TheOverclocker+Issue+21

7/30/2019 TheOverclocker+Issue+21

1/50

2012

WARRIORS

ANARCHY!

OF

THE WORLDS BEST OVERCLOCKING ONLINE MAGAZINE. YEAH!

ASRock Z77OC Formula

Reviewed

Issue 21 2012

rev

2.1

This is MSIs MasterOverclocking Arena.

GIGABYTEZ77X-UP7

Reviewed

BitFenix ProdigyMini-ITX Case

Lifestyle

K|NGP|NS GUIDE:LIQUID NITROGENPREP FOR YOUR GPUWITH THE TEK9

Feature


2/50


3/50Issue 21 | 2012 The OverClocker 3

W

ritten in my least inspired stateI plead with you fellow reader,do not by discouraged forthere may be no methodologyto how I approach this but

there certainly is a point. Some changeshave taken place within the magazine, whiletransparent to you, the gravity of thesechanges may not be understated.

With an ever changing mission statementhere, for the first time I am driven toprovide a sufficiently better readingexperience than we have in previous issues.Part of that is detailing true, honest andunfiltered thoughts on what it is we feelabout products, ideas and the state of theoverclocking and the hardware ecosystemas a whole.

It needs no stating, but just in caseanybody had it we, or rather I, was unawareof the plight or more aptly the future of thecomponent business as it relates to the enduser. I shall state it explicitly. Overclockerssell hardware. They sell hardware in waysno competitive gamer could. It is not tosay that I have no respect for the immensededication and talent required in reachingthe echelons of gaming stardom, no itssimply that a competitor destined forgreatness playing on an AMD machine or aSNB-E machine has a future determined notby the hardware but every other facet of the

domain.To that end I would argue that hardware

vendors, particularly of the graphics cardbusiness should divorce themselves fromprevious practices that in the past werebeneficial but presently serve little to nopurpose. Lets be honest with ourselves,a GTX 680 at 1,110Mhz has the sameperformance as any other GTX 680 at thesame frequency. Theres nothing to be saidabout such a graphics card and it would bea complete and utter waste of time to evensuggest there is something valuable to betaken away from such a product profile letalone a review.

So I would think vendors needdifferentiate themselves from thecompetition in more meaningful ways andas a result, their components will in turndeserve purchase and editorial not only

in this publication but in many others. Theproblem we faced with scoring systems isnot with the values assigned to products,but rather the patent futility of attempting toarticulate differences between componentsthat are otherwise identical.

Its a losing battle and one thatis increasingly more ridiculous asmanufactures are funneled into uniformityby the various IP vendors.

We will not stop reviewing hardwareeven with the products that dont standout, however we will not be concernedform here on in with components that donothing other than offer what everybodyelse can offer, more directly referencedesign components. More so, we shall not

be moved by a 5% overclock on any part,as that doesnt translate into anythingmeaningful for competitive, casual andseasoned overclockers (or gamers for thatmatter). As such, for the sake of sincerity,honesty and most importantly transparencywith you our readers and the vendors, wewould like to charge ourselves with morepersonal, unobstructed and if you will, moresincere reviews and editorial content.

It may seem counter-productive but atthe end of it all, the reason you read thismagazine is for an, open and unbiasedopinion. Its not a technical collation ofpapers, but a magazine which is largelyopinion based on technical merit. With thatsaid, welcome to Issue 21 of TheOverclockerMagazine, enjoy it and we will see you nexttime around. MOA Baby!

[ Neo Sibeko - Editor]

True Story Bro!Its a losing battle and onethat is increasingly more

ridiculous as manufacturesare funneled into uniformityby the various IP vendors.


4/50

46

20

4 The OverClocker Issue 21 | 2012

The Overclocker ispublished by OCL-Media (cc).

EditorNeo [email protected]: +8869 8874 0949

Art DirectorChris Savides

ContributorsDane RemendesK|NGP|N

Online contributorJonathan Horne

For advertising sales andmarketing please contact:

Email:[email protected]

Tel: +8869 8874 0949

REGULARS3 - Editors note

FEATURES6 Interview Q+A with Hazzan Jadid

32 MSI MOA 2012 Live overclocking at its finest!

REVIEWS10 GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7

12 CORSAIR Neutron + Neutron GTX SSD14 MSI Z77 MPower

16 GIGABYTE GTX680 Super Overclock Edition

20 ASRock Z77 OC Formula

22 CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 2666C10 Kit

24 AMD A10 5800K APU

K|NGP|NS GUIDE:26 Liquid Nitrogen prep for your GPU with the Tek9

LIFESTYLE40 - Game Review Dark Siders II

44 Tt eSPORTS Meka G-Unit Keyboard

45 CM Storm Scout 2 Chassis

46 BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Chasis


5/50
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am4_lcK0lnQ


6/506 The OverClocker Issue 21 | 2012

Q Awith Hazzan JadidCountry Name and City:I live in the city of Yogyakarta

in Indonesia, one of the majortourist cities in the country.

What language(s) do you speak?I speak Indonesian, English anda little Arabic (lol)

On which forums do you spendmost of your time on?Primarily XtremeSystems,OCxtreme, Kingpingcooling,hwbot and many othersmore but I will generally visitany forum that has somediscussions about hardware,especially overclocking.

You partnered up with Rbuass,for MOA 2012; do you think youtwo work well together?We tried hard to work together toget a great result. Rbuass offeredme a place as a team memberand we all know he is a highlyskilled overclocker. Even thoughwe had never benched togetherbefore we tried our best.

How long has it been since youstarted overclocking and whatwas it that got you started?I was introduced to overclockingin 2003 and that is actually whenI heard about it first. I was alwaysexcited and amazed at the timeby legendary overclockerssuch as Oppainter, Shamino,Macci, Pedro, K|NGP|N, Hipro 5,OPB ,Kinc and others showingfantastic results. I learnedso much from all of them andcontinue to learn today.

What is your single greatest ormost memorable overclockingachievement?I think it was around one and

a half years ago when I got theworld record with the MSI GTX580 Lightning in 3DMark11 and Ishared with everyone how to runthe MSI GTX 580 Lightning. Mylast memorable overclockingsession was when I benched atAsus HQ at an Asus event with

some legendary overclockerslike Shamino, Fredyama andAndre. It was like a dream cometrue for me.

Tell us about some of yourfavourite hardware right now.My favourite componentsabove all are motherboardsbecause they are at the centreof overclocking and VGA cardsfor sure. Some of my favouritebrands are from ASUS ROG,MSI and ASRock after Nick Shihjoined them as they seemedserious about building aperformance board. As for PSUsI have some experience withAntec, Corsair and SilverStoneunits. They provide good PSUs

for benching and overclockingfor sure.

Which is your favouritebenchmark if any and what isyour least favourite and why?I love all 3D Benchmarks,but my choice favourite is 3D

vantage and 3DMark11. Simplybecause when you bench 3D youneed better control. You need tocontrol both CPU and VGA so itrepresents a better challengefor me.

What is the hardware scenelike in your country? Ishardware easily accessibleand how is the pricing?Well Indonesia isnt a bigcountry with a huge populationand subsequently large marketfor computer hardware.. Youcan however easily find any kindof component. The problemis sometimes new hardwarewill come here a little too lateafter its available in the US and



Europe for example.

How often do you haveoverclocking sessions in amonth?It depends, but I will bench forsure if I receive new hardware,in a month though I haveanywhere between two to foursessions usually.

Which are the people youoverclock with the most whenyou have group sessions?I think most overclockersaround the world are goodpeople so I bench with just aboutanybody. I encourage peoplewho can work together as a

team, sharing knowledge aboutoverclocking and producinggood result.

Who is your closest competitionin your country or in the worldactually? The person that youfeel challenges you the most with

similar hardware to your own.There are so many goodoverclockers in Indonesialike Ekky (Jengkol), Bennyand Jonathan Alva aka Luckyn00b (Team Captain for JagadReview). They are all highlyskilled and senior overclockers.I dont feel though that theresany competition between usbecause I am overclocking notfor the competitiveness butpurely because I love it. Im onlyconcerned about improving myown results and exceeding mylimits. I dont really think muchabout other peoples results.

In your opinion, is overclocking

growing, dying or staying aboutthe same in your country?Well this is very hard to answer.I dont know what the situation isright now but we can clearly seemany more components thanbefore such as motherboards,graphics cards, memory, power



supplies etc. All of these aresold with overclocking featuresso it has grown. However inIndonesia and in other placesas well it seems to have gottenstuck, but I have hope that it willstart growing again much like itwas two years ago.

This is a question we askedRbuass in Issue 19 and seeing asyou two were partners for MOA,could you tell us how you feelabout the current HWBOT Rev4points system, do you think itsthe best so far or do you prefersome of the older revisions?HWBOT is one of the mostimportant overclocking websites

we have. I dont have any opinionone way or the other about thepoints system in Rev4.

How feasible is it for you to getaccess to LN2 where you live?Do all overclockers in yourcountry have access to LN2 andhow much is it?

I am really grateful about thisactually. LN2 here in Indonesiais easy to find and very cheap.Three litres costs around $2 USDollars. I can order it and have itdelivered to my lab or I can pickit up myself.

