In this day and age, almost everything marketed as gaming will feature RGB lighting. HyperX has followed the trend with its latest mouse pad, named FURY Ultra, which we are able to get our hands on one.
Unboxing
Different from the cloth-surfaced mouse pads, the FURY Ultra is laid flat on the cardboard box, similar to a slim pizza box. The usual red and white color scheme is accompanied with a series of photos showing how the mouse pad’s RGB lighting looks like.
Nothing can be found inside the packaging, except for the quick start guide. It briefly explains about the installation process in multiple languages.
HyperX FURY Ultra RGB Mouse Pad
The FURY Ultra is a decently large mouse pad with a hard plastic surface. It is about 360 mm x 300 mm wide, and has a thickness of 5 mm. Styling is minimal for the mouse pad, with only a small HyperX logo on the top.
An additional LED strip is located in the controller unit. Compared to cloth-based mouse pad, the FURY Ultra’s plastic surface allows for faster and smoother mouse movements, because of less resistance.
The HyperX logo at the lower right corner is made from translucent plastic, which will also light up in different colors.
A long RGB LED strip wraps around the whole FURY Ultra mouse pad, shining light towards the desk. The bottom of the mouse pad is textured with raised anti-slip rubber feet to prevent it from sliding unintentionally.
The 1.8-meter non-removable braided USB Type-A cable is required to be connected to the computer for power and lighting control.
RGB Lighting and Software
The FURY Ultra’s lighting is managed via the new NGENUITY (Beta) software, like most of the HyperX peripherals. The two LED strips on the controller unit and sides of the mouse pad are separated into a total of 20 RGB lighting zones, which can be individually customized with ease. Four preset effects are included, such as breathing and wave.
The RGB lighting is bright and rich, yet is not blindingly intrusive and flashy.
Conclusion
The HyperX FURY Ultra is an nice-looking mouse pad, backed by solid performance. There is no noticeable tracking inaccuracies and issues. Mouse glides smoothly and extremely quick across the mouse pad. The hard plastic surface makes it better for snapping to targets in games. Though, it will create slightly louder noise than cloth-surfaced mouse pads.
The NGENUITY (beta) software works good enough. It is amazing to be able to customize so many lighting zones on the lighting strips. However, it would be great if HyperX can include more preset lighting effects in the software.
The FURY Ultra costs $54.99 USD (MSRP) and has a 2-year warranty, but is currently on sale for around $44.99 USD at the time of this review. The suggested price is comparable with other RGB mouse pads (hard) from reputable brands, such as the Corsair MM800 Polaris at $59.99 USD and Razer Firefly Hard V2 at $49.99 USD.
You can purchase the mouse pad from your local/online resellers or the links below from Amazon.
Thanks HyperX for providing us the mouse pad for review. (Review Sample)
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GELID is known for making cooling products for computers. We previously reviewed some of their CPU coolers and fans. Surprisingly, GELID also has the ZENTREE USB charging station in their product lineup, which can simultaneously charge up to four devices.
Unboxing
Both sides of the packaging have photos showing how the ZENTREE USB charging station works. A number of outstanding features are mentioned at the back, as well as a short paragraph of description.
On the side of the box are a couple lists of the specifications of the charging station and the included accessories. Our black wooden edition has a model number of PC-CH02-B. We took so much time to complete this review, that GELID has introduced a newer model, named ZENTREE Marble.
You will receive a Thank You/Support card and a set up guide in the box. Four short 0.4 m micro-USB cables and a AC power cord are included, along with two plastic cable holders.
GELID ZENTREE Black Wooden Edition Charging Station
The ZENTREE charging station is dominated by the unique and innovative “3D-tree array”, which is designed to hold multiple devices in different sizes and thicknesses. The station has a length of 224 mm, width of 159 mm and height of 95 mm. It weighs in at around 590 grams. There are a total of 16 shorter “trees” and 8 taller “trees” on top. Four rubber feet are located on the bottom, while the power port is at the back side.
The grippy silicone skin is installed over the glossy top cover, which primarily makes contact with the charging devices. There are different colored silicone skins available to purchase.
The brain of the charging station is the four USB Type-A ports under the cover. All ports combined can provide up to 48 watts of power to the devices, where each of them can output up to 5V and 2.4A. They are also controlled by what GELID calls “Smart IC” technology, which it will automatically adjust the required current for each device and prevent over-charging. Standard safety features, like surge, short-circuit and over-temperature protections, are in place.
