Find the ultimate CPU cooler

FINDING THE ULTIMATE CPU cooler isn’t an easy undertaking, especially with the number of variables you have to factor in and what makes an absolute cooling winner. Benchmark Reviews thinks it’s got it figured out, so Olin’s rounded-up the top 3 coolers on the market and faced them off. The contestants are the Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme, OCZ’s Vendetta 2 and Xigmatek’s HDT-S1283. It’s a close call, as each has slight edges over the competition, but if you want absolutely the best cooler around, then you’ll want the... *mumble*

That big chunk of dual PCB dressed in black that Hilbert is testing down at Guru 3D is a Black Edition 9800GX2 from XFX. This card takes the game to a whole different level by applying a 100MHz OC to the GPUs and a 162MHz OC to the RAM – naturally that probably sucks the life out of your PSU, but only a little more than an 8800 Ultra. Well, performance is second to none, but you’re paying the price... and then some. The card retails in Hilbert’s hometown at about 500 €urobucks, which translates to around $750 nowadays. You’ll want to read the review before mortgaging your house...

LaCie – the brand that’s all about the pomme – is getting back on top of the pro display market with its 526. First and foremost it’s a 25.5-inch LCD with a native res of 1920x1200 and a glare hood – but there’s a lot more to a pro display than that. Subjective analysis is as important as technical specs – especially because veteran pre-press professionals rely mostly on their acute eyesight rather than their adopted colourspace norm, and Jason seems to think this is very good indeed. Naturally, it’s gonna cost you. Read on.

Until the world gets to know the 4850 and 4870 any better (make that the 25th of June), sites are still churning out what seems to be ATI’s single-GPU “best” – in a wide variety of variants. MSI has a RX3870-T2D512E OC on review at Hardware Logic. No secret about what’s coming, so just the specs and some numbers: 800MHz core, 2250MHz memory and high scores in most games, at high or very high settings. Now, that still trails Nvidia’s high end and the fan is annoyingly loud, thinks Paul Lilly, so make of it what you will. Oh... it is in the sub-$200 price bracket so you should consider yourself fortunate. Read it here.

Asus’ baby Asrock is trying to slip one by with the X48 TurboTwins-WiFi+AP mobo. Huh? “X48”? “Asrock”? 3rd tier mobo-maker? Well, apparently the lil’ Asrock that could is trying to weave its way into the high-end mobo market with low-end pricing. Yes, you get an X48 mobo with some overclocking ability, full featured, support for DDR2 AND DDR3 – making it again an upgrader’s delight. You can scratch your head and try to understand how, but to do that, you’ll have to read the review here at CPU3D.

OCC is testing a Tagan case – the Black Pearl WCR. It’s tool-less, it’s spacey, it’s got rubber shock-absorbers for the drives in the sideways drive cages and it even fits the mobo on the opposite panel (effectively flipping it upside down). It’s got passageways for watercooling, although that’s handy for modding and enthusiasts, but the power supply fitting might be all too snug for the really powerful high-end. Jared enjoyed playing around with it, it seems.

Those hardcore Canucks have been testing Asus’ latest and greatest P5E3 Premium WiFi-AP@N X48-based mobo. Is it just us, or are the Asus mobos sounding more and more like Asrock’s? Well, it’s one of Asus’ “mainstream” X48 mobos, if there is such a thing, without the extreme overclocking abilities held by its bigger brothers. This one isn’t cheap tho’, and most people will shy away from a > $350 (Canadian) mobo that doesn’t turn lead to gold. HC called it solid, we call it expensive. Read it now. µ