World! - Slide HTML5

Transcription

Issue 23 2013
rev 2.1
THE WORLD’S BEST OVERCLOCKING ONLINE MAGAZINE. SERIOUSLY.
Cover Feature
It’s An Odd
World!
Can the hardware
DIY market
continue this way?
Feature
HWBOT COUNTRY
CUP 2012
Greece, finally victorious!
Feature
K|NGPIN’S GUIDE
Permanent Prep your
motherboard for Liquid Nitrogen
Reviewed
ASUS RAMPAGE IV GENE
Reviewed
MSI N660 HAWK
Lifestyle
CORSAIR Obsidian 900D
Iced out and
nowhere to
go – Untitled
I
t would be very appropriate for me to
write an Ed’s note about the New Year and
all that. However at the time of writing, I
had nothing to say about 2013. I suppose it’s
too early in the year to have any meaningful
insight about the industry. We have though
as TheOverclocker team gone out on a limb
and have committed to a few changes in
2013 which will further improve and refine
the publication. (Seriously, the title has
nothing to do with anything in this here body
of text).
One of those changes isn’t really related
to the magazine in its magazine form but
the website. We’ll have a new Overclocking
record section which we will use for only the
most relevant and worthwhile overclocking
records. The reason for this is further
elaborated on in the feature, but briefly
it’ll be a simple list of biggest, greatest
and “grandest” scores in overclocking. It’s
pretty self-explanatory but it’s a minute
change we’d been thinking about for a while
and there’s no better time to set this in
motion than at the beginning of 2013.
With the changes we expect to happen in
overclocking and hardware this year, there
should be a lot more features a well, so
the magazine “may” get a little bigger than
before even if it’s by a few pages. As for
those who are thinking about F1 OC, we’ve
been mulling this over for a while and it
turns out that there are some modifications
that need to take place in the overclocking
economy before that is ready to launch.
There isn’t enough space to go into it all
here, but briefly stated, F1OC is a live event
and in truth it can’t be any other way. We are
determined to not repeat the mistakes of the
past. For us to succeed it needs to happen
on our terms. Overclocking as a whole
needs to be self-reliant; this isn’t the case at
present.
As it stands, the entire overclocking
enterprise is maintained solely by economic
interests. This in itself isn’t a problem,
but it does run the risk of being steered
into oblivion. This isn’t by the community
or any regulatory body like HWBOT, but
perhaps by the absence of a clear and easily
communicated trajectory that overclocking
or at least competitive overclocking should
be taking.
With the multitudes of overclocking
records that have grown to be as
meaningless as most press releases are,
they are a vivid display of the short comings
we presently have in the system. There’s a
lot more to be sad about this issue, but that
will be covered in the feature in the pages
that follow. So for more insight into this
matter, be sure to page through and weigh
in on it if you have valuable insight.
As for the rest of this issue, I can’t tell
you what’s in it hardware wise because
for the first time ever, this Ed’s note was
written as the first piece of copy. So I’ll
likely be as surprised as you are. Suffice to
say whatever hardware we have should be
interesting. Lest I forget, if you remember
a few issues ago I spoke briefly about
review scores. In this issue some of those
necessary changes I spoke about are ready
and you’ll see them from this month going
forward.
In closing, I’m looking forward to 2013
and I’m hoping it’s a wonderful year for us.
We wish the same for vendors, readers
and everyone who is in anyway related to
overclocking and consumer hardware. Let’s
see what wonders 2013 holds if any.
[ Neo Sibeko - Editor ]
Issue 23 | 2013 The OverClocker 3
REGULARS
3 - Editor’s note
The Overclocker is
published by OCL-Media (cc).
FEATURES
Editor
Neo Sibeko
6 – Q + A with Angel “Chispy” Colon
28 – It’s An Odd World
Art Director
Chris Savides
34 – HWBOT Country Cup 2013
Contributors
Dane Remendes
Vincent “K|ngp|n” Lucido
Pieter-Jan “Massman”
Plaisier
REVIEWS
10 – ASUS Rampage IV Gene
Online contributor
Jonathan Horne
12 – OCZ Vertex 4 512GB SSD
14 – CORSAIR H100i
For editorial and
marketing please contact:
16 – ASRock 990FX Extreme9
22 – Cooler Master Seidon 240M
Email:
[email protected]
24 – INTEL 335 240GB SSD
Tel: +8869 8874 0949
26 – MSI GTX 660 HAWK
K|NGP|N’S GUIDE:
44
18 – Permanent Prep your motherboard for LN2
LIFESTYLE
40 - Game Review – The Walking Dead
44 – ASUS ROG Xonar Phoebus
46 – CORSAIR OBSIDIAN 900D
24
22
4 The OverClocker Issue 23 | 2013
QA
Angel “Chispy” Colon
Country Name and City:
I am from a small island in the
Caribbean called Puerto Rico. I live in
the city of Mayaguez, which is the far
west point of the Island. It’s a laid back
slow pace city but fun mostly during
the night at the beach. Boquerón
beach in particular fills up with people
from all over the world in the many
bars and restaurants across the beach
front. If you are lucky you will find
yourself immersed in a beach party
without even knowing it, dancing to
the beats of Caribbean music.
Puerto Rico has some of the most
beautiful beaches on the globe rated
in the top ten across the world. Partly
because we are one of only two
places in the entire world which are
blessed with three bioluminescence
bays, (the salt water bay will light
up at your touch like the stars in the
sky, sparkling and glowing at the
slightest movement of the water). It
really is a magical place to see on a
moonless night. If you swim in it you
will find yourself glowing as the little
microorganisms called dinoflagellates
stick to your body. It reminds me of
cold cathodes and neon tubing in a
water-cooled rig. It’s the best way
I can describe it in an overclocking
context so everyone has an idea of
how a bioluminescent bay looks like at
night. On the far East side of the island
you will find the cosmopolitan city of
San Juan which is the capital of Puerto
Rico our capital city which is a mixture
of old Spanish castles (El Morro
fortress in the old San Juan) and tall
skyscrapers in the new San Juan.
We have our own tropical rain forest
called (El Yunque) filled with wildlife
and big waterfalls; a paradise truly.
What language(s) do you speak?
Spanish, English and some German
Your nickname “Chispy”, how did that
come about?
Well, there’s a funny the story behind
my nickname. I was born 3 month
premature and as soon as the doctor
saw me he said to my mother, “Que
chispita de bebe.” meaning in English,
“It’s a small, tiny baby.” hence the
nickname Chispy (small, tiny baby). I
have used the same nickname all my
life, even though I am not so small now
:)
When did you start overclocking
seriously or rather competitively
for points? Is overclocking solely for
competitive purposes or do you take
part in it for “fun” mainly?
I started overclocking seriously
in 2004 with an AMD Athlon 64
(Winchester). Like most of us at that
time, I was mainly using high end air
cooling and modding heat sinks with
big fans for cooling purposes. Then in
the beginning of 2007 I joined HWBOT
in a competitive capacity. I did this up
until 2011, but now at this moment I’m
doing it just for the fun factor. I started
with air cooling in 2004 then changed
to water-cooling, dry ice, vapour
phase change and finally LN2 all in
2007. I’ve been overclocking on LN2
since then.
What was it that got you started in
overclocking?
I started overclocking my CPU and
GPU to get higher FPS in games. At
that time it was for “Need for Speed
Underground”. I became a pro gamer
and racer in worldwide competitions
with a clan at clanbase named FTR.
I soon found myself wanting more
and more Speed / MHz out of my
hardware and that's when I found
my way to extreme systems and that
was it :) I caught the overclocking
bug and suddenly found a new, more
interesting hobby than racing with
Team FTR. I got hooked immediately
to overclocking exclusively.
When you started overclocking which
forums did you spend your time on
mostly? Has that changed now many
years into the extreme hobby?
When I started overclocking I spent
most of my time at the extreme
systems forum and Guru3D. That has
changed as I have moved on with my
life and I don’t spend that much time
on forums anymore. Still, once a day I
visit extreme systems to check out the
news and the extreme cooling section
along with the KINGPINCOOLING
forums as well.
What are you currently
overclocking (at the time of writing)
and how goes it?
I’m currently overclocking an MSI
Lightning HD7970. I’m testing
different BIOS versions for this video
card and drivers while I wait for a
cooper shim that I have ordered online
so that I can mount my kingpin Tek9
Fat LN2 Pot on it. I’m also pre-testing
my good INTEL i7 3770k CPU and RAM
with my ASUS Maximus V Extreme
in preparation for PCMark05. With
PCMark05 it’s like a ritual, a lot of
things have to be running correctly
and lots of tweaking and driver testing
has to be done for this benchmark.
As the most prominent overclocker
from the Caribbean if not the only
competitive one, what is the hardware
scene like there? Is hardware easily
accessible and how is the pricing?
We get access to all the hardware
available on the market, but no
immediate access on launch
dates. So we have to wait a little,
sometimes longer until the newly
launched hardware arrives. I would
like to see better and more support
from the hardware companies for
the guys like me.
In general hardware is easily
available on the island. Since we are
part of the USA we have CompUSA
stores all over and you can find
everything you need in there for
extreme overclocking. In addition we
have the brick and mortar stores that
carry a wide variety of old and new
hardware. Prices are on the high side
due to taxes and everything has to be
imported from the USA to the island.
How feasible is it for you to get
access to LN2 where you live and
how much is it?
In respect to LN2 I’m a lucky son of
a gun :). I have Linde Gas Guayanilla
Plant next door, only a 15 minute
drive from my house. Sometimes
I will go there two or three times
to refill my 60L Dewar in one day
when I want to beat a certain score.
I got lower prices after I spoke
to the manager of the plant and
I explained what I used the LN2
for. Since I was there all the time
filling up my Dewar, I became like
a family member to the employees
of the plant and now they know me
really well and are ready to fill up
my Dewar at any time. It’s not cheap
by any means, even with the good
price the manager already gives
me I still pay $156.49USD for a 60L
Dewar. I used to pay double that
price at around $300USD before.
Any hardware you’re looking
forward to this year?
Sure I am, I’m really looking
forward to the NVIDIA GeForce
Titan, I think it will be a great video
card and many 3DMark world
records will fall after this card is
out. That's just my opinion due to
the rumours on the net.
What is your single greatest or
most memorable overclocking
achievement?
I broke the PCMark05 world record
in 2009 and it was a very rewarding
feeling, even though it was short lived.
It only lasted 2 days until Gorillakos,
Stelaras or another Greek Team took
it to the next level and took the world
record back, good times. That score
was done with a gem W3570 that I
bought online. I hit the jackpot with
that CPU and it did help me climb
all the way to the top 10 in HWBOT.
I was at my peak of my career and
accomplished my goal of being ranked
number 9 on HWBOT in 2010, an
unforgettable moment for me.
As one who has been into
overclocking longer than most
people, is there anything you miss
about the old days, be it the hardware,
the people or the scene as a whole?
I come from the old school and what
I really miss the most is the people,
those 3DMark01 friendly battles
between Pedro Rocha, Shamino,
KIngpIn, hipro5 and Macci were epic. I
believe the whole scene has changed
and evolved in some ways for the
better and in others for the worst
unfortunately.
Which is your favourite benchmark if
any and what is your least favourite
and why?
My favourite benchmark has always
been PCMark05 because I really
like storage tweaking a lot. The
whole ritual from start to finish is
fascinating. Finding the best drivers
for the video card and tweaking
the OS all the way until you start
running the actual benchmark. It
is so time consuming that it can be
days of tweaking trying to find the
right settings and sweet spot for that
specific setup at the time. My least
favourite is 3DMark05 due to the fact
that all you really need to get a good
score is CPU frequency and just a
couple of tweaks on VISTA 32-bit and
that's all. It’s no fun as it comes down
to whoever has the highest clocked
CPU. The benchmark is very CPU
dependant.
