[Review] Nexus LOW-7000 R23 Comments By GSG-9closeAuthor: GSG-9Name: Levi Tomes Email: gsg-9@mediocrocy.com Site:http://StypticDesign.com About:See Authors Posts (13) on August 12, 2011
Recently, Nexus sent us their newest product in their war on noise; the Low-7000 Revision 2 Low Profile cooler.
Silent Low Profile CPU Cooler
Balanced performance
Ideal for HTPCs
The Low-7000 R2
The heatsink itself comes with mounting hardware for the following configurations:
Socket:
LGA1366
LGA 1156
LGA 1155
LGA 775
AMD AM3
AMD AM2
Nexus Low-7000 Fan 02
Manufacturer’s Description & Specifications:
The Nexus LOW-7000 cooler combines some of...
[Review] Silverstone CW02 HTPC7 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (168) on July 27, 2011
The CW02 from Silverstone’s Crown Series is crafted to allow users to really appreciate the design of this high quality HTPC chassis. At first glance, the all-aluminum construction and reinforced aluminum dress plates in the front set off the already classy case. The interior design of the CW02 is able to accommodate extended length graphics cards, proficiently displaying the HTPC system at its best. Capable of supporting CPU coolers of 160mm in height for additional cooling options, its s...
[Review] Sentey SS2-28073 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (168) on June 23, 2011
Sentey has sent us one of their Slim Series cases, the Sentey SS2-2807. This case is aimed at people who need a good case with some expandability, and most likely will need to fit in a tight space. The SS2-2807 could do very well in the HTPC market as well with the high gloss black paint job and the slim design. It has three 3.5″, and one 5.25″ drive bay to help give the user a decent amount of choices for storage space. It does come equipped with a standard ATX PSII 250w PSU to help...
[Review] Thermaltake Element Q Mini-ITX Case2 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (168) on June 21, 2011
The Thermaltake Element Q mini-ITX case was made for space-limited conditions, such as HTPC installations. This small form factor case offers a compact, stylish and convenient solution for housing a mini-ITX system with features arranged to do the job neatly and efficiently. The cooling system utilizes a fanless design to save energy and keep your operating environment quiet. Perforations in the panel vent hot air to keep heat from building up inside your system. The concealed front I/O panel gi...
[Review] Enermax AURORA Micro Wireless Keyboard1 Comment By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (168) on June 7, 2011
The AURORA Micro Wireless, from Enermax, is a wireless compact keyboard featuring total media functionality. With integrated trackball, left-right buttons, and a scroll-wheel, this wireless compact keyboard is looking to be one of the best solutions for using media center and home theater software. This product won the prestigious “red dot design award: product design 2009″ against 11,000 submissions from 61 countries in 14 categories. With the sleek brushed aluminum look of the ...
[Review] Silverstone GD06 – Grandia Series6 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (168) on April 7, 2011
Building off the successful GD04 and GD05, SilverStone created the Grandia GD06 to again raise the expectation enthusiasts have for HTPC (Home Theater Personal Computer) chassis. These improvements were made with the compact depth maintained (340mm) and exterior visuals enhanced as the GD06 fits perfectly in the living room. Its five hard drive storage includes two hot-swappable bays for maximum flexibility while a front door lock and a rear Kensington Security Slot ensure security for the ins...
[Blog] nMEDIAPC Black Aluminum / Steel HTPC 3000B ATX Media Center / HTPC Case0 Comments By ArchercloseAuthor: ArcherName: Kevin Marlin Email: kevinsmarlin@embarqmail.com Site:http://www.techreaction.net About:See Authors Posts (18) on March 16, 2011
Introduction:
Inexpensive cases are many times seen as sub standard and garbage; this is not always the case; though, it does apply (in part) to this case. Generally you get what you pay for and this case is no exception; though, the design, fabrication, fit and finish are of very high quality some things are substandard and to a point make this case a looser to the builder who has no patience. For the builder who does not mind fighting with a component here and there and removing parts this cas...
[Review] MSI Brazos E350IA-E454 Comments By ArchercloseAuthor: ArcherName: Kevin Marlin Email: kevinsmarlin@embarqmail.com Site:http://www.techreaction.net About:See Authors Posts (18) on March 7, 2011
Meet The New Kid In Town:
MSI has seen the potential in the new AMD Fusion CPU. The MSI E350IA-E45 is a feature rich micro ITX board with the potential to be the heart of your next HTPC with it’s excellent integrated graphics; an effective home server with its 4x SATAIII ports, or even an adequate daily driver with DDR3 support and low heat output.
