Cases, Cooling & PSU News - Page 1

Noctua has announced a new addition to its popular low-profile CPU coolers, the NH-L9 series. Designed for the latest AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs, the NH-L9a-AM5 features a height of only 37mm, a sweet Noctua fan, and a compact size perfect for small form-factor systems or PCs with AM5-based Ryzen processors.

Noctua NH-L9a-AM5

The new low-profile cooler has been specifically designed for the latest low-power non-X variants of the AMD Ryzen line-up. With CPU compatibility on the official Noctua product pages listed as Ryzen 5 7600, Ryzen 5 7600X, Ryzen 7 7700, and Ryzen 9 7900. Interestingly Noctua's official press info for the new cooler does mention that it can handle the beefy Ryzen 9 7950X's 130W.

Adding custom cooling to a GPU or even changing the thermal paste to improve the cooling using an existing design is something modders have been doing for years. With several different thermal pads and paste solutions, choosing the right one can be tricky, which makes an in-depth report showcasing the result of various brands and options an invaluable tool.

Credit: ComputerBase/AssassinWarlord

A user over at the ComputerBase forums has done this, except that they've thrown in results for several things you wouldn't normally associate with cooling high-tech bits of silicon. We're talking ketchup, cheese, toothpaste, and even little slices of potato used as a thermal pad.

A Redditor has used the Midjourney AI image generator to create some potential PC case designs, and the results are very cool, with some funky spherical designs. On that note, Hybective (the Redditor in question) has said that one of the prompts they used was "Sphere ITX PC build hyper realistic" and that "sphere" was a standard input based on their desire for a cool-looking spherical PC case.

Image credit: Reddit/Hybective

This answers the question as to why a decent percentage of them are round. With 28 AI-generated PC case designs, many of them could inspire some case modders to take steps to make them a reality or even prompt case makers to add similar designs to their lineups.

ASUS has lifted the lid (or opened the side panel) on its epic new full-tower case, the ROG Hyperion GR701. Sporting a Republic of Gamers look and feel; it supports massive dual 420mm radiators and four 140mm fans for cooling.

ASUS ROG Hyperion GR701

A dedicated fan hub will allow you to manage the case's cooling, and being a full-sized tower means plenty of room for "beefy graphics cards" - with a maximum GPU length of 460 mm. Those quotes are there because that's how ASUS describes the modern-day GPU in the press release for the Hyperion GR701. And looking at the recent sizes of new cards from NVIDIA, specifically the GeForce RTX 4090, we're inclined to agree.

GALAX has just revealed its new and monstrous Hall of Fame GH1300 power supply, which is a new ATX 3.0-ready power supply that feeds up to 1300W of power into whatever PC components you can throw at it... especially GALAX's own in-house GeForce RTX 4090 Hall of Fame graphics cards... even two of them.

GALAX's new Hall of Fame GH1300 ATX 3.0-ready PSU

The new GALAX HOF HG1300 power supply is rated for 1300W of nominal power, while it can peak at up to an incredible 2500W which means it'll be competing against other ATX 3.0-ready power supplies from the likes of MSI and its Ai1300P power supply (which also provides 1300W of power, and is ATX 3.0 compliant).

GALAX and its new Hall of Fame GH1300 power supply is also certified for 80PLUS Platinum efficiency, confirming it can handle 92% at half the load.

Bykski has unleashed a monster new cooling system in the new B-1080-CEC-X which is capable of cooling not one, not two, not three, but four graphics cards at once. Yes, you read that right... it can cool 4 x GPUs at the same time.

Bykski's new B-1080-CEC-X cooling system

The new Bykski B-1080-CEC-X is a mammoth unit with 9 x 120mm fans attached to a huge radiator, with a pre-installed pump, radiator, and reservoir. All you're going to need are some G1/4 fittings, some coolant of course, and 4 x graphics cards if you've got them sitting around, or building a monster new rig... not for gaming, obviously.