Share with us your thoughts on the
new 3DMark and if you will Catzilla.
This time Futuremark has outdone
itself as this has been the most
spectacular looking 3DMark of them
all. I really like it a lot and I am getting
hooked on FireStrike already. A well
thought out benchmark, excellent
execution by Futuremark.
Catzilla is a lot of fun to run, also to
watch. It’s a different benchmark
and I like that. It’s different in a good
way from all the others, refreshing. I
would like to see it included in HWBOT
rankings.
How often do you have overclocking
sessions in a month?
All out LN2 I will have one or two
10 to 12 hour long bench sessions a
month. Most of the time in-between
LN2 sessions I’m running my
two stage Blue cascade made by
sdumper at -114C. Sometimes my
high end water cooling set up made
entirely of SWIFTECH parts. I’m
always benching something, be it on
LN2, cascade or water.
As a solo overclocker for the most
part around your part of the world,
do you have any memorable group
overclocking sessions?
Definitely the most memorable group
bench session I ever had was in
September 2010 at KIngpIn’s old Deep
Freeze Lab in Detroit Michigan. It
was a Team PURE meet with KIngpIn,
3d06 from Canada, Knopflerbruce
from Norway and US overclocker
Gunslinger. Gautam arrived after I left.
There was an instant bond between all
of us, a friendship that connect us for
life. It was a memorable experience
that I will carry with me until the day I
leave this earth. So much knowledge
shared between us. I learned a lot of
new tweaks from the master himself,
KIngpIn. I truly admire the dedication
he puts into every bench session and
his willingness to help us find “the
way it’s meant to be played!” I mean
3DMark benchmarks. It was an epic
one week long bench session where
I barely slept other than a couple of
hours. So much LN2 and hardware,
we hammered the GTX480 really
hard for an entire week along with the
EVGA X58 Classified and SR2.
In your opinion, is overclocking
growing, dying or staying about the
same for the most part?
I have seen the growth of overclocking
as the years pass by; I definitely see
a growth with a new very competitive
generation that will continue to
carry on the legacy of overclocking
throughout the many years to come.
What are your thoughts about the
growing desire for some users to
fabricate scores? Is this something
inherent in the community or is it
exacerbated by the current need for
vendors to claim records?
It really irritates me when I see that
stuff. I have been overclocking for so
long and every year is the same. You
get people who are unknown, new in
the overclocking scene coming out
of nowhere with these outrageous
scores to get to the top of the charts
finding the loopholes in the rules and
using Photoshop scores trying to get
attention. In my opinion the problem
lies in the thin line drawn between the
community and the vendors pushing
for world records to gain momentum
and exposure for their new hardware.
Is there any thought or idea you would
like to extend to the community and
other readers?
We are a big community that keeps
evolving and growing and as such I
would like to see more respect within
our community. We have a unique
passion for overclocking let’s try to
maintain a good spirit and carry on the
legacy of the old school overclockers
of old.
Outside of overclocking, what else
are you as passionate about and spent
an equal amount of time if not more
doing?
Going to the beach with my family.
Do you have any advice for
overclockers just starting out?
For the new generation of
overclockers in the community, if they
would like to have a long career and
a spotless record in the overclocking
scene stay clean and abide by the
rules. You won’t have to fear what the
future has for you. If I have done it the
right way for so many years with a
spotless record you guys can do it too.
Respect, dignity and honour are some
of the words that come to my mind. If
a humble guy like me coming from a
small island in the Caribbean made it
this far without a single problem ever
in the overclocking scene. I know it’s
possible for you new guys to do it too.
I try to set an example myself and that
is the best advice I can give you. Just
stay true to yourselves.
[ The OverClocker ]
EDITOR’S CHOICE
AWARD
ASUS RAMPAGE IV GENE
ERP: $279.99 | Website: rog.asus.com
Test Machine
• INTEL Core i7 3970X
• MSI NGTX680 Lightning
(313.96)
• CORSAIR Dominator
Platinum • 4x4GB DDR
2666MHZ CL10
• OCZ Vertex 4 512GB SSD
• Cooler Master Silent
Pro M2 1500W
• Windows 7 64-bit SP1 /XP
SP3
E
ons ago, in hardware
years, INTEL let lose
its X79 platform. Not
too different from SandyBridge apart from more cores
and two additional memory
channels. This platform was
immediately relegated to a
3DMark11, 3DMark Vantage
and Wprime toy. Not much has
changed for the most part, it
remains a platform for those
particular benchmarks. A
simple enough transition to
make from P67/Z77 then one
would have thought.
Well, as history would
reveal, this wasn’t the case.
Far from it as most vendors
plainly put, failed at producing
competent X79 motherboards.
This is right across the board;
each vendor had odd and
quirky problems with their
offerings. In a way this just
made it easier for the one
vendor who had working
boards to stand out. There are
no prizes for guessing that
this was ASUS. Not only were
they the first to offer a true
overclockers X79 board, the
ROG team managed to pretty
much set the standard for the
X79 platform.
Be it the Rampage IV
Extreme, the Formula or the
Gene as we have here. They
all stood and continue to stand
head and shoulders above
everything else . Simply put,
if you want to buy into the X79
platform right now, don’t kid
yourself by looking anywhere
other than at what the ROG
boards have to offer.
So why then would we
bother with a seemingly
ancient motherboard from
a family that is well reputed
to be exquisite? Simply
because even after all this
time, the Rampage IV Gene
is one supremely impressive
motherboard. At $280 it
isn’t cheap in comparison to
Z77 boards, but please be
mindful of just how expensive
the platform is. X79 boards
have always been premium
products and in relative
terms, the RIVG is well priced.
More so than INTEL’s X79
offering which was in every
way inferior to what the Gene
offers, but cost anywhere up
to $100 more.
What does this diminutive
board give you then? Well
ASUS will tell you about the
SupremeFX III audio controller
and all related circuitry
that that ensures superior,
clean audio playback. A host
of software encoding and
decoding features such as
X-Fi® Xtreme Fidelity, THX
TruStudio PRO, EAX Advanced
HD5.0 and others. All good
and well, it is no secret that
ASUS knows audio better
“Simply put, if you want to buy into the X79
platform right now, don’t kid yourself by
looking anywhere other than at what the ROG
boards have to offer.”
All results were obtained at 4600MHz on an un-optimized Windows7 64-bit and Windows XP SP3. These are our
results, yours may vary so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system.
ASUS Rampage IV Gene
ASRock X79 Extreme9
Cinebench 11.5
3DMark11
3DMark Vantage
Super Pi 8M
Aida 64 Copy
Aida 64 Latency
13,35
11206
40673
1m31.276
20049
41
Physics: 15902
CPU: 47483
11179
40386
1m32.649
19234
44,5
Physics: 15867
CPU: 47049
13,39
than any other vendor in this
market. They’ve proved that
comprehensively with the
Xonar products. Great for
gamers and those who care
about that kind of thing, but
for overclockers, the magic is
somewhere else.
It may seem a small area to
put so much focus on, but it
can never be stated enough
and that is the thoroughness
of the ASUS ROG BIOS. In a
word, it’s “incredible”. Making
it perhaps not easy, but simple
to navigate and tune your
settings. No other BIOS from
any vendor can claim to be this
detailed yet remain so simple.
This is where all the magic
happens. As many competitors
can well enough produce a
motherboard that is peerless
electronically, so few if any
can produce a BIOS like this.
Be it the MEM Tweaker’s
paradise, the overclocking
profiles or the vast number
of tuning options with well
written explanations. It all
comes together to make for
an easy board to work with.
Getting up to speed with the
RIVG much as it is with the
Formula and Extreme is a
piece of cake. You simply
select a profile and start
tuning from there, to the
capabilities of your CPU and
memory.
It is this quiet simplicity
and attention to detail where
the Gene board distinguishes
itself from many others. One
may argue that performance is
near identical to other boards
when you eventually get them
to work correctly. That may
be the case but consider that
when you’re dealing with
SNB-E CPUs, it’s relatively
easy to reach the maximum
frequency; in fact sometimes
it can very well be done with
chilled water setups or dry
ice. Neither of which we would
consider exotic cooling.
That in no way though
diminishes what this board
and its brethren are capable
off. There’ll be no OC-Key
here and no VGA-Hotwire, but
hey, you do get what you pay
for. In as far as maximizing
CPU clocks, you’ll not find
much of a difference between
the Rampage IV Gene and
the Extreme. For single card
competitive overclocking on
the platform, you may as well
buy this board. Sure you’ll
have to sort out your own
mods and controlling schemes
for your graphics card (No
Hotwire), but given the price
differences, it just may not
be worth paying almost $200
more for the Extreme.
This one then is an impressive
motherboard, that can’t be
faulted in any way. The Rampage
IV Gene is the best mATX X79
board money can buy.
[ TheOverclocker ]
Summary
Think of the Rampage IV
Gene as a mini Rampage
IV Extreme that’s been,
because that’s exactly
what it is. You lose out
on a few features, but for
the most part it retains
the essence of that
board and as such it is
mighty impressive in all
respects. One of the best
boards every produced.
Would you buy it?
Without hesitation
The Score
Hardware Award
OCZ VERTEX4 512GB SSD
RRP: : $479.99 | Website: www.ocz.com
Test Machine
• Intel Core i7 3970X
• ASUS Rampage IV Gene
(3404)
Platinum 4x4GB DDR
2666MHZ CL10
• Cooler Master Silent Pro M2
1500W
• Windows 7 64-bit SP1
I
n as much as SSD prices
have come down, the high
capacity drives such as
this one are still prohibitively
expensive for most users. One
could argue that there are
plenty of graphics cards that
retail for more than this, but it is
always easier to motivate for a
graphics card than it is an SSD.
The odd thing here is that the
performance difference to be
had by switching to an SSD or
switching to a much faster SSD
will be more pronounced than
it ever could be when switching
from an HD7950 to an HD7970.
It just comes down to how
we as enthusiasts relate to our
hardware and what we consider
important. With that said, there
are those who despite using an
SSD for their primary storage
would like to install all their
productivity suits and/or games
on an SSD as well. With the
ever increasing install sizes of
applications and games it’s far
too easy to fill up a 128GB drive
and even 240/256GB drives are
being exhausted quicker than
say one or two years ago.
It’s thus only understandable
that 512GB drives are more
desirable. Not only do they
offer better performance than
their 256GB counterparts, they
obviously offer larger capacities
allowing you to store more.
OCZ then like many others have
large capacity SSDs but here is
one that many of us may be able
to justify as it strikes a delicate
balance between price and
performance.
You can get a cheaper and
supremely fast CORSAIR
Neutron GTX 480GB drive, but
as the name suggests. It’s a
480GB drive whereas this here
is a 512GB drive. The price
difference between the two
being $20 as well, which should
already tell you something
about the performance of the
Vertex4.
If however you’ve not figured
it out, the OCZ Vertex4 is fast.
It’s actually very fast. Look
not to the OCZ Vector 256GB
driver we reviewed in the last
issue as that is just unmatched
by any driver we are aware
off. Look instead at the Vertex
4 as the second best thing to
that. It’s slightly cheaper but
the performance isn’t that far
off the pace. $480 odd is a lot
of money to ask for a drive,
there are fewer drives that
can claim to be this fast at this
price. Best of all, you’re not
being charged such a premium
price for an SF-2281 powered
SSD, but one that features
OCZ’s own in-house INDILINX
Everest 2 controller. You are
promised a 5 year warranty,
and more relevantly, almost
uniform performance across
regardless of the kind of data
you’re putting on the drive. So
All results were obtained at 4800MHz on a normal install of Windows 7 64-bit. These are our results, yours may vary
so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system
Drive
Average Read
Average Write
4K
Read(QD32)
4K Write
(QD32)
Read IOPS
Write IOPS
Maximum IO
response time
(ms)
OCZ Vertex 4 512GB
463,5
509,3
306,6
318,6
71962,4
85423,25
9,2627
Corsair Neutron GTX
240GB
473,6
496
294,3
316,2
76753,7
83326,26
8,3643
Corsair Neutron 240GB
457,3
370,9
284,9
307,9
76642,4
82769,19
11,2734
INTEL 335 240GB SSD
486,9
239,6
183,5
97,82
31971,3
58152,8
11,7661
there are no major disparities
between compressed
and uncompressible data
performance.
