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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Thursday, 20 July 2023 09:06
Lian Li has been doing a great job in the fan market with their Infinity lineup both aesthetically with their multiple lighting options as well as with their recent addition of their P28 fans as well as a performance option. Their AIO cooler lineup had some hiccups. They are back at it again though with their new Galahad II AIO cooler lineup which is launching today and they don’t just have one cooler they have a whole variety with ten different variations with three different Cooler designs, 340 and 360 sizes on two of the three as well as both black and white color options. The new Galahad II Trinity design has a few different ways the pump can be configured as well. Lots of ways to customize. Today I am going to check out the Galahad II Trinity SL-INF 360 as well as the Galahad II Trinity Performance 360 which should give us a good look at the new design as well as check out their performance as well. So let’s dive in!
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Friday, 14 July 2023 17:23
Lian Li has taken the fan market by storm with their Uni-Fan lineup. A lot of that is just offering a simple design that cuts out a lot of the wiring needed with RGB fans. But they have also been creative with their different designs offering multiple different RGB designs. The one thing that is missing from their lineup are performance-focused fans, something that can compete with companies like Noctua and Be Quiet. Lian Li has filled that gap in their lineup with their new Uni Fan P28 fans which are noise and performance-oriented and also have fluid dynamic bearings. They still have the other uni-fan specific features like daisy changing and how they handle their wiring. So today I’m going to check out the P28 fans to see what they are all about.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Friday, 07 July 2023 14:20
When I think of Be Quiet! fans, like with their coolers, I think of extremely high-quality noise-focused black fans with no lighting. But they don’t stick with that, they have had a few white models in the mix for years now and two years ago they also came out with their Light Wings series of fans which have aRGB lighting. When they launched I didn’t check them out even though I should have but back then when on a call with Be Quiet! I did talk to them about seeing them in white. Well now is the time, their new Light Wings White fans are out and they have both 120mm and 140mm fan sizes as well as regular and high-speed models. Today I’m going to check out both sizes of the high-speed models and see what they are all about.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Thursday, 06 July 2023 14:12
Corsair has been one of the leading brands to get an all-in-one cooler for 14 years now and that hasn’t changed. Their lineup seems consistent because of the base naming like the H100i but they do stay on top of updates with different variations. In February they launched their new iCue Capellix XT which is available in both the H100i and H150i sizes, or in other words in 240mm and 360mm variations. The new XT model has new Corsair AF RGB ELITE fans and the pump also has 33 capellix LEDs in the cap. Both allow Corsair to do what they are best at, which is of course crazy RGB lighting. Today I’m going to check out the Capellix XT and see what it is all about, check out its performance, and see where it fits in the market these days. So let’s dive in and see what it is all about!
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Friday, 16 June 2023 09:04
The higher-end CPUs these days need a crazy amount of cooling to keep things running cool and fast and the easiest way to do that has been to go with an All-In-One cooler. These are also the quickest way to integrate some lighting into your build as well with some of the AIO coolers having RGB fans and or RGB on their pumps. Enermax’s Aquafusion Adv lineup has both and is available in black or white and in 120, 240, and 360 configurations. This year we did upgrade our test bench from Z690 with the 12900K up to the Z790 with the 13900K, what better way than to start our cooler testing by testing out two of the Enermax Aquafusion Adv coolers as well as one of their air coolers, the ETS-F40-FS ARGB, so today I’m going to check out all three then put them all to the test to see how they perform with the always demanding 13900K.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Friday, 05 May 2023 09:57
We've been working with Noctua for 10 years now and while they have been really consistent with the product lineup they still manage to innovate and surprise us with new products. That has been especially true in the past year where they've introduced a fanless heatsink and a variety of different accessories going as far as even bringing out their own screwdrivers as well as new small form factor coolers like the NH-L9a-AM5 for AM5 chipsets. Frankly, it's been hard to keep up, but I wanted to take a little time and check out what Noctua has been up to this past year and catch up a little bit. So today we're going to check out both NH-L9a-AM5 coolers, NH-P1 fanless heat sink, their inlet spacers and gaskets, the amp thermal paste guard, and new screwdrivers to see what everything is all about.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Friday, 07 April 2023 11:26
Lian Li hit the nail on the head when they brought out their Uni Fan line of fans and they have also done a good job of expanding the lineup with a few variations. They have even started to improve on their original designs with fans like the Uni Fan SL V2 and today they are announcing the Uni Fan AL V2 which brings a lot of those same features to the AL series and today I’m going to take a closer look. I have a chance to check out the new SL V2 design when they were launched this holiday season so I’m excited to get a first look at the V2 changes and see how Lian Li has improved on the already popular design.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Tuesday, 08 November 2022 16:18
If you would have asked me years ago who was innovating in the fan market Lian Li wouldn’t have been on my list at all. They surprised everyone with their Uni Fan design which cleans up wiring through a daisy chainable design back in 2020 and since then they have brought out a few other variations which have been extremely popular. Their most recent design is the Uni Fan SL-Infinity and today I’m finally going to get the chance to check out the new design which integrates an infinity mirror design. It’s a look I’ve never seen used on a fan so I’m excited to see what it looks like.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Monday, 17 October 2022 12:28
This past July Be Quiet! introduced their new Silent Wings 4 fans which as the name implies is the replacement of their popular and great performing Silent Wing 3 fans. The new lineup includes a variety of options including standard, PWM, and high-speed fans in 120mm and 140mm and Silent Wings Pro 4 options as well in both sizes. I’ve been excited to check the new lineup out after I saw them and Be Quiet! has done a few unique things to their new fans which I haven’t seen in the past. Today I have a few of the basic Silent Wings 4 140mm and the Silent Wings Pro 4 in the 120mm option that will let us see what the basic option has to offer as well as the higher-end pro model. So let's check them out!
