Corsair Blog - Archive October, 2011

Corsair has created five different profiles for the Vengeance™ 1500 Dolby 7.1 USB Gaming Headset which are included with version 1.1 of our headset driver software. This post will briefly explain the various profiles, what they do, and how they were selected.

Corsair headset driver version 1.1 software includes these five presets. For those who do not see these profiles in their software, please go to the Vengeance 1500 product page to download the software.

When running headset driver version 1.1, plug in your headset, and open up the software by clicking on the "Corsair" icon in the tray. You will see the following five profile settings.

As the names suggest, we made these EQ profiles to provide users with the optimal settings for various scenarios. We will go in-depth to explain what exactly each EQ profile does and the thought process behind them.

JonnyGURU, Enthusiast Series™ Modular TX550M Review — "Corsair's new TX modular series gets a recommendation here today. And it is well deserved. This unit is exceptionally good for a little 550 watt unit. It runs cool, it's incredibly stable, and it keeps ripple and noise under half of the ATX specification. No, it's not the latest and greatest when it comes to the push toward higher efficiency, but let's be honest here... the difference to your wallet between Bronze and even Platinum isn't as great as you might think. You could easily do worse than this unit right here."

AnandTech, Carbide Series™ 500R Mid-Tower Case Review — " As always, Corsair has produced a case that's reasonably attractive, idiotically easy to assemble, and a solid performer. In some ways it's really the high point of their enclosure business. There are alternatives, but if you like the way it looks and want something easy to build, the 500R is worth your hard earned money."

Neoseeker, Carbide Series™ 500R Mid-Tower Case Review — "Corsair now has multiple award winning cases under its belt, so when it comes to designing a chassis for the mainstream market they have a lot of experience to fall back on. This is clearly evident when looking at the 500R, as it includes several features found in both the Obsidian and Graphite series, yet it still fits into a more affordable package."

Hi Tech Legion, Force Series™ 3 60GB SATA 3 6Gb/s Solid-State Hard Drive Review — "Overall the Corsair Force 3 60GB SSD fits the budget of most mainstream users and provides a significant performance boost for those looking to upgrade from their 1st generation SSD or platter HDD. The Corsair Force 3 60GB also comes with a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter so it is ready to be installed and used right out of the box without spending extra on a 2.5" mounting kit. It is not often that you find the lowest priced product perform beyond those of its more expensive peers but the Corsair Force 3 60GB SSD seems to have been built to defy expectations."

eTeknix, Corsair Vengeance PC3-14900 8GB 1866MHz Memory Kit Review — "The Corsair Vengeance range of memory provides users with compatability and functionality at a price that is affordable, and if you want something a bit extra, Corsair cater for that too with their fantastic overclocking ability that we saw today."

Long time Corsair forum member Rafael Jaimes III, better known to forum readers as "Synbios", recently sent us some documentation of SSD life testing utilizing our Force F40-A SSDs that he's done. He is extremely knowledgeable and helpful to Corsair forum readers. We found the results to be very interesting and we think you might also. Here is his submission in its entirety.

When it comes to choosing the right memory for your system there are three main factors to consider regarding performance. These factors are memory frequency, latency and density. This presentation will briefly go over these performance factors and also explain Intel® XMP (Extreme Memory Profile). With XMP the days of trial and error memory overclocking are gone. XMP allows guaranteed overclocked memory performance to be enabled with the “flick of a switch”, while still allowing expert users the option of manual configuration and tweaks, beyond the officially tested and guaranteed overclocked settings.

Click the picture below to launch the presentation:

With the availability of more affordable liquid nitrogen pots, more and more users are starting to overclock using liquid nitrogen. However there is still some mystery about how its done and how the system is prepared. In this video I will take you through the process of insulating the motherboard, and show you how to get started overclocking with LN₂.

I used the folliwing hardware when I shot this video:

• Intel® Core™ i7 990X Extreme Edition CPU
• Asus Rampage III Black Edition motherboard
• Asus ROG Xpander (allows 4-way SLI)
• NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX580 (x4)
• Corsair Dominator® GT memory (CMGTX2)
• Corsair Professional Series™ Gold AX1200 PSU (x2)
• Corsair Force Series™ SSD

Think Computers, Carbide Series™ 400R Mid-Tower Case Review — "Since this was my first Corsair case I reviewed I really didn't know what to expect. For a company whose focus has been primarily memory in the past, they have made a great shift to the world of cases. I'm really impressed with this case and I really can't think of anything negative associated with it. ThinkComputers would like to award the Corsair Carbide 400R Mid Tower Case a 10 out of 10 score."

