While basic office type computers can get away with crummy generic 350w power supplies, more powerful gaming systems certainly cannot. Doing so would result in serious system instability issues that can even place components such as the motherboard at great risk. High performance power supplies maintain a constant flow of power, and at the same time continue to deliver enough power.

Thermaltake offers a huge range of quality power supplies, designed for a wide range of different purposes. For example the Toughpower series consists of seven high powered units, all designed to deliver maximum performance. There is also the PurePower 350w power supply which features a completely passive design, meaning it is totally silent. The bulk of their power supplies form the PurePower series, in all there are ten power supplies ranging from 430w through to 680w. Today we will be reviewing a product coming from the Toughpower range, and is one of the bigger wattage items, outputting an impressive 750w.

Thermaltake claims that the working efficiency of the Toughpower 750w can reach up to 85%, thanks to a new design that makes use of top grade components. As was to be expected the 750w does carry a price premium simply because such highly rated units are hard to come by. We still consider the Toughpower 750w is priced reasonably for an unit of its output and quality. There is also available a similarly designed unit rated for 600w output, also part of the ToughPower family, this unit is considerably more affordable.

Despite being rated for such an extreme output, Thermaltake claims a very quiet operating volume for the 750w unit thanks to the use of a single 140mm fan. The unit features a single 20/24-pin power connector, one 4/8-pin power connector, dual PCI Express connectors, six 4-pin connectors, two 4-pin floppy connectors and six Serial ATA connectors. Furthermore, the unit features independent voltage circuit, over current, over voltage, short-circuit protection and Active PFC.

Installation & Testing

The power supply is probably one of the hardware components you can most easily install into a computer and the Toughpower 750w is no exception. Perhaps the most time-consuming part of a power supply installation is unplugging and removing the old one. The only important thing to remember is that the power supply should not be active or plugged to the wall while disconnecting all the cables inside your case. Assuming you do not need to remove an old power supply, the Toughpower 750w can be hooked up and running in less than 5 minutes.

Test System Specifications
Intel Pentium D 950 processor
(4) 1GB Corsair PC8000 CAS5 Modules
ASUS P5N32-SLI Deluxe (nForce4 X16 SLI)
(6) Seagate 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA drives
(4) Seagate 300GB 7200 RPM ATA133 drives
(2) ASUS GeForce 7900GT 256MB videocards SLI
Software
- WinXP 32bit – Microsoft Windows XP Pro (SP2)
- WinXP 32bit – NVIDIA Forceware 91.31
- WinXP 32bit – NVIDIA nForce4 X16 SLI 6.85

There are many power hungry systems that I could have used to test the Toughpower 750w. So I went ahead and built an SLI system using an Intel Pentium D 950 processor with a pair of GeForce 7900GT graphics cards. Of course there were a few other devices plugged in for the ride. These included a total of ten hard drives, six large case fans, a water-cooling system, 4GB of memory and a single DVD-RW. In total I estimate there is almost 700 watts of combined hardware when under load.

Given the many power supplies that have failed on this test bed, it is an ideal way to measure the performance of this little beast. Nevertheless, the Toughpower 750w worked flawlessly. After 24 hours of continuous stress testing without a single glitch, I had to be satisfied with the results. Before testing the Toughpower, it took no more than 5 minutes for the PurePower 460watt and TruePower 550watt PSUs to stuck at it, a 24 hour straight test should be a good demonstration at this point.

However, this power supply is supposed to survive much longer than 24 hours in order to meet a satisfactory operating timeline. Because of time constraints it would be unreasonable for us to have it running for months to finally give a veredict. However, the Toughpower 750w has been continuously powering this system for a week and a half now without a single reset. This computer does occasionally get used for gaming, though file sharing is its real purpose.

The system featured two ASUS GeForce 7900GT cards on the ASUS P5N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard. This computer was also configured with six 250GB Serial ATAII and four 300GB ATA133 hard drives. Furthermore, the computer featured the Gigabyte 3D Galaxy water-cooling kit.

The performance of the Thermaltake Toughpower 750w was excellent as the voltages did not vary greatly when under load. The stress test results were recorded running Prime95 along with Bethesda’s Oblivion (a game that most of you are well aware of, I am sure). Both programs were able to maintain a constant processor utilization level of 100% while using various other system devices. Furthermore, a number of the hard drives were being accessed at the same time via other networked computers. This had virtually no impact on the power supply’s performance over 2 hours of hard usage.