What are your thoughtsabout the current qualifyingprocedure for international liveoverclocking competition?I think its good for now, but theproblem sometimes is that weneed to buy allot hardware tocompete and I think we all knowthat not all overclokers are rich.Obviously this makes it hard forsome to join. I hope in the next

qualifying round the hardwarerules will be changed accordingly.

You have been to severaloverclocking competitionsbefore, which was yourfavourite one to date andwhere did you place in thatcompetition?



It was my second Internationaloverclocking competition. AOCC(Asus Advance OverclockingChampionship) in the July of2008 in Hong Kong. Simplybecause it was the first time Imet so many overclockers fromaround the world.

What would like to saymanufacturers as a whole whoare reading this?Some of the manufacturersare doing a great job sellingproducts with overclockingfeatures. They are makinggreat components becausethey have learned what is

required to make great productsfrom overclokers. I hope infuture all manufacture willcontinue to make productswith overclocking featureswhile they continue to supportoverclockers.

Is there anything you would liketo extend to the community andother readers?Overclocking used to be just ahobby but now its grown up to befairly serious and professional.Through overclocking we areable to make friends fromall walks of life. This is moreimportant than the actualoverclocking I believe. I hope wecan keep it like that going forward.

Outside of overclocking, whatelse are you as passionate aboutand spent an equal amount oftime if not more doing?My wife and two boys are mylife. My wife has a restaurantbusiness and when Im notoverclocking I spend my timewith them, especially the boys.

Do you have any advice for youngoverclockers just starting out?Yeah, I see many youngovervlockers these daysall talented and skilled. Itsonly a matter of time beforethey become the establishedoverclockers of future. All I

can say is that they shouldjust keep learning and soonenough they will be betterthan some of the older andmore veteran overclockers outthere.

Any final words?I have made so many friendsaround the world as a result ofoverclocking. Splave, PericaBari, Rbuass, Vivi, Nick Shih,Andre Yang, Mad22, Samtapakah, Dernettemann,Uncle Faster, Pro, Hiwa andso many others, all highlyskilled and great people. I hopeoverclocking can continue togrow this brotherhood.

[ The OverClocker ]



Its never easy justifyingwhy one should buy a $400motherboard when a $150

one like the Z77X-UD3H doesthe job equally well. If youlook back at that review, youllsee that we loved that boardand even to this day we stillwonder how GIGABYTE evermanaged to make any money

GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7ERP: $399.99 |Website: www.gigabyte.com

Test Machine

Intel Core i7 3770K

Corsair Dominator Platinum2666C10Kingston HyperX 3K SSDGIGABYTE GV-N680OC-4GDCooler Master M2 Silent Pro1500W PSUWindows XP SP3/Windows 764-Bit SP1

of it if only because of theridiculously low selling price.

On the opposite end of the

scale we have the Z77X-UP7.This one is the most expensiveZ77 board from GIGABYTEand certainly the mostexpensive Z77 motherboardon the market period. Forthat however you get 4-waySLI support via PLX switchingchips, but before you expressyour disappointment. Realizethat should you use a singlegraphics card youll sufferno performance hit becauseof the latency involved withlinking the PCI-Express hubdirectly to the switching chipfirst. On the UP7, the blackprimary PCI-Express slot linksdirectly to the CPU so youllget maximum performance

every time and all the time.The rest is your typical

package, Bluetooth and WiFi

connectivity, V-check points,Bclk and CPU multiplier on thefly adjustments. Its great andwe wouldnt expect any lessfrom GIGABYTE right now. Sofeature wise its packed. TheBIOS though is more of whatweve grown familiar with.with the UP5TH, UD3H and thelike. Its the familiar 3D BIOSwith all the setting weve seenbefore. Oddly enough whatwe learned during this reviewis that, if you save a BIOSto disk with this board (andwe suspect other GIGABYTEboards) not only is the BIOSfile saved but the profile aswell and the settings that wereapplied when said BIOS was

Hardware Award


11/50

... we remain impressed andmoved by the Z77X-UP7, if only

because its origins were so solidall those years ago...

Issue 21 | 2012 The OverClocker 11

Summary

Would you buy it?

The Score

8/10

We feel about this boardexactly the same way wedid about the Maximus VExtreme. It really is anextreme board in mostrespects. The pricing isonly for the well healedbut then again for what ispacked on the board youwouldnt expect any less.For the Power user andmulti-GPU addict, thisone may be for you.

There arent manymotherboards that willdo 4-way SLI and the twoextreme overclockingboards that are in existencehappen to be so closelymatched its uncanny. Wedbuy that board over thisone only because its a littlecheaper.

saved. This is a handy featureindeed especially if you needto send settings to someonealong with the actual BIOS.

Performance wise, its alittle slower than the Z77OC-Formula but isnt too farof the mark in general. Itdelivers solid numbers and isjust as efficient as one wouldexpect from GIGABYTEsrecent line of motherboards.The true test of this board isactually under LN2 where itis bound to do better than theprevious offerings. That aloneshould make the UP7 worthconsidering as we now havean LN2 mode specifically forthose liquid nitrogen sessionsthat last for hours on end.

Memory performance isone place where we wished

we could have seen someimprovements. The board isconfigured by default loosely,maybe excessively so. Thatin itself isnt a problem,because you can tweak andchange pretty much most ofthe settings competing boardshave. The issue however isthat because the settingsare not explained in any waywhatsoever and there areno memory profiles, it justtakes an inordinate amountof time to tweak memory(especially for frequency)whereas the entire processcould be facilitated with someexplanation as to what eachsetting is doing or at least

how it affects memory scalingunder normal circumstancesand exotic cooling. If for somereason though you enjoy thetrial and error process, thenyou will eventually get to thesame frequencies possible onother boards.

There isnt much else tosay about this board thatyou may not know already.CPU overclocking has beenproved time and time againand as mentioned in othermotherboard reviews in thisissue. CPU overclocking is tiedto the CPU sample and notthe board. So rest assured,if youre not reaching thosestratospheric speeds, it is notdue to any inadequacy herebut rather the limits of yourchosen CPU sample.

As the board which is atthe forefront of GIGABYTEsmarketing spear toenthusiasts and power users,we feel that the vendorhas maybe not done muchmore than they had with theX79-UD7. The X58A-OC wasrevolutionary and usheredin many things we had notseen before, but a few yearsin and looking at what is theprogeny of that board, we canthelp but feel there isnt muchthat weve not seen before,essentially the same board asthe X58A-OC just on a differentchipset. Alas, we remainimpressed and moved by theZ77X-UP7, if only because its

All results were obtained at 4.8GHz on a normal install of Windows 7 64-bit and WinXP.These are our results, yours may vary so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system

Motherboard 3DMark2001se 3DMark03 3DMark11 Super Pi 8M Aida 64 Copy Aida 64 Latency

ASRock Z77 OC-Formula 109,127 123,756 10,501 1.24.297 30377 29.1

GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7 108,758 123,685 10,466 1.24.469 29474 29.6

origins were so solid all thoseyears ago that even today thesame features on a differentplatform culminate to form acompelling motherboard.

[ The OverClocker ]



Weve been looking at

SSDs in every issueof TheOverclocker

for almost two years.Depending on the popularityof the controller and NANDmemory at any given time,the performance was ratherpredictable, or at least, thedifferences between thebest and the worst similarlyconfigured drives werenegligible.

We hadnt had the bestexperience with CORSAIRdrives, so going into thisreview we werent expectingmuch if anything at all. So itwas with this attitude that wewere pleasantly surprisedto find not only the fastest

Corsair Neutron andNeutron GTX 240GB SSDERP: $209.99 | $249.99 |Website: www.corsair.com

Test Machine

Intel Core i7 3770KGIGABYTE Z77X-UP7Kingston HyperX 3K 240GBCoolerMaster Silent Pro M21500WWindows 7 64-bit SP1

SSD from CORSAIR ever, butone of the fastest consumerSSDs around. The GTX iscertainly the quickest driveweve tested here, eclipsingour previous favourite thePlextor M3 PRO by somemargin as well. We had noprevious experience with theLM87800 controller, so thiskind of performance wastruly surprising. In a sea of

SandForce powered SSDsthe Link A media controllerstands out for all the rightreasons and as far as wereconcerned, theres reallyno reason to consider anySandForce drive from hereon in.

Well not bore you with theappearance of the drives;they are standard SSDs withCORSAIR stickers on them.Worth noting is that bothdrives are 7mm in height,making them ideal for ultra-books and other portableplatforms where height andweight is an issue. Short ofthat, its business as usual.

What makes the drives tick

besides the shared controlleris a total of 256MB of DDR2800MHz DRAM, used forcache. These are two 128MBchips on each drive but thedifferences between the GTXand the regular drive actuallystem from the different NANDused. The GTX uses the moreexpensive and evidently fasterToshiba Toggle Mode 24nmNAND, while the normal drive

settles with 25nm MicronNAND. During testing wesaw that while the differencebetween the drives is easilymeasured, it may not beworth the additional cashfor the GTX drive becausethey really are that close inperformance. Having saidthat, the price difference isless than $40 between thetwo, so ultimately youll haveto decide if the performanceadvantage of the GTX drive isworth the asking price.

