“This cooler is without a doubt my favourite on the market right now and I have achieved results very similar to good water cooling.”, says Allan Campbell. “It is a brute for sure but the results are unmatched on air and it has a place in my heart now for every serious build I create.”

Noctua’s NH-D14 cooler has won more than 150 awards and recommendations from the international press since its introduction last November and has been chosen by first-tier websites such as Tom’s Hardware for their overclocking tests on Intel’s new K-series CPUs. As KitGuru’s tests have shown, the NH-D14 can help to overclock Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs to speeds previously thought impossible on air cooling.

In order to achieve these outstanding results, KitGuru increased the CPU core voltage to 1.42V on the 875K and 1.46V on the 655K. Despite the enormous thermal overhead at such high voltages and 4.8GHz, the NH-D14 managed to keep the processors rock stable at load temperatures of 87 and 79 degrees Celsius respectively. KitGuru even reached the 5GHz barrier on the 655K but the system didn’t prove entirely stable at this speed. As Allan notes, this is “a staggering result and it shows just how capable the Noctua cooler really is.”

Links:
KitGuru.com Intel Core i7-875k and i5-655k overclocking

About KitGuru
Established in 2010, KitGuru brings a new level of drive and energy to the technology journalism arena. With our head office in London at Korona Solutions HQ, and our main test facility in Belfast, we’re able to source and evaluate the very latest technology as fast as any other site on the planet. We then use our skill and experience to deliver solid, reliable buying advice.The quality of both our investigative journalism and our impartial reviews has seen KitGuru achieve an exponential growth in web traffic since the site’s formal launch.

About Noctua
Designed in Austria, Noctua’s premium cooling components are internationally renowned for their superb quietness, exceptional performance and thoroughgoing quality. Having received more than 1000 awards and recommendations from leading hardware websites and magazines, Noctua’s fans and heatsinks are chosen by more than a hundred thousand satisfied customers around the globe.

About Noctua:

“Designed in Austria, Noctua’s premium cooling components are internationally renowned for their superb quietness, exceptional performance and thoroughgoing quality. Having received more than 1000 awards and recommendations from leading hardware websites and magazines, Noctua’s fans and heat sinks are chosen by more than a hundred thousand satisfied customers around the globe.”

Specifications:

• Socket compatibility: Intel LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA775 & AMD AM2, AM2+, AM3 (backplate required)

• Dimensions:
  • Without fan: 125mm (H) x 95mm (W) x 71mm (D)
  • With fan: 125mm (H) x 95mm (W) x 95/120* mm (D)
• Weight:
  • Without fan: 460 g
  • With fan: 550/640* g
• Material: Copper (base and heat-pipes), aluminium (cooling fins), soldered joints & nickel plating
• Fan compatibility: 2x 92×92x25mm

• Scope of Delivery:
  • 2x NF-B9 premium fan
  • 2x Ultra-Low-Noise Adaptor (U.L.N.A.)
  • 2x Low-Noise Adaptor (L.N.A.)
  • Y-Split Cable
  • NT-H1 high-grade thermal compound
  • SecuFirm2™ Mounting Kits
• Warranty: 6 Years

Fan specifications:

• Model: Noctua NF-B9
• Bearing: SSO-Bearing
• Rotational Speed (+/- 10%): 1600 RPM
• Rotational Speed with L.N.A. (+/- 10%): 1300 RPM
• Rotational Speed with U.L.N.A. (+/- 10%): 1000 RPM
• Airflow: 64,3 m³/h
• Airflow with L.N.A.: 52,6 m³/h
• Airflow with U.L.N.A.: 41,1 m³/h
• Acoustical Noise: 17,6 dB(A)
• Acoustical Noise with L.N.A.: 13,1 dB(A)
• Acoustical Noise with U.L.N.A.: 7,9** dB(A)
• Input Power: 1,32 W
• Voltage Range: 12 V
• MTBF: > 150.000 h

• Wireless pin hole camera
• 2.4GHz wireless receiver
• 2.4Ghz wireless antenna
• AV cables
• 9V battery adapter
• AC Adapter both 8V and 12V for camera and receiver
• Mounting brackets