The particular drive we
tested featured sixteen 32GB
25nm INTEL MLC Flash
NAND chips and 1GB of DDR3
DRAM to act as cache. We
can imagine that the smaller
capacity drives have less
cache, but performance
should be relatively linear
should the 512GB be a stretch
for you. What we found in
performance should hold true
for the 256 and perhaps 128GB
drive as well. With some nifty
firmware tuning, along with
the components mentioned
above, OCZ have produced a
stellar drive.
The only thing that could
be troublesome for the OCZ
Vertex 4 is oddly enough
the Vector drive because if
outright speed is what you’re
after, you’re better off with
the Vector. Even in its 256GB
guise it manages to outpace
the Vertex4 in OCZ’s line
up. Having said that we will
argue that the performance
differences between these
drives is academic rather
than practical, so that should
be considered before a
purchasing decision is made.
As far as we’re concerned,
this is the drive to beat where
capacity, performance and
price is concerned. There
are other drives that come
dangerously close, but we’ve
no experience with them.
Thus we find the Vertex4
512GB drive to be the right
combination. We’d go so far
as to state that you can’t
really do significantly better
than the Vertex4, despite
all this time on the market.
Should $480 be too much for
you, do consider the 256GB
variant. You’ll lose some of
the appeal, but you’ll still get
great performance. In this
day and age, where it’s hard
to buy a truly disappointing
SSD, the Vertex4 is even
more impressive because it
manages to stand out above
so many others.
[ TheOverclocker ]
Summary
The 512GB Vertex4 may
cost a little too much, but
consider its performance
and you’ll realize that
the price is justified.
Despite, the existence
of some hot competition
from other vendors, the
Vertex4 delivers mighty
impressive performance
and secures itself as
the second fastest drive
we’ve ever tested here.
Would you buy it?
If we needed a high
capacity high performance
drive, we’d look no further
than the Vertex 4. So yes,
we’d buy it.
The Score
REVIEW
Hardware Award
CORSAIR H100i
ERP: $109.99 | Website: www.corsair.com
Test Machine
• ASUS Rampage IV
Gene(3404)
Platinum 2x4GB DDR
2666MHZ CL10
• OCZ Vertex 4 512GBSSD
1500W
• Windows 7 64-bit SP1 /XP
SP3
I
nitially when we received
this cooler, it was the first
to come from CORSAIR’s
refreshed line up. The H110
had not been announced. So
this was their premium water
cooler in the Hydro series.
Several weeks ago the H110
showed up and has since
taken over the reigns as the
end all be all of water cooling
solutions from CORSAIR.
Still, we reckon that there
are far more people with the
cases and real estate to make
use of the more traditional
dual 120mm radiator of the
H100i than that of the H110.
Not only that, but the H100i
has software control which
the H110 does not. This is
very important in the context
of gamers and power users
who may not always want
the fans spinning at full tilt
as it can be very loud and
rather annoying. You could
always use the BIOS on your
motherboard to regulate the
fan speeds, but it’s better to
just use the provided software
and set the fan speed to your
liking without having to muck
about in the BIOS.
So then what makes the
H100i different from its
predecessor? Well, it’s
not much actually. After
all, you’re dealing with a
maintenance free water
cooling loop and they are by
and large the same. Gone
are the ribbed and stiff pipes
of the H100, in their place
rubberised high volume
tubing. These not only allow
better water flow but they can
be twisted a lot more meaning
installing is actually easier
than ever before you. We
certainly prefer this tubing
over the previous solution
and would plead with other
vendors to follow suit who
may still be thinking of going
with the more traditional
route. This is just better for
everything.
The water block itself
has been improved, to what
extent remains unclear as we
are not able to compare the
two blocks side by side, but
suffice to say we’ve no reason
to doubt CORSAIR’s claims
and from the performance
we measured, there may
be some merit to this. Be
it the same base was used
or not, we appreciate any
improvement in cooling we
can get, especially if it does
not needlessly increase the
noise levels.
More about the CPU block,
it is now easier than ever
before to install on to the
motherboard. CORSAIR
always had the best system
for installing their water
cooler. It was simple,
“ The entire units is built to very high standards,
you need not be told this but it’s evident in things
such as the packaging and instruction leaflet all
the way to the performance.”
straight forward and robust.
In contrast to many other
systems where the back
plate was prone to damage
because the threaded metal
inserts would eventually
destroy the plastic mould.
Great examples of this are on
competing Thermaltake and
ANTEC water cooling kits.
You’ll find none of that
on the CORSAIR H100i as it
further simplifies what was
an already basic installation.
The entire unit is built to
very high standards and, you
need not be told thins but
it’s evident in the packaging,
the instruction leaflet, the
ease of use and obviously the
performance. The brackets
for the CPU block are
magnetized so you can pretty
much install the system in the
case while it’s upright. The
magnetic bracket just settles
into place, aligning itself
correctly and you can tighten
the thumb screws from there
with ease.
As much as we do like this
CPU cooler however, it has
one annoying caveat and
that’s the number of cables
which have come as a result
of the software control. There
are leads for the USB cable,
so if you have a push and
pull system setup you end
up with a lot of cables which
makes cable management a
nightmare. This would have
worked better if CORSAIR had
managed to use a single cable
to neaten it all out. Other than
that, it’s a solid design with
obvious enhancements from
its forerunner.
Where performance is
concerned, you’ll be hard
pressed to tell the difference
between this cooler and
the H100. Yes it’s cooler by
a few degrees, but for the
most part they are near
identical. It’s always hard to
measure accurately and with
precision just how different
two coolers are. As we’ve
said before, you’re not going
to be able to gain an extra
50MHz when moving from
a good air cooler to a water
cooler. This is even more so
with the H100i versus the
original H100. With the 3970X
at 4.8GHz (1.34V) the highest
temperature we recorded
with the H100i was 64’C. The
H100 at the same settings was
keeping the CPU at 66’C. Not
much of a difference as far
as we’re concerned and one
that actually falls within the
margin of error.
Still, at worst it’s just as
good as the original cooler
and at best it genuinely does
offer better performance in
which case, the purchase is
warranted. We aren’t sure
if CORSAIR will continue to
sell the H100, but even if they
did and you were ready to
purchase, consider the H100i
or the H110 for that matter,
they are both better in almost
all regards.
[ TheOverclocker ]
Summary
Small tweaks here and
there have allowed
CORSAIR to improve
on the H100. The H100i
may have the software
as its biggest selling
point, but we find that
it’s in everything else
where it makes notable
improvements making
it unnecessary to even
consider the H100. The
H100i is a mighty fine
CPU cooler indeed.
Would you buy it?
There aren’t many
coolers that can claim
to be better. So we’d
certainly buy the H100i
The Score
ASRock 990FX Extreme9
ERP: $159.99 | Website: www.asrock.com
Test Machine
• AMD FX-8350
• MSI NGTX680 Lightning (313.96)
• CORSAIR Dominator Platinum •
2x4GB DDR 2666MHZ CL10
• OCZ Vertex 4 256G SSD
1500W
• Windows 7 64-bit SP1 /XP SP3
A
MD’s 990FX and 950SB
truly have to go. We do
understand that there’s
not much for them to add, but
we’d like to see native USB 3.0
and PCI-Express 3.0 as well.
As it is, it makes it difficult for
vendors to make truly inspired
boards using the chipset. The
CPUs have made some tangible
strides in making the AMD
990FX platform compelling,
but on the chipset side. We
essentially have the same
chipset from the middle of
2011, which wasn’t too different
from what they brought out
in 2010. So if ever AMD was in
doubt about refreshing their
chipset, we’d like to weigh in
and say it’s long overdue.
That however is a situation
we can do nothing about and
as it stands this looks to be the
chipset for now and forever
more. So what are vendors to
do then to sell more of these
boards based on the chipset?
Well, you could either build
the best 990FX board possible
at a given price point like the
Crosshair-Formula-Z or be a
little less ambitious and offer
the 990FX Extreme9 such as
we have here.
What may initially sound
as a negative experience is
actually nothing of the sort. You
see, we are fully aware of the
limitations that are imposed
on vendors in as far as making
truly compelling motherboards
for the platform, but we do
believe there are some things
that can and should be done to
help differentiate the boards
more overtly.
On the Exteme9, we have
what can only be considered
a high end board, but sadly
one that doesn’t come to the
party with all the toys it could
have had. We levelled similar
criticisms at the Formula-Z
but here they are that much
more pronounced and needed
we might add. Before we even
get into the performance and
all things related, we’d like to
say that on a premium product
such as this. We expect to have
everything useful that is on a
Fatal1ty board, with the sole
distinction being that this board
actually works. For all intents
and purposes, this is a much
better motherboard and as
such we expected more. For
instance, a dedicated audio
controller would have done the
trick, one with all the bells and
whistles as found on the X79
Fatal1ty Champion board. We’d
have also appreciated a Wi-Fi
dongle, PCI-Express DIP switch
or perhaps voltage measuring
points. In other words, we’d
have liked to see a board that’s
a little more featured, if only
because the native platform is
so barren.
Performance then is as you’d
expect, because the Extreme9
Is slower than the ASUS
All results were obtained at 5000MHz on an un-optimized Windows7 64-bit and Windows XP SP3. These are our
results, yours may vary so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system.
Cinebench
11.5
Super Pi 8M
3DMark11
Heaven
Wprime 1024
Xtreme Preset
ASUS Crosshair V
Formula-Z (5GHz)
8,64
3m45.249
10334
2059,06
209,945
ASRock 990FX
Extreme9 (5GHz)
8,6
3m46.967
10318
2098,383
209,685
“On the Exteme9, we have what
can only be considered a high
end board, but sadly one that
doesn’t come to the party with
all the toys it could have had.“
Summary
board in all the tests, but the
differences in performance
are minor enough for us to not
factor them into our general
consensus. We had a bit of a
problem initially with setting
the memory to 2400MHz;
however that could have easily
been the combination of our
memory and the board. We
quickly changed sets and it was
sorted and everything was as
expected. The one area where
ASROCK does excel lately is in
the BIOS layout and features.
This BIOS is for obvious
reasons not as comprehensive
as the one you’ll find on the
OC Formula, but it’s designed
around the same concept. We
may not care much for the
sparkling stars, but save for
that it’s very good. Everything
is laid out logically and
navigating it becomes second
nature even if you’ve never
used an ASROCK board before.
It just makes the entire process
a lot more pleasant. Be it you’re
configuring the system for your
gaming needs or in preparation
for your frequency records, the
BIOS is straight forward.
The Dehumidifier option is a
nonstarter as we can’t figure
out how power cycling the
system can in anyway help
when you’ve cold bugged or
sufferi ng from humidity as
the name would suggest. If
anything we’d think you’d best
avoid that option entirely as you
run the risk of damaging your
hardware. Alas, it is there for
some reason or another. Where
ASROCK can make some
improvements is in some of the
explanations for the various
options. “Config the feature
of spread spectrum” is not
something we’d be expecting
from the outfit after so many
years. Ultimately its attention
to such minor detail amongst
others that prevent this board
from being an absolute must
have, leaving the door open for
competitors. Fortunately its
software and it can be easily
remedied.
Overall, a solid board that’s
certainly worth the investment
if you’re looking.
