FSP Enters the Market of High-Wattage SFX PSUs with Dagger

FSP has introduced its first power supplies in SFX form-factor designed for high-performance gaming PCs. The new Dagger family of PSUs will contain 500 W and 600 W models that feature a modular design 80 Plus Gold rated. With this latest PSU release, …

Corsair’s Bulldog PC Barebone for the Living Room is now Available: $299/$399

Many PC and chassis makers these days are trying to address console gamers with computers that are as small as game consoles and fit into the living room design-wise, but which are considerably more powerful and can run games at ultra-high resolutions. When Corsair announced its plans to enter this market with its Bulldog concept a year ago, it was not exactly a big surprise: a company with expertise in cooling and PC chassis is arguably the best possible candidate to offer such kind of products. Even though some chassis designs seem to churn out over weeks, Corsair has taken over a year and a half to bring the final product to the market.

This week, Corsair finally started to sell the Bulldog chassis and barebones in North America and Australia. Corsair equips its Bulldog case with its H5 SF low-profile liquid cooler, which was specifically designed for mini-ITX systems and which performance is sufficient for all mainstream CPUs from Intel and AMD, its SF600 SFX PSU as well as two fans. The Bulldog case can house a mini-ITX motherboard, a full-height graphics card (which is not longer than 300 mm and is not thicker than 90 mm), a 3.5” HDD, up to three 2.5” storage devices, multiple fans as well as an SFX power supply. The price of the Bulldog chassis (CS-9000003-NA) is $299, just like Corsair promised a year ago.

The internal architecture of the Corsair Bulldog allows installing modern high-performance graphics cards, such as NVIDIA’s reference GeForce GTX 1080 with blowers. However, due to thermal constraints, Corsair recommends using its own H55 liquid cooling system with the HG10 bracket to cool-down GPUs, or install the AMD Radeon R9 Fury X or graphics cards with pre-equipped hybrid cooling. 

Corsair also offers the Bulldog DIY PC barebone with pre-installed GIGABYTE GA-Z170N-WIFI motherboard. The GA-Z170N-WIFI supports all modern Intel Skylake-S processors in LGA1151 packaging (as well as, we assume, the next Intel generation of Kaby Lake processors), up to 32 GB of DDR4 memory, an M.2 slot for high-performance SSDs, a PCIe x16 slot for graphics cards, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, 2T2R 802.11ac Wi-Fi, integrated multi-channel audio, USB 3.0 (with Type-A and Type-C connectors) ports and so on. The Bulldog barebone kit (CS-9000001-NA) is priced at $399, in line with Corsair’s original promises. In addition, select PC makers  and system integrators will offer pre-configured systems featuring Corsair’s Bulldog chassis, which will cost according to their specifications.

From an aesthetics point of view, Corsair has altered the design of its Bulldog compared to the prototype. Among some other things, it eliminated red inlays to make it look less aggressive in order to blend in with home theater surroundings. The chassis has retained its futuristic look as well as the ventilation capabilities, but now it matches various players and other equipment in terms of color scheme.

Even though Corsair’s Bulldog has hit the market somewhat later than expected, it still looks very promising thanks to the emergence of new 14nm and 16nm video cards this quarter that can better handle games in 4K resolution than previous-gen graphics adapters.

(Edit from Ian: I should also add a nod to Dustin Sklavos, former AnandTech editor for cases and cooling, who is the Corsair Product Manager for Bulldog and had a big hand in its design and development.)

Be Quiet! Introduces New Flagship Dark Base 900 Chassis

Be Quiet! has introduced its new flagship PC chassis, which combines the company’s expertise in building quiet PC components with extensive modularity and customization features. The be quiet! Dark Base 900-series PC cases will feature aluminum finish, whereas the Pro version will also come with LED strips as well as Qi wireless charger for mobile devices.

The new be quiet! Dark Base 900 and Dark Base 900 Pro chassis feature a modular design, which allows switching sides of the motherboard tray, adjusting its height, removing redundant HDD and ODD cages and, of course, installing any types of fans and/or liquid cooling. Since be quiet! is primarily known for silent PC equipment, the Dark Base 900 inherit numerous designs ideas from its predecessors, including internal architecture that optimizes airflow; specially designed noise intake systems; noise-cancelling side and front panels; decoupled fan, HDD and motherboards mounts to eliminate any transmission of vibration to the case and so on.

The Dark Base 900 and the Dark Base 900 Pro chassis from be quiet! can be equipped with up to two ODDs and up to seven HDDs. They also come with pre-installed three SilentWings 3 fans (one 120 mm fan and two 140 mm fans) and feature a basic fan control.

Unlike the previous-generation high-end PC cases from be quiet!, the new Dark Base 900-series chassis come with stylish brushed aluminum front and top panels, which feature four USB (two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0) ports as well as 3.5-mm audio input and output.

To appeal to modders and enthusiasts, the more sophisticated Dark Base 900 Pro chassis will also have a side panel made of 4-mm tempered glass, LED strips with five colors pre-installed as well as a Qi wireless charger for mobile devices. The Dark Base 900 Pro will be one of the world’s first PC cases with Qi charger, a decent addition to those, who are on the bleeding edge of progress and uses either devices with wireless charging, or cases with appropriate capabilities.

Both new cases from be quiet! will hit the market later this year and will be covered with a three-year limited warranty. As for the price, the Dark Base 900 will retail for $199, whereas the more advanced Dark Base 900 Pro will retail for $249.

Gallery: Be Quiet! Introduces New Flagship Silent Base 900 Chassis