Final Thoughts

Thermaltake started out life as a PC company creating odd looking air coolers such as the Golden Orb, and although they did not work all that well, they looked rather cool. The standard of Thermaltake coolers is not a whole lot better today in my opinion, which is very disappointing. However, their cases and power supplies rank amongst the best.

After spending a week with the Toughpower 750w I can happily say this is another fine example of why Thermaltake’s power supplies are so much better than their coolers. The Thermaltake Toughpower 750w just could not do a thing wrong as it worked flawlessly throughout the testing phase. Since finishing the testing with Intel’s Pentium D 950 processor I moved on to see how well this power supply worked with the Intel Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme processors. After a few days of testing I have found the Toughpower 750w to be just as impressive on this platform.

The Thermaltake Toughpower 750w is an ideal product for those building gaming systems with the fastest available components. It has proven to be more than capable of delivering a SLI GeForce 7900GT system with more than enough juice (this PSU is actually NVIDIA SLI and ATI CrossFire certified). The power supply also worked flawlessly in an AMD Athlon64 4000+ system, coupled with the extremely powerful Radeon X1900XTX graphics card.

This 750 watt power supply may not seem all that extreme in a market crowded with ~600 watt power supplies. However, after a quick look around, there seem to be few trustworthy manufacturers offering 700+ watt power supplies. Then there are the 700+ watt power supplies, and Thermaltake seems to be one of the few offering a power supply with a 750 watt output. Regardless of the price, this is still a premium product catered to those willing to spend a few extra bucks. For this price few power supplies offer so much quality, with the only feature really being missed on the Toughpower is a modular design.

Overall when you add up all the features, the superior performance along with the excellent build quality and reasonable price, the Thermalright Toughpower 750w is one hell of a power supply. The only regret I have when it came to testing this power supply, was not having enough hardware to load the test system with. The GeForce 7900GT SLI setup with the power hungry Pentium D 950 processor and ten hard drives failed to even make this power supply blink. Therefore I am confident that the Toughpower 750w will serve all gamers well and should be up for just about any task.

Taken from TechSpot.com

Elite 342 (RC-342) is a mini-tower that accommodates micro-ATX, built with a modern black design body and front panel. This chassis maintains Elite’s pedigree of compact-sized and quality build that would look great in any space. Elite 342 maintains a quiet environment while providing the option of adding 80mm or 90mm rear fans to provide the best ventilation possible for a compact system.

Features

• Front mesh design provides superior ventilation to maintain constant cooling
• Front I/O panel provides easy access for users
• Side panel security lock hole for higher security
• Side ventilation holes for better cooling performance
• Front 120 mm fan provides the best cooling solution
• Removable HDD cage

Specifications

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Introduction

After over a decade of filling the same matte black boxes with fresh hardware, Lenovo has finally bowed to the design gods and attempted to put a little bit of an edge on the stiff reputation of the working-class ThinkPad. Like the SL series before it, the Edge blends familiar ThinkPad design elements with a more 21st century chassis. Although it offers a fairly well-rounded package, a steep price for the Intel-equipped model, no option for discrete graphics and missing essentials like an optical drive leave it feeling incomplete.

Weight and Dimensions

With 13.3-inches of screen on tap, the Edge fills a portable size niche just north of machines that might be considered netbooks – like the new X100e – but south in price of ultra-thin models – like the 13.3-inch X301. Measuring 1.4 inches thick, the Edge doesn’t come anywhere near that pricier cousin on dimensions, but it does come admirably close on weight. At 3.6 pounds, the Edge feels exceptionally light for its size and gives the 2.93-pound X301 a literal run for its money – considering the latter costs over twice as much. And don’t even begin to compare with heavyweights with the same screen size like Apple’s brickish 4.7-pound MacBook. If you’re not breaking out the calipers to fit another issue of National Geographic into your airline carryon, the Edge makes a very competent travel machine.

Hardware and Specs

Lenovo offers the Edge in two flavors: with AMD or Intel CPUs, starting at $579 and $799, respectively. AMD folks will get a 1.6GHz Turion X2 backed by integrated ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics, while the Intel versions gets a Core 2 Duo clocked at a conservative 1.3GHz and backed by Intel’s integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD. Our review unit came stacked with a 1.3GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB of RAM, Intel’s GMA 4500MHD, a 320GB hard drive, built-in WiMax, and a six-cell battery.