The packaging is pretty standard, including two SATA cables. The rear panel has a nice set of external connections. With 8 USB ports (two of...
[Review] Zalman CNPS8000A – A Simple Top-Down Cooler4 Comments By miahallencloseAuthor: miahallenName: Jeremiah Allen Email: miahallen.ironmods@gmail.com Site:http://www.ironmods.com About: Well, I was playing with computers ever since my Dad got a Commodore 64 when I was 6 years old (1986), when I was 10 (1990) he bought a custom build 486DX33, and I was in love. Mostly back then I was just a kid playing games, but my fascination with computers had a start. Because I had no money of my own, I was stuck playing with my Dad's computers, and really couldn't "play" too much. So in 1998, the year I graduated, I spent some of my college savings to by a "computer for school", haha. It had two Voodoo2 12MB 3D accelerators in it, so you can imagine how much school work was done on it ;-) It had an AMD K6-233 that I had a really mild OC on, but my custom computer builder friend Aaron had done all the work. So I can't really take the credit there. My fascination with graphics just kept growing and growing over the years, and I was constantly in a struggle to keep my games looking as sharp and smooth as possible. OCing played a big role.
My whole world was rocked in 2004 when I was deployed to Iraq as a US Army soldier. The whole year I was there I had a cheap IBM Thinkpad R40 with a 2GHz Celeron, 1GB DDR-333 RAM, a 60GB 4200RPM HDD, and ATI Radeon Mobility graphics (same technology as a 7000 series with only 16MB of memory). It started out rough as I was really into Command and Conquer Generals at the time, and the machine would only play the C&C slide show LOL. So, I downloaded PowerStrip, and OC'ed the GPU by 40%...amazingly, the game was playable!
Things changed dramatically in 2007 when I met a guy named Matt while I was stationed in Japan. He introduced me to www.ocforums.com, and the "Benchmarking Team" there. I had not had much interest in benchmarking previously, I always though of myself as more practical. But, I thought I'd play along and I joined the team. My first introduction to an actual competition was was is "The Raptor Pit", "Forum Warz 2008" in the spring of 2008. I was running a Q6600 and an 8800GTX. With air cooling I was able to bench my Q6600 at over 4GHz, and tore up the competition in my class. Overall OCF won the Forum War in 2007, Winter and Summer of 2008, and 2009...that means five in a row. I was not part of the first one in 2007, but the four since then, I have participated in. After winning the 2008 Winter and Summer Warz, Tom's Hardware Guide announced they were looking for nominations for individuals to compete in their first ever international overclocking competition, called "Overdrive". I was nominated, and chosen to compete in the North American semi-finals in Los Angeles in November 2008. I was placed on "Team IRONMODS" as they only had two guys, yet three man teams were allowed. We won the semi-finals in LA, and our prize was a trip to Paris the following month, to compete with the best in the world.
The following month, Ton, Jake, and myself flew to Paris as "Team USA" to face off against the best from Taiwan, France, Germany, and Italy. It was a very intense competition, but after two heated days of battle (16 hours of benching), we emerged the victors. Amidst our celebration, Ton and Jake officially invited me to join "Team IRONMODS" on a permanent basis, and I graciously accepted. Ton, aka "TiTON", is a world renown case moder, and is also very well known for some of the AMD overclocking he has done. Jake, aka "CPT.Planet", is a genius overclocker, and a really fun guy. The team has a great synergy when working together, we really have complementary styles.
After winning the world championship in December 2008 things were a bit quite for a couple months, then in the spring of 2009 I received an invitation to the 2nd annual Gigabyte Open Overclocking Championship "GOOC". I would compete in the North American semi-final in LA, where the winner would win a ticket to the world championship in Taipei Taiwan during CES in June 2009. The competition was tough with 14 of the best from North America gathering for a 1 on 1 competition of OCing. But once again, I completed the competition well, and rose above the others. I won 1st place and the trip to the world finals in Taipei.
My luck ran dry in Taipei where I started off with a bad motherboard, and went through 5 more during the course of the competition due to various reasons. Despite the poor finish in Taipei, I have high hopes to redeem myself next year.See Authors Posts (24) on January 14, 2011
Today we have a quick look at a top-down cooler from Zalman, a 4 heatpipe design with an integrated fan known as the CNPS8000A. While I will hold to our HSF testing methodology as best I can, I will only be testing with the integrated fan, and with the CPU at 2.8GHz. This cooler is not designed for serious overclocking, and fell flat on it’s face when presented with our overclocked settings. Not that I expected anything different from this cooler, it’s just not designed with a ...