Unfortunately, the ZENTREE USB Charging Station Black Wooden Edition does not support any sort of fast-charging protocols, such as USB Power Delivery (USB-PD) or Qualcomm Quick Charge (QC). However, the newest model, ZENTREE Marble, will support QC 3.0 and USB-PD (18W).
Review
You can put almost any kinds of devices on the ZENTREE charging station. The differences in heights between the “3D-tree array” can accommodate the sizes and orientations of the devices. It also has sufficient space to fit up to four gadgets, that needed power, albeit not all can be large tablets.
Two cutouts can be found on both the top cover and the silicone skin for the four cables to pass through easily. This allows for much cleaner cable management.
Our black wooden edition has a “wooden” finish on the enclosure, which is not made from actual wood. The plastic shell has wood grain-like patterns on the outside.
Conclusion
The GELID ZENTREE USB Charging Station is a great option to centralize all your devices into one location for charging. In this day and age, it is common to see people carrying a smartphone and a tablet around. The ability to charge up to four devices at once is awesome and convenient.
I would hope the ZENTREE Black Wooden Edition have the support for either USB-PD or Qualcomm Quick Charge, but GELID fixed it with the latest Marble edition. Overall, the charging speed of the ZENTREE is acceptable.
The charging station is priced at $55 USD (MSRP) with a 2-year warranty. Similar options in the market are priced around $40 USD to $60 USD, which most of them have exposed USB ports on the outside. The implementation of the ZENTREE offers a tidier cable management and look.
Thanks GELID for providing us the charging station for review. (Review Sample)
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HyperX has released the ChargePlay Base Qi wireless charger. It is designed to be paired with the Pulsefire Dart mouse (its review here) and the upcoming Cloud Flight S headset. It can still charge two Qi-enabled devices simultaneously.
Unboxing
You will immediately know who makes the ChargePlay Base by looking at the design of the packaging. The hard cardboard box sports the signature HyperX red and white color scheme. The key features of the charger are listed at the back in nine different languages, such as Qi-certified and 10-watt fast wireless charging.
There is a HyperX support card and a quick start guide in the box. Apart from the AC adapter, a 1.8-meter non-braided USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable is also included.
HyperX ChargePlay Base Qi Wireless Charger
The oval-shaped enclosure of the ChargePlay Base is made entirely from plastic with a rubberized surface on top. Dotted lines in the middle indicate where the two charging pads are located. Raised rubber strips can be found on the charging positions and the bottom to prevent your phones, wireless mouse, headset and the charger to slide on the desk.
The USB Type-C port is located at the back, under the “Qi” logo. It will be used to provide all the necessary power to the wireless charging pads.
The 24-watt USB power adapter has a model number of HNFCQC3024UU. It can accept input from 100V to 240V AC from the mains. It is capable of outputting either 5V/3A, 9V/2A or 12V/2A, which seems to be Quick Charge-compatible.
Review
One of the main features of the ChargePlay Base is the ability to simultaneously top up two devices’ batteries. The charger kind of supports fast wireless charging, with some caveats. Each charging pad can output up to 10 watts, but the total power will be limited to 15 watts when both pads are being occupied. 15 watts will be shared among the two devices.
Next to each charging pad is a LED indicator for the charging status. When the devices are charging, the LED will remain solid red. When they are fully charged, the LED will switch off. If the LED is blinking red, it means an error has occurred. Oftentimes, re-positioning the devices on the charging pads or power on/off the wireless charger will fix the issue.
Conclusion
For the most part, the HyperX ChargePlay Base is a decent Qi wireless charger, with solid build quality and helpful LED indicators. Being able to charge two devices wirelessly at the same time is a great addition and convenience. From our testings, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ and Pulsefire Dart mouse did not have any issue locating the correct positions on the charging pads. It would be even nicer if there is not the 15-watt total power limit.
The ChargePlay Base is priced at $59.99 USD (MSRP) with a 2-year warranty, but it is currently on sale at the time of this review at $49.99 USD. I think the it is slightly on the expensive side in the market, which you can find similar dual wireless chargers including an AC adapter at around $35 USD to $50 USD. However, most of them are pretty basic with no LED indicators and a shorter 12-month or 18-month warranty period.
