR2 memory; 1 D-Sub, 1 DVI and 1 HDMI exit. The reference model runs on the following frequencies: 589MHz, 1402MHz and 790MHz (GPU/Shader/Memory). It replaces the old 9400 GT in NVIDIAS lineup.

The NVIDIA GT 220 reference card is based upon the “GT216” GPU which has 48 “CUDA cores”; a 128-bits interface; 1024MB GDDR3 memory; 1 D-Sub; 1 DVI and 1 HDMI exit. The reference model runs on the following frequencies: 625MHz, 1360MHz and 790MHz (GPU/Shader/Memory). It sells at around $60-$80 and it replaces the old 9600 GT and 9500 GT cards.

Today I will be taking a look at one of Zotac’s cards with the NVIDIA 220 layout. Zotac currently has four models based on the GT 220 GPU. The card I will be taking a closer look at today is the model “ZT-20201-10L”, here are its specifications:

THE BUNDLE

In the box I found the graphic card itself in an antistatic plastic bag. The card is accompanied by a licensed copy of 3DMark Vantage; a CD with drivers and software; a sticker and a manual. No brackets, adapters or cables are included in the bundle.

IN DETAIL: ZOTAC GEFORCE GT 220 1GB DDR3

The first impression I had of the card was that is clearly looks like an end level card. The cooling solution is a rather small single slot cooler with a tiny fan. The cooler has the capacity to be “self regulated”, i.e. it adapts its rotation speed automatically depending on the load on the card.

I also noted that the cooler is in contact with the memory chips in addition to the CPU. The card feels like quality with great robustness in both finish and construction.

The card occupies one PCI-Express slot and measures 157.5 mm in length and 111 mm in width. It has one DVI-I; one HDMI 1.3a (supports 7.1 audio) and one VGA connector. These connectors will let us connect the card to more or less any monitor or HD TV.

NVIDIA has focused on making this card compatible with the latest requirements for a multimedia PC. The feature with digital audio through the HDMI port is great because it goes directly through the PCI-Express port without needing a cable via a typical S/PDIF bridge from the sound card.

TEST SYSTEM

Here are the specs of the test system I used for this review:

Normally when testing graphics cards, I always set the graphics settings to max (in the game menus), but because this is a low end card I had to set the graphics settings to medium or low. Also, I didn’t activate filters.

TEST WITH BENCHMARKING SOFTWARE

The results obtained by this ZOTAC were not very encouraging. Already after the software benchmarks I can tell you that this card is not for playing the latest 3D games, at least not in good graphics quality or high resolution.

GAMING TEST PART 1

I decided to start with testing the card out in only two games: Far Cry 2 and Crysis Warhead. As I suspected, the card didn’t produce anyway near satisfactory performance with the highest quality settings (with DX10) in these games so I decided to do all the following testing at the medium setting of graphics quality with no active filters.

But even at medium graphics quality the gaming experience is poor with these very demanding games. I had to set the graphics quality to low to get a steady frame rate above 30 FPS.

GAMING TEST PART 2

In this second batch I have included games which are not as demanding as the games in the first batch. Generally these games gave a much better gaming experience with nice looking graphics, as long as I didn’t enable filters and set the graphics quality to the highest settings. But with Resident Evil 5 I again encountered too low frame rates for my own taste.

HD VIDEO

In order to analyze the performance of the ZOTAC GeForce GT220 1GB DDR3 when replaying HD video I measured the average CPU load (%) during a 5 minute period while playing HD content.

I did the measurements in two resolutions: 720p (H.261) and 1080p.

As you can see from the graph above the HD content replay worked very well with this card and the load on my CPU was not much to talk about.

I also did not encounter any problems with the digital audio out through the HDMI port. I connected the card to my HD TV through the HDMI port and selected the HDMI port as the sound output connector under Windows and the audio was excellent.

OVERCLOCKING, COOLING AND POWER CONSUMPTION

I had great expectations for the overclocking features of the ZOTAC GeForce GT220 1GB DDR3. The main reason for my expectations was the fact that this is the first NVIDIA card with a 40nm GPU. I have also heard other oveclockers who have succeeded in overclocking GT 220 cards as far as 15% and above.