Specifications:

• Receiver Video Output Phono
• Receiver Power 12v (mains adaptor supplied)
• Receiver Frequency 2.4GHz
• Receiver Audio Output Phono
• Camera Weight 20g (approx)
• Camera Transmission Power 10mW
• Camera Resolution 380 TV Lines
• Camera Power Socket 1.3mm
• Camera Power 8v-9v
• Camera Minimum Illumination 2 lux
• Camera Lens Pinhole
• Camera Image Sensor CMOS (colour)
• Camera Frequency 2.4GHz

The receiver feels very solid and well made. There are 4 channels available too for multiple camera selection if you have more than one. The antenna is attached via an RP-SMA connection. There are also 4 LEDs for each of the channels, indicating which channel is currently active by pressing the “SET” button on the device.

The great thing with this kit is the fact that it uses standard AV cables allowing you to connect the device to your VHS recorder or any other recording device.

The actual pin hole camera is tiny, measuring just 23 x 23 x 23mm. You can also use the supplied 9V battery adapter to make it truly wireless as you walk about within range.

We tested the camera to find we were able to get ranges of up to 80 meters, however, this was done with minimal interference away from building structures and dense walls. The box states it is a high resolution camera although anyone with a little know how will no doubt raise an eye brow to that statement. Being such a small camera the video resolution is not high at all. It’s 380 lines, less than standard TV definition however, still very good for surveillance purposes. (There is also a higher resolution (CCD with 420 TV Lines) 2.4GHz pinhole camera available at Pakatak). You wouldn’t shoot anything else with it to be honest.

The audio quality is fair to say the least. Conversations almost sound muffled and the built-in microphone seems to have a low gain.

Overall this is a decent package for those who wish to use it for monitoring purposes only. It really is designed to be a discreet device so it’s perfect for covert uses. How you apply it is down to you.

Be sure to check out www.pakatak.co.uk for more products.

I am a Windows user and have been since my first PC so buying a device based on WinMo 6 sounded interesting.

Note: Some of the photos in this post do not reflect what you will see on a ’straight-outta-the-box’ HD2 as I have modified mine with custom ROMS and tweaks thanks to the clever guys at xda-forums. For those of you familiar with Windows Mobile you will find some of the features I mention below aren’t exclusive to this device but are inherent of the operating system. Hopefully this will help those who have never seen or used a Windows Mobile device before (like me).

The first thing I noticed when switching the phone on for the first time was the incredible screen resolution due to its large size. Graphics are razor and the screen is vibrant. The buttons you see along the bottom don’t get much use with the exception of the home button. The lock screen displays missed calls, text messages, emails, voicemails etc and you can slide to unlock straight to that particular event which is neat if you’re in a hurry and just wanted to find out who or what caused the notification event.

This is a capacitive touchscreen device and supports multitouch.

The home screen or ‘today’ shows a massive flip clock, weather with cool smooth animations, date, calendar events (if any), program icons and HTC’s TouchFlo3D along the bottom. This really is a rich eye candy user interface and HTC have done a good job ensuring it runs smooth. It’s called HTC Sense or Sense UI. Tapping on the small weather symbol on the screen takes you to the weather app which gives you the full week’s forecast, again with awesome animations. There is also the option of previewing these animations for demo purposes (to win your mates over). You can have more than 3 quicklaunch app icons on your home screen. This can be accessed by sliding upwards to reveal the extra place holders.

The HD2 comes with Opera 9.7 installed and configured as the default web browser however, Internet Explorer is available. Opera supports multitouch so you can pinch to zoom etc and double tap as well but Internet Explorer does not support the multitouch feature. This is obviously planned for Windows Mobile 7 later this year?

The great thing about the large screen on this device is that I can now load full web pages without having to zoom in (as often) to read what was unreadable on the iPhone screens. Browsing the neowin forums for example proved to be a cakewalk on this device.

Just like the home screen you can also have quicklaunch icons for some of your favourite bookmarks. You get nice thumbnail previews of the website generated on first launch of that particular bookmark.

Overall I find the internet browsing experience to be great. Pages also render very quickly.

