Posted 09/04/09 at 12:50:40 PM by Paul Lilly

One way to intimidate your opponents right off the bat is to show up at your next LAN party lugging around a water-cooled rig, but in a SFF enclosure.

Now you can do that, thanks to CyberPower's new LAN Mini H20. Measuring just 11.25 (L) x 8.75 (W) x 7 (H) inches and weighing about 10 pounds, the OEM managed to cram an Asetek water cooling solution into the cramped confines of a Silverstone SST-SG05 Mini-ITX enclosure that integrates both the CPU and GPU into a closed loop.

Also included in the sub-$1000 base configuration is an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 (2.83GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 12MB L2 cache), Zotac GeForce 9300-ITX motherboard, 4GB of DDR2-800 memory, Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 videocard, 8X DVD burner, and Windows Home Premium 64-bit.

The customizable LAN Mini H20 is available now.

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Posted 10/11/08 at 10:36:47 PM by Paul Lilly

Despite the strides that have been made with high-end air coolers, serious overclockers still turn to water to gain that extra cooling edge, and with it a few extra MHz as well. But diving into water can often be a costly venture, particularly in the prebuilt sector. Or at least it used to be.

The good news is you can now purchase a pre-assembled OEM rig with water running through its veins. The sub-$1000 watercooled PC - being called the Red Blizzard - comes courtesy of Visionman Computers and will be sold through WidowPC. Providing the watercooling is CoolIT's PURE CPU cooler, an all-in-one solution that combines a radiator, pump module, and CPU Fluid Heat Exchanger (FHE) into a single apparatus which, by itself, streets for around a C-note.

The bad news is that you won't find any voodoo magic taking place behind the budget price tag. At the heart of the system sits a modest Intel E5200 processor nestled in an Asus P5N73-AM motherboard based on the aging nForce 650i chipset. Other components include 2GB of DDR2-800 RAM, a 500GB Western Digital hard drive, a single LiteOn 20X DVD burner, and a 9600GT videocard with a 512MB frame buffer. To be fair, there isn't much of a markup on the individual parts, but we can't imagine this self-described "disturbingly powerful" system will live up to its promise of "blow[ing] the socks off all the latest titles."

The Red Blizzard is available now now from WidowPC's website.

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