On to the results weobtained, well what can wesay? We moved to a differentand more consistent testingsuite thats why you wont

EDITORS CHOICEAWARD



Summary

Would you buy it?

The Score

9/10

These Neutron drives aremore than what we hadexpected of CORSAIRsnew line of SSDs. Its mindboggling to see this kind ofperformance at this price,without the shenanigans ofother popular drives basedof SandForce controllers.

For uncompromisingperformance theres littleelse out there that canchallenge the Neutronseries.

Most certainly we wouldpurchase these. They aresimply the fastest drivesweve ever tested.

see any other SSDs in the

results chart, but suffice tosay its pretty obvious that theNeutron drives are peerlessthus far in performance.The claimed IOPS resultswere of particular interest tous as they were so close towhat CORSAIR was claiming.Usually the numbers weobtained were significantlylower (for a variety ofreasons, including the testingsuite and methodology) thanwhat manufacturers claimed,but nevertheless wererepeatable.

For the first time everwe not only saw writeperformance that was betterthan already impressive read

performance, but the lowest

average response times aswell. CORSAIR has donewell with this combination ofparts, making the Neutronseries the drives to beataround here.

There isnt much else to sayabout these. CORSAIR hascome out with a new seriesthats pretty much set thestandard for consumer levelSSDs. It remains to be seenwhat kinds of improvementswill come with future drivesin the series and whatcompetitors are going to doto get ahead, but right now,these drives are near perfectin our eyes.

[ The OverClocker ]

These Neutron drives are more

than what we had expected ofCORSAIRs new line of SSDs. Itsmind boggling to see this kind ofperformance at this price...

All results were obtained at 4600MHz 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 IOresponse time(ms)

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

* In MB/s



Well not beat aboutwith the MSI Z77MPower and tell it to

you straight. This board isgood.

Is it the best Z77motherboard on the market,no its not. Consider howeverthat this is a $200 board,and then take a look at thefeatures on it. Its overclockingcapabilities and then take

MSI Z77 MPowerRRP: $199.99 |Website: www.msi.com

Test Machine

Intel Core i7 3770KCorsair Dominator Platinum2666 C10Kingston HyperX 3K SSDGIGABYTE GV-N680OC-4GDCooler Master M2 Silent Pro1500W PSUWindows XP SP3/Windows 764-Bit SP1

re-evaluate whatever positionyou may have taken prior toreading this review.

The thing is with MSI, thevendor has traditionallymade better graphics cards

than it has motherboards.This remains true todayand because MSI makes thebest graphics cards rightnow for overclockers, themotherboards are alwaysgoing to have a mountainto climb as far in changingpeoples perceptions.

We have first-handexperience of this; becauseprior to receiving our reviewsample we had heard severalenthusiasts make passingjokes about the inadequaciesof this board. Since we hadnot had a chance to test thisboard first hand, we had nochoice but to at least headsome of the warnings levelled

at us about the MPower.Well, after many hours

spent with this board, we willtell you that our findings arecontrary to what we weretold. Keep in mind that, no

information about the Z77MPower had come to us fromthe vendor prior to the reviewsample, and after that nothingelse came. So our opinion ifanything had a negative biascourtesy of several very briefconversations we had hadwith overclockers about it.

Its odd that this mayactually be MSIs bestmotherboard to date, at leastwhere the BIOS is concerned.No other vendor, save forASUS possibly, has a BIOSthat is this smooth to use.Just on sheer presentationalone it won us over. See, itseasy enough to bludgeon auser with an infinite number

Recommended Award



Summary

Would you buy it?

The Score

8/10

What MSI offers hereis easily on of the bestUEFI BIOS interfacesever, great features,easy overclocking anda great price. It ticks allthe right boxes and doesit without much fuss.It isnt the best lookingmotherboard around, but

its still one of the bestmoney can buy. This boardis very deserving of ourRecommended Award.

Sure thing, its a $200for an overclockingmotherboard thatspretty reliable andconsistent.

of options and screens, butit takes deliberation andpurposeful action to delivera BIOS that is both intuitive,deep in settings but withouttoo many pages to navigate.Its the smooth mousemovements that make thisthe only BIOS which we usedthe mouse with; the interfaceis slick, sharp and very welllaid out. Simple features likebeing able to select your bootorder by arranging icons witha mouse are the finer touchesthat other vendors could learnfrom. Saving BIOS profilesisnt a matter of just inputtinga name, but information

such as the date, time andversion of the BIOS profilethat is saved is made readilyavailable to you. Its thisrefined way of communicatingwith the user that makes thisboard so pleasurable to use.

Outside the BIOS, its notgoing to win any awards asyou cant adjust bclk, CPUmultiplier or anything for thatmatter on the board. Sureenough you get the usualPOST LED, V-check points,reset, power, BIOS switchand clear CMOS buttons, butthats standard these days onany board that even attemptsto target overlclockers orenthusiasts. The one gripe we

have in all the above however,is the positioning of the POSTLED, where its easily obscuredby the graphics card. Itsunderstandable that since thisis a standard ATX motherboard,real-estate is hard to comeby, but surely theres a betterplace to have it where it mayactually serve a purpose.

Performance wise, itdelivers the goods. Itsnot so finely tuned likethe OC-Formula but thenagain as weve seen duringthe motherboard testingin this issue, it seems nomotherboard is. There isnothing that is lacking in this

boards performance savefor 3DMark2001se resultswhich are not low, but theBIOS isnt tuned for as is thecase with the other enthusiastmotherboards of late.

We will re-iterate again,we had very low if anyexpectations going into thisreview. Not only were wesurprised, but pleasantly so.This board is significantlybetter than what we hadexpected and once again for$200, youll be hard pressedto find a better board. AddBluetooth and Wi-Fi to themix and you can see how thisis possibly the best value formoney motherboard in MSIs


Motherboard 3DMark03 3DMark11 Super Pi 8M Aida 64 Copy Aida 64 Latency

GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7 108,758 123,685 10,466 1.24.469 29474 29.6

MSI Z77 Mpower 104,739 123,713 10,456 1.24.843 29416 31.2

entire line up. Even if for useas a backup motherboard, theMSI Z77 MPower is certainlyworth a buy.

[ The OverClocker ]

For $200, youll behard pressed to finda better board.



GTX 680s are no longer

the top of the food chainwhen it comes to game

performance. The AMD GHzedition graphics cards saw tothat. Add the recent price cutsfrom AMD into the mix and whatyou end up with is a line upfrom AMD that is for all intentsand purposes unmatched. Forthe overclockers the situationis more dire as theres simplyno incentive right now to beconcerned with the GTX 680, oris there?

As with our last GTX 680review, we noted just howperilous the situation is withthe GTX 680. With the stringentcontrols that NVIDIA has placedon the GPUs and its partners,

GIGABYTE GV-N680SO-2GDRRP: $559.99 |Website: www.gigabyte.com

Test Machine

Intel Core i7 3770KGIGABYTE Z77X-UP5THTranscend AxeRAM2400MHZ CL9ANTEC HCP 1200W PSUWindows7 64-Bit

overclocking for the rest of uswho do not have special accessto people at NVIDIA or vendors ismade damn near impossible.

For gamers fortunately, wellthe situation is a little different.See, despite the domination ofthe GHz edition card from AMDin the HD7970, theres somefight left in the GTX 680 and nomore is it obvious than whenyou power up the GIGABYTE

card. Before we get into theperformance, please note thatwe are not oblivious to the size ofthis card and the noise it makes.

With so many little fans, thislooks loud and it is if the fanspeed is set sufficiently highenough. Theres just no glancingover it. If quiet computing isimportant to you, this is sadly notthe card for you unless you canget it water cooled in which casethe situation is different. Forthe vast majority of people whowill be using this graphics card,the noise just may be tolerableespecially if you game withheadphones.

As for the size of this card,its not diminutive in anyway.

Actually it dwarfs every othergraphics card weve tested todate. Its a three slot card, so inno way will you be able to getfour-way SLI working with thiscard. We suspect two or maybethree way on XL-ATX boards butyou get the picture for sure. Howair is blown on to the GPU hereis fairly unique as it redirectsair from the side of the caseand not the bottom. Given that

this is where a case fan wouldbe situated, you are going toget cooler temperatures thana traditional design may offer.It may only be a few degreeslower when idle, but duringthose intense gaming sessionsor simple overclocking sessions,the difference will be noted.

Performance wise, welltheres not much to say really.Its the highest clocked GTX680out the box with a base clockof 1,137MHz. Keep in mind thatthe base clock is actually whatsimportant, if only because theboost clock isnt somethingthat you can pin down and relyon consistently. By that wemean, two 680SO cards will

GAMING GEARAWARD



Summary

Would you buy it?

The Score

9/10

This is GIGABYTEs mostimpressive graphics cardto date. At least in anelectrics sense becauseits just put togetherin a way that begs thequestion as to why thiswas never done before. Itmay only be by a hair butit makes for the fastestGTX680 you can buy right

now and if youre a poweruser and gamer this isthe card for you.

