One of my personal favorites at GITEX 2011 was the display of NoFan, a Korean company who make completely fanless CPU heatsinks. Now as you can guess from the picture below, the heatsink itself is pretty big, which is why NoFan also create custom casing in order to accommodate there huge heatsinks. And for the ultimate noiseless system, they also create a fanless PSU, lbeit one that only goes up to 560W.

Right now NoFan makes three custom PC cases, two of which are mATX and a mid-tower ATX case. The star of the show are undoubtedly the two circular fanless CPU coolers which combine 4 heat pipes, linking into 180 “ice pipes” made of pure copper and mirror-finish aluminum plating. The fanless coolers only support a maximum of 100W TDP at the moment, but that should be enough for current and future CPUs as both Intel and AMD strive to create low power and heat processors.

If you want to create a mid-level system, their 560W PSU should suffice, and for an HTPC enthusiast, the NoFan components are a dream come true as there is literally no noise from the CPU cooler or PSU. Given a decently quiet graphics card, the only sound then should be the occasionally mild sound from the HDD. No need to worry about dust either! It’s sad that they don’t have a distributor here in UAE yet, but let’s hope for the best!

We visit Golden Systems during this year’s GITEX and check out all of the latest gear they have on display. We try to cove everything, from Gigabyte motherboards to PNY graphics cards to Cooler Master chassis.

Obviously one look isn’t enough to cover their entire portfolio, so have a look at part 2 of this presentation where we look at Zotac’s products.

Thermaltake introduced a new laptop cooler designed specifically for gamers who want to keep their bulky machines cool. The new Thermaltake Massive23 GT is designed for laptops sized 10″ to 17″. There’s a huge 200mm fan with glowing red LEDs, running between 500 to 800 RPM with a speed control knob.

At highest speed the fan is rated to have a rather low noise of 24 dBA with an airflow of 63.2 CFM. Apart from the fan control knob, there’s a also a switch to turn off the red LEDs if you desire, as well as one mini-USB and two USB 2.0 ports. All of this weighs a relatively minor 907g.

The Massive23 GT has five adjustable height angles with anti-slip rubber design. The entire surface area is covered in black mesh grill, behind which the 200mm fan and LEDs are placed. Pricing isn’t announced yet, but the cooler should be available by next month.

Many people just use stock CPU fans, but need of a dedicated cooler is important for people who take their CPU usage to its threshold, or overclock their system, or are looking to extend the life of their components. Arctic Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2.0 is a budget cooler from Arctic Cooling solutions and it caters the needs of the mid-level gamers by offering a pretty decent cooler and good value for money.

Arctic is a well-known brand among PC enthusiasts for its high performance cooling products and it is based in Switzerland. They are the renowned makers of some of top notch thermal pastes, GPU Coolers and CPU cooling solutions. They focus on providing quality with value for money. Mostly Arctic Cooling is famous for providing aftermarket coolers to GPU manufacturers along with their famous thermal paste, the MX Series.

Arctic Freezer 7 Pro Cooler is no such exception to their standard.

The cooler is compatible with the Intel Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 1156 Sockets as well as AMD clip-on socket frame (939, AM2, AM2+, and AM3). The Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2 is one of the few “performance” coolers that can replace a stock Intel cooler without removing the motherboard from a case. Another big positive of this cooler is that it comes pre applied with MX-2 Thermal paste so it saves you the headache of applying the paste when you buy an aftermarket cooler. MX-2 is one of the best selling thermal pastes currently available in the market and does a fantastic job in bringing down the temperatures as compared to other thermal pastes. The Cooler design is such that it comes with 6 heat pipes and 42 fins for efficient heat dissipation. The fan is designed to be ultra-quiet and has 7 blades to make sure that it is silent.

Quick question: Would you be happy playing a potentially visually spectacular video game at sub-HD resolution, with poor textures, blocky lightning, and choppy, un-Vsync frame rates?

We are assuming your answer is No. In a few months time, we are going to get games like Battlefield 3, RAGE, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and the lesser known OilRush, that will look to push the visual envelope beyond what we have seen a video game do. And to truly experience them in their marvelous (and sometimes 3D-lous) glory, you will need a PC that is forged by the Gods themselves, a PC so fearsome that it can wipe the aforementioned games on the floor at 60 frames per second. In short –  a monster.

And guess what? We have taken upon ourselves to build such a monster, and we are calling it, quite simply, the Ultimate Gaming PC.

We have dived through the fiery depths of the hardware industry (okay, the local distributors mainly) and have spliced together some of the most monstrous hardware components that will blaze through any test, any benchmark and any engine like a bazooka to a Frostbite 2-powered building.

In the following pages you’ll find what makes this PC a monster, and we suggest you have a new pair of pants and a mop handy.

So, you ask, what are we going to do with the Ultimate Gaming PC? Like the awesome people that we are (and the distributors, too, hey) we are going to give it away.

Again. We are going to give it away.

Yup, a total of over AED 15,000 (USD 4,100) worth of stuff and we are going to just simply give it away. We will be unveiling the beast at our quarterly GameFest event on June 24, where one lucky winner will take it all in a two months long competition.

It’s not going to be an easy task, though, as we will pit you against hundreds of other gamers where only one shall stand at the end.

Are you ready for the challenge?