You can purchase the wireless charger from your local/online resellers or the links below from Amazon.
Thanks HyperX for providing us the wireless charger for review. (Review Sample)
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The new Pulsefire Dart is the first gaming mouse without a cord from HyperX, that is also equipped with fancy integrated Qi wireless charging. How does it compare with other wired HyperX mice we reviewed previously, like the Pulsefire Surge and Pulsefire FPS Pro?
Unboxing
The Pulsefire Dart shares the same packaging design as other recent HyperX products with the signature red and white color scheme. A series of features are listed on the cardboard box, such as the Qi-compatible wireless charging and RGB lighting.
You can find out more details about the mouse, like the weight, sensor and switches. The Pulsefire Dart will work on computers with Microsoft Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10 installed.
Aside from the HyperX Thank You letter and support card, you will get a quick start guide, a USB Type-A to Type-C cable, a USB wireless receiver and a USB adapter.
HyperX Pulsefire Dart Wireless Gaming Mouse
The Pulsefire Dart is a relatively large mouse, with dimensions of 125 mm x 74 mm x 44 mm (L x W x H). It has a ergonomic design with buttons only on the left side, which is intended for right hand use.
The mouse’s body is made from matte plastic, colored in black. Both the “HyperX” logo and part of the scroll wheel are translucent to allow RGB lighting to pass through. Two small and one big rubber feet are spread across the bottom, that I find no problem gliding the mouse on the mouse pad. The power on/off switch is positioned next to the optical sensor.
The Qi wireless charging pad sits at the bottom half of the mouse. There is no indicator of where the pad is located, except on the plastic wrap you first unboxed it.
Although the Pulsefire Dart is a wireless mouse, a USB Type-C port is located at the front for charging or using as a wired mouse temporarily. Including the top DPI switch, middle button (scroll wheel) and side buttons, there are a total of six buttons. All of them are programmable in the NGENUITY (Beta) software.
On both sides of the Pulsefire Dart are the textured rubber surfaces to provide better grip, which users should be able to control the mouse with ease.
The 2.4 GHz USB wireless receiver is tiny, way smaller than a normal USB flash drive. The USB adapter is for you to plug in the receiver if your computer is too far from the desk.
Review
Sensor
The Pulsefire Dart is equipped with the same Pixart PMW3389 optical sensor, like the Pulsefire FPS Pro (its review here). It allows the mouse to have up to 16,000 DPI, 450 IPS and 50 G of acceleration. It is one of the most advanced mouse sensor in the market, which is often seen in high-performance gaming mouse. Despite being a wireless mouse, the Pulsefire Dart can set its polling rate from 125 Hz (8 ms) to 1000 Hz (1 ms).
MouseTester v1.5.3 is used to check how well does the PMW3389 sensor perform. The Pulsefire Dart actually has extremely low CPI/DPI discrepancy. We saw the most difference in measured and tested value at 500 DPI, at around 2%. At other DPI levels, the discrepancies hovered around 0.2% to 1.41%.
The polling rate was fluctuating a bit when the mouse is in the wireless mode, though it did not cause any noticeable latency or jittering during use.
I generally set the Pulsefire Dart at around 1300 DPI. The tracking of the sensor is great without any unwanted acceleration. Playing in FPS games, such as Rainbow Six Siege, is enjoyable with the mouse, which I can snap onto enemies accurately.
User Experience
The Pulsefire Dart is an asymmetrical mouse for right-handed users. It may be more suitable for palm, claw or hybrid grips than fingertip grip, due to the taller height. It is slightly heavier than a wired mouse with the internal lithium-ion battery, weighing in at around 110 grams (114 grams on our own scale).
The primary buttons are equipped with genuine Omron switches, rated for at least 50 million clicks. They are tactile and responsive as expected. The scroll wheel is smooth, but I personally want it to have a more distinct step. Overall, the mouse is solidly built, without any component rattling noise inside, while shaking it.
From my experience, the Pulsefire Dart performed exceptionally in wireless mode. The reception and range of the USB receiver, which is installed on the back I/O of the computer, are perfect with no perceivable skippings and lags.
