Tech News
-
GO OC 2010 North American Final @ Techgage
Published: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 | By: DennisThere has been some good coverage of the GO OC qualifier in North America and it would seem that everyone focused on a different aspect of the event. Our friends from Techgage have posted a photo write up of the event that most everyone can appreciate
This past weekend, Gigabyte held its third GO OC NA final in Industry, California, and put fourteen of the best overclockers together in the same room and let them loose on Intel's Core i7-980X processor and Kingston's HyperX memory. We were there and have all the info, and more pictures than you can shake a memory stick at.
On a much more personal note we will be pushing hard to not only cover GO OC in 2011 but to also get someone from the Ninjalane HWBot team into the competition and hopefully win. -
Gigabyte GA-X58-UD9 @ PureOverclock
Published: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 | By: DennisThe mother of all motherboards is clearly the Gigabyte GA-X58-UD9. It might not be as extreme as the EVGA SR-2 or as colorful as some of the ASUS offering but in terms of pure technology the UD9 is the reigning king of the overclocking world.
While I personally feel that some of the features are overkill and unnecessary you cannot deny that to get ahead in the overclocking arms race you have to push the limits.We've seen many X58 motherboards since their initial launch, and lately some refreshes with SATA 6G and USB 3.0 coming to the market. But we've never seen a board with a price tag like the Gigabyte GA-X58-UD9. We are well aware of Gigabyte's reputation among overclockers, and truth be told, we're big fans as well, since we've seen them display some of the best stability and recovery from extreme overclocking we've ever encountered. But the UD9 is crazy expensive, so how do things shake out when we put the board on sub-zero cooling?
In terms of overclocking the board does great and while the GA-X58A-UD3R will do many of the things found on the UD9 it does have its limitations.
-
NL: Review Block - Processors
Published: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 | By: DennisHere is a first, can you tell what it is?
Processors
- Intel Core i7 875 K Performance and Overclocking @ ocaholic
- OC3D: Intel i7 970 Review
- AMD Phenom 2 X6 1090T CPU @ Rbmods
With the first ever posting of Processor reviews we also have cooling (btw we're still waiting for our Corsair H/A70 *hint*)
- Corsair H70 Hydro Series CPU Cooler Review @ Technic3D
- Corsair A70 Dual 120mm Fan CPU Cooler Review @ Legit Reviews
- Corsair Hydro H70 CPU Cooler Review @ Hardware Canucks
- XSPC Rasa Waterblock Review - XSReviewsSupercooling seems to be where my head is at lately, gonna start with SS Phase Change and attempt to graduate to something colder.
-
NL: Review Block - Forgetting to Remember, Memory
Published: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 | By: DennisYa lame title I know, but it made you look!
System Memory
- Patriot Sector 7 6GB DDR3-1800 @ PureOverclock
- Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB Kit 1600MHz (KHX1600C9D3B1K2) @ Bjorn3D
- A-DATA Plus Series PC3-15000 (1866MHz) 6GB Kit @ Tweaktown
- Funky Kit Review: Adata XPG DDR3-2200 4Gb Gaming Memory Kits
- G.Skill Flare DDR3 2000 MHZ C7 AMD kit review @ Guru3D
- G.Skill RipJaws DDR3 1333 review @ TweakPC
Solid State
- OCZ RevoDrive Review: SSD RAID + PCI-Express @ HotHardwareMemory reviews seem to have lost popularity in recent years, likely do to product line expansion common to most memory mfgs, so now instead of choosing the best memory you also have choices in SSDs, Flash Drives, and Power Supplies. The first 2 seem reasonable, but PSUs?
-
Modding article - Project: Arcade in Metku
Published: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 | By: DennisMame arcade cabinets are nothing new in the gaming world; they bring back the lost art of gaming we enjoyed as kids and do so without the nasty need for quarters.
This might be one of the cooler cabinets I have seen with a complete build log and helpful scripts to get you started.
When I was a kid, I wanted to play all these coin operated games but my parents didn't let me. From there on since I've wanted to build an arcade gaming cabinet. Now that I have the technical skills and financial means, why not?!
This isn't a full height arcade but rather one of the smaller desktop units that you would normally find in the bar to play video poker on.
-
BFG Tech Sending Out RMA Denial Letters @ Hardware Canucks
Published: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 | By: DennisThis is good considering the 3x GTX 260's I hunted high and low for are in fact BFG branded cards. So not only were the cards impossible to find, but now seem to be part of history.
It looks like BFG has finally received the final nail within its coffin and is officially “….winding down and liquidating its business” in their own words. Some of their customers who have recently sent in BFG video cards for RMA have begun receiving a letter from BFG along with their returned yet unrepaired product.