I was with a bittersweet taste that I had to conclude that the max overclocking I could squeeze out of this card was a meager 6% gain. In numbers this means that I managed to overclock the card from the factory settings at 625/790/1360 (GPU/Memory/Shader) to 662/802/1440. I used the “FireStorm” program developed by ZOTAC.

The cooling solution worked very well. The idle mode temperature was 28 C and 52 C in full load. When overclocked the card’s temperatures came in at 29 C in idle mode and 54 C at full load.

I would say that this card can generally be categorized as quiet, the fan doesn’t go up to full speed very often but when it does it is quite noisy. It is possible to control the fan’s rotation speed manually and I set it to 40% and at that level it was practically inaudible. I had no problems with excessive heat at this level, even when running the card at full load.

In addition to the lesser heat which is generated thanks to the 40nm manufacturing technology, I noticed that the power consumption was exceptionally low with this card. I measured my entire system’s power drainage and in idle mode it was 109 W and 156 W at full load.

Considering that these numbers are substantially lower that what I have received in previous reviews of graphics cards with the same system, NVIDIA’s claim of a power consumption of only 7W in idle mode and 58W at full load should be correct.

REAL WORLD RESULTS OF THE OVERCLOCKING

I wanted to see if the rather small overclocking I managed to achieve with this card made any real difference in real life gaming situations and with benchmarking software. Here are the results:

As suspected, the IRLG (In Real Life Gaming…hehe) gains from the overclocking were minor.

CONCLUSIONS

Clearly the ZOTAC GeForce GT220 1GB GDDR3 is not a card for serious gamers. I wouldn’t even say that it’s a card for any kind of gamers. Of course at the price level around $60-$80 one should not expect anything else than a low end to average performance.

But this doesn’t mean that the card sucks. If you are building a HTPC and you are a very occasional gamer, this card can be an excellent option thanks to the 7.1 digital audio through the HDMI port and the possibility of decoding HD video by hardware. Also the card is cool and silent and of small dimensions. So for media/HTPC building purposes I have to say that this is an excellent card.

Pros:

• Finish
• Small dimensions
• Operating temperatures
• Low power consumption
• 7.1 audio through HDMI connector
• Quiet fan

Cons:

• High price/performance ratio

The final score is 77.5 out of 100 owls, and we give the “ZOTAC 220 GeForce GT 1GB DDR3″ our Recommended Award.

Thanks goes out to Zotac for letting me review this case.

Author: Manuel González Fernández

Translator: Vince Emiloz Sanderson

The Lian-Li PC-8N is a high quality medium range aluminum case with a sober design at an interesting price level.

INTRODUCTION

Just a couple of weeks back I had the immense pleasure to review the LanCool Dragonlord PC-K58 case and as I mentioned in the introduction to that review, LanCool is a member Lian-Li family of brands.

The Lian-Li PC-8N is a medium tower case without too many “extra” features. It is a sober looking case made in aluminum that should attract anyone looking for a high quality case at a reasonable price level.

Let’s have a look at its specifications:

From what I can read from the specifications above, this case is not one of those high end cases with a ton of interesting features. Instead, Lian-Li have focused on building a high quality case in aluminum which includes a rather small portion of innovations. However, it seems from the specifications that they haven’t held back on the cooling system and the noise dampening features.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The accessories included with the case are: a manual; an anti vibration kit for the hard drives, screws, plastic bridles to organize cables, a small key and a system loudspeaker.

LIAN LI PC-8N IN DETAIL: THE OUTSIDE

The first thing that hit me when taking the case out of its packaging was that it’s really light compared to other cases I have reviewed in the same class. Of course this is due to the aluminum.  The second thing that hit me was the sobriety of its design.

In the upper part of the front there are four 5.25 inch expansion bays for optical drives, fan monitors, card readers or whatever you choose to install. Under these bays there’s a 3.5 inch expansion bay, below which the power and reset buttons are located. The power and HDD LEDs are located at the top right section of the front, to the right side of the 5.25 inch expansion bays, check out the pictures below to see what I mean.

Perhaps one of the aspects in which Lian-Li has missed out on the PC-8N is the fact that the front external ports only consists of 2 USB 2.0 ports and two audio jacks. I would have appreciated an eSATA and a FireWire port as well.

Under the front ports, there’s a metallic grid behind which a 120mm fan is located.