For the price youre notgoing to get much betterthan this where GTX 680sare concerned. If youhave the money, wed tellyou to go for it.

have a different boost clocksdepending on the quality ofthe silicon. This boost clockisnt promised but GIGABYTEwill guarantee at least 1.2GHz.Our particular sample wasclocking a bit higher than that at1,254MHz. When we switchedto the LN2 BIOS, this boostclock did not change despitethe increased TDP to +200%. Itdoesnt however mean the LN2

BIOS on the card isnt working,its working quite well. Onceagain without a special BIOSwe were fairly limited to whatwe could do, but with LN2we had no problem with coldtemperatures. The card didntnecessarily clock better thanbefore and we were pretty muchstuck at 1.4GHz with no voltageadjustments possible. With theright utilities however, thingscould change.

Gaming performance was asyoud expect out of a GTX680,that is to say, smooth at theleast. It handles all gameseasily enough and youllnot lack for performancein any title for a while.

The overclocking on theGIGABYTE card makes it lookvery attractive in syntheticbenchmarks, but the actualin game performance isnt asdramatic as the scores wouldhave you believe. If you arentsatisfied with the gamingperformance for whateverreason, you can consideradding even more to this cardvia overclocking. Youll not get

too much out of it, but we didmanage a healthy 1,300MHzwithout adjusting voltages atall. The actual boost clock wasmuch higher than that, butjust to be certain we aimed for1.3GHz which was easily done.

Overall, this is a grand cardand certainly the GTX 680 togo for if outright speed is whatyou want. There may be otheralternatives on the market thatlean more to the overclockersout there, but we submit to youthat for the most part, and formost people, the GV-N680SO-2GD is unbeatable and wellworth the investment if theressuch a thing with hardware.

[ The OverClocker ]


GPU Clocks 3DMark03 3DMark Vantage 3DMark11 UnigineHeavenXtreme

SniperElite MaxDetail

GIGABYTE GTX 680

Super Overclock

1.13GHz/6.2GHz 126379 38355 10947 2076.967 74.2

SAPPHIRE HD7970

GHZ Ed. Vapor-X

1.05GHz/6GHz 142113 37132 9455 2091.497 86.6

Its the highest clockedGTX680 out the box with a

base clock of 1,137MHz.


18/50


19/50



It seems almost every vendorwho has a strong affiliationwith or has directly employed

an overclocker has a board orcomponent endeared as Xsbaby! If youve not come acrossthis thus far, well the Z77 OC-Formula (OCF from here onin) would be Nick Shihs baby.More so than any other boardto date actually, if only becausehe is actually on the marketingmaterial in his full swag.

Regardless of how you feelabout it, cheesy or otherwise,one has to admit that thishere is one attractive lookingboard. Actually this is onedamn fine board in both

ASRock Z77OC FormulaRRP: $239.99 |Website: www.asrock.com.tw

Test Machine

Intel Core i7 3770KCorsair Dominator Platinum2666C10Kingston HyperX 3K SSDGIGABYTE GV-N680OC-4GDCooler Master M2 Silent Pro1500W PSUWindows XP SP3/Windows 764-Bit SP1

aesthetics and performance.At $239 its very well priced

especially given what it is youget for that amount.. Theres nomulti-GPU foolery here, sadlythat would have sent the boardover the $300 mark, however forlack of this, you receive a solidlybuilt board that is undersold byits price tag and somewhat by thehistory of the brand. All that may

change with the OCF and in factwed dare say it has to change -because whatever we may havethought about ASRock before,this here is a totally differentanimal and he OCF stands withthe best of them. To be honestwith boards that do not haveplenty of multi-GPU options, thisis arguably the best of the lot.

Just the features alone makethis a compelling purchase.That $239 buys you this muchoverclocking proficiency isstaggering. Its not just thetypical POST LED, V-measurepoints, Clear CMOS, reset,switchable BIOS and the likeweve come to expect froman overclocking board. Its

in how it all comes togetherespecially within the BIOS wherewe have some of the mostcomprehensive options weveseen on a board. They are allclearly labelled and relativelywell explained. Its not to theASUS Maximus V levels, but itsahead of what GIGABYTE offerson their boards in advancedmode. You have to appreciate

the time and effort ASRock hasput into the little things which allculminate into making a grandoffering. Easily the best boardASRock has ever produced.

We could spend the rest ofthis review telling you aboutthe layout of the board, theelectrics and the like, but wefrankly couldnt be botheredwith that and we know that youour fellow readers couldnt careeither so well get to the fun bitand let you know that this hereis a wonderful motherboard tooverclock on. Be it air coolingor LN2 which is what theOCF is actually made for. Itsblissful to work with. We arentfans of the Golden night sky

EDITORS CHOICEAWARD


21/50

Just the features alone

make this a compellingpurchase. That $239 buysyou this much overclockingproficiency is staggering.


Summary

Would you buy it?

The Score

9.5/10

Not ever before hasASRock outdonethemselves and produceda board that is completelybeyond what one couldhave imagined for thevendor. With the OFC,theyve done exactlythat and in a way upsetthe balance of power,between the two or three

major mainboard vendorswith overclocking boards.The Z77-OC Formulatruly is second to none.

Most certainly, this is ano brainer. The price isgreat, the features evenbetter than performance.

or stellar theme, but its nit-picking when considering justwhats on offer here.

Memory overclocking inparticular is mind numbing asthis board equals what ASUSoffers in the Maximus V seriesand in some ways its better,simply because virtually allmultipliers work and the profilesare little tighter by default. We

can only imagine how muchtime went into tweaking theseprofiles and ensuring maximumcompatibility with enthusiastgrade memory. Even when weused a CPU with a weak IMC,we were able to extract morein memory frequency from thisboard than we could any other atthe time of testing. Despite theridiculous settings we entered,this board kept posting and thecrash guard feature actuallyworked well every time and allthe time. Flawless executionwas our experience here and atthe risk of sounding bias, thiswas the most fun wed had with amotherboard in a very long time.

We could tell you about CPU

overclocking, unfortunatelytheres nothing to say therereally. Sure enough ASRock haspublished a few records muchlike other vendors have, but aswe all know or rather shouldknow, all those records couldhave been achieved with anyone of the boards touting suchachievements. At this juncture,the quality of the CPU silicon

is much more important thanthe board that it is used on andits purely a binning process sodont expect miracles with thisboard if you know you have a6.2GHz CPU. It wont magicallybecome 6.3 GHz.

What will happen thoughis that if you know you havea 6.8GHz chip, you can beguaranteed that this board willreach that speed and maybea little more in the memorydepartment. So at the worstyoull likely get a board betterthan the one you have shouldyou go this direction.

The ASRock Z77 OC-Formulais a Champion.

[ TheOverClocker ]

All results were obtained at 4.8GHz on a normal install of Windows 7 64-bit and WinXP.These are our results, yours may vary so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system.

Motherboard 3DMark20 01se 3DMark03 3DMark11 Super Pi 8M Aida 64 Copy Aida 64 Latency

ASRock Z77 OC-Formula 109,127 123,756 10,501 1.24.297 30377 29.1

GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7 108,758 123,685 10,466 1.24.578 29474 29.6


22/50

EDITORS CHOICEAWARD


Performance kits are all

the rage of late. Withthe imminent release of

Haswell CPUs and the relatedchipset, rumour is that thesehigh speed kits will becomemore useful than they are now.Since we have no firsthandexperience with the platform,we cant comment on how truethat is, however what we canhave some meaningful insightinto, is how these sets performon the current platforms, andin particular where Ivy-Bridgeis concerned.

Before we delve intohow this set performs, itsimportant to note that withmemory above 2400MHzespecially, its more chance

CORSAIR DOMINATOR PLATINUM2666C10 Quad Channel KitRRP: $359.99 |Website: www.corsair.com

Test Machine

Intel Core i7 3770KASRock Z77 OC-FormulaKingston HyperX 3K 240GBCoolerMaster Silent Pro M21500WWindows 7 64-bit SP1 /XP SP3

than anything else that youhave a CPU with the right IMCand memory that can matchit. So do not look to such akit and expect every singleIvy-Bridge CPU to be ableto reach these speeds. Weourselves have come acrossseveral CPU samples that hadIMCs that were not capableof speeds past 2,700MHz andwe are more than confident

in claims weve heard ofCPUs not going much past2,500MHz. So be aware thatthere are no guaranteeswith such kits. We do thoughsuspect anyone buying thisset should be fairly clued upon their CPUs capabilities.

This particular 2,666MHzset is what we mightconsider the mid-rangeof the series as CORSAIRdoes offer a 2,400MHz and2,800MHz kit, with timingsappropriately tuned for each.As a compromise betweenprice and rating, this strikesa decent balance betweenthe two, especially given thediminishing list of compatible

CPUs as you scale upwardsin memory frequencies. The2,666MHz guarantees in someways prolific ICs. SAMSUNG30nm chips are the order ofthe day, and these have shownto clock well before so youshould have suspected somegood overclocking headroomfrom this set already.