Battery and Wireless Charging
Compared to the offerings from Logitech and Razer, the Pulsefire Dart does not use proprietary wireless charging solutions. Instead, the now well-established Qi standard is implemented to the mouse. The advantage is that you can effortlessly purchase any compatible wireless charger already in the market. I am able to charge the mouse on the Verbatim Qi wireless charger for my Note 10+ without any problems. However, HyperX did introduce its own ChargePlay Base charger (its review here).
According to HyperX, the Pulsefire Dart has a estimated battery life of about 50 hours or 90 hours (with and without RGB lighting). It took us about a week or so to drain the mouse’s battery, with six to eight hours of usage per day. It is in line with the advertised claim, which should be able to push further by turning off the RGB LEDs.
Software
Same as other recently released HyperX products, the Pulsefire Dart can be controlled via the new NGENUITY (Beta) software. The updated user interface is much cleaner and modern than the old software, which is easier to navigate through different parts.
Entering the mouse configuration screen, you will be greeted with three main sections: Lights, Buttons and Sensor. The battery level, brightness of the RGB LEDs, polling rate and presets/profiles can be accessed on the top left corner at all times. You can also re-assign all six buttons to particular functions, including opening certain application and file. DPI can be adjusted from 200 DPI to 16,000 DPI with a 50 DPI interval. Five total DPI settings can be stored at once. The altered profiles will be saved to the onboard memory of the mouse.
Also, the NGENUITY software can only be installed from the Microsoft Store. I hope HyperX can release a standalone version for it, omitting the need to use the sometimes very buggy Microsoft Store.
RGB Lighting
The NGENUITY software offers a variety of customization for the RGB lighting of the Pulsefire Dart. There are two configurable configurable lighting zones, one in the scroll wheel and one in the HyperX logo. It includes about five presets, like cycle and breathing. For each effect, you can control the colors, speed and opacity.
Overall, the RGB lighting is bright and sharp, with smooth transitions.
Conclusion
As the first wireless mouse from HyperX, the Pulsefire Dart meets a lot of criteria to be a high-performance and premium gaming mouse. The mouse is well-built with durable components, such as the 50 million clicks-rated Omron switches. The PMW3389 sensor does a great job in tracking with accuracy. Wireless reception and range are excellent without observable latency and stutter.
The NGENUITY (Beta) software provides a wide selection of customization, in both RGB lighting effects and button assignments. It is a nice touch to allow the software remind user when the mouse’s battery is lower than a certain percentage.
The Pulsefire Dart is priced at $99.99 USD (MSRP) with a 2-year warranty. Compared with the Corsair Dark Core SE with Qi wireless charging, it is about $10 USD more expensive. However, Logitech’s cheapest PowerPlay-compatible mouse (G703) costs the same, excluding the $119.99 USD (MSRP) wireless charging system. Not to mention the Pulsefire Dart has the longest battery life among the three mice (50 hrs vs 24 hrs vs 35 hrs). Combined with the abundant choices of Qi-certified wireless charger, I would recommend you to consider the Pulsefire Dart, if you are shopping for a no-compromise wireless gaming mouse.
You can purchase the mouse from your local/online resellers or the links below from Amazon or Newegg.
Thanks HyperX for providing us the mouse for review. (Review Sample)
Feel free to leave comments below, if you have any opinion about this website. Share the website around if you enjoy reading it. Subscribe to our Newsletter or follow our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
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Corsair has been solely focusing on developing their all-in-one liquid coolers for quite some time, but it surprised us with the new A500 CPU cooler in 2020. It is Corsair’s first entry to the market after almost a decade from the A50 and A70 air coolers.
Unboxing
The A500 cooler ships in a cardboard box with a sharp yellow and black color scheme, similar to other gaming products from Corsair. A number of main features, as well as technical specifications, about the cooler are mentioned in nine different languages.
Corsair’s tagline for their cooling products “SUPER CHILLED” is printed on the side in large fonts.
The bottom of the box has some graphics to indicate what are included in the packaging, as well as the compatibility of the cooler. It supports most modern CPU sockets, from Intel LGA 115x to LGA 2066 and AMD FM1 to AM4.
Corsair decides to pack the A500 cooler with plastic shells, which do a great job in protecting the cooler during shipping. However, we would hope Corsair can switch to using the more recyclable cardboard packaging for the environment in the future.
