Cases/Cooling/PSUs
While desktop PC power supplies receive the bulk of enthusiasts’ attention for good reasons – not the least of which being the vast selection of options that comes from being a standardized part – power supplies as a whole aren’t just a concern for big PCs. With the majority of PC sales having flipped to notebook sales some years ago, notebook power supplies already lead the market in volume. And while most laptops don’t need the kind of massively powered PSUs that dominate the desktop space, even that is slowly changing as desktop replacement-class laptops increasingly grow in performance and power consumption. Perhaps the poster-child for the high-performance, high-powered laptop is Eurocom, who has a long history of developing heavy-duty DTR laptops that are all...
Corsair Obsidian 350D Case Review
Corsair's Obsidian 350D is the company's first micro-ATX case, and it's a heck of an entrance.
66 by Dustin Sklavos on 4/25/2013Fractal Design Define Mini Case Review
Good micro-ATX enclosures have actually been frighteningly rare of late; manufacturers seem to be going big or going home, and only letting either beefy XL-ATX cases or diminutive mini-ITX...
57 by Dustin Sklavos on 4/22/2013Corsair Obsidian 900D Case Review: Think Big, That's Only HALF as Large
An enclosure built from the ground up for custom liquid cooling loops is actually a fairly rarefied thing. Why wouldn't it be? Building a custom loop is expensive and...
65 by Dustin Sklavos on 4/16/2013Rosewill Blackhawk Ultra Case Review: Were It Not For Competition
We've long maintained that Rosewill's Thor v2 is one of the best deals floating around for enthusiasts. In that enclosure, Rosewill has a product that's fairly feature rich, quiet...
27 by Dustin Sklavos on 3/28/2013Nanoxia Deep Silence Cases Officially Available Stateside
Ever since we reviewed the Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 and Deep Silence 2 enclosures, they've essentially been setting the standard for what a silent enclosure can and should be...
9 by Dustin Sklavos on 3/26/2013Cooler Master Storm Scout II Advanced Case Review: Falling Behind the Curve
Cooler Master has been fairly gung ho on the PR side about their Storm Scout II Advanced. While we missed the opportunity to review its predecessor, the Storm Scout...
16 by Dustin Sklavos on 3/19/2013CPU Air Cooler Roundup: Six Coolers from Noctua, SilverStone, be quiet!, and Cooler Master
Now that CPU cooler reviews have begun in earnest here at AnandTech, it's been interesting to see just how conventional wisdom plays out in practice. There's been a pervasive...
63 by Dustin Sklavos on 3/14/2013In-Win GT1 Case Review: Fighting an Uphill Battle
If you've ever looked at a builder's guide for a desktop system on any major tech site (including this one), you've undoubtedly noticed that the first thing to get...
67 by Dustin Sklavos on 3/8/2013AMD Enlists Ben Heck to Build Rocket Launching Desktop PC
In preparation for its presence at SXSW Interactive, AMD enlisted the help of famed modder Benjamin Heckendorn to build a bunch of unique PCs. Traditionally, AMD would just show...
29 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 3/5/2013BitFenix Raider Case Review: All These Little Things
BitFenix has historically been fairly reliable at producing reasonably priced cases that have their own aesthetic flair and solid performance. They've been exactly daring enough with designs like the...
26 by Dustin Sklavos on 2/28/2013Rosewill Line-M Case Review: Wherefore Art Thou Micro-ATX?
Vendors are always very quick to send us their biggest, best, and brightest. Rosewill's own top-selling Blackhawk Ultra has been with us for a little while, but while we...
47 by Dustin Sklavos on 2/26/2013Deepcool CPU Air Cooler Roundup: Playing it Too Safe?
During our visit to CES 2013, we had a chance to meet with Deepcool, a deceptively large Chinese company that has been producing heatsinks for OEMs for some time...
21 by Dustin Sklavos on 2/23/2013Fractal Design Define XL R2 Case Review: Maybe We Can Have It All?
Amusingly and appropriately enough, the wave of silence-oriented enclosures that have been popping up recently haven't really drawn attention to themselves as a trend. Yet all of a sudden...
46 by Dustin Sklavos on 2/20/2013Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 Case Review: Trimming the Fat
Just recently we had a chance to review Nanoxia's Deep Silence 1, arguably the most impressive silent case we've ever tested. Nanoxia was able to produce an enclosure capable...
39 by Dustin Sklavos on 2/14/2013Fractal Design Launches Core 3000 USB 3.0
Last year, we looked at Fractal Design’s Core 1000, their entry level chassis that can be had for under $40. It performed “okay”, which is about all you can...
11 by Jarred Walton on 2/1/2013Closing the Loop II: New Liquid Coolers from Corsair and Swiftech
When we visited CES 2013, it became increasingly clear that not only were closed loop liquid coolers here to stay, but that they are in fact "the next big...
53 by Dustin Sklavos on 2/1/2013AZZA Silentium Case Review: Knowing the Limits
The desktop enclosure market has broken down pretty simply into three categories with only the rarest of outliers. Cases under $100 will either have good acoustics or good thermals...
23 by Dustin Sklavos on 1/29/2013Rosewill Armor EVO Case Review: Sometimes Performance Isn't Everything
As NewEgg's house brand, Rosewill has been growing in very interesting ways. Being the house brand of a major electronics retailer means dipping your toe into a lot of...
19 by Dustin Sklavos on 1/23/2013NZXT Phantom 630 Case Review: The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection
It wasn't that long ago that we reviewed NZXT's shiny new Phantom 820, a case that apart from its high price tag and slightly ostentatious design was pretty tough...
44 by Dustin Sklavos on 1/20/2013Antec GX700 Case Review: Just What You Can Get For $59.99
Most manufacturers are quicker and happier to show us their medium-to-high end cases, but for a lot of users the case is admittedly a steel box they put their...
35 by Dustin Sklavos on 1/17/2013