Zotac, a well-known designer of graphics solutions, has developed a unique in design graphics card. Entitled Zotac GeForce GTX 660 Thunderbolt, this card is heading a new Thunderbolt Edition series that is considered to be a more affordable product than Extreme series. The novice is equipped with an original PCB and an effective cooling system.



Zotac GeForce GTX 660 Thunderbolt is primarily characterized by a unique cooling system that consists of a large aluminum heatsink, three cooper heat pipes which get in contact with GPU from one side, and a couple of 100 mm fans. It should be mentioned that Zotac developers have realized a dedicated Eclean technology in their card that enables a hassle-free demounting of fans and top cover with the purpose of cleaning the cooler from dust.


GK106 chip, designed on Kepler architecture under 28 nm technological process, functions as the basic element in GeForce GTX 660 Thunderbolt card. It involves 960 CUDA cores and operates at 980 MHz …

Many manufacturers of budget-friendly PC cases adore expanding their line-up by a banal change of the plastic case kit without dramatic changes in the filling or framing structure of the chassis. The Aerocool Company is also saddening with this approach, although, for the sake of justice, it is worth noting that in recent years this has happened quite rarely. Nevertheless, the subject of today's review – the Cruisestar Advance is just the result of a change in appearance based on the simplest PGS-V series frames. Let’s see what the consequences of this metamorphosis from the point of view of the ordinary buyer are.


Features

Case type: Midi-Tower

Dimensions, mm: 483 (H) x 200 (W) x 441 (D)

Material: ABS plastic, steel

Weight, kg: 3,5

Color: black

Form factor: ATX

Devices 5.25": 1

3.5" external devices: –

3.5"/2.5" internal devices: 3/2

Supported number of expansion slots: 7

Front fans: 1 x 120 mm (installed)

Rear …

While mini-ITX motherboards keep on arousing customers’ mistrust, manufacturers move heaven and earth to eliminate any doubts. Take GA-B85N Phoenix model from Gigabyte alone. It is absolutely ready to satisfy all basic needs a modern high-performance PC requires. In addition, it is not as pricey as its full-format competitors. Hence, what a demanding customer will get for about $100?



Specifications


Gigabyte GA-B85N Phoenix boasts the following technical data sheet:

— chipset: Intel B85, socket – LGA 1150, supported CPUs – Pentium, Celeron, Xeon, Core (Haswell gen.);

— memory: 2x DIMM slots, DDR3 SDRAM, volume – 16 GB, max. frequency – 1600 MHz;

— expansion: 1x PCIe 3.0 x16, 1x mini-PCIe 2.0 x1;

— storage: 3x SATA III 6 Gb/sec, 1x SATA II 3 Gb/sec, 1x mSATA 6 Gb/sec, all governed by the chipset;

— graphics: Intel HD Graphics onboard, two video outputs (HDMI 1,4a, DVI-I);

— fan connectors: 2x 4-pin;

— audio: Realtek ALC898, 7.1 …