Drew Duncan – SFF.Network

The Scythe Big Shuriken 3. Big performance at a small price.

We would like to thank Scythe for providing us with a review sample of their Big Shuriken 3 heatsink. Without their generosity, this review would not be possible. Scythe, the heavy hitting underdog of the HSF world, has once again hit us with another surprise entry into the SFF market with their Big Shuriken 3. At just 70mm tall, it will be interesting to see how this cooler compares to the competition. Packaging The packaging looks exactly like we have come to expect from Scythe. There is not much else that can be said besides it doing a adequate job …

Cases Reviews

Battle of the Boutiques Part 1: A4-SFX | S1 | SM550 | SM560

With the tremendous success of the Dancase A4 from community member Dondan, we now have several boutique cases that feature that iconic sandwich hardware layout. For anyone unfamiliar with the terminology, the sandwich layout is MOBO/CPU/RAM/PSU on one side and GPU on the other. This layout is made possible by the use of a flexible PCIe riser cable that plugs into the PCIe slot on your motherboard and relocates that slot to the backside of the motherboard. This layout is extremely efficient not just for space savings, but it also provides hardware with the ability to pull in fresh air …

Cooling Reviews

Noctua NH-U12A heatsink review. Will it SFF?

We would like to thank Noctua for providing us with a review sample of their NH-U12A heatsink. Without their generosity, this review would not be possible. Fresh off the heels of our NT-H2 Thermal Paste shootout, we have a compelling new heatsink from Noctua, the NH-U12A. This model is more compact than some of Noctua’s larger offerings but offers unparalleled performance for its size due the quality of fans being used. It’s still a little on the larger side and may not fit in most of our cases but for those that have the room, you may not find a …

Cooling Reviews

Noctua NT-H2 Thermal Paste shootout. Does SFF benefit?

We would like to thank Noctua for providing us with a review sample of their entire thermal interface material suite. Without their generosity, this shootout would not be possible. Noctua’s latest NT-02 thermal paste has been available in retail channels for a few months now but after playing around with it, I’ve been reluctant to post this review. Not because Noctua’s proposed gains are in any way false, but because it doesn’t appear that the small form factor community can measurably benefit from its usage. Before I proceed and come off as biased to any of our readers, I just …

Graphics Reviews

ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 2060 Twin Fan Review

We would like to thank ZOTAC for providing us with a review sample of their ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 2060 Twin Fan while attending CES. Without their on the spot generosity, this graphics card review would not be possible. With CES 2019 behind us and having just recently reviewed ZOTAC’s GeForce RTX 2070 Mini, we’re very pleased to get our hands on the new ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 2060 Twin Fan. In our RTX 2070 Mini review, we reported that the $530 card was a far better price:performance option than the $1200 RTX 2080 TI (reviewed here) and while it was true then, it’s …

News

CES 2019: EVGA

Next up, EVGA. Well known for their graphics cards, let’s see if they have anything SFF on show. With the recent release of the RTX 2060 series, EVGA had a couple of models – the XC and SC – ready for perusal. One thing to note – both these cards use a, what possibly could be controversial, 2.5 slot design. Thoughts? Discuss them in the forum.

News

CES 2019: Digital Storm

First visit of the day, and what a product! Digital Storm had on display their Micro-STX based Project Spark – now slated for release in Q1 this year! Now featuring a i7-9900K processor and MXM 2080 GPU, it’s a mini powerhouse. Note: the final revision will include a monoblock covering both CPU and GPU – eschewing the notoriously loud MXM cooler. Also of note, the power brick will be upgraded to a 330w unit, or parallel 600w units. Thoughts? Discuss them in the forum.

News

CES 2019: Odds’n’Ends

A quick selection of miscellaneous stuff from around the show! A quick pop in to In-Win’s display, with a selection of SFF cases and power supplies on display. Do want. That is all. Quantum computing. Dark magic! A close up of the AMD Radeon VII die. HBM! Thoughts? Discuss them in the forum.

News

CES 2019: Corsair

Corsair, proprietors of peripherals, memory, cooling and even complete systems put on a display for interested press, and interested we were. Let’s dive in and see what they had on display. A better look at the low profile Cherry MX keyswitches that Corsair uses in some of their products. This is the same form factor as CoolerMaster will be using in their new keyboard. This particular keyboard is 21mm thick and its thinnest; And just under 27mm thick at the thickest point. The Corsair One has had a major upgrade, featuring current generation CPUs and GPUs. Yep, that’s ASRock’s Little …

News

CES 2019: AMD

The SFFn crew (Tim and Joshua and myself) just had to make it to the AMD keynote – here’s what we saw! The Radeon VII is a triple fan card, so not the smallest. However, for the water enthusiasts amongst us, the card has all the IO in a single slot – no more DVI here! Thoughts? Discuss them in the forum.

News

CES 2019: ASRock

I was looking forward to this one. ASRock has been a strong supporter of the SFF world for some time, let’s see what they have on show at CES 2019! AMD DeskMini and M-STX. Sorry, no ETA yet. (Soon please, ASRock!) One new motherboard of interest – an Intel B365 (yes, B365) chipset M-ITX board. Thanks to ASRock for inviting us to their suite at CES 2019! Thoughts? Discuss them in the forum.

News

CES 2019: CoolerMaster

CoolerMaster was on our rounds of the CES convention today, showcasing many a new keyboard and some news! They now have an in-house PSU development team. They want to be able to compete with EVGA and Corsair in PSU sales. They showcased the design and it looked very clean and professional, something that others will have to strive for provided they use premium components. Again, they were very clean. There was no SFF stuff on show, but they showcased the 60% CK620 keyboard, using Cherry MX Low-Profile red switches. They may offer silver once the exclusive ends with Corsair. The …