Aesthetics and Design

To set the old SL series apart from its brothers, Lenovo basically chamfered down the edges and varnished up the lid. Modifications to the Edge have been much more drastic. It might even be the first ThinkPad to really throw loyal brand followers for a loop. A glossy black or red lid, rounded corners, silver plastic banding around the edges and even a totally reworked keyboard all contribute to a look strongly reminiscent, of a ThinkPad, but otherwise totally fresh. It’s like Lenovo mated one of its working-class ThinkPads with a Toshiba, and the Edge was born. ThinkPad signatures like a matte black interior and red “eraserhead” pointer embedded in the keyboard remain intact, but we can’t help but feel like disappointed by details like the silver banding – which is really just grey plastic with visible mold lines – and the gloss black lid, which had an orange-peel reflection that reminded us more of a 15-second Krylon spray job than the Lincoln Town Car finish Lenovo was likely shooting for.

Ports

The first thing you’ll notice after giving the Edge a walkaround: There’s no optical drive here. Like a netbook, the Edge eschews a DVD or Blu-ray drive in the name or portability, but given the system’s size, it seems to make far less sense here.

You will, however, find all the other essentials, including three USB ports (two on the right, one on the left), an SD card reader, Ethernet jack, and dual-purpose audio jack (like a MacBook, it serves as both a headphone and mic jack, meaning you’ll have to use one or the other unless they share a plug). HDMI video output was no surprise, but we were also glad to see a standard VGA output, giving this machine a little more business credibility with legacy support for the jack still found on many conference room projectors.

Keyboard & Touchpad

Transitioning the ThinkPad’s old-school keyboard over to the increasingly common Chiclet style found on Sony Vaios, Apple Macbooks, and even Asus netbooks put Lenovo at risk of ruining of the the series’ most universally respected features. Fortunately, engineers pulled it off. Lenovo prefers to call it a “raised-island” style, but the implication is the same: flat-topped keys cut straight down to a flat base, rather than tapering out to meet neighboring keys flush, as normal keyboards to. Typically, Chiclet keys have disappointed us with short, spongy keypresses and inadequate tactile feel, but Lenovo seems to have preserved the same clicky spring and feel of the old ThinkPad keyboard. New cap shape, same satisfying tap. We’re not quite as smitten with the Chiclet style as the rest of the world seems to be – we would just assume keep the old look – but considering it performs as well as the old model, we can’t complain about a slight sidestep in style.

We’ve seen Lenovo opt for some embarrassingly small trackpads before, like on the goliath W700ds, but the Edge actually makes fantastic use of available space with the best trackpad we’ve seen yet on a ThinkPad. It offers a stick-free matte surface, an extra-wide tracking area that fills all available space, and firm-but-clickable buttons. Above, you’ll also find a bright-red nub joystick in the center of the keyboard for navigating without swiping – a convenient option for certain situations.

Software

As usual, Lenovo keeps the Windows 7 install exceptionally clean, appeasing even the most obsessive-compulsive neat freaks with a nearly perfect desktop right out of the box (we only had to trash a 60-day Microsoft Office Trial to get it spotless). Although it’s beyond a minor complaint, we can’t help pointing out that Lenovo’s 1999-style blue-to-black gradient as a background doesn’t do much to flatter the screen for new users. Even the default Windows 7 backgrounds make a machine look a little hipper than this dud, which we immediately canned.

Lenovo’s comprehensive ThinkVantage suite of utilities has always struck us as a little overbearing, and it has gotten no more transparent in Windows 7, where an enormous battery meter, ThinkVantage toolbox icon and Wi-Fi signal meter consume a gigantic and unnecessary chunk of bottom toolbar real estate. It feels like someone switched this thing into “Elderly Mode” at the factory and forgot to turn it off.

Display

Lenovo’s 13.3-inch display comes in standard 1366 x 768 resolution. In our opinion, that gives users just enough room to stretch their legs for comfortable browsing, typing, and some limited multi-tasking, such as opening an AIM buddy list beside a browser. Like all ThinkPads, it also leans backwards over 180 degrees, a gymnastic move that can sometimes prove useful in cramped places like cars and planes. (Unfortunately, a glossy coating can prove equally troublesome in the scenarios when you end up under florescent overhead lights or bright windows.)