Our testing started from2,400MHz all the way to

2,933MHz. We could validate3,000MHz and run a numberof benchmarks at thatfrequency, but it just wasntstable for anything other thanthat. The 3GHz mark is greatfor showing high numbersbut ultimately not useableright now for any benchmarksfor the vast majority ofoverclockers. For that, asstated earlier, well haveto wait for the successiveplatform. 2,933MHz waspretty much the same,offering a little morestability, at the cost of actualperformance

We were and remain fairlyimpressed with this set. Its


23/50

We were and remain fairlyimpressed with this set. Itssold at timings very true to

what the RAM can manage butat the same time, has some

massive headroom.


Summary

Would you buy it?

The Score

9/10

The DOMINATORPLATINUM 2,666MHz kitproved to be more thanworth the wait. It may bevery hard to get a holdof, but when you do youllnot be disappointed. Thememory looks fantastic,but overclocks andsubsequently performs

even better. Theres reallynot much to dislike aboutthis kit. If you get theopportunity, buy.

Yes of course. This is afantastic set of memoryand one that we wouldnthesitate to recommendat all.

sold at timings very true towhat the RAM can managebut at the same time, hassome massive headroom.The 2,800MHz setting wasparticularly surprisingbecause we managed to dothis speed with the relativelytight secondary and tertiarytimings, while keeping thereference primary settingsfor the 2,666MHz frequency.

That alone swayed ouropinion of the set, if onlybecause 2,800MHz setsbesides being rare are hardlysold at these timings. In fact,we have yet to see a set ofmemory sold at these timings.Youll not see Super Pi 32Mor Hyper Pi 32M results here,but trust us when we say thememory is stable under all testconditions, so what we reporthere is repeatable with thisspecific set we had for testing.

For the power users andgamers out there, its hard tonot recommend this memoryon aesthetics alone if youcare about that sort of thing.There are not lights here, but

great looking heat spreaders,which if anything, helpmake the Platinum monikerapplicable to the kit and itsbrethren in the series. As forperformance in games andsuch, youll be hard pressedto tell the difference between1600MHz memory and this setat 2,400MHz, but having saidthat, you could easily run thismemory at 2,400MHz with

the given timings at less thanthe stipulated voltage andstill get great performanceand stability. If the price istoo steep, do consider the2,400MHz kit, which is notonly cheaper but readilyavailable.

We here at TheOverclockerfind this to be an exceptionalset of memory only marredby low availability. If by somechance you come across thiskit while you are looking foran overclocking set to matchthat CPU with that incredibleIMC, this memory will notdisappoint you. This is trulyfantastic memory.

[ TheOverClocker ]

All results were obtained at 4800MHz s on a normal install of Windows 7 64-bit or Windows XP SP3.These are our results, yours may vary so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system.

Memory AIDA 64 Read AIDA 64 Write AIDA 64 Copy AIDA 64 Latency SuperPi 8M Frequency Timings

CORSAIR

DOMINATOR

PLATINUM 2666C10

25303 24938 28805 28.7 1.24.110 2400 8-10-10-21-1N

26416 25149 29918 28.2 1.23.937 2600 9-11-11-28-1N

26818 25244 30188 27.9 1.23.828 2666 9-12-12-28-1N

27032 25347 30823 27.8 1.23.688 2800 10-12-12-31-1N

IMC failure* 27438 25510 30386 27.9 N/A 2933 11-13-13-35-1N



Well cut the fat and getright into it the meat.We here like AMDs

Trinity APUs. Well, actuallywed like better performingCPUs for the desktop infinitelymore, this is no wish listhowever, but a review. AMDssecond iteration of their APUshas come and its looking alot better than their initialattempt.

The real difference betweenthe first generation Llanoparts and these is primarilythe GPU thats inside. ItsRadeon 7000 class graphicsand that alone should causeus to take a second look. Willthis APU replace the need for

AMD A10 5800KRRP: $129.99 |Website: www.amd.com

Test Machine

GIGABYTE F2A85X-UP4Patriot Extreme Masters2133MHz CL11Kingston HyperX 3K SSDCooler Master M2 Silent Pro1500W PSUWindows XP SP3/Windows 764-Bit SP1

entry level graphics cards?Probably not as wed have towait for another generationbefore we can say that, butas it stands or at least onthe 5800K, you can actuallyplay games on the APU at areasonable quality level.

Theres no need for us hereto tell you about the internalsof the APU, you can find thatanywhere else on the web

and quite frankly we doubtif you care. What we do careabout is what this APU meansfor AMD, its customers andsubsequently us the end users.For competitive overclocking,theres nothing for you here.Sure you can submit forhardware points but thatsabout it. For casual gamersand those building hometheatre PCs. That may not bethe case. See, in this pricebracket and usage scenario,the only alternative to AMDsAPUs are INTELs Core i3CPUs. These are competent forbasic work but if youve evertried to load a game on any oneof these youd soon realize how

futile the entire exercise was.Plainly put, you do not wantto be gaming with the IGP onany INTEL CPU right now. Theyhave improved immensely butjust arent where they needto be when compared to whatAMD offered with Llano andeven more so presently withTrinity.

On the CPU front, dontexpect miracles, despite that

these APUs are based onPiledriver. The host CPUs havealways been weak and thishas not changed. Once againmeasuring these APUs as youwould CPUs is missing thepoint entirely. Disappointingfor us the enthusiastcommunity probably, buttheres some sense to whatAMD has been professingabout the need for CPU powervs. graphics.

Overclocking the APU onLN2 may be fun; in fact wehave witnessed some fairlyimpressive overclockingon the platform; howeverits pretty much limitedto maximizing the GPU

Value Award



Summary

Would you buy it?

The Score

8.5/10

performancein 3DMark Vantage for

example or trying to reachthe highest CPU speed. Quiteinteresting that this boast ofhigh frequencies is one bothINTEL and AMD have made

at different times, but wellleave you to figure out exactlyat which juncture such claimswere popular to each vendor.

Since the iGPU is wherethe magic is, you should keepin mind that memory clockswill affect the performancedrastically. So consider2133MHz and faster setsinstead of those 1,600MHz kitsyou may have had lying aroundfrom the Phenom II days. TheIMC has been improved on thetrinity CPUs and even thoughits not officially supported, onthe board we tested, 2133MHzworked just fine. Sadly wecouldnt get 2,400MHz towork as that would have

improved theVGA performance

further, but we were morethan satisfied with 2133MHz.Hopefully this is a BIOS issuerather than a silicon limitation.

At $130 its hard not like the5800K APU. Theres nothingelse you can buy that will offerthis kind of value. The APU

does also offer the possibilityof adding a second graphicscard to the system and havethe discreet and internalGPU work in tandem. It maysort off defeat the purposeand pricing of this CPU, butwe are pretty sure there areindividuals wholl find need ofthis, either as a cheap upgradeor making use of a low endgraphics card that alreadyhad. Whatever you may needthis CPU for, youre unlikelyto be disappointed providedyou are mindful of what it isexactly youre buying and forwhat purposes. Do not lookfor or at the Cinebench, SuperPi or any other CPU centric

Usually AMD is tellingus what and how theirproducts are value formoney and what isnt forvarious reasons. Thistime we the end usersneed no convincing as thenumbers say more than

AMD could ever hope to.There simply isnt a morecost effective way to builda basic gaming/media orwork machine than AMDsAPUs right now.

Yes, theres no reasonto look anywhere elseif youre looking at thisprice range.

benchmarks and find reasonto be disappointed. Thosebenchmarks cant relate innumbers how good this APU

is and more importantly thevalue AMD is offering withsuch a part.

As stated in the beginning,we here like the APU,especially the 5800K. Thegraphics performanceis fantastic for an IGP,its available virtuallyeverywhere and the price isgreat. This is likely the firstworthwhile product fromAMD since the Phenom IIcame out.

[ TheOverclocker ]



LIQUID NITROGENprep for your GPU with the Tek9

K|NGP|Ns GUIDE:

STEP ONEStep one is to remove the PWMheatsink from the PWM areabefore applying the grease. I dontuse dry eraser for protectionfrom condensation because I

have found that the dry erasertends to transfer cold to thesurrounding surface mountedcomponents particularly on GPUs.This will cause problems in longoverclocking sessions. Use thebrush and apply the grease allaround the GPU front and back(areas marked green). As in thepicture (2 & 3), put extra grease infront of the row of caps on the cardthen tilt it and heat it with heat gun

so the grease runs down in andaround the caps and mosfets on thecard. Water can get in there andshort so this is a key step.

STEP 2After the grease is applied, youcan remount the PWM heatsinksat which point its time to use thefoam tape. Make some PCB gasketsto seal off the card surfaces on thefront and back of the PCB aroundthe GPU. Make the tape gasketsfor the back of the card now, butwe won't use them until the latersteps. (After the pot is mounted)

STEP 3Now lets can make some quickand easy insulation for the GPULN2 container before mountingthe card to it. This guide can applyequally to any GPU unit you decide

to use for your overclocking; hereI will use my Tek-9 FAT pot. As Imentioned earlier, no need to useany nasty sticky tape insulationand mess up your pot forever, itsmuch easier and more effectiveto use some slip on round foamaround the container instead. Itwill last longer and protect againstcondensation better. Cut the pieceof round foam the length of thecontainer as in the picture (7).