The back part of the case is quite conventional. This case hasn’t any pre drilled holes or any other features supporting a liquid cooling system which means you will have to be a bit handy if you want to outfit this case with such a cooling system.

The upper zone has a hollow for the PSU as you can see from the images below. Under the PSU, there’s another hollow for the motherboard I/O ports. To the right of the I/O shield hollow there’s a 120mm fan which blows the hot air out from the case. In the bottom zone, there are seven PCI card expansion slots.

As you can see from the images, Lian Li have not used the usual “bee wax cake” looking metallic grid for the fan, instead they have used a circular type of grid which lets more air out of from the case.

The top and bottom sides of the case are both almost totally solid metal. The holes that you see in the image of the bottom side of the case are intended to be used for fastening cables to the bottom of the case.

Just like the top and bottom sides, the two side panels are made of solid metal. If nothing else, they give a striking feel of quality and robustness.

THEY ROLL LI PC-8N IN DETAIL: THE INTERIOR

The inside of the case seems very simple at first but there are quite a few smart details as you will see.

The interior of the box follows the same principle of simplicity as the outside. The 120mm fan placed in the back has a rather dense grid to avoid that any cables get stuck in it.

The upper part looks like a wind tunnel but its function is actually to work as a storage area for the left over cables from the PSU. This is great because it leaves the rest of the case free from cables prohibiting the air to flow through the case.

The front expansion bays do not hold any bigger secret either, but I am a bit puzzled over why Lian Li did not include a “Tool-less” mounting system for the 5.25 inch bays, while they have included other nice details such as the white protector plastic as you can see in the image below.

When I removed the front panel of the box, I found a dust filter on the front fan which is great because this fan sucks air into the case and the filter will thus leave the dust on the outside of the case.

Another nice detail is that it’s possible to remove the external front ports, which means that you will have fewer cables to worry about inside the case.

The two 120mm fans that Lian Li has included with this case are the same and their model number is: LI121225SL-4. Their rotation speed is 1200rpm and they consume on average 3.24W. They have a very low noise level which is great but it also means that they don’t move too much air.

ASSEMBLY

During the assembly of the equipment I will show you some of the nice details which the Lian Li PC-8N has to offer.

This first task was to install the hard drives; one 3.5 inch unit and one 2.5 inch. A nice detail is that the screws have rubber anti-vibration rings. To install the 2.5 inch drive, I had to first remove the metallic bay and mount the drive in it outside of the case.

To install the PSU, you start by fastening a back plate to the PSU and then you fasten the plate and PSU to the chassis. It takes a little longer than usual but on the other hand it goes a little more effortlessly.

I was little bit worried about that it would be a somewhat painful experience to mount the motherboard and the rest of the hardware in this case. I guess the main reason for my concerns was the fact this case doesn’t have all the little extra features that I have gotten used to. But I was wrong in my expectations; the installation went without any troubles at all. As you can see from the images above, the final result is quite OK, but I would have liked to see a more extensive cable management system.

The above images shows how it looks from the opposite side and as you can see; the arrangement of the cables is not optimal.

CONCLUSIONS

It is always hard to sum up a review of a PC case because there are so many options available on the market today and one has to consider that all consumers are looking for different features and functions. All I can do is to as objectively as possible give you a fair view of my own experience with this case.

Most advanced users are picky about what material the case is made of and the favorite material amongst advanced users is aluminum. The reason for this is that aluminum is a light metal and the finish is normally great. I also suspect that there is another factor called vanity which plays a role here.

All in all, Lian Li PC-8N is a high quality medium range box which offers great materials, low weight and an excellent finish. It has some good details like the anti-vibration system for the hard disks; the fans and their anti dust filters and grids… but I can’t help wishing it had a decent cable management system and that the installation was tool free. If it had those two features it would be a practically perfect case. Still the case is quite spacious and the fans are quiet which lifts the overall score somewhat.

The Lian Li PC-8N is not a cheap case; it goes for around 100 bucks at Newegg. The main reason for its rather high price tag is of course the aluminum and if you want a case in this material you will have to put up this much cash.

Pros:

• Aluminum
• Finish and quality
• Anti-vibration for hard disks and side panels
• Quiet cooling system

Cons:

• Lack of eSATA port
• Better cable management system
• Tool free installation
• Hefty price tag

The final score is 85 out of 100 owls, and we give the “Lian Li PC-8N″ our Recommended Award.

Thanks goes out to Lian Li for letting me review this case.

Author: Manuel González Fernández

Translator: Vince Emiloz Sanderson

Sapphire is back with a new exciting series of graphics cards called “Vapor-X” which has a very special cooling solution. In this review I will be taking a look at the Sapphire Vapor-X HD 5750 card.

INTRODUCTION

The Radeon 5000 series of graphics cards were rather recently released by AMD/ATI and for the very first time in a couple of years, AMD/ATI (hereafter referred to as only AMD) is back in the performance lead. NVIDEA will release their next generation of graphics cards rather soon but no date is set and very little information about it has leaked to the press.

Just a couple of weeks back AMD released the 5850 and the 5870 graphics cards which were very well received in reviews and by consumers. I did a review of an Asus 5850 card myself.

Just a couple of weeks later AMD release the HD 5970 which is a dual GPU card with the code name “Hemlock”, a very powerful and expensive card. You can check out reviews at testseek.com on it. Here’s the current lineup from AMD:

I already discussed the news with the Radeon 5000 series in my Asus HD 5850 review so I’m not going to repeat everything again. Suffice to say, the new generation has some new great characteristics. First, the chips are made in the new 40nm technology which promises lower power consumption and less heat.  Secondly, the ATI EyeFinity technology makes it possible to connect up to three monitors to each card which means a total of 6 monitors in CrossFireX. Other important characteristics are the ATI Stream (GPU acceleration), Open CL (API for processing in parallel GPU-CPU) and Directx 11 support.

ENGINEERING SPECIFICATIONS: SAPPHIRE VAPOR-X HD5750 1GB DDR5

OK, enough is enough; let’s have a look at the specifications of the Sapphire HD 5750 Vapor-X 1GB DDR5:

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: 5750 SAPPHIRE VAPOR-X HD 1GB DDR5

On the box Sapphire emphasizes the Vapor-X technology and all the new AMD technologies discussed above.

The card is secured in a card board box and enclosed by the usual anti static plastic bag.

The included accessories are: a manual; a CD with drivers and utilities; the application “ArcSoft SimHD”; a coupon to download the Dirt2 game (supports DirectX 11); 2 molex to 6 pin PCIe adapter cables; a DVI-VGA adapter and a CrossFireX bridge.

IN DETAIL: SAPPHIRE VAPOR-X HD 5750 VAPOR-X 1GB DDR5

The card itself really looks impressive with its massive cooling solution. I have had the chance to see models of the 5750 from quite a few manufacturers and the Sapphire card comes out on top.

The cooling solution occupies a double slot which may be a disadvantage because this card must be rated as a medium range card and many users prefer single slot cards in this segment. AMD/ATI sets the overall rules from which the manufacturers can build their cards and they often leave rather small margins which I guess must be the reason why I have yet to see a 5750 single slot card.

The technology used by the cooling system Vapor-X has its origins in the aerospace industry. The cooling liquid, (in this case water) becomes steam on a hot surface (the GPU) and the resulting steam is condensed when it comes in touch with a colder surface which turns the steam into liquid again and returns to the hot surface again and so the process repeats itself. Sapphire claims that the Vapor-X system is much more effective than the reference cooling system, up to 7 degrees.

In the right hands, less heat means less noise. And this is also another characteristic of the Vapor-X system.

In order to help the Vapor-X system to cool the liquid that circulates in its interior, Sapphire has installed an 80mm fan which is perfectly integrated with the black plastic cover. One of the sides of the plastic cover holds the Sapphire logo which glows blue when the system is running. Check out the image below to see what I’m talking about.

The “Black Diamond” condensers which caused some buzz in the industry are included on this card.  The aluminum polymer in these condensers is superior to the one used one in “normal” aluminum condensers. According to Sapphire, these condensers are 25% more energy efficient than normal condensers.

The card has an extra 6 pin PCIe power connector as you can see from the image below.

The 5750 actual has two CrossFireX connections although due to the inefficiency of the Catalyst drivers, it is not recommended to install more than two cards.

The memory units are visible on the PCB of this card. They are four high quality Hynix GDDR5 chips.

There are four video exits on this card, two standard DVI-I; a HDMI and a DisplayPort. This should satisfy the needs of even the most demanding users. The card is only 185 mm long and thus fits in most cases.

TEST SYSTEM

These are the components in my test system:

Here are screen shots of my test system configuration:

BENCHMARKING TESTS

Sadly I received this card a little too late to be able to test it on my old test system on which I have made many graphics card tests. This means I will have to comment on the numbers without having any real references to results from old tests. I’ll try to be as objective as possible.

It’s not a secret that AMDs cards often get surprisingly high scores in the FutureMark benchmarking programs (3D Mark 06 and 3D Mark Vantage). And this time was no exception as you can see from the graphs above.

The Unigine tests of the DirectX 10 and Direct 11X was interesting to me because of the results I got with the same tests on the Asus HD5850 card a couple of weeks back. One of the main marketing points of the DirectX 11 is that it is supposed to be much faster than its predecessor. With the HD 5850 I got the opposite results and as you can see from the graphs above, the same goes for the 5750 card. Obviously AMD are having troubles here. Hopefully we will see improvements with the release of new Catalyst drivers.

GAMING I

The performance of the Radeon HD 5750 is spectacular. It is able to maintain a high FPS rate with all the games in this first series. It had no problems when I beefed up the resolution and turned on filters. The fact that it includes 1GB of GDDR5 with a bandwidth of 108 GB/s must be what ultimately keeps the smoothness in the games going even with filters on.

GAMING II

In the second battery of games which includes the most demanding games, the limitations of the HD 5750 comes to light. Although it doesn’t prevent us from enjoying the games altogether, it is clear that this is a mid range card. In favor of HD 5750 it is necessary to say that even the incredibly powerful HD 5850 had some troubles with these games with all the settings at max. Considering that the HD 5850 has double the amount of stream processors compared to the HD5750 it is fair to say that the HD 5750 is a very potent card.

OVERCLOCKING, COOLING AND POWER CONSUMPTION

The release of the HD 5750 brings power to the medium range segment. Up till now, I haven’t said much about its overclocking abilities but reports from other reviews and forums have been positive. Therefore I was very eager to test a HD 5750 card myself and see of the overclocking potential really was as good as I had heard. I cannot deny that I got even happier when I learnt that I would be able to test a HD 5750 with the Vapor-X technology.

Indeed, the overclocking capacity of this card is high. Check out the following screen shots which I obtained without modifying voltages but by only using Catalyst Control Center.

After having tested innumerable combinations, I received a stable configuration at 860 Mhz for the GPU and 1345 MHz for the memories. This means an increase of the default numbers of 23% for the GPU and 17% for the memories (percentages was calculated based on the values for the reference model with 700 MHz for the GPU and 1150 MHz for the memories).

The Vapor-X cooling system obviously does a fantastic job. In the following graph you can see the temperatures when the card is in IDLE and FULL LOAD modes. The IDLE temperatures were measured after the system had been running for half an hour without any load. The FULL LOAD numbers were taken after the system had been in full load (using Furmark 1.7) for a half an hour. The room temperature was 17˚C.

The Vapor-X technology clearly does a lot to keep the temperatures down. It was a long time ago I saw these low numbers at full load. I say it again; the Vapor-X does a great job.

The noise level is always hard to talk about since it’s a very subjective thing.  The fan can be set manually or automatic. During my overclocking the fan was set to regulating itself and it rotated at 50% of the max speed. I think that the noise it made on these levels ware perfectly OK but when it goes above it becomes noticeable and somewhat annoying.

The power consumption of the 5800 series has been reduced rather drastically thanks to the use of the ATI PowerPlay technology that diminishes the consumption in 2D. According to the specifications from Sapphire, the power consumption of the card in idle mode is as low as 18W. The maximum consumption is 108W at full load. The graph below shows the power consumption of my entire system when the card is in IDLE and FULL LOAD mode respectively.

RESULTS OF THE OVERCLOCKING

OK, here are the results from the overclocking tests.

It could not be better. The results are almost hard to believe. In Far Cry 2, I saw an increase of up to 10 fps.  In Crysis Warhead however, the increase of the performance was more limited.