For accessories, you get a PWM fan Y-cable, a few zip-ties and a tube of XTM50 thermal compound. The cooler’s mounting hardware is separated into two bags, one for AMD and one for Intel. A long screwdriver is also provided with installation.
Corsair A500 CPU Cooler
The Corsair A500 is without a doubt a large “twin”-tower CPU cooler, which the middle of the heatsink assembly is empty. It has a height of 169 mm, width of 137 mm and depth of 103 mm (without the fans). The two 8 mm and two 6 mm copper heatpipes are all nickel-plated and are arranged/bent symmetrically on both sides.
There is a brushed aluminium top plate on the A500 to cover up the whole fin stack. Removing it will show the hollow space in the center, which is necessary for reaching the mounting screws.
Although a tube of the XTM50 thermal compound is already included in the accessories, Corsair still chooses to have it pre-applied in a grid pattern for quicker first time installation. Weirdly, the A500 uses the Direct-Contact heatpipe (HDC) design for the CPU base, which are more popular in more budget-friendly coolers and prone to create slightly uneven surface. More powerful and premium coolers generally have polished copper base.
The A500 cooler is paired with two 120 mm ML-series cooling fans for a push-pull configuration. As the name implies, the fan is equipped with a magnetic bearing, which reduces friction and improves durability. The ML120 is able to spin from 400 RPM to 2400 RPM. However, the lack of anti-vibration pads on corners may result in some unwanted rattling noise.
One of the most interesting features of the A500 cooler is the adjustable fan mounts. The ML120 fan is installed onto the mount via screws, before the whole assembly is slid into the rails and clips on the heatsink fin stack.
Both fans can be shifted upwards in distinct steps to improve motherboard and RAM compatibility.
Review
We have updated our CPU cooler tests to more reflect real-world cooling performance of coolers.
Testing Methodology
To find out how the cooler performs, a total of three benchmarks are included. AIDA64 is used to run a CPU stress test. CPU, FPU and system cache are all stressed to create as much heat output as possible. Also, Cinebench R15 and Cinebench R20 are used to simulate real-world CPU load (like video-editing or rendering). It will be run continuously for three times. The highest CPU package temperatures are recorded. Ambient temperature is around 26°C.
Results will be taken at a 50% fan speed and 100% speed, controlled via the motherboard CPU PWM fan header. Both single-fan and dual-fan configuration of the cooler will be tested.
The idle temperature of the A500 was 2°C above the room’s ambient temperature, at around 28°C. Running the two fans at 50% PWM speed (~1350 RPM), the CPU reached temperature up to 65°C in the AIDA64 stress test. It managed to drop to 61°C when ramping up the fans to full speed (~2400 RPM), which is 6.15% cooler.
The temperature difference between fan speeds shrunk in Cinebench R15. The increase in fan speed only yielded a 2°C or 3.28% improvement, with the lowest temperature at 59°C.
The highest temperature observed in Cinebench R20 is 66°C with 50% fan speed. It decreased to 62°C by pushing the fan to full speed.
Comparison
The Corsair A500 did outperform both the Noctua NH-U12A (its review here) and NH-D15 in our benchmarks. The CPU package temperature was somewhere between 33°C to 37°C above ambient. Although the NH-U12A is priced the same as the A500, it is a more compact cooler with considerably better memory, motherboard and expansion slot compatibility. The NH-D15 has practically identical cooling performance within the margin of error (<1°C) and it is cheaper than the suggested price of the A500.
[visualizer id=”5998″]
Conclusion
The Corsair A500 is an aesthetically-attractive air cooler with the brushed aluminium top plate. It ticks plenty of boxes as a first attempt for Corsair in years, but some major flaws simply should not happen on such a high-end cooler.
The mounting system is straightforward to use, though the cooler can only be installed in one direction with fans blowing towards the back exhaust. Having the need to rotate the cooler 90 degrees may be rare, but it is nice to include the flexibility.
Performance is acceptable and is comparable to reputable dual-tower coolers, like the Noctua NH-D15. However, silence is scarified with the increased fan speeds. In order to keep the CPU temperature at that level, the noise made from the fully spinning ML120 series fans is very loud. The added bulk of the innovative fan mounts also compromises the compatibility. The cooler overhangs the memory slots, motherboard heatsinks and the first expansion slot. Of course, you can slide the fan upwards for more clearance, but you will trade some of the cooling performance for that. I think an asymmetrical heatsink/heatpipes design should be implemented.