ASRock much like other
vendors finds itself in a
situation where they want
to sell AMD boards, but
the chipset just doesn’t
offer that much. So
the basic feature set is
near identical to others
boards at this price
range. Where we do feel
ASRock could have made
their product stand out
is in the package. There
was nothing stopping the
Extreme9 from including
a Wi-Fi dongle or adapter
and the same audio
solution found on some of
their Fatal1ty boards.
Would you buy it?
It’s cheap enough to
warrant a second look.
If the Formula-Z was too
much of a stretch, we’d
consider this board
The Score
[ TheOverclocker ]
K|NGP|N’s GUIDE:
PERMANENT PREP
your motherboard
for Liquid Nitrogen
I’ve always loved pictures of overclocking
setups bare without any insulation on
the containers, all frozen up. These
kinds of pictures are cool looking and
inspiring to me. Going back to the old
days when I would see pictures of
Team Japan overclocking legends, I
was amazed that they could run LN2
without any insulation at all and using
only paper towels/ tissue for absorbing
condensation. Living in a crazy humid
environment, this method usually didn’t
work for me using a bare untreated
motherboard, as it usually resulted in a
lake of water on the board. So I always
opted for as much insulation as possible
to be on the safe side, not caring about
how pretty the system looked. Being
in a less humid lab setting and not
wanting to spend tons of time insulating
anymore, I’ve learned what the absolute
minimum you can get away with is. In
this issue of TheOverclocker, I will show
you how I prepare a motherboard for
extreme overclocking on LN2/DI without
any insulation on the containers. It’s
permanent, quite easy and if the units
being used are on the blingy side, it’s
a nice way to show them off frozen at
demos and events during live benching.
As usual you’ll need masking tape for
painting, some flexible protective circuit
board lacquer such as Plastikote or
CPL, petroleum jelly (Vaseline is good),
foam insulation tape, paper towels
(“shop towels” are best as they are
REALLY absorbent and wick up water
nicely), Q-tips for applying grease to
small components, some scissors to cut
out the foam tape and towel gaskets.
1
2
3
4
STEP 1
WARNING:
This prep method will be
PERMANENT and provide you
with long term protection
for the motherboard against
condensation when done right.
Forget about an RMA though.
First we need to tape up all
slots; connectors and any other
places on the motherboard you
DO NOT want to spray such as the
CPU socket, memory slots, PCI-E
slots, peripheral, fan connectors
as well as voltage read points. In
addition unscrew and remove the
CPU socket latch before taping off
the socket itself.
Picture 1
STEP 2
PWM heat sinks must be removed
but the MOSFETs cannot get any
spray on them as it will affect their
ability to cool via the heat sink. We
can use some grease to make this
easy after everything is taped up by
putting some light grease on the end
of a Q-tip and applying a thin coating
on the entire top of each MOSFET.
This will ensure that the spray will
not stick to the top of the MOSFET
5
6
9
10
STEP 4
once dried, but you can still get the
legs protection from shorting.
Pictures 2 and 3
STEP 3
The board is now ready to be
sprayed. It’s always better to do
multiple light coatings as opposed
to fewer thick ones. Do one side at
a time until the board is completely
cured. Flip it over and do the same
the other side. I will usually apply
3 coats as that seems to be just
right. The lacquer spray is flexible,
so it will make a nice flexible bond
when fully cured that won’t crack
or peel as long as you follow the
steps detailed in the later part of
this guide. Before putting the PWM
sinks back on, be sure to wipe off
the grease you applied to the top of
the MOSFETs. There will be a "skin"
of lacquer that will come right off.
Only the top of the MOSFET surface
should be totally clean.
Pictures 4, 5 and 6
As an important protective step,
foam tape pieces must be cut to form
a barrier against the LN2 splashing
on the board as this can crack the CPL
coating and leave the board vulnerable
to moisture related failures. I usually
don't stick it down and just leave the
backing on the tape before putting it on
the board. This is better as if the tape
gets splashed with a lot of LN2, it won't
freeze and crack the lacquer coating
it’s stuck to underneath.
Pictures 7 and 8
7
8
11
12
STEP 5
STEP 6
Before mounting the container, be
sure to make a socket paper towel
gasket with some really absorbent
paper towel such as "blue shop
towels". This helps greatly in catching
moisture runoff that falls down to
the socket area during heating up of
the container. We don't do anything
to the pins or area underneath the
pins as it can lead to detection issues
with memory etc. So it's good to avoid
water dripping down in there always.
Pictures 9 and 10
All that is left for the final step is to
mount the container, pull the system
down and go for it. The container will
totally freeze up and really look cool
while you are benching. You’ll not
need to worry about any condensation
issues. You can wad up some paper
towel around the base of the unit for
extra protection when warming up
and also to keep frost from forming
in and around the socket. As long as
the unit stays totally frozen, there will
be very little water. What there is will
be handled by the towels. I bench a
few lab boards repeatedly using this
method and both are still running
perfectly after a combined 30+ LN2
sessions on them. As usual, be sure
to use lots of air circulation around
the socket area to keep falling LN2
vapor from freezing the memory and
PWM areas. Good luck and have fun!
Pictures 11 and 12
COOLER MASTER Seidon 240M
ERP: $94.99 | Website: www.coolermaster.com
Test Machine
(3404)
Platinum 2x4GB DDR
2666MHZ CL10
• OCZ Vertex 4 256GBSSD
1500W
A
s coolers evolve with
each generation, they
stay very close to
each other in performance.
That is to say, from the first
generation all in one coolers
to now, they have migrated
together in performance.
Taken for granted by
many of us, but still widely
misunderstood by the vast
majority of “gamers” is the
real or perceived effect of all
in one water cooling. Moving
from a good to great air cooler
or any of these systems is
not likely to net you any extra
speed on your CPU. Upgrading
from an NH-D14 to the H110
is unlikely to gain you 50MHz
let alone 100MHz. So what
we are looking at with such
coolers is more than just
idle and load temperatures.
Essentially we are looking
for convenience. Imagine if
you will you’re testing a lot
of hardware, binning CPUs,
testing NB or IMC. The ease
in which these coolers come
off is almost as important
if not more so than outright
cooling capacity. This is where,
the divergence between
overclockers and power users
in needed in the utilitarian
purposes of the coolers they
buy. For overclockers and for
us here at TheOverclocker,
we are swayed by simple and
efficient installation of these
heat sinks. We can imagine that
those who test large quantities
of CPUs as well (let’s find the
right one shall we –Ed) would
want a system that comes
“We kept tabs on the cooling performance for
about an hour with the system under load and
found that it’s not that far off from the H100 which
is our reference cooler.”
apart in seconds and can be put
together with equivalent haste.
Such unfortunately isn’t
the case with the Seidon
like many other solutions
for several vendors.. The
installation mechanism, while
notably better than on many
competing products, is still a
little long winded. We are all
for copying things that work
and the mounting system
that CORSAIR has on their
Hydro series works well, this
one not as much. However
we do understand that this
is primarily for users who
will rarely need to uninstall
the unit once setup. As a
semipermanent installation
then, it’s not bad at all.
How efficient is this cooler
for the price you’re paying?
Well, it’s rather good at its
designated function. We
kept tabs on the cooling
performance for about an
hour with the system under
load and found that it’s not
that far off from the H100
which is our reference cooler.
In fact, for all intents and
purposes it produced near
identical numbers. That is,
our 3970X under full load
reached 68’C at its warmest.
Some very good performance
there and no doubt better
than we had expected from
the Seidon. We do suspect
that with some settling of
the TIM, the temperatures
could be marginally better,
but for the most part it did its
job in a stellar manner. As a
suggestion to Cooler Master
we’d like to see a beefier
radiator as the standard one is
fairly thin which obviously isn’t
helping the cooler efficiency.
We sincerely hope that with
the next outing, Cooler Master
considers a radiator that’s a
few mm thicker. Not only to
separate it from the plethora
of near identical 240mm dual
radiator offerings but to offer
improved performance, with
quieter or lower rpm fans.
With all that said, at $95 the
240M is priced keenly. Yes it’s
a mere $15 cheaper than the
H100i, but for those who are
on a stringent budget, perhaps
this just may be enough of a
reason to have them stick with
the Seidon 240M.
As for the noise levels
mentioned earlier, we found
that the 240M could do with
some improvements. Not in
so much the pump making a
noise, but the fans. At max
tilt they are unbearable and
the performance gains are
marginal for it. This also holds
true for the system operating
at nominal fan speeds. It’s
louder than it should be which
somewhat defeats the purpose
of installing water cooling
for many people. It’s nothing
a quick change of fans can’t
fix, but this is a unit from
Cooler Master and we would
have expected quieter, more
efficient fans.
In our short time with the
Seidon 240M, what we found
is that despite the vendor’s
esteemed reputation amongst
enthusiasts and power users
alike. Cooler Master hasn’t
really done anything to make
their offering in this increasingly
crowded market special. With
many other options around,
one has to wonder why some
more care was not taken into
designing this cooler, if not
for performance but at least
aesthetically. It works exactly
as advertised but that’s about
it. Why buy this cooler when
there are possibly others which
offer the same performance
for a small price premium
and perhaps others at a lower
price. It’s neither here nor
there and it leaves us feeling
rather uninspired. We certainly
wouldn’t advise anyone against
it, but we would encourage
some more deliberation before
committing to the purchase.
[ TheOverclocker ]
Summary
Looking for a basic
240mm all in one unit?
Well you should start
here and perhaps stop
here depending on your
budget and needs. It’s not
the best in the business
but it’s competent enough
in our books. A few
changes here and there
could make this into a
real contender in the high
end cooling game. The
Seidon 240M delivers the
goods at $95 then.
Would you buy it?
At the right price sure
thing, if we’ve a little
more to spend though,
we’d consider something
beefier.
The Score
INTEL 335 240GB SSD
ERP: $194.99 | Website: www.intel.com
Test Machine
• Intel Core i7 3970X
(3404)
Platinum 4x4GB DDR
2666MHZ CL10
1500W
S
F-2281 powered drives.
What haven’t we said
already about such
SSDs? This is the default
controller these days and
if you’re not sure about a
drives’ internals, chances
are its powered by one of
these. They have become
ubiquitous in the market, that
even people who are not by
any measure technocrats are
familiar with them.
These are not bad
controllers per say, as
they do depending on
configuration allow for drives
to have completely different
characteristics from one
another. On the low end you’ll
get off the shelf solutions
which pretty much produce
the kinds of results we first
saw when the controller made
its debut. On the opposite end
of the spectrum you may find
drives such as the KINGSTON
Hyper X 3K which are amongst
the upper echelon of consumer
grade SSDs.
This capacity to cater and be
tailored to different markets is
possibly one of the controller’s
strongest selling points. We
have had more than our fair
share of such drives, but
there’s no indication that they
will stop anytime soon. They
sell and consumers demand
them, so we best get used to it.
In as far as INTEL is concerned
the 335 series drives are as
with the 520, powered by this
controller. We’d like to tell you
something interesting here
in about the hardware but we
simply can’t. There’s no DRAM
to speak of for caching and the
only remotely interesting facet
of this drive is the 20nm NAND
that INTEL has gone with. What
that means in essence is that
the NAND lasts a shorter time
than the larger lithography
NAND but INTEL assures us
that the drives are still good for
1.2Million hours. Add a 3 year
warranty to that and you’re
looking at once again, a fairly
off the mill drive.