The NH-C14 is a down-facing C-type design, but the two 140mm fans allow for a great deal of customization. Not only that, but the two Low Noise Adapters also provide the opportunity for a more silent performing cooler, but more on that later.

The basic heatsink of the Noctua NH-C14 has 6 heat-pipes coming out from the polished silver base into the aluminum fins up top. Either of the two fans can be mounted on top or bottom. The top fan allows for more ground clearance, and hence easier installation of memory modules with bigger heatsinks. Conversely you can mount the bottom fan and have a slimmer overall profile, allowing the Noctua NH-C14 to fit into thinner cases. Of course, the fact that you’re getting a Noctua heatsink, and a highly priced one at that, means you’re in need of some serious air cooling for your seriously overclocked rig. Keeping that in mind, I have tested the Noctua NH-C14 with both the 140mm fans attached to the heatsinks.

The Noctua NH-C14 also comes with the aforementioned Low Noise Adapters (L.N.A.) that allow the fans to run at a lower speed. At stock, the NH-C14 runs at 1200 rpm; with the Black LNA the fans run at 900rpm and with the Blue (Ultra Low Noise Adapters) ULNA the fans run at an incredibly low 800rpm. The noise at 1200rpm wasn’t as much as I was expecting thanks to the 140mm size and the SSO-bearings in the fans. That was the case on our open testbed, inside a PC case I’m sure you won’t hear anything more than a mild hum. While using the Blue ULNA and the fans running at a mere 800rpm, I could hardly hear them on our testbed; undoubtedly they’ll be dead silent in a case.

Application of the NH-C14 took just under 5 minutes, and was actually easier than the NH-D14 because the heatsink has two convenient holes that line up on top of the screws at the base. This means no taking off any of the fans. Everything you need to install the NH-C14, including Noctua’s high-grade NT-H1 thermal compound is included.

Before I get into much detail, let’s just have a look at the Noctua NH-D14. Yep, it’s huge. So huge, in fact, that I just had to take this shot with the Noctua NH-D14 on the ECS H67H2-I mini-ITX motherboard I tested some time back. .

Measuring 160x140x158mm (including the fans), the Noctua NH-D14 is a behemoth of a CPU cooler. As such, I highly recommend you have a look at their compatibility list for motherboards and ram before buying it. While the NH-D14 sat perfectly fine on our testbed Gigabyte P67A-UD7 motherboard, the Kingston HyperX ram modules wouldn’t fit, so I had to go with the recently reviewed G.Skill RipJaws X instead. Also, check the maximum CPU cooler height allowable in your PC case as the NH-D14 will need at least 160mm of clearance.

Worries about its size aside, let’s see the NH-D14 in more detail. The base and fins are all made of copper, while the cooling fins are created from aluminum. Two fans provide the actual cooling, with one 120mm fan attached on the outside of the heatsink, and one 140mm fan in the middle of the two heatsinks. If you want, you can also take out the external fan and attach it to your PC case’s side as Noctua has provided additional rubber stoppers and cabling should you want to go that route.

It’s very rare that I get excited about a PC case. Back in the 90s a PC case was nothing more than a white colored piece of plastic to house various components, which turned yellow over time and was eventually discarded in some dump. Since the early 21^st century however, things started to change for the better. PC cases became more than just a boring necessity, they actually became interesting.

People started showing of their creativity with wild designs and custom mods for their PC cases with multicolored LED fans, UV tubes and pretty looking water coolers. This, obviously, led to PC manufacturers to design something for the new age of PC enthusiasts. It wasn’t long before black cases with multiple LEDs and fans became the norm. Nowadays it’s easy to tell how much a person cares for their PC (or how enthusiastic they are) based simply on the type of casing they have. Most people will go with the now standard black case with a couple of fans to keep things cool. Few, however, will go out of their way and spend the money to get something that is every bit as nicely designed on the inside as it is on the outside.

So it’s not really a surprise that I was really excited to review the Fractal Design “Define R3” PC case when I got it last week. Let’s start off by taking a look at the outside. On first glance, the Define R3 looks pretty simple. There are no glass panels on the side, just a webbed cut for a side fan. The front looks very elegant with its brushed aluminum finish on the entire door panel, with the Power switch on top, coupled with two USB ports, an eSATA port and audio connectors. The subtle finish on the outside of the case belies the practical interior design of the Define R3. The Define R3 comes in Arctic White, Black Pearl, Silver Arrow and Titanium Grey (reviewed) so you have quite a lot to choose from.

Moving further along the top you’ll see two 120mm fans, and then another one at the back. Then there’s a hollow rectangle for the rear I/O panel on the motherboard followed by 7 removable panels for PCI slots concluding with the PSU hollow right at the bottom. It’s important to note at this point that ‘Uber’, the official distributors for Fractal Design cases in UAE, actually sell the Define R3 case with a PSU. The choices available are between an 800W or a 1000W PSU, either of which should be good enough for any SLI or CrossFire gaming setup. The warranty for the case, strong as it is, is 1 year, while the PSU gets an ample 5 years. Right next to the PSU, at the bottom of the case, is another 120mm fan which is flanked by another fan at the front of the case. All the HDD bays are behind the front intake fan, so things should remain nice and cool throughout the chassis.