Sunday News

One thing I noticed immediately were the top drive covers that help to create a type of stealth mod for your CD drives. All those ugly beige drives on the market won’t interfere with the outer aesthetics of the case too much. This means that your case will be able to keep that nice platinum look on the outside without having an odd colored drive stick out like a sore thumb. As with any stealth mod though you’ll loose the option of using your headphone jack and volume control on your CD drive. The good news though is that if you don’t want to use the stealth drive covers they’re removable. The bad news is that you need to take off the front panel (removing 6 screws) to get the stealth drive covers off. Now while this may not seem like much of a problem I find it to be a little bit annoying. Especially since I have to take off the entire front panel for something as simple as removing a drive cover. In addition to that, BOTH drive covers need to come off since they are essentially built as one unit. If you do decide to take off the stealth covers the Platinum XP comes with one additional normal drive faceplate (in addition to a variety of screws and motherboard standoffs) to cover up the extra hole..

Well the installation is no different then any other monitor; it is just plugging the D-Sub 15 pin connector in both the PC and the monitor, plus the AC adapter that comes with the monitor. Windows will automatically detect your monitor and you are ready to go. I have one thing.

As you can see, the Sunbeam Round Cold Cathode comes in a nice, small package and includes everything you’ll need to get up and running. A quick rundown of the parts included are : Round Cold Cathode, 80mm Clear Fan, Dual Inverter Box (i.e. you can hook to of these up with one inverter), Power Wires w/ backplane switch, Four Fan Screws, One Backplane Screw (to hold the switch down), and a Double-sided Velcro Pad for mounting of the Inverter Box.

One thing that I noticed after removing the parts from the packaging was that Sunbeam actually went so far as to put a plastic sleeve over the power wiring from the fan. While this isn’t all that big of a deal, it does make for easier cable management as you don’t have the 2 separate wires going in their own direction

In many of my reviews on liquid cooling I have stressed the importance of clean water, what to look for, and what to avoid. As time ticks on, the build up of calcium, sodium, chlorine, and other minerals in fact lowers performance of water blocks everywhere. Actually trying to locate sodium-free distilled water at your local grocery store can be quite frustrating. Each time I've made trips in the past to it--well, I ended up purchasing a bottle of aspirin on the way out. But using distilled water still left me concerned about its use over a period of time. ... Basically when you see "Do Not Use Tap Water" at a liquid cooling store, you'll know why. It is very important to locate clean water. Corrosion can and will damage liquid cooling components over a period of time. Another important step you must take with your liquid cooling kit is change the water. Most all liquid cooling suppliers recommend changing out the water every 6-12 months. This can significantly reduce build up of crud in your system.

How many of you are sat next to a PC right now? I would say 99% of you, unless of course you have really long arms or some weird setup. How many of those PCs sound like a jet plane taking off, or a hairdryer whirring away? Antec have not been known for quiet cases in the past, instead they prefer to stuff there enclosures with as many fans as possible. While this keeps everything super cool it does nothing for the nerves of the person who has to sit by it every day. The Sonata is the first in a series of cases aimed firmly at people who want a little peace and quiet in there lives. The dictionary explains a Sonata as "An extended composition for one or two instruments" so I'm assuming Antec chose this name to imply that the case is music to your ears. (More Beethoven, than AC/DC ).

Want to cool your CPU off after you turn the computer? I have the answer for you. The Power Down Protector from PC MODS, this is a great device and could extend the life of your processor, and with the price of processors today, this is money well spent. Check it out, I know you will want one of these and maybe some cool looking LEDs too!

To test this one out, I carefully removed the thermal pad from the smooth copper base, and cleaned and reapplied AS3 to my chip’s core. Then, I proceeded to install the device. The first thing I noticed was the fact that the left side of the clip is fixed in place (possibly for easier installation), but you must use a significant amount of force to make the right clip snap into place. This force could only be applied with the assistance of a screwdriver, small enough to fit in the narrow slot. This put a lot of force on the socket, as I can tell when it snapped into position, loud enough to make me think I had broken something. Fortunately, I hadn’t, and it was securely installed, so I proceeded to boot my system..