If you’re looking at top notch
performance, well you’ll not
find it here. It’s not to say the
drive is slow though, as we
recorded sequential read
performance higher than
what we did with the Vertex4,
also in the issue. That’s some
stellar performance there
in that discipline, but after
that the praises stop. From
there on it behaves much
like a generic drive with
sequential write numbers
lower than 250MB/s and a
4K Write that is particularly
low at 97.82MB/s (less than
one third the performance
of the CORSAIR Neutron
240GB). We also found the
IOPS performance somewhat
average but it could be that we
“This capacity to cater and be tailored to
different markets is possibly one of the
controller’s strongest selling points. “
All results were obtained at 4800MHz s on a normal install of Windows 7 64-bit. These are our results, yours may vary
so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system
Drive
Average Read
Average Write
4K
Read(QD32)
4K Write
(QD32)
Read IOPS
Write
IOPS
Maximum IO
response time
(ms)
OCZ Vertex 4 512GB
463,5
509,3
306,6
318,6
71962,4
85423,25
9,2627
Corsair Neutron GTX
240GB
473,6
496
294,3
316,2
76753,7
83326,26
8,3643
Corsair Neutron 240GB
457,3
370,9
284,9
307,9
76642,4
82769,19
11,2734
INTEL 335 240GB SSD
486,9
239,6
183,5
97,82
31971,3
58152,8
11,7661
were spoiled by the 520 drive
which boasted particularly
good performance.
Despite all the numbers,
what one must be mindful
of is the selling price of this
drive. At $195 it stops being a
mediocre to average drive and
becomes quite attractive in
the right usage scenario. This
is not one for the enthusiast
but more for those wanting
to migrate from traditional
magnetic storage to an SSD.
So you can either use this drive
in a LAN PC, in a test bench
for your 3D Benchmarks,
or in a HTPC. None of these
contexts necessitate the need
for an overtly fast SSD and the
INTEL 335 will do just fine.
More appropriately though,
we’d imagine that if you’re one
looking to upgrade a notebook
that you may have had for a
while, this is the easiest way to
do it, cheaply and effectively.
Just be sure that your
notebook can actually fit this
drive as it’s not 7mm in height
like some of the newer drives
but a full 9.5mm. Indeed ‘tis an
odd packaging decision then
considering the evangelism for
Ultra books.
For those who are feeling
a little more adventurous
you could try your hand at
installing this on your PS3, to
help load times and such, but
we think that spending $200
on a marginal upgrade for a
$300 console isn’t wise. It is
however interesting.
In closing we, state once
again that this isn’t a high
performance drive, so do not
look to it for performance over
your existing LSI powered
drive as you’re likely to be
disappointed. It’s just an
affordable entry into SSDs
offering decent performance
and enough capacity to
be useful. It’s hard to be
overly critical of the drive at
this price point. We do not
recommend it for more power
users, but for everyone else
do consider it thoroughly as
you could do a lot worse than
this drive for significantly
more money.
[ TheOverclocker ]
Summary
The INTEL 335 240GB
SSD isn’t the quickest
drive on the block. Not
by any stretch of the
imagination, but that
doesn’t mean it’s slow
either. Slightly above
average for an SF-2281
powered drive, but with
that it does come in at a
very attractive price.
Would you buy it?
We’d shop around a bit
first and consider some
other options before
committing to this drive.
Not bad though.
The Score
MSI N660 HAWK
Hardware Award
RRP: N/A (around $250) | Website: www.msi.com
Test Machine
• ASUS Rampage IV
Gene(3404)
Platinum 2x4GB DDR
2666MHZ CL10
• OCZ VERTEX4 512GB SSD
1500W
• Windows 7 64-bit SP1 (FW
313.96)
W
e don’t often review
mid-range graphics
adapters here at
TheOverclocker. We, for the
most part - pretend they do not
exist and focus primarily on the
$399 USD GPUs and up that all
truly competitive overclockers
concern themselves with.
That hasn’t changed and is
unlikely to in the foreseeable
future. With that said, it is
very apparent just how many
overclockers on HWBOT use
the cheaper graphics cards.
When we last checked there
were over 3,000 submissions
made with the GTX 560 Ti.
Granted this is the GTX 660 we
are looking at here with around
300 submissions. It does
highlight the fact that, there
are some overclockers who
either prefer overclocking the
lower end cards for hardware
points and trophies. Or, as
we’ve known for a while, the
more favourable pricing of
these lower end cards means
a lot more people have access
to them.
Regardless of the
motivators, it’s clear that
there is a market for these in
the overclocking ecosystem.
MSI is most certainly aware of
this and thus have produced a
stellar card in the N660 HAWK.
This is essentially a Lightning
GTX660 card, but for whatever
reason MSI has gone with
the HAWK name. With that
you’ll get the MSI Afterburner
software that allows you to
change the usual Core Voltage,
Power Limit, Memory and
Auxiliary Voltage. You’ll also
get and most importantly the
GPU Reactor. MSI will tell
you about their Military Class
III components, but all they
are essentially is hi quality
capacitors and MOSFETs.
The card is designed for sub
zero cooling, at least more so
than any other GTX 660 on the
market.
As a competitive overclocker,
you’ve little to no choice but
to buy this card if GTX 660
overclocking is what you’re
after. This one is just that
much more refined than any
other one on the market, for
the reasons stated previously
and more. As with all MSI
overclocking graphics cards,
be mindful of that fact that
the normal* MSI Afterburner
can only take you so far. You’ll
need an unlocked version to
truly tap into the potential
of the card amongst a few
modifications you may have to
make to the card physically.
Add NVIDIA’s limitations to
what can actually be done
with software and we’d put to
you that you’re better off with
just the soldered mods and
use the software for adjusting
clock speeds only. You’ll
All results were obtained at 4800MHz on an un-optimized Windows7 64-bit. These are our results, yours may vary so
only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system.
Clocks
MSI NGTX680 Lightning
MSI N660 HAWK
MSI N660 HAWK OC
3DMark Fire
Stream
1.11GHz/6GHz
1.08GHz/6GHz
1.22GHz/7GHz
not only have an easier time
(depending on who you know)
finding the mods, you should in
theory have more control over
the card.
That is just about it for the
overclockers as far as this
card is concerned. For the
gamers, the N660 HAWK
offers near GTX 660 Ti
performance, if only because
of the very high speed memory
and factory OC. It isn’t going
to blow your socks off, but it’s
sufficient enough to put up a
good fight against the more
expensive reference GTX 660 Ti.
Unfortunately, this card isn’t
available everywhere. It’s
of limited availability in the
markets it’s in and in others
just not at all. Where you can
find it the pricing may be too
close to that of the GTX 660
Ti - which begs the question
of why buy this when for $20
to $30 more you could buy the
MSI N660Ti (Power Edition).
It’s a tricky situation and one
that has maybe disadvantaged
this card in some ways.
Nonetheless this is still a nifty
3DMark11
3DMark
Vantage
Catzilla: Tiger
Hitman:Absolution
(Ultra 4xAA)
49,82
6960
11237
41105
9595
Graphics:
7504
Graphics:
10975
GPU Score:
38944
Hardware
(GPU+CPU):
9215
4794
7683
31002
6660
Graphics:
5009
Graphics:
7202
GPU Score:
27584
Hardware
(GPU+ CPU):
6417
34,62
5054
7921
32471
7064
Graphics:
5281
Graphics:
7424
GPU Score:
29173
Hardware
(GPU+ CPU):
6812
graphics card. Do not be put
off by the results as those are
against the NGTX680 Lightning
and of course against that
card, very few will manage to
impress. Look at it for what
it is and realize that there’s
some fun to be had here with a
little bit of overclocking for the
gamers, and even more so for
the overclockers. It’s equally
impressive in the hands of
either and we’d go so far as
to say it would be a shame to
not run this card at 1.2GHz or
more, which shouldn’t be a
problem as it’s a mere 50MHz
above the default boost clock.
The availability of this
card may be a problem for
some, but if you are in region
where it is available and the
high end graphics cards are
simply not an option. Do give
the N660Hawk a look as it’s
better than what you may have
suspected. It was certainly
more impressive than we were
willing to give it credit for before
testing, so go on and get buy the
card, you’ll not regret it.
[ TheOverclocker ]
38,14
Summary
As far as GTX 660 cards
are concerned, this
is easily the best in
the lot. It walks a fine
line between 660Ti
performance and being
priced out of relevance.
Fortunately it manages
to fall on the right side.
Be it you’re looking for
hardware points or an
affordable gaming card.
You can’t do better than
the N660 HAWK where
the GTX660 is concerned.
Would you buy it?
Of course we would. It’s
the best GTX660 on the
market.
The Score
IT’S AN ODD
WORLD!
Why the DIY market simply can’t
maintain these old ways.
“Y
our company isn’t what
you say it is. It’s what you
customers believe it to be!”
– A profound person.
There’s no hiding from the truth
that faces this industry. The truth has
been starring at us for several years
now and while it was easy to ignore
it, turning a blind eye isn’t working
anymore.
The apparent need for many
companies to diversify into different
spheres is a clear indication of the
shrinking or rather increasingly
saturated markets. It’s not
necessarily that end users have less
money to spend per say (this is true
in part no doubt), but it’s probably
that there’s very little to incentivise
the same spend as before.
Take for example the multitudes
of vendors that have gotten into AIO
cooling solutions, gaming keyboards,
mice, mouse mats, gaming headsets
and headphones. There are more
competitors than there is room.
The oddest thing about this is that
virtually every vendor sights the
same reason for entering these
markets which is, “New revenue
streams and higher margins on
peripherals”. This may be a viable
strategy under certain conditions;
however that isn’t the case if there
are 50 competitors where there
were previously 15. In reality as a
vendor you’ll likely end up in the
same situation that pressured you
into seeking other markets outside
your primary business model.
In essence you’ve not solved the
problem, but merely attempted to
avoid dealing with it by casting your
already limited resources to other
ventures. Chances are that the same
inadequacies that made it difficult
to sell your wears will be present in
these new ecosystems.
Ideally any venture into
new territories should not be
underpinned solely by the need to
cushion an increasingly thinning
bottom-line. That in itself doesn’t
guarantee failure, but going about
these new business interests with
no sensitivity to this is going to yield
very little. It’s also in some ways,
cheeky to your potential customers
in the following way.
As a vendor you’re assuming that
whatever brand power you had in
your native market is as compelling
as it is in this new landscape. Most
importantly, you’re making the
assumption that you necessarily
have something better to offer
than those who have been in the
business significantly longer. It may
be a positive attitude to have, but it
doesn’t make it a realistic or useful
one for that matter.
Here are two examples which are
very contradictory to each other. One
vendor made a genuine and earnest
effort and succeeded. The other, well
let’s just say there are a lot more of
these.
Vendor (A) several years ago
began making sound cards. Not
budget or entry level cards, but
true high end and gaming audio
cards. Fast forward to today and
they are virtually unmatched in that
department. From gaming products
to true audiophile grade DACs;
their family of audio products is
remarkable.
Vendor (B) or rather Vendors (B),
decided to make gaming keyboards,
mice, headphones and mouse
bungees. Some went on to make USB
flash drives, SD cards, portable hard
drives, etc. This list is endless and
as long as the number of companies
that fall into this category. Not all of
them are mediocre in these devices,
some are quite successful, but for
the most part that’s less than a
handful. The rest are neither here
nor there, making either uninspired
products or mediocre products at
best.
This happens primarily because;
many vendors have it in them
that marketing their wares is
something that is dictated at the
end of their development cycle. In
essence, anything can and should
be manufactured. As long as it can
have a price attached to it, it can be
sold. This may be true in some other
business models and economies,
Issue 23| 2013 The OverClocker 29
but as far as the DIY market is
concerned, it isn’t so.
Most products and brands
associated with them serve one or
two purposes. They either justify
their cost to the customer through
their function, or their brand identity
is so strong it makes a statement
about that individual by merely
having purchased said product.
Serving any one of these purposes
is fine, however serving neither is a
problem as you can imagine.
Price may be a strong incentive
for customers to buy your products,
but price is not something you can
put into your products, but rather
something that anybody can dictate
to you. Simply put, there’s always
someone who can sell a similar
enough product for less.