Hardware Secrets, Carbide Series™ 500R Mid-Tower Case Review — "The Corsair Carbide Series 500R is an upgraded version of the 400R. For between USD 30 and USD 40 more, you get a 200 mm side fan, a three-step fan speed controller, support for a 240 mm radiator, air filter on the top panel, hard drive bays in a two-cage configuration, and support for longer video cards if the hard drive cage is removed."

HardOCP, Professional Series™ HX1050 80 PLUS® Silver Certified 1050W PSU Review — "The Corsair HX1050 is the newest power supply from Corsair that is replacing an old standby from its early lineup and it largely is a capable replacement. The HX1050 features much improved DC Output Quality on the 12v rail compared to the older HX1000W and much improved efficiency across the board."

PC Perspective, Professional Series™ HX1050 80 PLUS® Silver Certified 1050W PSU Review — "The Corsair Professional Series HX1050 power supply delivers good efficiency with clean DC outputs and good voltage regulation. Under normal operating conditions the power supply is very quiet. The HX1050 comes with a good assortment of all-modular cables that can support the latest CPUs and multiple, high-end video cards along with active PFC, universal AC input and a 7-year warranty. Overall, the Corsair HX1050 is very good power supply in its price range."

Hardware Canucks, Hydro Series H80 CPU Cooler Review — "In every way imaginable the Corsair H80 deserves its "High Performance" moniker. No matter what the heat load this sumo sized – yet still only single bay form factor – all in one water cooling solution simply performed flawlessly. But then again, we expected nothing less from Corsair since through their partnership with CoolIT; they seem to have the design of closed loop water coolers down to a precise science. "

Guru 3D, Hydro Series H100 CPU Cooler Review — "So if you are on the lookout for an easy to install, good looking and really nice performing product but don't want to spend heaps of dough on it, then most definitely be consider the Corsair H100 LCS kit. Whether you are a bit of a noise freak like I am or are on the lookout for a little more, the kit seems to offer it all and thus comes very much recommended."

Legit Reviews, Hydro Series H100 CPU Cooler Review — "Like the H80, the H100 has the new higher CFM fans. Now, at full speed the fans are loud with the pair set on high; with a quad setup of these fans on high you will want ear plugs. On medium speed the fans are tolerable. On low the fans are nice. At idle they are very quiet, and with the system loaded up the fans are noticeable, but very livable. With the overall performance of the Corsair H100 I don't see a need for it set on anything above medium, low will suit the majority of users' needs very well.

In all of the testing the H100 beat the H80 setting for setting by at least a degree. On low is where the H100 shines above the H80. On the low setting the H100 beat the H80 by at least 3 degrees at stock, and 5 degrees at 4.0GHz. When compared to the air coolers the Corsair H100, as you would hope, bests all the air coolers I have in the current charts."

Vortez, Hydro Series H100 CPU Cooler Review — "When we look at the performance in more detail, the first thing to notice is that the Corsair H100 takes the top spot in our stock and overclocked charts. This is testament to Corsair's quality."

I began this build log thinking of it as more of a pure work station. Of course, it has the guts to be an exceptional gaming machine also. So, I thought it would be fun to see how it stacks up against my last gaming build log, Yellowbeard's Revenge.

Yellowbeard's Revenge (below left) was built around an X58 based motherboard using an Intel® Core™ i7 950 CPU, and a Graphite Series™ 600T case. This workstation (below right) is built using a Z68 based motherboard and a Core i7 2600K CPU. Due to the amount of HDs and other factors, I chose the Obsidian Series® 800D case for the workstation.

This blog post will teach you how to correctly manipulate an EQ on an audio device so that you may achieve the sound you want without losing the original acoustic image and fidelity.

First of all, what IS an equalizer?

An equalizer is an electronic circuit that allows you to selectively amplify an audio signal based on various frequency bands. This is typically accomplished using independent volume controls for each frequenmcy band. The simplest equalizer (or EQ, as it is also known) would be a "bass" and "treble" knob on a basic stereo system. Turning up the Bass will make the lower frequencies louder, while turning up the treble will make the higher ones louder.

Since announcing our first gaming peripherals a few weeks ago, there has been a great deal of interest in our new Vengeance™ K60 and K90 gaming keyboards, which has been very exciting for us to follow. One of the most novel aspects of starting from a completely blank slate was that we were able to develop a product that specifically addresses the needs of PC gamers.