The Sapphire Radeon HD 5750 Vapor-X is the most “overclock friendly” card I have tested in a long time. Considering the other reviews available for this card I suspect that my results are not due to an especially good sample of the card.

CONCLUSIONS

Some has called the arrival of the new generation of AMD/ATI cards a revolution. I wouldn’t go so far as calling it a revolution even though they have pushed the performance up a level or two.  But nVIDIA has definitely been challenged by the new AMD generation with the combination of great performance and low power consumption. Time will tell if they can come up with a good response, I wouldn’t be too surprised.

Sapphire has succeeded in perfecting an already good product, the AMD/ATI Radeon HD 5750. The Sapphire card has great performance, support for DirectX11, lower power consumption, doesn’t emit too much noise and has great overclocking abilities. It’s currently available for around $150 which to me is a real bargain. Buy.

Pros:

• Looks and finish
• Compact dimensions
• Vapor-X cooling system
• Overclocking capacity
• Price

Cons:

• None I can think of

The final score is 98 out of 100 owls, and we give the “Sapphire Vapor-X HD 5750 1GB DDR5″ our Editor’s Choice Award.

Thanks goes out to Sapphire for letting me review this card.

Check out alternatives of the Radeon 5800 series at testseek.com

Author: Manuel González Fernández

Translator: Vince Emiloz Sanderson

For the moment Testseek.com has collected 10 reviews of the Lian Li LanCool PC-K58 and it has received 9 awards (!) and a staggering 85% average score. Those numbers says a lot but I wanted to know what the fuzz was about so here’s my own review of it.

INTRODUCTION

When one looks for a case for a new high end PC building project, Lian Li always comes up among the interesting manufacturers. It is my opinion that Lian Li is synonymous with quality; design; elegance and exclusive features. This time I will be looking at a case which has all those features but also a reasonable price tag.

The LanCool is really more a brand of itself than just a Lian Li product series. Lian Li is by most considered as a high end brand, so to diversify into the medium range consumer market without negatively affecting the Lian Li brand, they started the LanCool brand. It is in some places sold without the “Lian Li” in the product name. Anyhow, what really matters is that Lian Li targets lower price level market with the LanCool brand/series.

One of the differences that I have noted about Lian Li versus LanCool cases is that Lian Li mostly uses aluminum while LanCool uses SECC steel for the construction of their models.

OK, so here are the technical specifications of the LanCool PC-K58:

Even though the price tag is not very high for this case, I would like to put this case in the high end segment due to all the extra features. One big plus of this case is that it is quite spacious and supports high end graphics cards.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The LanCool PC-K58 comes in a very large and heavy card board box. And it’s normal since it is a large case and it is mainly made of steel and is thus quite heavy.

The accessories include; a printed manual; an anchorage adapter for the power supply; a mainboard speaker; a plastic cable management clip, one molex adapter and some screws. If anything, the accessories made me more curious about the assembly process to come.

LANCOOL PC-K58 IN DETAIL, THE OUTSIDE

My first thought about the design was that it looked like something from a SF movie but still sober. I guess it’s the block build style which makes me think of SF. I really liked the design which is of course my subjective opinion. Anyhow, the finish is absolutely top of the line.

The entire outside of the case is completely black, except for the back of the case which has the old gray steel look. The sides of the case is very simple, there’s no window or side cooling system. It is actually possible to acquire a side panel with a window and the logo of the “Dragonlord” series printed on it.

Something that I have seen coming more and more with high end cases is the metallic grid in the front. It’s great because it enables the air to move in and out the case more easily yet it keeps the dust on the outside.

The back part of the LanCool Dragonlord PC-K58 is quite interesting. The first thing I noticed was that the PSU is placed at the bottom near the floor where the coolest air always is. Above the PSU hollow, there are eight expansion slots. Note that all the slots have back plates with grids to increase the ventilation. The location of the tubes for the liquid cooling system is placed more or less at the medium height. This is good because it allows us to keep the circuit short. Another good detail is the screws for the fan which have an anti vibration function patented by Lian Li.

The bottom and the top of the case share an essential characteristic: the build of the fan slots. Unlike other manufacturers LanCool has a metallic grid which looks more like a sun screen window on an old house than the typical bee wax cake look. The bottom fan also has a dust filter which is great since it will keep dust from the floor on the outside.