Thus, it’s imperative that vendors
be in tune with what it is their end
users want, not their distributors.
It’s absurd to be concerned with what
the distributor is willing to sell and
isn’t willing to sell. They are not the
source of the money you make. The
end users who walk into brick and
mortar stores and buy online are
where the money comes from. This
massive disconnect and absence
of discourse between vendors and
their end users is a major part of this
problem.
SELL, SELL, SELL
What does selling components or
products to end users have to do with
sales?
Nothing!
It sounds asinine, but it’s true.
The sale of a product is a single
transaction. It is not the end all,
be all of the relationship between
a vendor and the end user. In fact
I would argue that, the part of
selling, is confirming a commitment
made long before the sale is even
considered.
To get that commitment however
takes some doing on the part of the
vendor. In essence, your marketing
gets people to commit to a product.
Your sales people would then
monetize that commitment. So if the
marketing fails, then the chances of
that subsequent conversion taking
place are severely diminished.
Vendors often forget that for end
users, there’s always another
option. Always!
It seems that in product
development, the people with the
least influence are the ones who
are the closest to the consumer.
That is, any marketing department
is always going to be more in tune
with end users than any sales or
engineering team. Yet, the opinions
of marketing teams are considered
last and deemed of least importance.
The engineering/backroom teams
dictate what a company can make
and what they are making. The sales
teams then force or persuade their
distributors and then finally the
marketing teams must sell what’s
already out in the channel. It takes no
measure of genius to figure out that
this entire progression of events and
processes is backwards.
Obviously, there are times where
the process has to follow this
peculiar trajectory but that in no way
implies that this is appropriate for
any and all contexts. It’s knowing
when this is applicable and when it’s
not that results in a vendor that’s
in touch with where their money
comes from. In essence a vendor
which is able to provide relevant and
compelling products to end users.
This is especially true for items that
are recursive such as CPU coolers,
motherboard, graphics and such.
I’ve noticed that very rarely, if
ever do vendor research what it was
exactly that swayed the purchasing
decisions of consumers one way or
the other. This is vividly evident in
the very dubious press releases and
marketing campaigns that litter the
internet daily.
A classic example is just how hard
it is for vendors to come to grips with
the fact that many consumers aren’t
concerned about the robustness of a
particular MOSFET, capacitor or how
long it can maintain its designated
function inside a 50’C hot box. There
are many such campaigns which
obviously sell what their respective
engineering teams sold them.
Forgetting that these “features”
have absolutely no meaning to the
customers; they are pushed as the
most salient points of a graphics
card or motherboard.
Often I find a vendors’ rhetoric
is that, it shows the quality of their
workmanship and that users want
to be assured that their components
will last 10 years or some such
drivel. Consider the absurdity of
that argument for a minute. These
vendors are hoping these very end
users they are trying to impress
will buy every new generation of
their motherboard or graphics
card, which is almost every 8 to
12 months. Why would a 10 year
lifespan interest them?
I mean not to undermine these
technical merits, but they are points
that can’t be sold nor should they
be. They are not points that are
going to result in “sales”. One can
imagine then, the difficulty that many
marketing people in this industry
“Your company isn’t what
you say it is. It’s what you
customers believe it to be!”
– A profound person.
face when they are tasked with
selling such features to a buying
public that doesn’t care.
Perhaps it would be wiser to
actually figure out what it is that end
users of specific demographics are
most concerned about and tailor the
products around that. At any rate, it
has to simpler than trying to write
a four hundred word press release
about a reference graphics card with
a 20MHz overclock.
ONE STEP FORWARD,
TWO STEPS BACK
A profound shortcoming of many
vendors is the assumption that
they are “world-leading”. Not only
is it not possible for all of them to
be “world-leading” it’s a vacuous
statement. There’s a certain
amount of delusional thinking that’s
needed to be at the forefront of any
undertaking. However, this must be
tempered with large doses of reality.
A truly progressive vendor
will borrow good ideas from the
competition and improve upon
them where there is room. There’s
a reason why your competitor is
doing better than you are. It may
simply be because of marketing, but
sometimes it’s because they have a
better offering. In truth, I’ve found
that the vendors with better products
often have better marketing as well.
There’s no causality there but there
is a certain measure of correlation.
For the challenge isn’t pandering
to the customers you already have,
who have some affinity towards
your brand. It’s managing to convert
a customer who was committed to
your competitor. The only way to do
that is to offer a truly better product
in as many ways as possible.
You go about that, by simply
mimicking what works and making
it better, while you discard what
doesn’t. This is another area where
it seems engineers are proving to
be very inadequate. For any team of
engineers to refuse implementation
of what is obviously a useful feature
is ridiculous. More so if this refusal
to implement said feature is because
“they deem it unimportant”.
Why would a potential customer
move to this vendor’s products
based on what the engineers think
is important? You have to appreciate
the irrationality of this somewhat. I
would think an engineering team’s
purpose is to design what is needed,
not what they feel is needed. Again,
it’s ok to be mildly delusional, but
ultimately the reality of the task at
hand must prevail.
TO KNOW THY COMPETITION
To truly beat a competitor, it requires
one to be very critical of their own
shortcomings. It mandates that one
looks in earnest at where they can
improve and make strides towards
proficiency. With that, a watchful eye
on the competition must be kept at
all times especially if they are in a
better position as far as brand value,
market penetration, volumes etc.
For instance, if you plan on making
audio equipment, it would be great
if you knew exactly who are the
key players in that market are.
For example, consider earphones
retailing for $90 to $120 USD. In
that price range, you’ll likely be
competing with Skullcandy, SMS
Audio, SOUL, BOSE and other
prominent brands. As a computer
DIY vendor, it’ll take a lot more to
convince the general public to buy
your product than price or features.
More than anything, it’ll need a
successful marketing campaign
married somewhat to good quality
audio. In this market you’re dealing
with a lot more branding than
when you’re competing with cases
and CPU coolers. This means your
product either has to be exceptional
or you need to make the customers
you already have from your core
business work for you. So the
individual that uses your case, your
cooler and your PSU for example
has to somehow be compelled to use
your earphones as well. That is, your
brand needs to be strong enough to
undermine the celebrity status of
many of the headphone companies
mentioned above.
Anything short of that will further
undermine the brand because all it
looks like is yet another PC company
getting into a market they have no
business being in.
OVERCLOCKERS AND GAMERS –
NOT SO DISTANT COUSINS
It’s a generally thought that if
hardware can survive the strain
overclockers put it through, then
it should be more than capable for
gamers. This is true for the most
part and is likely to remain so for the
foreseeable future.
What may not be obvious though
are the needs overclockers
have versus those of gamers. A
misconception is that there’s a
huge disconnect between gamers
and overclockers. This isn’t true
simply because the vast majority
of overclockers actually got into
overclocking via gaming. In fact
some continue to have gaming as
part of their everyday lives.
How is it then that many of the
vendors I’ve spoken to have very
little understanding or knowledge
of services such as EA’s Origin,
UBISOFT’s Uplay or the biggest
of them all, STEAM? Is it not the
equivalent of not knowing about
HWBOT, or some years back
XtremeSystems?
If as a vendor you wish to use
overclockers to sell your wares to
gamers, then does it not make sense
to know the services that gamers
use? In fact STEAM has very useful
statistics about the gaming habits of
users which could prove very useful
in structuring marketing campaigns
and possibly product development.
Moreover, these services and
the statistics provided can help
formulate a more realistic idea
of what it is their end user is like,
allowing the vendor to create more
focused products and selling them
the right way to an audience that’s
already paying attention.
NVIDIA and AMD offer game
bundles with their GPUs (Well
NVIDIA’s bundle is woeful at best but
that’s another story), however that is
not a consistent offer and such game
keys will stop being offered as they
are used up in inventory. The better
approach as add-in board partners
is to bundle these game licenses via
download codes, independent of AMD
and NVIDIA. Would that not create
value on the side of the vendor rather
than the GPU manufacturer? If need
be, have end users, register their
hardware so they can gain access to
STEAM or Origin codes.
I have previously heard that the
pricing may be an issue, but I put to
you this. Any gamer who is spending
$199 or more on a graphics card
will not be turned away by a $10
premium on a title that is actually
worth having. One may then say, “$10
titles are generally not good.” Well,
this isn’t true because indie games
are big right now and many of them
are retailing at around this price. The
title isn’t the issue, but creating value
is. There’s isn’t much additional
value you can create with another
HDMI-DVI dongle.
As for the overclockers, well there
isn’t much you can do for these
individuals. The bundling of 3DMark
or any other benchmark isn’t likely
to affect purchasing decisions. It is
hardware that’s going to make all
the difference here. Small things
like labelled read points, sites
for attaching trimmers and the
like would be greatly appreciated.
There’s no need for the trimmers to
be included in the package, but just
small labels here and there would
do the trick. It may not seem like
much but it would be adding value
to the graphics card. Best of all it
doesn’t cost more.
AN ESCAPING THOUGHT
There are many more issues here
that I’ve not mentioned or have
even thought about. The point being
made is that, there’s a severe lack
of pragmatic and creative thinking
in the industry. What looks to be
an industry in its twilight years
is merely the demise of ideas
and practices that are no longer
applicable in today’s marketplace.
It’s not a problem of selling as
such but one of knowing what to
sell and how to go about it. Some
consolidation is inevitable for sure,
but the demise of an entire industry
isn’t necessary.
In closing, I’ve chosen to speak
in general in the above editorial
and not specifically mention any
vendor or service provider. Whatever
shortcomings I have highlighted
are synonymous with more than
one company. It’s the parity in the
inadequacy of approaches that’s
important, rather than the specific
pitfalls. Here’s hoping this all
changes going forward, changes for
the better.
[ -Neo Out! ]
“There’s no hiding from the truth that
faces this industry. The truth has been
starring at us for several years now and
while it was easy to ignore it, turning a
blind eye isn’t working anymore.”
HWBOT Cou
GREECE, FINALL
E
very year, since 2009, HWBOT
organizes the biggest and
arguably the most prestigious
online overclocking competition
during the last month of the
year. The competition goes by the
name of Country Cup and revolves
around national overclocking teams.
The thing is: everyone can join the
national team and contribute to the
country's ranking - all you need to do
is overclock the right hardware and,
boom!, you're in the national team. As
said, the Country Cup series started
in 2009 with two consecutive wins
for Romania, followed by the first
victory for Poland in 2011. This year,
Greece finally took their first crown
after finishing fourth in 2010 and a
close second in 2011. Poland, last
year's victors finished second and
Bulgaria finished on third place for
the second time in the history of the
Country Cup. This year's edition was a
bit shorter in duration than last year’s
edition, but only featured six different
stages instead of the usual seven. The
stages of this year’s Cup, held from
November 22 until December 30,
required the countries to overclock a
variety of hardware, including some
old and rare items as well as a couple
of more recently released platforms.
As the Country Cup tradition
dictates, each stage requires a number
of different overclockers to combine
results to form the best possible
country average. The best average
(highest or lowest depending on the
benchmark) wins the stage. The point
distribution was equal for each stage,
making every stage as important as
the next one. 25 points for the winner,
18 for the runner up and 16 for the
second runner-up all the way down
to two points for number 17. Every
participating country, read: enter
one score, was awarded at least one
point and therefore getting an official
Country Cup rank!
STAGE 1 – 3DMARK11 TRINITY
FULL OUT
The first stage of the competition was
based on the AMD Trinity platform.