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Thursday, 07 April 2022 22:45
My first introduction to MSI being in the water cooling market was the MAG CoreLiquid C280 which had its pump mounted in the middle of the radiator which at first seemed weird but does end up being a great solution for those bottom mounting their radiator and trying to avoid having the pump as the highest point. So I’m excited to see what MSI has going on with the MEG CoreLiquid S280 that they sent over. Today I’m going to check out what it’s all about then put it through our test suite to see how it performs so let’s dive in!
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Friday, 11 February 2022 18:08
When it comes to air cooling and fans Noctua has been extremely reliable over the years and has been an easy go-to when doing builds. Especially because noise is very important to me. Keeping noise down in the office helps with testing and more importantly helps with my sanity. So with builds it's not unusual for me to change fans over to Noctua. With them having nice blacked-out fans has helped with that as well. For my wife's last PC I went with a crazy custom water cooling loop which looked amazing. But I would have to take it all apart and clean everything multiple times a year and performance would drop as the “show” coolant would fall out and clock things up. That’s fine for my PC maybe, but when it's my wife’s PC it needs to just work. So this time around I went with an air cooler, Noctua’s NH-U12A chromax.black. It was the largest cooler I could fit in her system and I knew it would meet our needs for cooling and noise performance and it has. But before doing that I did bring the NH-U12A over on to our test bench to see how it performs in an even more demanding situation. Let’s go see what the NH-U12A is all about and how it performed.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Monday, 03 January 2022 23:49
With Intel’s new CPUs moving to the LGA1700 socket and the new larger socket requiring a wider mounting bracket after Intel sticking with the same sized mounting hole for a very long time it has had me looking at changing up the cooling in a few of my systems and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Not only that, there are a LOT of options on the market. Everyone and their mom is now getting into the AIO market. Cooler Master has been around going back near the beginning for AIO coolers and they are one of only a few who often make their own designs rather than going with a standard OEM design so I’m interested in seeing what their new MasterLiquid PL240 Flus is all about. I’m also curious to see how it will perform on our new 12900K based test bench so let’s dive in and see how it does.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Friday, 17 December 2021 13:12
Sapphire is known for being one of the main AMD and aftermarket card manufacturer but if we look back they have dabbled in a few other areas as well. Off the top of my head, just on things, we have covered they have done motherboards in the past and small form factor PCs. But they have also dabbled in thunderbolt enclosures and both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt 3 dongles as well. Well, today they are introducing their newest product, their first all-in-one watercoolers, the Saphire Nitro+ S240-A and S360-A. While this is their first product in this market, it isn’t too big of a surprise given that in China they have shown off an air cooler and AIO watercoolers have been used on Sapphire video cards in the past. Not to mention most companies have been expanding their lineups and getting into the AIO market. Given that cooling is one of the main focuses for aftermarket video cards and Sapphire cards have done that well for years I’m curious to see what they have done with their first AIO to stand out in the crowded market. So let’s dive in and check it out!