The front connectors are located at the top of the case in the middle of the power and reset buttons. The connectors are two USB ports, one mic and one audio out. Take a look at the images below to check it out.

LANCOOL PC-K58 IN DETAIL, THE INTERIOR

When I removed the side panels I was surprised by their rigidity, they are really thick and heavy. Not a bad thing I suppose. LanCool hasn’t bothered with painting the back or the interior of the case which has the traditional grey metallic color.

The first thing I noticed was the fact that this case has a cable management system. There’s also a hollow in the motherboard back plate for the CPU. Another detail I noticed what the LanCool has already fastened the separator (between the motherboard and the motherboard back plate).

The bottom of the case is mostly occupied by the space for the PSU. As you can see LanCool has placed a rubber vibration dampener for the PSU.

Another one of the great details that this box incorporates is the tool free installation of the expansion slot cards. The system that LanCool uses with this case is very easy to work with and provides a safe anchorage for the expansion cards.

In the upper part of the back there’s a 120mm fan with a 1000rpm rotation speed which naturally makes it produce very little noise.

In the “ceiling” of the case are two places where you can install 120mm or 140mm fans. As you know, hot air wants to rise so these fans would be turned to blow air out of the case.

The inside front of the case is divided in two clear zones. The lower zone is dedicated to the installation of hard disks and the upper part houses the optical units or other systems that use the 5.25” expansion bays.

The rack for the 3.5” units holds a maximum of four drives, both 3.5” and 2.5”. LanCool has a great solution for the installation of the hard drives. You just put the drive in the tray; snap the plastic adapters tight and the push the tray into place. The trays are held by rubber fasteners so no vibration will be transferred to the case.

If at all present, most manufacturers have a 120mm fan in the front. LanCool has chosen to place a 140mm fan in the front and this is great because it manages to cool the hard drive trays perfectly as you can see from the images above.

From the other side of the case there is not much to talk about except maybe the cable management system.

The problem of dust seems to be very hard to completely avoid no matter which case you try. I believe that the best way to avoid it is the use of dust filters in one form or another. In this case, LanCool has really taken it to another level by placing dustfilters on all the air intakes of the case. The front of the case actually has a double dust filter, one which is removable and can thus be easily cleaned.

INSTALLING HARDWARE IN BOX LANCOOL PC-K58

I began with the optical unit, which was easily installed thanks to the tool free system. The installation of the hard disks was no mystery either, I just pulled out a tray, inserted the hard drive and made sure it was secured and then I just put the tray with the hard drive installed back in place in the rack. No screw driver needed.

The installation of the power supply was also easy thanks to the unique anchorage system. You just place the PSU on top of the rubber feet and snap the anchorage arm in place. It holds the PSU firmly in place without any risk of it gliding to either side.

The case is very spacious and I am glad to report that it does support expansion slot cards with a length up to 290 mm which means that it does supports all graphics cards on the market except the Radeon HD 5970 cards.

The fans that LanCool has chosen for this case are very quiet, mainly thanks to their large sizes and low rotation speeds.

CONCLUSIONS

This was actually my first experience with the LanCool brand/series of products and I must say that I am very impressed. If I had to choose one thing about this case that I really appreciated, it has to be the fact that the installation procedure is entirely “tool free”.

In my opinion there are two things that LanCool can improve with this case. First they need to paint the inside and back of the case and secondly why no add an eSATA port amongst the front connectors? Of course, as always the more extra features we ask for the more expensive the product becomes.

In all other aspects I can do nothing but praise the work of the LanCool designers. All in all the PC-K58 is a high quality case with great features such as: super easy installation; nice finish and good looking design. Maybe the best thing of all is its price at around $80.

Pros:

• Build quality and finish
• Spacious
• Wiring management system
• Plenty of anti vibration thinking
• Installation 100% tool free
• Good price level

Cons:

• -No eSATA support
• -Do not support HD 5970

The final score is 95 out of 100 owls, and we give the “Lian Li LanCool Dragonlord PC-K58″ our Editor’s Choice Award.

Thanks goes out to Lian Li/LanCool for letting me review this case.

Check out our case category for alternatives!

Author: Manuel González Fernández

Translator: Vince Emiloz Sanderson