Thermaltake brought water cooling technology to the mainstream in 2002 with the introduction of Aquarius and BigWater Series of liquid cooling solutions for computer enthusiasts and DIYers. The solutions were developed by garnering enthusiast communities’ experience and feedback, coupled with Thermaltake’s core expertise in thermal management. The goal was to enable PC enthusiasts to achieve higher PC performance by providing additional cooling needed in order for the CPU to run at higher frequency. Today, Thermaltake is introducing its WATER2.0 line of liquid coolers and announcing immediate availability of the all-new WATER2.0 Performer and WATER2.0 Pro all-in-one closed-loop CPU liquid coolers.

The “2.0″ in the name denotes the progression and improvements that Thermaltake has made in the performance liquid cooling segment as well as the new approach which WATER2.0 solutions are taking. While traditional D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself) liquid cooling kits offer expandability, the same benefit often complicates installation and filling these coolers introduces a risk of mixing water and electronics. WATER2.0 specifically addresses these concerns by having a closed-loop design, meaning all the fluid that are required for maximum performance are pre-filled and sealed inside so the users do not need to handle any type of liquid during installation or operation.

“WATER2.0 is not a direct replacement of air cooling solutions. The all-new WATER2.0 is an improved performance-driven solution that offers added benefits of simple installation, no-maintenance and extreme reliability to the traditional liquid cooling kit. After a long period of research and development, we came to a point where WATER2.0 has reached the performance standard that Thermaltake has set forth while ensuring a fluid user experience from installation to actual operation. Now is time perfect time to discover an all-new performance-driven alternative CPU cooling solution” commented Ramsom Koay, Director of Marketing for Thermaltake.

WATER2.0 Series closed-loop CPU liquid coolers are available in three different performance categories that cater to different performance requirements or applications. The WATER2.0 Performer features dual 120mm PWM fans with a high-performance 120mm x 25mm radiator that can be mounted to any chassis with an available 120mm case fan mount. The liquid circulation is handled by a high-efficiency, low-profile pump that sits on top of the all-copper cold plate. The low-profile pump is ideal for high-performance systems where high-end air cooler may interfere with enthusiasts-grade memories that often come equipped with taller heat spreaders. A dual-PWM adapter is also included allowing both included PWM fans to be connected to a single PWM fan header on the motherboard to ensure synchronous fan speed operation.

For more performance, the WATER2.0 Pro utilizes a much thicker radiator, 49mm compared to 25mm found on the Performer model, to dramatically increase the heat-dissipating surface area by almost doubling the doubling the volume of the radiator. The WATER2.0 Pro also includes the same low-profile pump along with dual 120mm PWM fans including the dual-PWM adapter.

While all of the WATER2.0 CPU liquid coolers provide performance and low-noise operation, WATER2.0 Extreme delivers the ultimate performance by incorporating a double-long (240mm x 25mm) radiator that further increases the available heat-dissipating surface area for maximum cooling power. WATER2.0 Extreme ships standard with dual 120mm PWM fans and it is capable of supporting up to four PWM fans in push-pull configuration. Targeting enthusiasts and overclocking consumers, the WATER2.0 Extreme also comes with Smart Control Software that allows the user to monitor status of various hardware elements within the cooling unit, in addition to creating cooling profiles that best matches the user’s working and gaming environment.

“WATER2.0 Series of closed-loop CPU liquid coolers are not just new products that Thermaltake is introducing,” stated Weller Chen, Director of Product Management at Thermaltake, “WATER2.0 represent a shift in design philosophy from Thermaltake that aligns user experience in the same breath with performance, as consumers can see from the maintenance-free operation as well as simplified installation.”

Source:http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=18740&Itemid=99999999

My first computer was a Commodore SX-64 ‘luggable’ computer with an integrated 5″ screen and a MOS 6510 CPU. It was magic, and a wave of nostalgia sweeps over me whenever I see a Commodore Basic startup screen with its flashing cursor at the Ready prompt. Learning how to load Jumpman at will, by punching cryptic commands into that computer, is what got me interested in computers at such an early age. It wasn’t long until I started building my own x86 computers from commodity hardware, from Intel 386 SXs through Cyrix x86 clones and AMD Athelons.

CPU Wars plays right to that nostalgia weakness. Built as a card game similar to the classic game of War or other ‘trump’ card games, and funded through Kickstarter, CPU Wars has you pitting the specs of various processors against each other to beat your opponent. Each card is broken into sections, beginning with the processor’s name, a photograph, a factoid and eight different statistics about the proc.

Each processor, from the Zilog Z80 through the AMD Phenom II, is lovingly photographed from creator Harry Mylonadis’ own collection. The specs include max clock speed, max bus speed, introduction year, transistor count, data width, manufacturing process, die size and max TDP (thermal design power).

Each category has an indicator which indicates whether the higher or lower value would win the battle. For example, in pitting a Motorola 68000 against a NexGen Nx586, the former’s 44 mm2 die size would beat the latter’s 165 mm2, but the NexGen’s 111 MHz clock speed would win over the Motorola’s 20 MHz.

A single deck of cards can be used between two players, and a three player game is best played with two decks. Players divide the cards amongst all players and players determine who goes first. (I recommend a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock.) Each player draws the top card from their stack. The player whose turn it is reviews their card’s stats and chooses one they think has the best value. Each player reads their value and the one with the best card wins all the cards. Continue until a player wins all of the cards.

I brought the game out in the office where I work as a Network Administrator and my colleagues got pretty excited about the game. Paging through the cards, they’d have similar trips of nostalgia about long forgotten processors and their personal stories behind them. It was a fun way for us to reminisce about our shared past through the history of modern computing. One variant we came up with in the game was to use a D8 dice to decide the category for each round, adding a bit of randomness to the game.

Overall, while the game won’t win any awards for its depth in strategy, CPU Wars is a cheap thrill as an expression of our nerd heritage. Revisiting old processors was fun and the stat section was surprisingly educational when comparing chips against each other. Indeed, as their website claims, this is the most fun you can have with CPU specs!

Source:http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/03/cpu-wars/