The screen looks above-average from a dead-on viewing angle, but moving off-axis by tilting the screen up or down even a few degrees begins to distort it quite quickly.

Performance

Lenovo’s Edge hits the desktop in a little over 50 seconds, and fires up a Chrome window in at about the minute and five second mark. That’s about average for a machine with these specs, and totally usable.

As we would expect from any Core 2 Duo machine, the Edge steps quite briskly around normal Windows tasks including browsing, navigation, and instant messaging. Streaming movies from SouthParkStudios.com, YouTube and Hulu all played fluidly – including the high-quality and high-definition (720p) versions. However, step up to high-quality video, like Apple’s 720p or 1080p movie trailers, and you’ll reach the limits of what it will do, encountering choppy (but not totally unwatchable) video.

In Futuremark’s PCMark Vantage suite, the Lenovo Edge turned up a score of 2823, an acceptable but not particularly exciting number to be expected from a machine with a relatively tame CPU and no dedicated graphics.

Without a discrete graphics card, we didn’t even both to testing gaming performance. Expect only much older games to be passable on this system, and even then only at reduced settings.

Although Lenovo predicts up to eight hours of battery life with the Intel configuration we used, we found a little more than six hours to be a far more accurate estimate with Wi-Fi engaged and screen brightness to maximum.

It’s worth noting that Lenovo’s Edge displayed superb Wi-Fi reception in our time with it, posting full signal strength in areas where smaller laptops have been struggled to connect in the past (and where Eye-Fi’s Share Video card, humbled by a stamp-sized antenna, couldn’t connect at all).

Conclusion

Lenovo’s Edge is a notebook caught between extremes. It’s still too conservative to truly be edgy, but too dressed-up to feel like a real ThinkPad. It’s too expensive to seem like a bargain, but too cheap to boast powerful hardware like a discrete graphics card. It’s too big to compete with netbooks, but too small to get an optical drive.

This middle ground isn’t hell. In fact, in many ways it’s very practical. But it makes for a somewhat wishy-washy, bland notebook that doesn’t particularly excel at anything. For the $800 buyers would spend on an Intel-equipped version, Sony’s superb CW series offers a newer Intel Core i3 CPU, discrete graphics from Nvidia, and a sleeker design, in a 14.1-inch chassis that’s just a tad more cumbersome.

Pros

* Large, responsive touchpad
* Our favorite Chiclet-style keyboard
* Strong Wi-Fi reception
* Reasonably bright LED-backlit display
* Light weight
* Handles basic computing tasks well
* Clean initial software load

Cons

* Expensive relative to specs
* Insufficient for gaming and HD video
* Krylon-looking paint job on lid
* No discrete graphics cards available
* No optical drive
* Cumbersome ThinkVantage suite

Taken from DigitalTrends.com
By: Nick Mokey

Not everyone needs an LCD monitor is that is chocked full of additional features. You may not need to have a set of integrated speakers. Maybe you don’t want to have a USB hub or a wide range of input/output options. You just want something that looks slick and does its job well. If that’s the case, then the Samsung P2370 just might be the ticket.

This is quite possibly the slimmest LCD as part of Samsung’s lineup, if not among the slimmest LCDs on the market today. The SyncMaster P2370 is a 23-inch widescreen monitor and the display portion measures just 30mm in thickness. That’s pretty darn thin.

Features and Specs

In line with the current trend toward multimedia-minded products, the Samsung P2370 features a 16:9 aspect ratio (like an HDTV) rather than the 16:10 widescreen aspect ratio that we’ve come to expect from computer monitors. Going through the rest of the feature list, we discover the following:

* Screen Size: 23-inch wide (16:9)
* Resolution: 1920 x 1080 pixels
* Brightness: 250 cd/m²
* Contrast Ratio: DC 50000:1 (1000:1 Typ)
* Viewing Angle(Horizontal/Vertical): 170° / 160° (CR>10)
* Dimensions (with Stand): 571.0 x 423.0 x 190.0 mm
* Special Features: MagicBright3, Off timer, Image Size Colour Effect, Customised key, MagicWizard & MagicTune with AssetManagement, Windows Vista Premium, Safe Mode (DownScaling in UXGA)

Inside the brown cardboard box, you’ll find the P2370 itself, as well as the glossy piano black stand, DVI cable, VGA-to-DVI cable, power supply and cable, a cleaning cloth, and instruction manual. This is all pretty standard fare, for the most part, though it is interesting that this monitor has an external power supply rather than one that is built into the unit itself. This aids in maintaining its slim and lightweight nature, I suppose, but it means that you’ll have another power brick on your desk or on the floor.