Single GPU 3D overclocking is a greatchallenge that can be fun when all you needto worry about is pushing the clocks as highas they can go and getting great results.Once again preparation can mean thedifference between getting some solid runsdown or killing cards left and right with notmuch to show for the effort. As I mentionedin the previous guide for CPU prep on Z77, itdoesn't have to be complicated or overdone,

just done right. Cards can be completelyfrozen over at the end of sessions so youcan't cut corners if you want to keep thesystem running. Lets go over how I prepare

my GPUs before I do my single card runs.Here is what works best for me and bestof all my method won't trash your blingynew GPU.

List of items needed are petroleum jelly(Vaseline is good), some 2-5/8 diameteror slightly larger round foam insulation.Half inch thick, foam tape, paper towels("shop towels" are best as they areparticularly absorbent and wick up water

nicely), small brush for applying grease,hair dryer or heat gun, some scissors tocut out all your socket gaskets and somerubber bands. [IMAGE 1]



STEP 4I will remind you to install thetemperature probe before this stepas well, or else it will be very tough todo so after the pot is fully insulated.Also be sure to run your probe length

out of the BOTTOM of the containerand not the top so it wont get torchdamage on frequent use (8).

STEP 5Cut out the foam around thebracket area of the GPU pot aspictured (10), then seal off thebottom of the container with somefoam (11). You can use multiplelayers here to aid the pot in

standing up straight when mountedon the board as to not put stresson the board slot/GPU PCI expressfingers. This can lead to detectionissues down the road after long

periods of overclocking.

STEP 6You are finally ready to mount thecard on the pot. Put the socketgaskets on the front side of thecard, apply the TIM and mountthe card to the pot (12). Contactis everything when it comes tooverclocking any kind of hardware,GPUs in particular. The best way toget really good contact is to push

the card on the backside with yourthumb in the center behind the core.Hold it there tightly while you putall four thumbnuts on and screwthem down until they touch the card,

but not too tight. Then turn them anEQUAL amount of turns at a timegoing diagonally until you cannotturn the nuts any tighter using justyour fingers. Never use a wrench orpliers to tighten them more than ispossible with just your hands as youcan damage the solder balls behindthe GPU where it attaches to thePCB. When you see artifacts at posteven when using the stock cooler,this is most likely what happened.

1 2

3 4

5 6



Once I know I have good contact on acard and the results show it, I won'tremove the container in between

sessions.

STEP 7Ok now its time to use thosesocket gaskets you made fromthe tape on the backside of thecard. Be sure to apply lots ofgrease to the sticky side of thetape before you apply it to card toensure you keep out as much airas possible (14).

STEP 8As one of the final steps of insulationon the card, I always make a "bib"out of paper towel that will help catch

any water that runs off onto the boardfrom the backside of the card andespecially when youre torching (15).You can secure it easily using therubber bands. These can be reusedover and over again every time youoverclocking.

STEP 9Before installing the potwith the card mounted to the

motherboard, we need to prep theboards PCI express area to copewith the ice and water that will

form there when overclockingwith really cold temperatures onthe card (16). Start by applyinggrease to the front and back ofthe board in the areas markedgreen. You will also want totake a piece of tape with greaseapplied to the sticky side andstick it on the motherboard thelength of the slot underneath the1st GPU slot so the whole thing iscovered (17).

7 8

9 10

11 12



STEP 10The last step is to install the cardinto the board, but before you dothat make sure to put some paper

towel in front and at the back of theslot to catch any moisture runningoff from the card. Preventing itfrom shorting something on theboard in this area (18).

LAST STEPNow youre done and its time tolet it rip. Prep your cards andGPU pots like this every time.

Don't be lazy and skip steps, andyour hardware will keep runningstrong letting you get the best

overclocking results possiblewith it. I can't even rememberthe last time I killed a card whileusing this prep method and Imoverclocking a ton these days soI know it works. Watch out forthe next issue where I will beusing a similar GPU prep method,only this time for 4 way 3Doverclocking.

[ K|NGP|N ]

13 14

15 16

17 18

19


30/50


31/50



TheOverclocker Magazine covers

W

ARR

IORSOF

A

NA

RCHY!2012


33/50

A birds eye-view of the arena. Pretty slick!

A girl.


Fifteen teams, thirteen countries, a copiousamount of LN2 and some of the besthardware money can buy. This is MSIsMaster Overclocking Arena.

Where therewas onceseveral liveoverclockingevents onthe calendar,there isnow but one

and if theres anything to infer fromthat. Its that MSI is truly dedicatedto overclocking and the overclockingcommunity in a way few or no other

vendor is. A bold statement, but thenagain, its a monumental undertakingorganizing a live overclockingcompetition. For five years straight,overclockers from all over the worldhave been gathering in Taipei Taiwan tobattle it out for not only prizes, moneyand fame, but the title of being thatrespective years MOA Champion. Atitle that I believe is worth more thanthe prize money in some ways.

This year was easily the best year ofthe competition and for some reason itcoincided with this years Mr.Olympia2012 contest all the way across theglobe in Las Vegas Nevada. This littlecoincidence made it a little morespecial for us here at TheOverclockeror at least for me.

The arena was familiar, as had

been the tradition since the firstcompetition; The National TaiwanUniversity was the contest ground forthis years competition. This is whereMSI would host the most extremecompetition of the year, and easily thebiggest overclocking competition ofthe year as well.

THE GEARWith so much Z77 overclocking takingplace, one would have assumed that

this would have been the platformfor choice for MSI. After all, the Z77MPower board (reviewed in this issue)had been available for retail alreadyand if high clock speeds and bignumbers were the intention, this wasthe platform to choose.

Well, it turns out the platform wasactually X79. Thats right; INTELs mostexpensive desktop platform was theplatform selected.. MSI may have hadtheir reasons for this, but we sort offigured why this made sense on ourown or at least it was probably the bestdecision made in any live overclockingcompetition.

See, with X79 as you may know,the CPU plays the biggest part. Thisis true for any single platform, butno other ecosystem has this kind of

These arelasers (no theseare lights inthe shape of,

nevermind!) andthis is a man withlights on him, aswould be a 70srobot. Stylin!


34/50

Vince K|NGP|N Lucido,

the man himself withJon Elmor Sandstrm.Two of the calmestoverclockers yourelikely to ever come

across, two of the bestas well.

Lucky_n00b and I.R.I.S. One isserious and one is about to ROFL.This is extreme overclocking!


reliance on the CPU. Essentially, themotherboard while important canbe rendered irrelevant by the rightor wrong CPU. Moreover, because ofhow SNB-E overclocks, its pitifullyeasy to find out the limits of the CPUas its simply a matter of selecting thedesired multiplier and checking to seeif you can boot into windows. Increaseor decrease the multiplier accordinglyuntil a successful boot is made andright there will be the maximumfrequency for the chosen CPU.

This is however a double-edgedsword, if only because it meant that thesingle CPU that is capable of utilizingthe higher multipliers would dominatewith little to no recourse possible.

This is essentially what ended uphappening, but it must be stressed thatthe kind of benchmarks that MSI chosenegated this caveat almost completely,but more on that later.

The rest of the hardware was asyou would have expected. The truegem of the arsenal made availablefor use by the competitors was theN680GTX Lightning. Despite all thepotential problems competitors facedwhen trying to overclock this graphicscard, most (and we are talking aboutalmost everyone here) were able toreach speeds significantly higher thanwhat they would otherwise be able toon any other GTX680 on the market.Given the difficulties faced by all GTX680s courtesy of NVIDIAs curiousposition on overclocking softwareand such, one has to praise MSI onsolidifying their position as the numberone graphics card manufacturer forextreme overclockers.

Much like with CPUs, graphicscards do vary and they did at thecompetition as well, some behaved

erratically, because of temperature,others because of software and somea combination of the two. Free fromCPU stabilizing issues courtesy of theplatform, most of the competitorswere able to focus on the task at handthrough each benchmark.

The rest of the gear was greatas well. Memory came courtesy ofKingston, the 1TB Velociraptor harddrives were provided by WesternDigital, power and peripherals byThermaltake and finally displaysby BenQ. Needless to say all thesevendors had representatives presentduring the contest showing off thevarious wares to the public that didcome in for a look at the event.

On a side note, its worth adding herethat more than 80% of the competitors

present used K|NGP|N Coolingcontainers for either the CPU, GPU orboth. These have seemingly becomethe de-facto standard for competitiveoverclockers and with good reason tooI might add.

THE COMPETITORSFifteen teams eventually took part inthe competition, even though sixteenhad originally gained entry into thecompetition. The team from Greeceunfortunately did not make it, butnevertheless it was still a highlycompetitive field.

With live competitions, its alwaysa mixture of experience, talent,preparation and luck of the draw. The

team that is at their best on the daywith the most agreeable hardwareand luck will eventually prevail. Assuch it is imperative for all to realizethat the placing at these competitionsonly serve as rankings of sorts withinthe confined environment undervery specific conditions. Most of theoverclockers present on the day,with their normal surroundings andcomforts would have produced notonly higher scores (in the case of the3D Benchmarks) but likely with little tono hardware failures.

