Today’s group of boxes was not everything (and it is not all that we will use) but it was a large part of what we need to the typical setup. These benches will be our enthusiast and consumer benches. We will deal with the workstation and server parts later. The UPS driver dropped off three large boxes.
The first one contained two AX1200 Fully Modular PSUs. These things are large and heavy. But the modular style will help keep the benches clean of all the cables that we do not need. When we pulled the AX1200 out of the box we had to laugh. The PSU was actually in a velvet bag. I have never seen anything like this, but I suppose it gives it an appearance of high-quality.
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As we mentioned before, the AX1200 is fully modular, you can use only the plugs you need and keep things very, very clean inside you case (or on the test bench). Of course they do expect you to use the PSU so you get a bag (with a Velcro flap) that is full of cables.
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The next box was almost as exciting. It held two H70 liquid cooling systems. These have universal adapters to fit almost any motherboard. The kit also contains dual fans for a push-pull configuration.
We are looking forward to seeing how this works out on the systems and if it will allow us to get better clocks.
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The last of the three boxes contained a pair of Dual Channel memory kits and a pair of 120GB SSDs. The RAM is Dominator GT (4GB 2x 2GB) DDR3 2000 and includes a fan to keep things cool during overclocking.
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The SSDs are box Force series F-120 drives. These will allow us to put even more tests on each motherboard. Right now our 80GB SSDs get very full with just the applications and games we install for the testing run, but more than that these two drives will keep things equal between the two benches.
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Well that is it for today’s delivery, we will have some work in front of us as we get these new items set up and incorporated into the Lab. Of course this means we will be starting with some fresh numbers (as the hardware changes the performance numbers will be different). We will work on cycling in some of the parts we have tested before to add to the performance numbers we give you.
-Ath