Once you've got the Bykski B-1080-CEC-X installed, you can actually plug it into a CPU waterblock or liquid cooler for your graphics cards -- up to the 4 x graphics cards as stated above. Bykski says that the cooling capacity can handle up to 2000W of "antipyretic capacity" so you can run a cluster of graphics cards in a monster workstation PC without a single thermal issue... very cool, pun intended.

Seasonic has just unveiled its latest VERTEX series power supplies, which were specifically designed and built to handle all of the new PC components coming out: including ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 standards.

The new Seasonic VERTEX series PSUs were announced hot on the heels of NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card, where even Seasonic says that we've "entered a new era, where the power supply, more than ever, has an important role to play".

So, the new Seasonic VERTEX series PSUs are here to serve your PC needs in 1200W, 1000W, 850W, and 750W models in both Platinum and Gold levels of efficiency. Seasonic has gone fully modular for its VERTEX series PSUs, with the new 16-pin "12VHPWR" power cable that NVIDIA's new fleet of Ada Lovelace graphics cards will have.

ADATA has just announced a monster new ATX 3.0-compatible power supply under its high-end and gaming brand: XPG. The new XPG CYBERCORE II series PSUs have been announced, ready for just about everything you can throw at it.

The new XPG CYBERCORE II series PSUs come in 1000W and 1300W models, they're fully modular 80 PLUS Platinum certified and are the most compact high-wattage PSU form factor that XPG has made so far. Inside, the new XPG CYBERCORE II series PSUs are cooled by the XPG VENTO PRO 120 PWM fan by Nidec.

Now, the business end of this PSU: ADATA's new XPG CYBERCORE II series PSUs are ATX 3.0 compatible, ready for the future wave of devices, and they're PCIe 5.0 ready. There's a native 16-pin (12+4) PCIe 5.0 "12VHPWR" connector, which is something you're going to want if you buy one of NVIDIA's next-gen GeForce RTX 4080, but more so the GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card.

If you don't know already: next-gen power supplies are coming thanks to next-gen PCIe 5.0 graphics cards that will need to chew down more power, much more power.

The new 12VHPWR cable plug connector

The new ATX 3.0 power supplies will include new PCIe Gen5 connector -- the new 12VHPWR power connectors -- and now the PCI-SIG organization is sending out emails to PCI-SIG members that it's concerned over "thermal variance" of using regular 8-pin PCIe power cables into 12VHPWR power adapters.

Why is this an issue? Well, until the last generation we were hitting around 300W maximum power consumption for most mainstream GPUs, while some cards were made to hit 450W like NVIDIA's last flagship GeForce RTX 3090 Ti graphics card. Even then, NVIDIA was using a new PCIe power connector that split from the 12-pin PCIe cable to 3 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors (150W per 8-pin PCIe power connector = 450W total) for its GeForce RTX 3090 Ti.

The world of ATX 3.0 power supplies is about to open up, where we've seen MSI's new MEG Ai1300P being the world's first ATX 3.0 PSU, and now we've got the Seasonic "PS Vertex" series PSUs being teased.

Seasonic's new ATX 3.0-ready " PS Vertex" + 16-pin PCIe 5.0 power connector

Seasonic's new PS Vertex power supplies will come in 1000W to 1200W variants, with 80+ Gold through to 80+ Platinum series, with the new PSU family from Seasonic being ATX 3.0 ready. We've got a single 16-pin PCIe 5.0-ready power connector, which is capable of driving 600W of power into a next-gen graphics card.

Seasonic has used a fully modular design on its 80+ Platinum series, while there is just partial modular goodness to be had on the 80+ Gold series PS Vertex PSUs. When it comes to pricing, we're looking at between $243 for the Seasonic PS Vertex GX-1000 ATX 3.0 1000W 80+ Gold PSU, $271 for the Seasonic PS Vertex PX-1000 ATX 3.0 1000W 80+ Platinum PSU, and then $281 for the Seasonic PS Vertex GX-1200 ATX 3.0 1200W 80+ Gold PSU, and then at the very top Seasonic's new PS Vertex PX-1200 ATX 3.0 1200W 80+ Platinum PSU for $319.