Only a couple of weeks are left till the official release of a new cooling system Brocken 2 designed by Alpenfoehn. This is a long-awaited launch, since the fist version of the system, entitled Brocken, was honored to gladden the audience long time ago. Hereby, Brocken 2 has got a wee bit modified framework, if compared with the predecessor. Its dimensions together with a fan equal to 146x100x165 mm.



The base is shaped by means of five 6 mm copper heat pipes, tightly pressed together. Aluminum plates of the heatsink seem to be ‘cut’ in the center, unlike the one-piece construction of plates implemented in Brocken.


Active cooling power is ensured by a nine-blade fan of 140 mm standard size, known as WingBoost 2. The fan supports PWM technology that allows altering its rotational speed within the boundaries of 400-1100 RPM. Its activity stimulates the airflow index of 109 CFM, while the noise level barely achieves 19.6 dB (A). WingBoost 2 features small distance between …

27-inch monitors were supposed to be quite an expensive solution several months ago, but today they are becoming more affordable due to the switch to LED technology. To say more, the army of displays with WQHD resolution (2560x1440) has grown from a few rare models to a line of products designed by a series of vendors. Asus joined this army with the introduction of monitor PB278Q. Its launch aroused great interest from the part of Asus devotees, as well as of all 'WQHD-targeted' customers.



Background Information


Monitor PB278Q is the first 27-inch model with WQHD resolution designed by Asus. It employs PLS+W-LED panel type manufactured by Samsung (LTM270DL02) and is a true 8-bit solution for home-based and corporate spheres. The array response time, measured at GtG methodology, is recorded at 5 ms mark. Viewing angles in both flats (vertical and horizontal) equal to 178 degrees; this is a typical figure for such type of displays. The maximal display brightness achieves 300 …

The overclocker memory is now in the category of products for perfectionists, still the common users are pleased with usual modules DDR3-1600 or DDR3-1333 SDRAM. The issue appears related to the release of processors Ivy Bridge series, which in some aspects are similar to its predecessors, still have some distinctive features.



Ivy Bridge processors are restricted on the maximum frequency supported by the DDR3 SDRAM. This indicates the theoretical chance of these processors work with high-speed memory DDR3-3200 SDRAM. Developers of overclocker memory package perceived the change in rules with certain enthusiasm: there are DDR3-2400 modules available in stores. The gap in frequencies of «elite» and «running» versions of the memory has grown twice in size. It won’t have a noteworthy blow on the work of commonly used tasks in systems.


The memory controller in the Ivy Bridge can work both in symmetric mode, with delay, frequency and volume modules in memory channels, and …