When you take the rote of producing one of the thinnest LCDs on the market, you have to expect that certain sacrifices will have to be made. As I mentioned earlier, the Samsung P2370 doesn’t have the same bells and whistles that you may expect from other monitors. There are no built-in speakers, USB hubs, or any of that jazz. You get a thin monitor and that’s about it.

The slim pickings, so to speak, extend to the back of the monitor as well. You’ll notice that Samsung has decided on DVI as the only input method. You probably won’t be using a VGA connection, but it would have been nice to see HDMI support perhaps. This is meant to be a 16:9 multimedia monitor, after all.

You see, the goal is that the P2370 can take up as little space as possible, fitting on the smallest of desks without taking up too much room. That’s priority number one for this product. At least you get a true HD picture.

Say Hello to Starlight Touch

One thing that you have to hand to Samsung is that they know how to produce some rather stylish-looking products. The glossy piano black finish of their monitors (and HDTVs) has become quite the signature look, as well as the “Touch of Color” approach for a dual-layered finish.

Further to this sense of style and fashion is the inclusion of Starlight Touch. Rather than using physical buttons to adjust the contrast and navigate through the sleek on-screen menu interface, you are provided with a series of touch-sensitive controls that are embedded in the glossy bezel. These light up as needed, disappearing behind the bezel when no longer in use.

The responsiveness of these controls isn’t quite as good as physical buttons, but this is all about having a sense of style, right? They work — don’t get me wrong — but I may have been more partial to physical buttons along the side edge. But that’s just me.

So, how does the Samsung P2370 LCD stack up in terms of performance? Compared to other widescreen LCD monitors, I’d say that it’s somewhere in the middle of the road. It’s nowhere near being among the top-tier monitors on the market, but it’s a definite step up from the bargain basement screens you may find too.

Color reproduction is solid, but some of the contrast can appear to be washed out at times. With some time fumbling around in the options and setting just the right configuration may be able to overcome these concerns. You’ll have to adjust the settings to best suit your particular environment.

The text is crisp and, if you want to dial it up, the highest brightness setting will have no trouble dealing with direct sunlight and other sources of light that may compete with your usability. In watching a handful of videos and playing a couple of games, I didn’t notice anything notable in terms of motion blurring or dropped frames, though hardcore PC gamers may see otherwise.

Conclusion

The Samsung SyncMaster P2370 23-inch widescreen LCD monitor approaches a very specific segment of the market. If you’re a part of the demographic that wants a high-performing monitor with all sorts of extra features, this is not the monitor for you. If you want more than one connection option, you should look elsewhere since this will only do DVI (without additional adapters).

If you find that you have limited desktop space and you want a super slim monitor that’ll still offer a more than adequate viewing experience, however, the P2370 could be just the ticket. The 16:9 aspect ratio makes it great for movie-watching and the performance is perfectly acceptable for most users.

Oh, and it’s slim. So slim.

The Good

* Super stylish monitor with Touch of Color
* Very slim profile fits on most desks
* Starlight Touch controls look great
* 16:9 aspect ratio

The Bad

* Only DVI input accepted (without adapters)
* External power supply makes for yet another power brick
* Vertical viewing angles could be improved
* No extra features like speakers or USB ports

Taken from TheTechZone.com

The all new Centurion 5 II has been vastly improved from the inside. This mid-tower chassis is designed with increased drive bay capacity, more airflow thanks to the enhanced ventilation and fan options and easy-to-install features. This is a multi-purpose chassis that you cannot go wrong with.

Features

• Supports up to five fans and provide extreme airflow with substantial performance
• Removable I/O module for flexible adjustment to your PC placement
• Adapter for 2.5” / 1.8” HDD
• Front 140 mm Blue LED on/off fan provides excellent cooling to HDDs
• CPU retaining hole for easy CPU cooler installation
• Cable management for quick cable routing and neatness
• PSU bottom fan can be setup facing upwards / downwards (filter included)

Specifications