The Corsair A500 comes with a 5-year warranty and retails for $99.99 USD (MSRP). We are excited with what Corsair would release in the future, based on the community’s feedback. For the A500, it is still a decent CPU cooler with the helpful sliding fan mounts. I would recommend you to check on the compatibility before purchasing, if you have a small PC case or motherboard.
You can purchase the cooler from your local/online resellers or the links below from Amazon and Newegg.
Thanks Corsair for providing us the A500 cooler for review. (Review Sample)
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We had built a $300 USD system with 12 cores and 24 threads with refurbished server hardware. You can read part 1 to see why we chose those parts, including the CPUs and RAM and motherboard. However, can the “affordable” machine perform comparable or even better than similar-priced modern components?
On paper, the E5-2630 v2 has the lowest clock speed at 2.6 GHz and can be boosted to 2.9 GHz to 3.1 GHz with lightly-threaded workloads. It has the same amount of cores/threads and 1 MB less L3 cache than the Ryzen 5 1600X. Though, our system will have a total of two processors with 12 cores, 24 threads and 30 MB of L3 cache.
Performance Vs AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
In synthetic tests, the dual Xeon E5-2630 v2 processors showed their combined multi-threaded power, but the differences were not as significant as doubling the number of cores/threads.
The Xeon only beat the Ryzen 5 1600X by 23.42%, 17.16% and 12.68% in Cinebench R15, Cinebench R20 and Novabench. In Geekbench 5, the Xeon had noticeably worse single-core scores, about 35.43% lower, due to the now almost 7-year-old Ivy Bridge-EP micro-architecture. It got 47.45% higher multi-core score.
The extra number cores provided the Xeon an advantages in rendering the images in Blender, where all of the cores can be utilized. The pair of E5-2630 v2 CPUs completed the famous BMW and Classroom scene in 245 seconds and 782 seconds, which are 45 seconds and 119 seconds faster than the R5 1600X.
The Xeon only lost in the image editing test in ASUS Realbench, which finished for 4.1 seconds longer and about 12000 points behind. We saw the true muscle of the Xeon in both the encoding and multitasking tests with around 10 seconds faster completion time and 20000 more points.
Performance Vs Intel i5-8400
Compared to the Ryzen 5 1600X, the i5-8400 has the same amount of logical cores, but does not have Simultaneous Multi-threading (SMT) or Hyper-threading (HTT) enabled. Therefore, we can find larger disparity in the results.
Similar to the R5 1600X, the Xeon defeated the i5-8400 in anything multi-thread favored. It was 65.66%, 42.93% and 85.73% better in Cinebench R15, Cinebench R20 and Novabench respectively. The gaps shrunk in Geekbench 5 with 42.40% less single-core score, and 32.15% more multi-core score.
The i5-8400 did the worst in Blender with the least amount of cores. The Xeon CPUs were able to extend the lead by 105 seconds and 335 seconds.
The much higher 4.0 GHz boost clock for the i5-8400 gave it the edge in the image editing test, that was 14 seconds quicker and 56000 higher score. In contrast, the Xeon had more than double the points than the i5-8400 in encoding and multitasking, as well as ending the tests 55 seconds and 61 seconds sooner.
Conclusion
Overall, our two Xeon E5-2630 v2 CPUs performed as expected in the benchmarks. Both processors are able to boost up to 2.9 GHz, when being hit at all cores. The system outran the other two CPUs we tested in multi-threaded workloads, especially in image rendering and video encoding. The Noctua NH-U9S (its review here) managed to keep the temperature of the CPU package around 56°C to 60°C, during the benchmarks.
The $300 USD machine may seem to be worth the money and hassle to build, but there are a lot of weaknesses to consider. For example, the older micro-architecture and manufacturing process of the E5-2630 v2 leads to much lower clock speeds, single-threaded performance and power consumption, not to mention we have to run two 80-watt TDP CPUs. Separating the 12 cores and 24 threads into two CPUs makes operating systems to treat them as two Non-uniform memory access (NUMA) nodes. This can cost higher memory latency and not fully-utilized cores in some software.
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