Xigmatek's SD1283 Gaia heatsink comes with a one 120mm PWM fan that operates at speeds of 1500RPM to 800RPM. The fan is mounted to the aluminum cooling fin tower with four vibration absorbing rubber posts, a second fan (not included) can be mounted to the rear of the heatsink since additional fan posts are included. The heatsink stands 159mm tall and has a footing of 120x77mm. It's a little less than exciting when great thermal performance is virtually assured by the 120mm fan/tower fin/HDT combination. Provided the heatsink is well made, some exposed heatpipe tower heatsinks are most definitely not.

Intel has finally launched the last chipset in the Cougar Point family, which should meet all the needs of enthusiasts who prefer LGA1155 processors. This core logic set has full overclocking functionality, supports Intel Quick Sync, Intel Smart Response and Lucid Virtu technologies. Looks like Sandy Bridge becomes even more appealing...

One of the areas that many of us (myself included) want to know about when purchasing a shiny new motherboard, is the overclocking potential. Well I'm here to tell you, the GIGABYTE P67A-UD7-B3 has plenty! I was able to bring the Intel Core i5 2500K to a new high with the P67A-UD7-B3. Enabling the Internal PLL Voltage and Level 10 Load-Line calibration to reduce the V-Droop we were able to bring our Intel Core i5 2500K to 5141MHz. That is nearly 100MHz better than we have been able to achieve previously...

Cooler Master are a brand that we are very familiar with at eTeknix and have always been a company that we have focussed on to see what they come up with in the future. Whilst the future is bright, we can't but help look back at the past at a slightly older product, though even as it's not the newest swanky thing on the market, it still holds its own by offering an amazing cooling product at a low price, especially when compared to its rivals.

We can only be talking about the much talked about Cooler Master V8, which gets its name and styling from the famous engine, without all the noise that a V8 engine is famous for. It incorporates a large heatsink design with a fan sandwiched between it and is suitable for the latest and greatest CPU sockets on the market. For complete control over the CPU cooler an included PWM fan control gives complete silence when needed and extreme cooling if that's your bag.

Based on the awards this cooler has obtained, it seems to live up to all of the hype above but how do we get on with it after we've looked at the likes of the Noctua NH-C14 mammoth cooler. Will we be let down or pleasantly surprised?

For those Intel "Sandy Bridge" hardware customers that may be trying out the recent release of Fedora 15, the experience is decent and is in much better shape than the troubling support in Ubuntu 11.04. It is not in tip-top shape as there are some recent optimizations in the Linux kernel and Mesa that haven't landed in Fedora 15 (at least not yet in the form of an update), but it's suitable overall.

The Barracuda Green 2 TB is Seagate's first hard drive to use 4 KB sectors instead of 512-byte sectors. The new standard, also known as "Advanced Format" or simply "AF," will be used by all hard drive manufacturers in the future. Let's see what are this new format and the performance of the Barracuda Green 2 TB drive.

The In Win BUC gaming chassis is a very well built steel computer case that has a simple layout and feel, yet the case still offers a variety of useful features normally found on more expensive cases. Having features like the "EZ-swap" or Hot-Swap storage drive bays with a lockable door, SuperSpeed USB 3.0, the convenient utility tray on top that gives you a place to easily connect headsets, cameras, smartphones and external storage drive or even the fantastic build quality is something you usually can't find in a case that is $89.99 after rebate. If you like the "shield" appearance of the BUC then...