No, not the usual “let’s-play-IGP” as
HWBOT was already hosting a couple of
vendor-supported Trinity competitions
featuring the IGP, but a proper full-out
all-in max-the-score concept. Use as
ntry Cup 2012
Y VICTORIOUS!
much GPU horsepower as you can and
see how the Trinity platform weighs
up against the Intel-based monster
systems out there. For this stage, only
one score was required to complete
the team’s “average”. In the end, it was
Greece that took the crown in the first
stage with Aristidis, ex-number one
of the HWBOT Xtreme Overclockers
League, pushing his A10-5800K to
5.88GHz and combining it with three
Radeon HD 7970 graphics cards only
cooled with water-cooling. Aristidis
held off Poland’s Xtreme Addict who
came less than a hundred points short
despite having a CPU that clocked past
6GHz and a triple GPU Crossfire LN2
GPU configuration. Bulgaria ended up
third with an even more impressive
CPU, clocked at 6.1GHz. Even though
overclocking is mostly about hardware,
tweaking and optimizations still play a
significant role!
STAGE 2 – 3DMARK03 NVIDIA SLI
CHALLENGE
A bit more challenging perhaps
than the AMD Trinity stage was
Stage 2 where the overclockers
had to push older Nvidia graphics
cards to the maximum in a 2xGPU
SLI configuration. The requirement
for this stage was to form the
best possible average score using
configurations based on three
different GeForce generations. The
stage was limited to the GeForce
7, GeForce 8 and GeForce 9 series,
restricting it to older hardware and
preventing the new (read: expensive)
high-end graphics cards to take over
the competition. The required skill set
needed for overclocking is unique for
each generation and type of hardware.
In other words, it’s not because you
are very good at overclocking the
latest GTX 680 that you’ll also easily
take down records in the GeForce 7, 8
or 9 classes. Different architectures,
different problems. Poland took the
win in this one, combining excellent
scores of Xtreme Addict, Ivanov and
Johny_b, beating Greece (Mortisboy,
Varachio, Stelaras) and Germany
(Crazzzy85, Der8auer, Matti OC).
STAGE 3 – 1155/2011 BCLK
The third stage was, in terms of set
up, quite similar to the second stage.
Again, three different overclockers
had to form a country average, this
time focusing on the highest BCLK
validation with LGA1155 and LGA2011
platforms, but with different CPU
architectures. This is actually just a
very complex way of saying: push the
BCLK of your Sandy Bridge, Sandy
Bridge-E and Ivy Bridge processor
as high as possible. A seemingly
easy stage, but with surprisingly
great results! Greece scored the best
average, thus getting ranked number
one. Indonesia came in second this
time, scoring only 0.30MHz higher
than Belgium. The most impressive
result of this stage was undoubtedly
Tiltevros‘ (Greece) X79 overall
reference clock frequency record of
179.16 MHz. An amazing result that
takes away a bit of the spotlight that
Finnish overclocker Luumi should get
as he managed an impressive 163 MHz
earlier in the competition. Russian
overclocker S_A_V managed the
highest LGA1155 submission, hitting
115.84 MHz, which is about 1MHz short
of the LGA1155 BCLK record.
STAGE 4 – AMD SUPERPI 1M
With thirty-three countries entering
the fourth stage of the Country Cup,
the AMD SuperPI 1M stage was the
most competitive (or most popular)
this year. The task was pretty
simple: obtain a SuperPI 1M result
with five different AMD platforms,
distinguished based on socket type.
Looking at the results in previous
AMD online overclocking competitions
it cannot be called a surprise – but
actually it still kind of is – that the win
went to Bulgaria. For some reason,
Bulgarian overclockers are very
strong when it comes to fine-tuning
AMD systems. They took the gold,
by quite a large margin, holding off
Greece and Indonesia. The winning
line-up consisted of: lkozarov, Mollov,
More, GunGod, and of course I.nfraR.
ed, each of them setting a top three
score in their hardware class. Very
impressive!
STAGE 5 – LOW-END NVANTAGE
The second to last competition
stage was without any doubt the
most difficult one in terms of finding
the right gear to compete. The
stage configuration was not very
complicated: try to get the best
“As the Country Cup tradition dictates, each stage
requires a number of different overclockers to
combine results to form the best possible country
average. The best average (highest or lowest
depending on the benchmark) wins the stage.”
possible average 3DMark Vantage
Performance score with a GeForce
GT 220 GDDR3, GeForce GT 320,
GeForce GT 430, GeForce GT 530 and
a GeForce GT 630 DDR3. Especially
the GT 320 and GT 530 proved to be a
difficult challenge as both are OEMonly editions. Practically, this means
that EBay and other sources of second
hand hardware had to be checked
to find the hardware. Difficult – yes,
annoying and frustrating – sure. But,
the Country Cup is just that: not your
regular overclocking competition, but
designed to challenge overclockers in
every way possible. Including the hunt
for the right hardware! Again it was
Greece that took the win in this stage,
outscoring Bulgaria and Indonesia.
Together with the top three, Poland
was the only country to find all five
necessary parts to compete. Greece
did grab a well-deserved win, though,
as they used an external PWM (EVGA
Untouchable) for a couple of cards.
That is extreme!
STAGE 6 – S775 SUPERPI 32M
The last and final stage of the
competition was again one with older
hardware: LGA775, five in total.
Figuring out which components to use
wasn’t that difficult: E8700, E8600 and
all the other Wolfdale CPUs. Bulgaria
did just that, forming a line-up of
E8600 all the way down to E8200,
but only came in third. Greece took a
slightly different approach, including
also an E7600 and came in second. But
the big winner of the sixth stage was
Poland, which didn’t only use the rare
E8700, but also figured out the exotic
Xeon E3120, the server counterpart of
the E8500, could be used to compete.
Nifty and smart! On average, Poland
was about twelve seconds faster
than runner-up Greece and twentytwo seconds faster than third place
Bulgaria. Impressive, that’s for sure!
IN CLOSING
With a record high participating
countries in this year’s Country Cup,
HWBOT and its staff are very satisfied
with the competition. Just like
every year, the level of competition
was – unlike what people would
assume judging by the amount of old
hardware – very high again. And we
can say that not only speaking about
the competition internally, but also
when comparing the competition
results to the rest of the database.
With forty-seven new hardware class
records – 139x top five, and a highest
ever X79 BCLK frequency record,
it’s impossible not to congratulate
all the overclockers participating in
this competition with their excellent
performance. Apart from the couple of
complaints about the fifth stage, there
was not much controversy in this
Country Cup either, which is always a
pleasant experience for the staff. With
thirty-five countries participating,
this was also the most global wide
overclocking competition ever hosted
at HWBOT.
This year’s surprise is probably
Sweden, entering the top fifteen
for the first time in the Country
Cup history. United Kingdom was
leading the competition for a while,
but could eventually not reach the
top five overall. The top spots were
for the traditional teams: Bulgaria,
Poland, Indonesia, Belgium and,
yes, Canada, each of the teams and
their overclockers putting great
work and skill into the Cup. In the
end, however, there can only be one
winner and this year that is Greece!
With the strong, die-hard core of
Greek overclocking completed
with a lot of enthusiasts the Greeks
have proven over and over again
that it is one of they are one of the
leading countries in overclocking. A
tremendous big applause goes out to
the Greek line-up: Aristidis, Demac,
George_oc, GoriLLakoS, Kintaro,
Mortisboy, Phil, Stelaras, Tiltevros,
Varachio and Zafiropo. Well done!
We also like to thank our partner
Kingpincooling for providing a couple
of pretty awesome cooling pots for
the winning teams. We are currently
following up on the prize distribution
and shipping – apoligies to the winning
teams for the delay.
As for the last lines of this report,
I’d like to once again congratulate
every participant for their efforts and
results in this competition and invite
you all to the next year’s edition of
the HWBOT Country Cup 2013. But
first: let’s focus on the next Team Cup
coming in February!
‘Till the next time!
[ Pieter –Jan “Massman” Plaisier ]
The Walking Dead
RRP: $24.99 (PC) | Website: www.telltalegames.com
Y
ou are Lee Everett, history
teacher turned convicted
murderer. Following your
sentencing, you find yourself in
a cop car en route to your new
home, freshly renovated to have an
aesthetic that’s shockingly similar
to a prison. Only you never make
it there. The world goes to shit in
a heartbeat. Your car is wrecked
on the side of the highway, and you
awaken to find yourself injured and
alone in a world where the dead
have risen to overwhelm the living.
After barely surviving your first
series of terrifying encounters with
the walking dead, you find another
survivor: a young girl named
Clementine, whose parents were out
of town when the zombie apocalypse
came a knockin’. Together, you
plan to survive all this. This is The
Walking Dead, and it’s one of the
most important video games of the
last few years.
Not to be confused with
Activision’s The Walking Dead:
Survival Instinct, it’s based on the
comic book series of the same name
– which you likely already know has
spawned a TV series as well. True to
Telltale Games’ previous offerings,
The Walking Dead is an episodic
point-and-click adventure series
that’s split across five episodes.
While it can’t be called a “game” in
the strictest sense, because there’s
very little by way of traditional
gameplay mechanics or challenge,
it’s the story that makes it uniquely
alluring.
Each episode features various
plots and sub-plots, with an array
of simple puzzles appearing within.
The bulk of the game is really
focused on character development
and interaction, and the effect
that all of this is having on the
group of survivors that Lee and
Clementine join. As such, you’ll
spend a good deal of time engaged
in conversation with the various
characters, discovering more about
them, choosing whether or not to
be completely honest with them
about your chequered past, and
making incidental dialogue choices
that may seem innocuous at first,
but later may come back to haunt
you. Other than that, there’s not
really much to it: there are action
sequences, but they’re sparse and
generally boil down to things like
quick-time events that see you
mashing keys/buttons as directed
on-screen, or very basic point-
“The Walking Dead
is an episodic pointand-click adventure
series that’s split
across five episodes.”
and-shoot segments. To the game’s
credit, however, these sequences
often manage to be startlingly tense
– often sufficiently conveying utter
desperation – especially when they
catch you unawares.
As I said before though, this
is not about the action, or the
puzzles, or anything of the sort:
The Walking Dead’s strength lies
in its story, and in that respect,
it’s an absolute triumph. We’ve
had some truly significant video
game narratives appear these last
couple of years, but none quite like
this. Perhaps it’s because it feels
so human. Maybe it’s because its
characters are masterfully written
and meaningfully developed. I think
though, that it’s the bleakness of
it all that makes it extraordinary.
This is a game that is so carefully
hopeless, so purposefully grim,
that it stands well above any other
video game storyline that comes
to mind. I don’t think I’ve ever felt
as persistently miserable as I
have playing it. It’s an odd reason
to revere something that resides
within an entertainment medium
primarily focused on delivering
maximum fun with minimal
emotional consequence, but that’s
exactly why it’s unique.
As you walk the path of its
consistently depressing journey,
you’ll make a number of choices.
Not necessarily moral choices, but
choices that’ll affect the nature of
your experience. And while they
don’t change the story’s course,
they do have lasting effects that’ll
eat at you. As I alluded to earlier,
it might be something as simple
as a dialogue choice you make, or
it could be the result of a panicked
split-second decision during a
frantic scene wherein the game
puts pressure on you with a rapidly
dwindling timer. Either way, it’ll
leave you with plenty to think about.
You’ll meet a number of
interesting characters with unique
personalities along the way, and
you’ll find yourself growing to
either love or hate them – but
dominant amongst all the dynamic
relationships that absorb you
throughout is the one shared by
Lee and Clementine. Clementine
“You’ll meet a number of
interesting characters with unique
personalities along the way, and
you’ll find yourself growing to
either love or hate them...”
is the heart of The Walking Dead,
the embodiment of hope amidst
sheer hopelessness. She’s often
the driving force behind moments
of piercing tenderness in amongst
the stark misery of the rest of it
all. Watching their bond strengthen
from its awkward beginnings to
the emotionally potent exchanges
they have later is remarkable. It’s
the kind of virtual relationship that
you very rarely see in this industry
dominated by modern military manshoots and alien-infested corridors.
