During its existence the Fractal Design Company has already created quite a large number of externally similar cases. Unprepared in technical matters, the buyer will clearly find it difficult to understand which one will suit him. After all, the internal structure differs quite much, and it is reflected just by a pair of letters in each model name.


Today’s review is dedicated to the Define Mini C case. The basic concept of its design is minimalism. It got rid of the extra 5.25" compartments, bulky racks of 3.5" hard drives (as, in fact, few people use more than two such drives). The manufacturer tried to reduce external dimensions as much as possible without compromising compatibility with standard components. And, following modern concepts, they covered the power supply with a casing, thus dividing the internal space into two parts.


Features

Case type: Mini-Tower

Dimensions, mm: 412 (H) x 210 (W) x 413 (D)

Material: ABS plastic, steel

Weight, kg: …

Along with other AMD partners, PowerColor has elaborated its own version of Radeon R9 270 adapter. The PowerColor Radeon R9 270 OC is differentiated from rival products by an improved cooling system and factory overclocked frequencies. Its release is scheduled for late November and the retail price won’t hit over $180.



To begin with, this graphics card is naturally based on AMD Curacao Pro GPU, developed under 28 nm technological process. It consists of 1280 current processors, 32 ROPs and 64 TMUs. The core runs at 930 MHz frequency and is able to gain 955 MHz frequency on overclocking. The incorporation of GDDR5 memory (2 GB) with 256-bit bus interface ensures some striking bandwidth of 180 Gb/sec; this provides for the support of gaming applications with high resolution. Memory chip operates at 1400 MHz nominal frequency but might gain the index of 5600 MHz of effective frequency on overclocking.


Cooling system, implemented within Radeon R9 270 OC, cannot be called …

Following a long-lived trend in PC hardware market, MSI has unveiled its two new videocards of GeForce GTX 900 (Maxwell architecture) series just after Nvidia’s official release. The MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G and the MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G models boast both, identical and dissimilar features with their reference companions. But all in good time.



Videocards from MSI are characterized by analogous with Nvidia’s models memory subsystem. Hence, it has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory modules with 256-bit interface, 224 Gb/sec bandwidth, and 7010 MHz efficient clock frequency. Quite the contrary, both GPUs differ from the etalons, chiefly due to the integration of Gaming App brand utility; the latter enables GPUs to run in one of three available modes: Silent, Gaming and OC.


The MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G operates at 1051 MHz/1114 MHz/1140 MHZ at the start (showings for three modes) but might be overclocked to 1178 MHz/1253 MHz/1279 MHz respectively. The MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G runs at 1140 …