Spire has officially launched a new line of budgetary PC chassis, codenamed Spire Ridge. At the moment, there are only two models within the series – the Ridge 6601 and the Ridge 6602. Both are characterized by the support for ATX motherboards and have many other identical specifications: i.e. mid-tower form-factor, 192x415x418 mm dimensions. Still, there are some differentiations as well.



The first distinction between the two models lies in the frontal panel design. Therefore, Ridge 6601 features a laconic panel made of plastic without additional ventilation. In its turn, Ridge 6602 features a half-perforated metallic frontal panel that allows for a more intense cooling of internal components.


The couple boasts identical expansion facilities with two 5.25-inch buckets for optical drives, four 3.5-inch buckets for HDD/SSD, and seven expansion slots. Connectivity options are introduced by a set of frontal interfaces, including two audio slots, one USB 2.0, and one USB …

It is well known that part of hybrid processors AMD for platform Socket FM1 have a non-working graphics power, so for their release the market brands Athlon and Sempron are used. Last fall, it was reported about the upcoming appearance in the sale of dual-core chip Athlon II X2 221 and 198 Sempron X2, but information about its actual release appeared only now. This hitch is not surprising, given the fact that these processors are still used only on computers in the collection of HP brand for the Chinese market.



Sempron X2 198 (2.5GHz) was seen in the budget desktop HP Pavilion p6-1152cx, p6-1159cx, p6-1230cx and p6-1231cx. This CPU includes two core architectures AMD K10.5, 2x512 KB cache of second level and dual-channel DDR3-1600. The TDP level is 65W.


Athlon II X2 221 clock frequency is 2.8 GHz. Other characteristics of processor are the same as in the lower Sempron X2 198. Both models support 64-bit code, virtualization, AMD-V and instructions even SSE4a. Athlon II X2 …

Enermax Technology, an established Taiwanese developer of various PC hardware components, is about to announce its new roomy PC case within the boundaries of Fulmo series. Codenamed Fulmo ST, the case is designed in mid-tower form-factor and is distinguished by massy dimensions. Featuring 485x244x513 mm, the product’s weight approximates 8.2 kg. The novice will be available in two color variations: gray (ECA3270A-G-BL) and black (ECA3270A-B-BL).



Fulmo ST is ready to accommodate up to eight PCI expansion cards, three 5.25-inch drives and eight drives either of 3.5- or 2.5-inch standard. The case is compatible with ATX and micro-ATX motherboards, quite lengthy graphics cards (up to 412 mm if demounting the top HDD/SSD bay), as well as rather lengthy dual-heatsink for the water-cooling system (up to 280 mm). The latter might be replenished by ten fans of either 120 mm or 140 mm dimensional type.


Upon the whole, Enermax will deliver its Fulmo ST case with three …