I guess paying extra for a well known brand like EVGA would have paid off in the end
-
Sapphire Radeon HD5770 Flex Reviews
Published: Thursday, August 12, 2010 | By: DennisIn celebration of our posting our review of the Radeon HD5770 Flex video card we're gonna feature some of the similar reviews from around the web. This new "Flex" card is pretty unique in that it not only supports quad monitor setups but more importantly Eyefinity over DVI.
Aside from that it's just like every other HD5770 card out there. Minus the overclocked ones, or cards with fancy watercoolers, or cards with snakes coming out of under the memory chips (which would be cool BTW)
- Sapphire HD5770 Flex @ LanOC Reviews
- GTX470 Vs 5770 CrossFire: Get in the ring special @ KitGuru
- Sapphire ATI 5770 1gig Flex Edition Video Card @ GeekInvaders
- Sapphire Radeon 5770 FleX @ PureOverclock
- XFX Radeon HD 5770 1GB Single Slot Review @ Hardware Canucks
- Sapphire Radeon 5770 FleX Edition @ HardwareHeaven
- Funky Kit Review: HIS Radeon HD 5770 IceQ5 (1Gb GDDR5)Sadly it would seem the Sapphire HD5770 didn't overclock very well, which isn't "that" much of a surprise, especially considering the hit or miss (keyword "miss") nature of overclocking with standard Sapphire product releases.
The Vapor-X stuff tends to do pretty well so all we can do is hold out for one of those cards to be released or better yet a dually version of the HD5770. Just imagine Radeon HD5770 X2, has a nice ring to it no?
-
NL: Review Block - Keeping Cool
Published: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 | By: DennisSomeone told me the other day that they felt aftermarket cooler options were not very good for the new processors. While this perception may be correct when shopping at your local computer crappy store the reality is completely different online.
We have looked at quite a few coolers for the Core i7 that constitute some of the best aftermarket options you can find. However that is not to say better coolers do not exist.
Here are some more cooler reviews from around the web
- OC3D: Corsair H70 Review
- Corsair Hydro Series H70 CPU cooler review @ Hexus
- Thermalright Venomous X CPU Cooler Review @ Real World Labs
- OC3D: Prolimatech Armageddon
- Zalman CNPS10X Performa CPU Cooler Review @ Real World LabsSadly no waterblocks this time around.
-
ASUS O!Play Air Media Player @ Techgage
Published: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 | By: DennisWhat is this ASUS Company you speak of? Oh ya, they are like Sony but tend to stay in the realm of hardware over creating earth shattering, mind altering, and society building storage formats like BetaMax, Compact Disk, and BluRay.
Techgage has posted a review of the new Asus O!Play Air Media Player which is quite similar to what you would get if you cross a Wii with the QNAP Media Player we reviewed. Of course it won't play games and does not appear to have any internal storage but that is only a minor annoyance.Have media on your PC, but want to watch it on anything but the PC? With ASUS' O!Play, getting that job done is simple. Take 30 seconds to hook it up to a TV, and you can stream media through a network, or via external storage, such as eSATA or USB. It's simple, and at $100, it's not too hard on your pocketbook, either.
For 100 bux I might buy one, however if I did what would I do with my Wii?
-
NL: Review Block: Video and Storage - How do they relate?
Published: Friday, August 6, 2010 | By: DennisHard to believe that I have been meaning to post "more" video card reviews, hate to say it but most of them we got expired in the inbox before they could be posted.
Video Cards
- HIS Silence Radeon HD 5570 Videocard Review @ Tweaknews
- Inno3D GeForce GTX 460 OC gets tested @ Guru3D
- HIS 5770 IceQ 5 Turbo Review @ KitGuru
- MSI GeForce GTX 460 Cyclone 768 OC Review @ TweakPC
- ASUS ENGTX 460 1GB review @ t-break
- AMD ATI RADEON HD 5670 1GB GDDR5 Video Card Review @ Madshrimps
- Asus EAH5670 HD 5670 1GB Graphics Card Review @ Tweaknews
- Gigabyte GTX-460 768 MB (GV-N460DS-768I-B) @ Bjorn3D
- MSI GeForce N460GTX Cyclone 1GD5 Overclocked Video Card Review @ Legit Reviews
- XFX Radeon HD 5830 XXX Review @ TweakPC
- MSI GeForce GTX 460 768MB Cyclone in SLI @ TweakTown
- PowerColor 5750 Go! Green & Gigabyte 5750 Silent Cell Review @ HardwareHeaven
Solid State Storage - Look Ma no moving parts!
- Crucial RealSSD C300 128GB 6Gbps Solid State Drive Review @ Bigbruin
- OC3D: OCZ Vertex 2 SSD Review
- OCZ 60GB Agility 2 SATA II Solid State Drive Review @ OCIA
- OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 120GB SSD @ PureOverclock
SSD and video cards might be the two components that don't really have anything to do with each other, likely never will.