Silverstone @ CES: TJ11 Is Here!5 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (168) on January 8, 2011
Continuing on with our seemingly never ending journey this week, Alex and I made our way to the Silverstone suite. Impressed with what we found could very well be an understatement. Silverstone had great looking chassis on display for our viewing. The FT03 was the first chassis we stumbled upon in the Silverstone suite and it was an eye catcher. The Raven and TJ11 were also both extremely great looking as well and I will cover those two more in depth later on in the article.
#gallery-1 {
...
[Review] Noctua NH-C12P SE143 Comments By BoTcloseAuthor: BoTName: Edward Reese Email: bot@codisha.com Site:http://www.codisha.com About:See Authors Posts (14) on December 14, 2010
Introduction:
We have a sample from the house of Noctua today, the NH-C12P SE14. This cooler has been in Noctua’s line up for about two years now, and it has been updated several times during. The “SE14″ is the latest update from the original NH-C12P. This update is replacing the NF-P12 fan with the larger NF-P14 FLX 140mm fan for improved cooling and noise profile. The “SE” was added with the introduction of the newer Intel sockets.
The Noctua NH-C12P SE14 is base...
[Review] ASUS P7H55D-M EVO “Can You Say HTPC?”1 Comment By ArchercloseAuthor: ArcherName: Kevin Marlin Email: kevinsmarlin@embarqmail.com Site:http://www.techreaction.net About:See Authors Posts (18) on October 22, 2010
Introduction:
The HTPC market is different things to many people. Some require bleeding edge gaming on their 50″ LED TV, while others demand a quiet and efficient streaming box that is capable of decoding all formats of video smoothly with rudimentary gaming ability being a plus, not a necessity. The latter of these two groups will be for whom this article is tailored to.
While overclocking will be touched on, the highlights will actually be the efficiency of this board when paired with...
[Review] Eclipse Wireless Litetouch Keyboard3 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (168) on August 3, 2010
With HTPC’s becoming more and more popular these days, who wants to be tied down to the desk just to use their keyboard? The Eclipse Wireless litetouch (small L) keyboard was designed with this exact scenario in mind. With it’s wireless USB connection and up to a 30ft range, you can recline in your favorite chair across the room and still control your HTPC. Whether you run an HTPC in your living room or just want the wireless freedom at your desk, this keyboard will provide that. In...
Overclock Your Holodeck | X86 Voyages To Your Living Room1 Comment By 64NOMIScloseAuthor: 64NOMISName: Simon Solotko Email: solotko@gmail.com Site:http:// About:See Authors Posts (8) on March 25, 2010
X86 has one more chance in the race toward the living room and it starts now. Behold, the only platform with the roadmap to bring the vision of virtual reality into the present. Or transform the television into an entertainment platform. The upcoming AMD Phenom II X6 processor and its progeny may well find its way into your living room - through an inevitable cascade in living room applications. I am a biased insider, so take caution as you consume what lies below.
The High End | Virtual...
Phenom II 905e: A new breed turning the HTPC to the HEPC2 Comments By ArchercloseAuthor: ArcherName: Kevin Marlin Email: kevinsmarlin@embarqmail.com Site:http://www.techreaction.net About:See Authors Posts (18) on July 20, 2009
Well the time of the duallie in the HTPC is ending and the time of the Tri/Quads is ushered in and we have the HEPC (Home Entertainment Personal Computer).
Below are some of these offerings:
AMD Phenom II X3 705e Heka 2.5GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 65W Triple-Core Processor
AMD Phenom II X4 905e Deneb 2.5GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 65W Quad-Core Processor
Intel Core2 Q8200S Yorkfield 2.33GHz 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Quad-Core Processor
Intel Core2 Q9400S Yor...
Recently, Nexus sent us their newest product in their war on noise; the Low-7000 Revision 2 Low Profile cooler.
Silent Low Profile CPU Cooler
Balanced performance
Ideal for HTPCs
The Low-7000 R2
The heatsink itself comes with mounting hardware for the following configurations:
Socket:
LGA1366
LGA 1156
LGA 1155
LGA 775
AMD AM3
AMD AM2
Nexus Low-7000 Fan 02
Manufacturer’s Description & Specifications:
The Nexus LOW-7000 cooler combines some of... 
The CW02 from Silverstone’s Crown Series is crafted to allow users to really appreciate the design of this high quality HTPC chassis. At first glance, the all-aluminum construction and reinforced aluminum dress plates in the front set off the already classy case. The interior design of the CW02 is able to accommodate extended length graphics cards, proficiently displaying the HTPC system at its best. Capable of supporting CPU coolers of 160mm in height for additional cooling options, its s... 
