Hardware

CeBIT 2008: Gigabyte - The Fan Becomes a Useless Argument.

Gigabyte has a good example of the unbearable marketing trend that wants to take the smallest thing and turn it into a marketing argument. Even though the manufacturer built most of its reputation on graphic cards using passive and silent cooling systems, it now boasts a "3D active fan" as a major feature on of its graphic cards. What are the arguments? The fan is energy saver and a shield! In fact, itтЂ™s the opposite. Adding a fan will increase power consumption (in a relatively small manner, usually between 1 W to 3 W) and adds to the list of possible failures. To top it up, the fan is installed on a GeForce 8500 GT, an entry level card running modest performances and perfectly capable of using a humble heat sink (itтЂ™s the case with other manufacturers)! To be fair, letтЂ™s add that this "intelligent" fan has the particularity of starting when in peak. The initiative reminds us of a similar MSI feature weтЂ™ll look at later on. However, Gigabyte doesnтЂ™t even use it to overclock the card, hence this fan doesnтЂ™t appear to have one ounce of relevance. Fortunately, we were able to get closer to the passive GeForce 9600 GT of the manufacturer. HereтЂ™s a much more interesting model but with a really massive heat sink with fin that cross over the back of the case. Read more CeBIT stories.

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