family room? On the Aurora M7700 the biggest culprit is the CPU fan, compared to which the HP nx9240 is balm for one's ears. Under heavy CPU loads, the fans in all these units run at their maximum rotational speeds after about one minute. In this scenario the...

• -The Graphics Processor Can Be Upgraded, But Be Careful

another exhaust fan across from the CPU socket on the rear. Looking out the back of the case, the lower profile Thermaltake has a red logo on the fan spindle. Looking up from the bottom of the case, note how there is plenty of room at the center for power...

at a normal working distance away from the notebook. During audio playback, the fan is always silent as well. When in idle mode or when executing a typical office application load under Windows XP, the fan is nearly inactive. When the CPU is fully loaded, as...

that visible to remind you to keep track of the thermal adhesive on the bottom of the CPU heatsink fan (HSF). OCZ ships its HSF with protective tape over the adhesive for the CPU, but there was no tape shielding the adhesive on our unit. When we set the HSF...

height (120 mm x 123 mm x 67 mm). The fan runs at 2,550 RPM when plugged directly into the fan header on a motherboard, if not routed through some kind of variable speed controller. At lower speeds (1,150 RPM) the fan emits a very quiet 17.5 dBA; at moderate...

67 mm). The fan runs at 2,550 RPM when plugged directly into the fan header on a motherboard, if not routed through some kind of variable speed controller. At lower speeds (1,150 RPM) the fan emits a very quiet 17.5 dBA; at moderate speeds (2,300 RPM) it runs...

as our guinea pig.. The CPU cooling system (1), the socket for the WLAN module (2) and the two slots for the DIMMs (3) are revealed when the metal cover is detached. The CPU cooling system: the combination of heatpipe, copper radiator and fan ensure constant...

individual notebooks and leave little or no room for a bigger fan. The fastest graphics processor also does no real good when the CPU is too slow to handle the demands of a new 3D game. In some cases, a CPU upgrade might be necessary. In light of all these...

laptops include ordinary ULV Pentium M CPUs. As with the majority of ultra-lightweight and lightweight laptop vendors, Sony uses a so-called Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) CPU in its TX series units, in this case, the Pentium M 753 ULV model. This processor is rated...