When the pressure is on to deliver,the conditions change and as friendlyas the environment was between theoverclockers, a competition will alwaysbe that and that manifested itself invarious ways throughout the day.

With so many countries representedas well, MOA 2012 had some bignames competing, comprising of thefollowing (not in any order): Splave andRomdominance from the USA, Rbuassand Hazzan under the Fusion banner,Smoke and 12 from the Russian

Federation, SniperOZ and Deanzorepresenting Team.au (Australia andNew Zealand), OC_Windforce andLittleboy from Korea as Team-MPBK,Lucky-n00b and I.R.I.S from Indonesia(JagatReview.com), Vivi and dRweEzfrom Team-SA, SOOGE and Pula theother Australian team competing asTeam Mipmap. Perica_baril and Quakeas HW Gurus (a hybrid team fromMontenegro and Croatia), ASD Crewfrom Poland with ryba and Joanna,T0lsty and cyclone from the Ukrain(XtremeLabs.org), the Xtreme Teamfrom Poland represented by XtremeAddict and Piwor and from Brazil,Gnidaol and OverHeat as LoadingCFX5BR. Monstru and matose fromRomania competed as LAB501 andfinally the 2nd Indonesian team,


35/50

This year was easily the bestyear of the competition and for

some reason it coincided withthis years Mr.Olympia 2012contest all the way across theglobe in Las Vegas Nevada.

The Warriors, well no not exactly, but hey Its unlikely wed fit this

many actual warriors in a shot like this and they cer tainly wouldntbe this pleasing.

The Hardware as most people

would run it normally, butthis is extreme overclocking,

normal is not fun we say.

This is where the competitors wouldcome through like champions to fanfare

and hype. Yes, thats tom Cruises longoverdue brother on the left.

All the overclockers lined up onstage for the press photos.



36/50

Fifteen teamseventually took part inthe competition, eventhough sixteen hadoriginally gained entryinto the competition.

Remember thoselasers on the man?Yes, they wereice popsicles as

illustrated here.

Rbuass, one of thenicest guys youll ever

come across. Preparinga board and sealingagainst water damage.


JagatReview-Binus CE with Coldestand bboyjezz.

In essence, a lot of overclockersfrom various regions, all of whomhad secured tickets to the finalsearlier in the year in the hope of notonly representing their chosen teamsand countries, but themselves asoverclocking gurus.

In addition to the presence of somany well-known overclockers, therewere many others who were notcompetitors but made an appearance.Interestingly, all the overclockers whohad held the number one spot in theworld in the last five years were alsoat the venue, some checking out the

competition, others showing supportfor friends and others just to seewhat MSI MOA 2012 was about. MSIsresident high-fiving guru Elmorwas also present all the way fromStockholm Sweden landing a handthroughout the day, while Tim (T_M)Marshall the veteran overclockerserved as Master Judge.

THE BENCHMARKSAND THE COMPETITIONThis year had three benchmarks forthe competitors to best each otherin, one CPU and memory benchmarkalong with two 3D benchmarks. Asstated earlier, given the platform ofchoice the benchmarks chosen werespot on. There would be advantagesto the team with the best overclockinghardware as always but thatadvantage wasnt straight forward. Forinstance Super Pi 32M as usual wouldrespond well to high frequencies, butthe nature of the benchmark or testrather would necessitate tweaking ofmemory sub timings and the operatingsystem itself, so depending on thecompetitors proficiency with the

benchmark, the competition would betighter than it would initially seem withthe highest frequency CPU walking allover the competition.

Nowhere else was this more obviousthan in the Super Pi 32M results wherethe team with the highest clockingCPU achieved only the 3rd highestscore in in the benchmark. It was Team


37/50

This has to be the classic extremeoverclocking shot that every overclocker onthe planet worth their salt has taken.

2nd runner up team Joana and ryba.

1st runner up team bigSplave and Romdominance.

No idea what we were watchinghere but there was music and

dancing involved, soothing.

Overall winners and Moa 2012

Champions: OC_Windforceand LittleBoy. There was

some Gangnam style dancing

involved soon after this.


HW GURUs who won the first round,followed closely by Team USA andthen Team_MPBK. This was in someways a testament to the right choiceof benchmarks for the platform orthe other way around. Regardless, atthis point it was very interesting asit was too early to tell who would bethe winners but the top three teamsseemed to have been sorted.

As with all live overclockingcompetitions, nothing is decided by thefirst benchmark and the remainder ofthe day proved this as the competitors

moved to the 3D benchmarks.First up was 3DMark03, not

everyones favourite, but certainly nothated by anyone. Despite its age, ithas scaled pretty well with advancinghardware, striking the right balancebetween graphics and host processingpower. Once again, the choice ofbenchmarks proved to be sound asTeam USA scored the highest with ascore of 163,273, followed closely bythe Polish duo ASD Crew and finallythe Korean Team.

Out of the fifteen teams aroundonly five managed scores abovethe 160K mark and with that kind ofspread in performance it was a truerrepresentation on the overclockingpedigree of each team as a combinedeffort than in any of the other two

benchmarks. With the fastest SuperPi32M time, HW GURUS were leadingwith only the USA team scoring higherthan them in 3DMark03.All thingsseemed to be going well and with justone more benchmark to go, the winwas within reach.

There were two other teamsthat were close to the 160K markin 3DMark03 and that was TeamIndonesia JagatReview-Binus-CEwith 159,554 and the Australian/NewZealand team with 159,713. In eachcase a slightly stronger CPU would

have seen them break into the topfive, alas it seemed it wasnt meantto be. Still, not all was lost because3DMark11 was still to come andbecause of the result weighting of thisbenchmark, the competition was stillopen to any number of teams that hadsubmitted scores that were sufficientenough to keep them in the running.

The third and final benchmarkchanged everything. 3DMark11, easilythe most GPU bound benchmark of thelot was what eventually settled whathad otherwise been a tight competitionamongst the top five. The HW GURUSteam that had looked so promisingwere let down by their result onlymanaging to score a respectable butnonetheless uncompetitive 14,936.With such a strong showing in Super


38/50

This yearhad threebenchmarks

for thecompetitors tobest each otherin, one CPUand memory

benchmarkand two 3Dbenchmarks.

Immense concentration,earlier on during the day.Behind these two areElmor and VC from Gelid.

SniperOz and Deanzosubmitting a score I think.


Pi 32M and 3DMark03, one would havefigured the combination of those twobenchmarks showed that the teamhad a very strong system. However itwas their competition to lose and the3DMark11 score sadly placed them outof the Top 3. This was an unfortunateturn of events given that the team wereso close to sealing the win or at leastgetting a top three finish.

A similar fate or some mayargue an even worse fate befellthe USA team, because unlike theMontenegro/Croatia team, Splaveand Romdominance actually did putup a fairly competent score that wasthe fourth highest of the day with15,247 points in the benchmark.

Unfortunately, despite the greatconsistency that the team had shownthroughout the day, it was the KoreanTeam of Littleboy and OC_Windforcethat piped them at the end with ascore of 15,647 points. A wonderfulscore for sure, but not the highestas that honour belonged to theUkrainian team of XtremeLabs.org.This would have been an interestingturn of events, but because T0lsty andcyclone did not submit a Super Pi 32Mresult, they were already out of therunning from the get go.

3DMark11 again changed the fateof another team as the third highest

3DMark11 score of the day went to ASDCrew. With their result they managedto displace HW GURUS from a topthree position securing them as the2nd runner ups. Hard luck to Perica_baril and Quake, but well done to rybaand Joana for getting the jump on thecompetition at the last minute. LAB501 rounded up the top 5 for the day.

As far as benchmarks, balancingand score distribution goes, somemay have felt 3DMark11 played tooimportant a role in determining thefinishing order, but it actually wasbalanced correctly from where I standor at least its consistent with theweighting system. The only reasonit may seem to be heavily biased is

because the numbers are smallerthan those of 3DMark03 for example,where 200 points doesnt make muchof a difference when youre comparinghundreds of thousands of points. In3DMark11 however the scores aresignificantly lower and 200 pointsbecomes very pronounced.

In the end then it was Team Koreathat took the title as this yearsoverclocking champions, followed byTeam USA then ASD Crew. Well doneto all the teams that participated andweve no doubt that Team Korea willreturn next year to try and defendtheir title.


39/50

ViVi in his Eric Cartmansteez, the young andtalented overclockerfrom South Africa!

This is how we keep it all cool.

NVIDIA at its finest.

Top three teams withMSI VP Charles Jiang.


IN CLOSINGIt was grand, it was fun and it was epic.MSIs MOA once again delivered whereit counted. Actually this was easily

the best year of the competition in allforms and we look forward to coveringthis event again next year, with familiarfaces and new entries. We here atTheOverclocker would like to extenda thank you to MSI and especially itsstaff for the invitation and assistancethroughout the show. The co-sponsorsand certainly the competitors many ofwhom we have grown to call friendsover the years. We will see you allsoon, hopefully next year for anotherround of extreme overclocking on themost powerful hardware available atthe time.

