Well I couldn’t resist. Grabbed an Obsidian 800D. That doesn’t mean I’ll be getting rid of my TJ07 machine. Just putting together a new machine for another member of the household. Iteration number one (basically only some final specs, no cable management, no liquid cooling, fail build) is done. The machine is functional but there’s a LOT of work to do… Here are some pics. I’ll be updating when I have some time to get a better video card (thinking of grabbing a 4870 X2 used at a good price) and when my special order liquid cooling parts finally arrive

This guy’s been around for a while, but I happened across one and I wanted to take a minute to unbox what has been the PSU of choice for MANY enthusiasts since it launched.

Corsair’s big thing right now is about using their components as the basis for your new PC. This Windows 7, DirectX 11, Core i7 gaming PC that we built for them to take to tradeshows is a great example of their new philosophy of choosing reputable parts to build your own “brand name” PC.

The successor to the iconic HX620 power supply brings 30 more watts of power, a different colour scheme, and some other cool new features.

I realize there’s not a whole lot of intrigue as far as RAM products go, but I guess I wanted to show the new Corsair heatspreader design (looks really sharp as you’ll see in a sec) and it’s also the first i5 specific RAM kit that I’ve had the privilege of unboxing haha. 8GB of DDR3 1600MHz goodness! We also feature this kit in our upcoming Core i5 overclocking guide. Stay tuned.

I’m not really going anywhere with this, but I just thought it was really cool. One of our Corsair contacts sent me a link that showed my feature in their media section of the website, but I didn’t realize I was actually one of the links on the front page.

The video also got a lot of positive comments on YouTube as well. It’s just awesome to see Tech Tips really gaining some traction.

I saw the listing at work today, but what I didn’t realize is that absolutely no one seems to have any information on the product.

The specs list it as “Sequential Read/Write 90 MB/s read / 70 MB/s write” so I’m assuming it’s an MLC design (the price is too low for SLC anyway), but I’m not sure how accurate it is based on the fact that it says “Crucial” in it at one point…

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=35881&vpn=CMFSSD-128GBG1D&manufacture=CORSAIR

It’s not even listed on Corsair’s site, but it looks like you can buy it now. Stay tuned because there may be a video coming on this product!

Here’s the problem with lifetime warranties on memory products: Who actually needs that SDRAM 10 years down the road? Corsair has come up with an innovative solution to this problem starting with their DDR2 line of products.

Once the memory dies at some point when it’s not even worth the shipping cost to RMA it, you can simply pop it out of the system, and it begins its new life as a hair styling device. Kudos to Corsair for this new paradigm in computer parts design. I’m expecting to see motherboards on the market soon with a mirror on the back so that you have something to look at while you’re getting ready for that big Friday night date.

Just kidding. You don’t have a date.

Well day one of Fragapalooza is coming to a close…. Well the night is just starting, but yeah. I’ve made an NCIX corner in the Intel booth and so far the event has been great. We’ve had lots of people come up to check out this system I did up for Corsair.

It arrived safely via UPS and so did all of my other gear. The one thing that didn’t show up was my NCIX banner… Fortunately I have lots of NCIX enviro bags, so there should be plenty of NCIX representation around the show.

The venue is huge. I can’t even capture it properly with my G7, but this LAN is unlike anything I’ve seen before in Vancouver.

Here’s on of the Corsair guys gaming it up (with coaching from one of the kind LAN-goers) with Crysis on this crazy quad SLI system.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this. A Mac at a LAN party? It’s one of two that are here and the other is a notebook.

Here’s me with “FPS Doug” from Pure Pwnage. He was giving out signed posters. I got one that reads “Boom! Headshot!”. It’s awesome.

Well I’ve finished the first of the two Corsair Dream Machines. Here’s a picture of the case I received from Danger Den last Friday with only the radiator mounted in it:

Here’s some progress on installing the 9800GX2 water blocks, which Danger Den was also kind enough to sponsor us with:

Here’s an “in progress” shot that I took on my test bench:

And now finally here are some pretty good pictures that our photo guy took of the system. These are all pre-photoshop, but it gives you some idea what a nice system this is: