Cases, Cooling & PSU News - Page 4

Antec has revealed its new P20C mid-tower E-ATX PC chassis that offers style and function for a low price.

Antec's new P20C mid-tower PC case checks all the right boxes. The chassis features modern upgrades that makes assembly and maintenance a breeze; not only does the case have ample room with support for 330mm dual-CPU motherboard sizes, but it also sports rubber grommets and clips for easy cable management and pass-through.

Since I just cleaned my PC, I can fully appreciate the P20C's snap-on front mesh cover and filters. Removal of front lining is a breeze and the filter can be cleaned, dried, and quickly re-applied. There's even a magnetic dust filter at the very top to keep particles out if you don't mount exhaust fans. P20C also comes with three built-in 120mm fans with a nice 1-to-4 fan splitter to keep cables at a minimum.

If you're looking at putting together a new enthusiast, gaming, or content creation PC, this new range of Corsair products should interest you. The company is updating its liquid CPU cooling options and introducing new cases designed for maximum airflow (and RGB goodness). It is introducing a new RGB fan in the form of the AF RGB ELITE.

Corsair AF RGB ELITE

The AG RGB ELITE fan is described as Corsair's highest-performing RGB fan, featuring eight addressable LEDs per fan. Available in 120mm and 140mm versions, speeds can top 2,100 RPM and 1,700 RPM, respectively, with the low-noise operation and a "Zero RPM" mode that is said to generate no noise. The new AF RGB ELITE is available in a kit with an iCUE Lighting Node CORE controller and as single-fan expansions.

This brings us to the new liquid CPU coolers in the form of the new AIO-based iCUE ELITE CAPELLIX XT and ELITE LCD XT, which incorporate these new fans. Coupled with Corsair's applied XTM70 Extreme Performance Thermal Paste, the company notes that these new coolers are perfect for the "thermally demanding" 13th Gen Intel and AMD Ryzen 7000 Series processors. These new coolers are available in radiator sizes going from 240mm up to 420mm.

Cooler Master is upgrading its best-selling PC case of all time with the introduction of the new TD500 Mesh V2. It retains the funky geometric look and feel of the original, with three 120mm ARGB fans on the front. Cooler Master describes the polygonal mesh design as being both stylish and great for airflow and dust filtration. In terms of improvements, the new TD500 Mesh V2 supports larger radiators (seven 120mm fans and 360mm front and top radiator support is here) and adds a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port on the I/O panel.

Cooler Master TD500 Mesh V2

The tempered glass (and tool-free) side panel returns alongside a cool PSU shroud feature that allows you to showcase your PSU or keep it covered. There's no point messing too much with a classic design, and with a price point of USD 89.99, the TD500 Mesh V2 sounds like a great option for those looking to put together a new gaming rig.

Here's the Cooler Master TD500 Mesh V2 breakdown.

Corsair has lifted the lid on its latest power supply series, the RMx SHIFT 80 PLUS Gold Fully Modular ATX Power Supply. What makes them stand out isn't that they're all ATX 3.0 certified and come with PCIe 5.0 12VHPWR cables perfect for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs, but that all the connections are on a side panel. "A revolutionary patent-pending side cable interface."

A first for PSUs and something we're surprised hasn't happened until now.

According to Corsair, moving the modular connections to the side panel on the new RMx SHIFT 80 PLUS series makes it easier to manage cables and connect PC hardware. Accessing a PSU and connectors from the side would no doubt be something many potential PC builders would love - and the new RMx SHIFT 80 PLUS series is launching in everything from 750W to 1200W variants.

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.

"AMD's just-released 65W Ryzen CPUs are ideal for building small yet highly powerful systems, and our new NH-L9a-AM5 is the perfect cooler to match", Roland Mossig, Noctua CEO, says. "It can easily cool the new 7900, 7700 and 7600 at ultra-quiet fan speeds and offers plenty of headroom if customers want to push them beyond 65W - we've actually been running up to 130W on the Ryzen 7950X and 7900X!"

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.

The tests were carried out on a Radeon R7 240 with a 30W TDP running Furmark for five minutes. Using an older GPU makes sense in terms of avoiding destroying something newer, plus the added benefit of not creating a grilled cheese and silicon sandwich.

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.

The rise of AI in design and image generation has been something to behold of late, and seeing a powerful tool like Midjourney AI used in this way makes much sense. With AI a vital part of the software and hardware side of gaming PCs and creator rigs, thanks to NVIDIA tools like DLSS and Broadcast, the next step is to use AI for physical designs.

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.

Here's the official description from ASUS.

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.