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Friday, 02 July 2021 21:36
When it comes to fans, they aren’t typically something people get too excited about. High-end fans can be ultra quiet, have lots of power, and of course, some have RGB lighting. Companies have been going crazy on the lighting side of things, but last year Lian Li shook things up with their UNI FAN SL120’s. I took a look at them in August. What is interesting though, is people have been surprisingly excited about these fans. The latching design that cuts down on your wiring along with addressable RGB lighting had them sold out immediately with for sale subreddits on Reddit having people constantly looking for them. Well, Lian Li is back at it again, almost a year later with a new Uni Fan design called the AL120. They have still included the same latching design but with a new lighting design and upgraded static pressure and airflow. Once again they are available in black and white and today I’m going to check out both and see how they compare to the SL120’s that we already love.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Wednesday, 03 March 2021 16:06
Let’s be honest, for the most part, innovation in the AIO cooler market these days consists more of adding more RGB lighting than anything on the performance side of things. But Cooler Master did recently pair up with Intel and change that up. They introduced the MasterLiquid ML360 Sub-Zero. They added a TEC cooler into the loop to push AIO cooling into the sub-ambient cooling range. If you haven’t heard of a TEC cooler, I wouldn’t blame you. TEC is a shortened version of Thermoelectric Unit and they can also be known as a Peltier cooler. In short, they use electricity to cool and while they are effective they aren’t particularly power efficient which is why fridges and air conditioners use refrigerant-based cooling options. But they have been used for cooling computers before, in fact, Cooler Master themselves have used them with their V10 design that I took a look at 11 years ago. So today I’m going to check out the ML360 Sub-Zero and see how they have incorporated the TEC cooler in with an AIO and step away from our normal cooler testing which is normally on a range of Ryzen CPUs to test this on the Intel 10900K as this is an Intel exclusive cooler.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Thursday, 15 October 2020 11:09
With a few different all in one coolers tested recently, I have been on a bit of a cooling kick. But I couldn’t end things up without checking out Cooler Masters's most recent introduction, the Hyper 212 Evo v2. Which I suspect a lot of you have heard of the Hyper 212. When I’m going a build that is more down to earth, 9 times out of 10 I end up recommending the Hyper 212, and its been that way for years. Cooler Master has lead the market with this 120mm tower cooler that is always priced like a smaller 92mm cooler. Its no wonder why it has made it into so many builds. So when they said they had a new model coming, I had to take a look and find out if this is still the go-to for budget builds. Today I’m going to check out the Hyper 212 Evo v2 and see what is different as well as find out how it performs in our 3 CPU test suite. Let’s go check it out!
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Friday, 09 October 2020 22:46
Cooler Master isn’t new to the all in one cooler game, they were there right at the beginning when they were just starting to come out and they have continued to change things up over the years. RGB has been a thing for a while now and companies have been looking at how to change things up and we have already seen companies putting their lighting behind mirrors for a different look and Cooler Master is no different. They showed them off at CES this year and even though it has been a crazy year they did just recently introduce them officially with their MasterLiquid Mirror coolers. Well, I had the MasterLiquid ML280 Mirror come in and sticking with the cooling theme I have put it through our test suite and today I’m going to take a look at it and see how it performed, what it has to offer, and where it fits in the market price-wise.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Tuesday, 06 October 2020 15:47
It might come as a surprise for a lot of people, but be quiet! which has made a name with their cases, coolers, power supplies, and fans has never actually had their own water cooler. This is a little crazy because everyone and their mom seem to sell an all in one cooler, even companies that don’t do anything else with cooling and be quiet! is out there with high-quality fans and only today have they finally announced an AIO. It is called the be quiet! Pure Loop and they have it in 120mm, 240mm, 280mm, and 360mm variations. For testing I had them send over the 240mm which is a dual 120mm configuration and is very common because it fits most cases. So today I’m going to check out the Pure Loop 240mm and see what be quiet! is doing differently (there are a few big things) and then put it to the test in our 3 CPU test suite.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Wednesday, 19 August 2020 23:28
Nearly everyone has their own take on addressable RGB fans and Lian Li isn’t any different. They have their Bora Digital fans already, but all the way back at the start of the year at CES they did tease another design. That was their Uni Fan design and today is finally the day, the Lian Li Uni Fan SL 120 is available and today I’m going to check them out. They have a completely different look from the Bora fans, going with something closer to a traditional design with a square design but beyond the shape nothing else is traditional at all, they dropped the light rings for what I would call brows at the top and bottom of the fan which are on the front and back as well and all of the fans lock together and share their lighting and fan controls through the connection for a cleaner installation. This is something I complained about when I took a look at Corsairs QL series of fans, so I’m excited to see how the SL 120’s work.
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Category: Cooling Hardware
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Published: Monday, 03 August 2020 16:57
Deepcool, like many PC hardware companies these days, covers a wide variety of products ranging from cases, power supplies, laptop accessories, and of course as the name implies a full range of cooling products. Deepcool also has a premium brand that they call Gamer Storm. I recently had their latest water cooling solution come in, the Gamer Storm Castle 280EX. Their Castle EX line of AIO’s isn’t new, but this new size configuration is new to the lineup and more importantly, this is the first time I will be checking out a Deepcool AIO. With that, I am excited to see what they do differently and how it performs!
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