Introduction

Back in July this year we tested the CoolIT watercooling kit using a heavily overclocked AMD 7750+ BE. It’s performance really surprised us with it absolutely caning the other coolers in question. However, processors have quickly moved on since July and we’ve got the likes of the Intel Core i7 and recent i5 dominating the market. For this reason, we thought some i5 testing using our trusty CoolIT Domino was in order. Let’s see if the performance from the Domino still survives in this day and age…

*From the release date of the Intel Core i5, CoolIT now includes an i5 clip with all new purchases of the Domino.

Test Computer

The main specifications of our i5 test system are as follows:

To achieve the overclock of 3999.6Mhz we adjusted the CPU voltage to 1.44v and increased the Bus speed from 130 to 190. Below is a CPU-Z screenshot so you can see the settings for yourself.

Although the CoolIT Domino has three running modes (Quiet, Performance and Full), we stuck with just the ‘Quiet’ and ‘Full’ modes as the ‘Performance’ mode is basically the middle of the two. ‘Quiet’ mode entails the radiator fan operating at an RPM between 1100-2500 whilst ‘Full’ mode has the fan operating at 2900. The extra RPM allows more cool air to be forced through the radiator’s fins thus quicker cooling the water. However, this obviously means the fan is much noisier, whereas in Quiet mode it’s pretty much silent – like a watercooling kit should be.

Anyway, hop to the next page and see the results…

For high end publishing, the Pro version of the software comes with plug-ins for QuarkXPress and Adobe Design.

Here are some of the key features of ‘personal-edition’ of the software:

1. Easy Use Interface
2. Wide Range of Quality Fonts
3. Productivity and Compatibility
4. Optimized for high-end Desktop Publishing
5. Customizable
6. Comparison Chart

The mathematic equations created in MathMagic can be exported straight into Microsoft Word or Mac’s ‘Pages’ and a number of other word processing suites simply by drag and dropping. Their website is very useful and even includes a very informative 10-miniute video explaining the software and documenting tasks which can be carried out.

Upon starting up the software, it prompts you to enter a serial key (which you get after purchasing the software). Once registered the main program opens up for you to fulfil your needed task.

Although the program looks and feels rather complicated, after a short time spent playing around with it, it becomes entirely natural and difficult equations can easily be created.

For more information about the software and to watch a 10-minute video, visit this site.

During game play (BF2) I could see a slight improvement in my playing and accuracy because the grips do help you to grip your mouse more which reduces slipping and accidental movements during gaming.

Also, because of the texture of the grips, a lot of friction is produced so even if it’s been a hot summer’s day and you fancy a quick game of COD4 or BF2, sweaty hands are not a problem for these grips. Overall they improve your accuracy and mouse skills significantly more than a mouse without any grips.

Introduction

Samsung is preparing to launch wafer-thin screens, the latest technology in display today. The increase of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screens seems unstoppable at the moment – given the hype of the screens Samsung were showing off at Los Angeles recently. OLED screens offer high-resolutions, super thin sizes and economical in the way they don’t consume much power. This makes it a perfect option for laptop users.

Wafer-Thin screens

Samsungs prototype – which the company’s LCD division put together – was a 12.1” matrix OLED screen with a resolution of 1280×768 (pretty big for a 12.1” screen).

Samsung claims that they will be shipping monitors and laptops with this technology in 2009. It’s not just Samsung though, Toshiba have also confirmed plans to ship OLED laptops in 2010.

However there are doubts about this technology, particularly the life-span of the screens. OLED researchers say that the screens will last for around 17,000 hrs and will fade over time. Sony on the other hand, says that that their screen, the XEL-1 (similar to Samsung’s) lasts for 30,000 hours.

So are these wafer thin screens really worth it? Well £1250 is the price you should expect to pay for Sony’s 12.1” screen (XEL-1) which lasts for only 30,000 hours.

Introduction

Often in power supply tests at Tech- Reviews, we sometimes need to power up power supplies without a PC e.g. When recording voltages of units without any devices attached. Furthermore, many water cooling enthusiasts also need to do this when carrying out leak tests. You maybe thinking that this is very difficult, but fortunately, it’s simple procedure which I’ll explain below.

Explanation

The connector we’ll be using for the guide is the 20 /24-pin ATX connector. On this connector there is an assortment of different coloured cables which provide different voltages to different parts of your motherboard. One important cable attached to this connector is the black wire, otherwise known as ground.

The ground wire is like the name suggests, it’s a connection between your PC and the ground. This wire helps in discharging static electricity so you can work safely inside your computer without causing any damage to any of the components. You can read more about the ground wire here.

Another important cable (which we’ll be using for this guide) is the green wire. There is only one green wire on the PSU and it’s found on the ATX connector. So what’s the green wire? In simple terms, the green wire is ‘Power On’. So when you switch on your PC at the front, the circuit to the green wire is completed, hence, switching on your computer.

Therefore, one way to power on your PSU would be to create a closed circuit with the ‘Power On’ cable. We can do this very easily with one single cable.

The Stages

• First off, turn the switch on your power supply to ‘off’
• Cut a cable – three inches long – off of an old power supply or spare modular cable – making sure it’s the same thickness as the cables on your ATX connector
• Strip the ends of the wires for easier connectivity
• Bend the cable slightly in the middle
• Now this is the main bit, connect the green cable’s terminal in the ATX connector with one of the black cables’ terminals in the ATX connector. It doesn’t matter which black cable you use, as all of them are ground, just make sure you have connected the green wire
• Providing you’ve done everything correctly, just hit the switch and your PSU should start within a couple of seconds
• If the power supply doesn’t turn on, there’s likely to be a problem with the PSU or that you’ve connected it to a wrong cable. If this is the case, your best bet would be to remove the wire and turn off the unit immediately.

The Voltages

If you check the voltages of the power supply at this state (without anything attached), you should notice that the unit isn’t as stable. Reasoning for this is because as more power is drawled from the PSU, it often becomes more stable.

Well…its actually very simple.

1. Minimize all your open Windows and click on the desktop a couple of times.
2. Hold Down Control (CTRL) and increase/decrease the size of the shortcuts/icons by rolling the Scroll Wheel on your mouse.

To increase the size of the icons in Windows Explorer, click on the little arrow next to ‘Views’ and move the slider to the size you like.

Thats it, told you it was simple