Sentey has sent us one of their Slim Series cases, the Sentey SS2-2807. This case is aimed at people who need a good case with some expandability, and most likely will need to fit in a tight space. The SS2-2807 could do very well in the HTPC market as well with the high gloss black paint job and the slim design. It has three 3.5″, and one 5.25″ drive bay to help give the user a decent amount of choices for storage space. It does come equipped with a standard ATX PSII 250w PSU to help... 
The Thermaltake Element Q mini-ITX case was made for space-limited conditions, such as HTPC installations. This small form factor case offers a compact, stylish and convenient solution for housing a mini-ITX system with features arranged to do the job neatly and efficiently. The cooling system utilizes a fanless design to save energy and keep your operating environment quiet. Perforations in the panel vent hot air to keep heat from building up inside your system. The concealed front I/O panel gi... 
The AURORA Micro Wireless, from Enermax, is a wireless compact keyboard featuring total media functionality. With integrated trackball, left-right buttons, and a scroll-wheel, this wireless compact keyboard is looking to be one of the best solutions for using media center and home theater software. This product won the prestigious “red dot design award: product design 2009″ against 11,000 submissions from 61 countries in 14 categories. With the sleek brushed aluminum look of the ... 
Building off the successful GD04 and GD05, SilverStone created the Grandia GD06 to again raise the expectation enthusiasts have for HTPC (Home Theater Personal Computer) chassis. These improvements were made with the compact depth maintained (340mm) and exterior visuals enhanced as the GD06 fits perfectly in the living room. Its five hard drive storage includes two hot-swappable bays for maximum flexibility while a front door lock and a rear Kensington Security Slot ensure security for the ins... 
Introduction:
Inexpensive cases are many times seen as sub standard and garbage; this is not always the case; though, it does apply (in part) to this case. Generally you get what you pay for and this case is no exception; though, the design, fabrication, fit and finish are of very high quality some things are substandard and to a point make this case a looser to the builder who has no patience. For the builder who does not mind fighting with a component here and there and removing parts this cas... 
Meet The New Kid In Town:
MSI has seen the potential in the new AMD Fusion CPU. The MSI E350IA-E45 is a feature rich micro ITX board with the potential to be the heart of your next HTPC with it’s excellent integrated graphics; an effective home server with its 4x SATAIII ports, or even an adequate daily driver with DDR3 support and low heat output.
The packaging is pretty standard, including two SATA cables. The rear panel has a nice set of external connections. With 8 USB ports (two of... 
Today we have a quick look at a top-down cooler from Zalman, a 4 heatpipe design with an integrated fan known as the CNPS8000A. While I will hold to our HSF testing methodology as best I can, I will only be testing with the integrated fan, and with the CPU at 2.8GHz. This cooler is not designed for serious overclocking, and fell flat on it’s face when presented with our overclocked settings. Not that I expected anything different from this cooler, it’s just not designed with a ... 
Introduction:
We have a sample from the house of Noctua today, the NH-C12P SE14. This cooler has been in Noctua’s line up for about two years now, and it has been updated several times during. The “SE14″ is the latest update from the original NH-C12P. This update is replacing the NF-P12 fan with the larger NF-P14 FLX 140mm fan for improved cooling and noise profile. The “SE” was added with the introduction of the newer Intel sockets.
The Noctua NH-C12P SE14 is base... 
Introduction:
The HTPC market is different things to many people. Some require bleeding edge gaming on their 50″ LED TV, while others demand a quiet and efficient streaming box that is capable of decoding all formats of video smoothly with rudimentary gaming ability being a plus, not a necessity. The latter of these two groups will be for whom this article is tailored to.
While overclocking will be touched on, the highlights will actually be the efficiency of this board when paired with... 
With HTPC’s becoming more and more popular these days, who wants to be tied down to the desk just to use their keyboard? The Eclipse Wireless litetouch (small L) keyboard was designed with this exact scenario in mind. With it’s wireless USB connection and up to a 30ft range, you can recline in your favorite chair across the room and still control your HTPC. Whether you run an HTPC in your living room or just want the wireless freedom at your desk, this keyboard will provide that. In... 
Well the time of the duallie in the HTPC is ending and the time of the Tri/Quads is ushered in and we have the HEPC (Home Entertainment Personal Computer).
Below are some of these offerings:
AMD Phenom II X3 705e Heka 2.5GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 65W Triple-Core Processor
AMD Phenom II X4 905e Deneb 2.5GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 65W Quad-Core Processor
Intel Core2 Q8200S Yorkfield 2.33GHz 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Quad-Core Processor
Intel Core2 Q9400S Yor... 
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