If I were forced to point out any
gripes I have with the game, I’d
glare directly at a few technical
fumblings. You’ll encounter
minor stuff like flashing textures
which are easy to overlook – but
something far more serious that
immediately springs to mind is one
instance when a character model
disappeared from the game world
entirely in an incredibly jarring
way. Stuff like that is so much
more conspicuous in a game so
emotionally fuelled. I also think it’s
time Telltale found a new engine
for its games. While I really like the
game’s stylised graphic novel look,
I can’t help but wish that it was a bit
more visually agile, especially to
augment the emotional displays of
its digital characters – although the
great voice acting does an excellent
job of offsetting this. For the most
part at least, because there are
moments when the voice work for
certain characters teeters on the
edge of pantomime. Otherwise,
there’s nothing I really feel the need
to complain about.
It’s difficult to point out exactly
why The Walking Dead is something
you should play when so much of
what makes it the brilliant game
that it is lies in its fiction, where
anything I say runs the risk of being
a massive spoiler. If you want a
game that’s packed with intense
action, or challenging puzzles, or
complex game mechanics, or any of
the stuff you’d traditionally expect
from games, be warned that you will
likely hate this game. But, if you’re
feeling adventurous, and you want
something that will offer an entirely
different experience, The Walking
Dead is definitely worth a look. It’s
an outstanding piece of interactive
storytelling.
[ Dane remendes ]
Would you buy it?
Yes. It’s easily one of the
best stories gaming has
ever told.
The Score
9/10
3
1
2
4
Hardware Award
ASUS ROG Xonar Phoebus
RRP: $189.99 | Website: rog.ausus.com
H
ow do you build a complete
gaming PC? Is it simply a
matter of buying the most
expensive hardware you can afford,
or is it something that requires a
little more care? We could argue
that, spending as much as possible
will eventually net you a great
machine (maybe not experience per
say) but for the wiser amongst us,
it takes a little more than that. You
can build a truly marvelous gaming
PC without a dedicated sound card
or audio controller, but I would
say that isn’t a complete system.
At least it’s not delivering the
best possible experience for your
investment.
Often, audio is overlooked and
understandably so, because
hardware accelerated audio is
all but done for. So what remains
are software solutions which the
modern day processors are more
than able to handle. So why would
one bother investing this kind of
money in a sound card? Well, the
answer is simply because it sounds
fantastic. Discreet sound cards of
this caliber (of which there aren’t
many), offer a genuinely superior
auditory experience than anything
you may find integrated on a
motherboard. Yes, this includes
gaming motherboards with semi
decent audio solutions.
$190 may seem like a lot of
money to spend on a marginal
improvement in audio fidelity.
However, I’d like to argue that
more often than not we spend our
hard earned cash on considerably
smaller gains, upgrading SSD’s,
graphics cards, power supplies and
what have you. With a sound card
like the Phoebus, you’ll appreciate
the improved audio quality
immediately and once you do, you’ll
unlikely be able to go back to onboard solutions. There’s a solidity,
punch and clarity that you get with
the Phoebus that is just absent
from many competing sound cards,
including some from ASUS itself.
For gaming purposes you could
opt for the Essence cards which
retail for around the same price,
but offer better performance (at
least on paper), but you’d miss out
on some key features that only
the Phoebus has. One such nifty
little device is the ROG Control
Box. This control box can act as a
microphone or a noise cancelling
device. It has simple things like
volume control, a mute button
5
and obviously Headphone-out/
Microphone-in connectors. Sounds
gimmicky I know, but once you use
it, it’s actually very convenient if
only because the noise cancelling
feature works very well.
There’s quite a bit to this sound
card that I’ll not be able to get
through in this body of text,
but suffice to say this is a great
package. The control box, only adds
to the value, however I’m aware
that some feel that a better price,
minus the control box would do
the trick. ASUS may be promoting
Xonar GX3.0 as a selling point,
but it’s not really useful anymore
because EAX and other such
hardware sound enhancement
techniques are only found in legacy
games. So with each passing year
this feature becomes even more
irrelevant.
So do not let that influence your
purchasing decision. What should
though amongst many other things
is the built in headphone amplifier,
the warm sound and just how
versatile the sound card is, be it
when playing games, listening to
music or watching movies. The
Xonar Audio Center is basic, but
none the less straight forward
while the Dolby Home Theater V4
software is a little more detailed.
Our experience with it leaves me
unmoved as it doesn’t do much
to improve what is an already
impressive signal. I personally
chose to leave it off and can’t say
I missed it. You’ll have to find out
what works for you, but it doesn’t
hurt having it as part of the package.
As said above, there’s just too
much to go into in this small space
I’ve been allocated, but I for one
grow increasingly more impressed
with the Phoebus. It’ll be hard to go
back to on board audio after this.
As a matter of fact, I think this one
may just be on my shopping list.
1
EMI shielding which you find on
all self-respecting audio cards
these days. It’s supposed to block
interference and it probably does,
however I’m not sure many people
would notice the difference if it
were absent.
of the older 4-pin MOLEX on some
of the other ASUS sound cards. This
connector is certainly better for this
kind of thing than the 4-pin.
4
Full 7.1Channel output support
with SPDIF digital output as
well. Should you have a real 5.1
channel headset, the Phoebus
will work exceptionally well with
it provided the headset is halfway
decent.
5
Control box with noise
cancelling for your
microphone. You can use it as a
microphone directly should you
not have such a headset as well.
This box supposedly suppresses
anywhere up to 50% of the ambient
noise that would otherwise be
picked up by the microphone.
[The OverClocker]
2
The CMI 8788HD audio
processor goes by the name of
Oxygen Express on the Phoebus.
It’s identical to the Oxgen HD
apart from being a native PCIExpress part. It supports the usual
bells and whistles including 192
KHz sampling rates and 24-bit
resolutions.
3
The Verdict
Phoebus is powered by a 6-pin
PCI-Express power plug, instead
Issue 23 2013 The OverClocker 45
7
CORSAIR Obsidian 900D
RRP: $349.99 | Website: www.corsair.com
I
f you presently believe you have
a big computer case, you’d best
think again. At CES earlier this
year CORSAIR released the 800D’s
successor, aptly named the 900D
or Godzilla if you will. If anything
warrants the “bigger” number it
would have to be the size of the
case. It’s massive, certainly the
biggest case I have ever seen to
date. The proportions almost look
ridiculous, but then again - this is
a $350 case so tiny isn’t what I was
expecting.
My current favorite right now is
the COOLER MASTER COSMOS 2.
Does the 900D look anywhere near
as cool? No, Most certainly not.
Don’t’ get me wrong, the 900D isn’t
an ugly case, it’s just that it’s not
designed in the same way that the
COSMOS 2 is. There are no curves,
no lines, essentially it’s just a box.
That however does not mean it isn’t
an exquisite chassis . Think of it
in the same way you would a Rolls
Royce Ghost. (At $350 USD yes
it’s the Rolls-Royce of the PC DIY
Market)
That will better help you
understand what the 900D is.
The finish is impressive, there
are no edges to cut yourself on,
all the buttons feel solid and the
aluminum front makes for one of
the best front panels I’ve ever seen.
This case grows on you despite its
somewhat mundane aesthetics the
first time you see it.
There are a ton of features I
could mention here but that’s in the
features break down and besides,
you could easily read that on the
website. What I’d rather tell you is
that if you’re planning on building
the ultimate gaming or power
machine. You’ve little choice but
to consider at the 900D. Just in
EDITOR’S CHOICE
AWARD
real-estate it trumps everything
else there is, while housing most
of the features that are present in
all other CORSAIR cases. It’s the
culmination of size and features
presented to you, you’re in some
ways forced to like it.
I didn’t have any XL-ATX boards
to install into this case, but suffice
to say the standard ATX board I did
install looked ridiculously small
inside. Much like how a micro-ATX
case would look inside the 800D.
So reserve this case for those new
generation X79 boards from the
tier one vendors. Throw a couple or
more GeForce Titans in there and
you’ll still have more than enough
space, to deck out the case with
several radiators and fans. When
you’re done it’ll weigh a ton but
then again this isn’t a LAN box, this
is for the Man pad.
The only thing I would suggest
1
4
6
5
2
3
for the 900D is four USB 3.0 ports
and not just two because all the
high end motherboards will have
at least two headers for USB3.0.
Other than that, I’ve no complaints
and in fact, as I was writing this I
realized just how much this case
impressed me. The looks could
have been better, but hey with a
case of this quality and price I can
forgive the absence of aesthetic
inspiration as it’s in near perfect in
every other way.
1
2 Push a button at the top and
the side panel comes of easily
3 Push this button above and you
can get to your PSU or two,
This panel comes off to reveal
a dust filter and another place
where you can install a triple
radiator should you so wish
radiator and such without having
to open up the entire case. Pretty
useful actually.
4
Front panel with a total of six
USB ports. As I said before, I
wish four of these were USB3.0 and
only two were traditional USB2.0
alas six is still better than four in
total on most cases
right at home here - or the more
recent EVGA dual socket boards.
7
Amongst the many places
where you can install fans
or radiator(s). As stated above,
if you deck this case out with the
maximum number of radiators and
PSUs you’ll likely not be able to
carry it anywhere.
[The OverClocker]
5
Most vendors claim a tool and
screw less drive mechanism,
then go on to have you mounting
your drives on trays using screws.
There’s none of that nonsense here.
These are the real deal.
The Verdict
6
It may not look like it, but there
is plenty of space here, as this
case fits every single enthusiast
motherboard on the market
today regardless of size. The old
GIGABYTE X58A-UD9 would feel
Issue 17 2011
April 2011 | Issue 14
rev 2.0
rev 2.0
THE WORLD’S BEST OVERCLOCKING ONLINE MAGAZINE. PERIOD.
THE WORLD’S BEST OVERCLOCKING ONLINE MAGAZINE. USUALLY.
INTEL
X79
THE SECOND
COMING!
the KING
IS HERE!
Reviewed
ASUS
MARS II
Gam
me
Revvieew
Feature
AMD FX
8150
WE CHECK OUT
BULLETSTORM.
Lifestyle
WARHAMMER:
SPACE MARINE
40,000 REVIEW!
pg.22
pg.18
pg.28
ASUS CROSSHAIR
IV EXTREME
TRANSCEND AXERAM
PC3-19200 DUAL
CHANNEL KIT
GIGABYTE GEFORCE
GTX560 TI SUPER
OVERCLOCK
Lifestyle
SAMSUNG
GALAXY TAB 10.1
WiFi 16 GB REVIEW!
Issue 19 2012
Issue 18 2012
rev 2.0
rev 2.0
THE WORLD’S BEST OVERCLOCKING ONLINE MAGAZINE. FOR REAL.
The
X79
board to silence
them all?
Feature
HWBOT
COUNTRY CUP
Reviewed
AMD
HD7970
Lifestyle
THE ELDER SCROLLS V:
SKYRIM
Intel 3rd
Gen i7
Power,
Performance,
Perfection.
Feature
INTEL Z77
MOTHERBOARD
BATTLE ROYAL
Reviewed
GIGABYTE
GV-N68OC-2GD
Interview
BRAZIL’S FINEST “RBUASS” SPEAKS
Lifestyle
KINGDOMS OF AMALUR:
RECKONING
rev 2.1
Issue 20 2012
rev 2.0
THE WORLD’S BEST OVERCLOCKING ONLINE MAGAZINE. ALWAYS.
Feature
Computex
2012
We cover the most prestigious hardware
event in our massive eight page feature!
KINGPIN’S
Z77 LN2
GUIDE
Reviewed
ASUS
MAXIMUS V
EXTREME
Reviewed
GIGABYTE’S Z77 UD3 Worth rapping about?
FIND
US
ON

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