When you want access to additional programs or advanced settings you can always use the good old start menu. In this case the menu is arranged in a honeycomb grid layout. Installing applications is quick and easy. Whilst HTC have done a good job of covering up the not so pretty WM GUI it still shows up as you delve deeper into the OS. For certain applications this is useful though if you want speed and functionality over eye-candy. The standard windows file explorer provides a generous amount of features but lacks in other areas, this is where third-party applications come in handy. I use Resco File Explorer which is very robust as well as Resco’s registry editor too. Because the HD2 has impressive specs the CPU allows the phone to multitask brilliantly. Loading and closing apps is very snappy.

As mentioned before, because this device has a larger screen, using the on-screen keyboard is easy for me. Tapping keys gives you tactile feedback as the phone vibrates quickly but this can be toggled on/off. The automatic spell checker can be both useful and annoying. Most of the time I leave it off as the automatic word suggestion ends up choosing the wrong words and so you end up with GRAMMAR FAIL!

If you’ve been waiting to get this phone then you’ve no doubt been reading up on it as much as possible. Many people reported that early versions of the HD2 had a camera fault. This was seen as a very noticeable pink blob smack bang in the middle of the screen. Needless to say it ruined images and videos. The good news is, this wasn’t a hardware fault but a software issue and HTC has since provided a hotfix for this. After applying the hotfix - it did not only eliminate the pink blob but also improve the camera’s white balance correction.

Like the iPhone 3Gs, the HD2 uses an autofocus camera system and you can touch any portion of the screen to lock focus on that particular area. This is where the HD2 has more to offer. You get to play with white balance, ISO, brightness, image effects, panorama stitching as well as panorama direction, timestamps and more.

There are hidden camera modes which can be unlocked and registry tweaks available to significantly boost the detail level of the images. Everyone who’s applied these tweaks has noticed a major increase in image quality.

Making videos on the HD2 is easy and frame rates are decent. Out of the box you can record at VGA 640 x 480 being the maximum in H.263 or MPEG4. Being a Windows based device you can rest assured there is always a tweak or hack available which allows you to do more. A quick registry edit later and I was able to record in H.264, motion jpeg and also 3ggp with additional camera options such as the ability to record a video clip specifically designed to be sent over the airwaves to a friend (lower res and bit rate but optimal settings).

Here is a sample video I recorded not long ago:

640×480 MPEG4 - Direct upload to YouTube

Music playback is good and the sound quality of the built-in speaker is very impressive. Of course you’d be using earphones instead. With the supplied earphones the sound is great. The earphones are of pretty decent quality too. There are skip back and forward buttons of the earphone cable as well as a call and hangup button which doubles up as the pause button. Pressing and holding either skip buttons seeks through your mp3 file whilst a single tap skips tracks. You have the option of allowing the device to update the album art automatically when connected to the internet and like the iPhone you can browse your albums in a ‘Cover Flow’ like style.

The earphones also double up as an FM antenna and this allows you to load up the FM radio app to tune into your favourite station. Pretty neat!

Watching videos on a screen of this size is pure joy. Whilst the device comes with Windows Media Player I use CorePlayer which handles H.264 (AVC), AVCHD, MKV, MPEG-1, MPEG-4 part 2 (ASP), DivX, XviD, WMV*, Theora*, Dirac*, MJPEG, MSVIDEO1.

What the developers don’t tell you is that there is a limit on the video resolution being 1080 x XXXX. So 720p videos will not play in this application but that’s not to say the HD2 can’t handle 720p videos as I am sure it can, limited only by the read speeds of the device and quality of the SD/MMC storage card you decide to use (again there is also a Tune Up tweak available for this too through xda-devs).

Overall I am quite pleased with my purchase although at almost 500 Great British smackers it left a gaping hole in my wallet. Before you buy one please do keep in mind that the device is based on Windows Mobile 6.5 and originally Windows Mobile has always been designed for use with a stylus of some sort with resistive touchscreens so the fact that you can still navigate your way around the OS with your finger is damn impressive. There are leaked beta ROMS available to test of WinMo 6.5.3.