Until then, this is Neo forTheOverclocker signing off. Catch youon the flip side (I mean it, seriously,turn the page!)

[ Neo Sibeko ]



Darksiders II

Genre: Action adventure

Developer: Vigil Games

Publisher: THQ

Price: $49.99 (PC)

Darksiderswas a pleasantsurprise, born from the minds ofa fledgling development studio,

eager to make a mark with their firsttitle. And make their mark they did:they managed to deliver an excellentlypolished and highly enjoyable action-adventure romp, one filled with manyhours of quality exploration, puzzle

and action elements. Naturally, itwasnt for everyone. But it seemsenough people enjoyed its Legendof Zelda-like charms to ensure thatthe game received a much-deservedsequel. And youve got to hand it to Vigil:theyre now two-for-two, with a sequelthat does its predecessor proud.

First, the plot. It runs parallel tothat of Darksiders I, and switchesout War for Death. Heres a quickrefresher: the first game saw War,one of the Four Horsemen of theApocalypse, riding out to herald theapocalypse at the appointed time,only to discover that its happenedearly, Heaven and Hell are alreadyat war, and that humankind has beenobliterated in the conflict. Followingthis, War is imprisoned for 100 years

by the Charred Council. DarksidersIItakes place during this time,casting players as Wars brotherDeath. Death believes his brotherinnocent, refusing to accept that Warwouldve prematurely unleashedthe apocalypse. And so, we joinDeath on a journey across numerousstrange and beautiful worlds, packed

with deadly foes to defeat, puzzlingdungeons to traverse and massiveoverworld areas to investigate, allto prove his brothers innocence andsimultaneously resurrect humanity.

Like its forebear, Darksiders IIisa blend of games that have comebefore it, drawing inspiration fromother celebrated franchises andusing that inspiration to carve out itsown unique identity. Darksiders IIisbasically an angrier, bloodier Legendof Zelda, and anyone familiar withthat series will immediately feel athome here. Each area you visit in thegame boasts a sprawling overworldplayground, littered with enemieswholl add a bit of challenge to yourexploratory expeditions. To help withgetting around these enormous zones



quicker, youve got access to Deathshorse Despair. Within each area youllfind merchants, trainers and othernon-hostile NPCs wholl sell you newitems and gear, train you in combatto add new combos and abilities toyour move list, or supply you withside-quests that you can chooseto complete if youre a fan of cool

rewards like bonus experience pointsand piles of Gilt (the games currency).

Then there are the gamesnumerous dungeons, which youll findscattered liberally across the gamesworlds. Theyre intricately designed,filled with clever puzzles and loadsof secrets, some of which can onlybe accessed once youve unlockednew abilities for Death as you play.They put Deaths acrobatic ability tothe test, with many movement-basedchallenges waiting around everycorner. Traversing the environment asDeath is fluid and intuitive, enough sothat it doesnt become a pain duringsome of the more intense acrobaticsections. Dungeons are naturallyteeming with different types ofenemies, and many of the games boss



fights are confined to the dungeonsas well. Combat in Darksiders IIflows well, with Death having accessto primary weapons (his scythes)and secondary weapons (there aredifferent types of secondary weapons,with their own strengths) to dishout damage. There are also potentWrath abilities, used by expendingaccumulated Wrath (which you earnby attacking enemies), and DeathsReaper form, which upon activationwill transform Death into his GrimReaper-style alternate appearanceand allow you to deal significantdamage to any enemies unfortunateenough to be around at the time.

Youll find light RPG elements inhere as well, with Death levelling upas he accrues XP, letting you spend

skill points to unlock new Wrathabilities and other upgrades, as wellas useful bonus abilities at specificmilestones. One of the most importantnew additions to the Darksidersformula is the action RPG-style lootgathering. Slaying enemies andopening chests will occasionallyyield a random item of varying rarity,

each one boasting its own damage-dealing potential and unique bonusesto Deaths various attributes. Somehave useful special abilities that theybestow. Others can be fed surplusinventory items to upgrade them,choosing which bonuses to apply tothe weapon as it improves. It wouldhave been nice for there to havebeen more variety in the items thatcan be found, and perhaps a way tobetter highlight smaller, difficult tospot items (which sometimes get lostamidst the games backgrounds),but its nevertheless an excellentsystem that makes perfect sense as asupplementary feature in this game.

There really is a lot to like aboutDarksiders II. Its an absolutelyenormous game, filled to bursting

with secrets to discover and visuallystunning areas to painstakinglyexplore. Its one of those games youcan get lost in for dozens of hours.The enemy variety is decent enough,with some truly memorable bossfights throughout thatll leave your jawdragging along the ground. The musicand surrounding ambient audio fit the

There really is a lot to like about Darksiders

II. Its an absolutely enormous game, filled tobursting with secrets to discover and visuallystunning areas to painstakingly explore.



game perfectly, and the voice actingis excellently delivered throughout.Visually, its not a technologicalpowerhouse: but it boasts beautiful,vivid art direction that is undeniablyattractive, and the scale of thethematically varied environments isoften breathtaking.

Two things Id like to whine abouthere. First, the camera. Its ofteninfuriating, placing itself in the exactopposite position to where you needit to be. Secondly, the nature ofthe game means that its gameplayoccasionally falls into a very repetitivepattern. Still, this is just me tryingto find stuff to complain about in agame that Ive otherwise becomeworryingly besotted with. Be warnedthat if you didnt enjoy the original,theres an overpowering possibilitythat youll not enjoy this one either, asthey both walk a very similar path. Butif you want a game packed with hoursof quality adventuring, obsessiveloot-gathering, satisfying monster-

bashing and engrossing, strikingworlds to explore, then DarksidersIIis sure to make you as happy as itsmade me.

[ Dane Remendes ]

Would you buy it?

The Score

9/10

I would. Its one of thebest action adventuresever created.



The Score

8/10

Tt eSPORTS Meka G-UnitMechanical KeyboardRRP: $139.99 |Website: www.ttesports.com

There are fewer peripherals asplentiful as gaming keyboards,almost all of them mechanical

(the self-respecting ones) and eachoffering some kind of Macro system.Gamers have been funneled into thisstandard model and all we see arevariations of this basic idea. Not abad thing at all actually, because letsface it. A Keyboard was never theideal input mechanism for gaming,it became the de-facto standard by

virtue of there being nothing else andweve slowly adapted it for our needsand comforts.

The Meka G-Unit keyboard isas design goes, one of the mostuninspired keyboards Ive everseen. Its a far cry from the Osmiumand in general just doesnt screampleasing aesthetics. However I willsay its a solidly build keyboardand it looks like it can take lots ofabuse, something that cant be saidfor most. I personally would havepreferred it in white like the G1 Unit,if only because it would look a littleslicker. It may be better though tohave it in black only as the whitewould get dirty very quickly.

At $140 this isnt a cheap keyboard.In fact its one of the more expensive

ones. For that however you getan audio controller built into theunit. Thats right; if you plug thiskeyboard into your system you canuse the audio controller on it andforgo the one in your main system.So its essentially a portable soundcard as well. A pretty neat featurebut not without its caveats becauseif you have a discreet audio card inyour system or one of the superioraudio solutions on the G1 line of

motherboards for instance, thefunctionality of the audio processoris wasted. Id have liked to see apass-through allowing you to usewhatever audio solution you have,running the signal through thekeyboard as with the Osmium Ilooked at last month.

Still, its the only keyboard I knowthat has this and for that alone, itsa tick in the right place for the MekaG-Unit. For connectivity theresthe standard USB 2.0 hub as wellallowing you to plug two devices intothe keyboard. Be warned that someUSB flash drives will draw too muchpower from the keyboard, so its bestif you use this hub for simple thingssuch as mice and the smaller flashdrives to avoid drawing more power

than the keyboard can provide.Overall this is a solid keyboard.

Itll not be winning any designawards and there could be a fewimprovements made, but as amechanical gaming keyboard it getsthe basics right and throws in a fewnovel ideas which should go a longway into making that price morepalatable. If you do decide to buy theG-Unit youll not be disappointed.There arent many keyboards that

are as tough as this one and thatssomething to consider when buyingthese high end keyboards as the lastthing youll want is to drop it and haveit break. We dont encourage thatwith the G-Unit either, but somehowwe suspect itll survive a short fallwithout taking too much damage ifany at all.

[ The OverClocker ]



The Score

9/10

CM Storm Scout 2RRP: $99.99 |Website: www.cmstorm.com

Cooler Master knows how tomake cases. One may evenargue that they make nothing

else as well as they make cases.After all theyve been at it for a longtime and it shows. Its in the littlethings where its most evident.. Frompackaging to presentation, its all donewell with thought and practicality. Aswith many Cooler Master cases from

recent years, you can install and setupyour system without aid of the manual.It is that simple and certainly that easyespecially with the CM Storm Scout 2.

This is a mid-tower case, so anyideas you may have about buildingthat ultimate 4-way Mutli-GPUsystem into this case should be restedimmediately. No, this is for standardATX motherboards and as such youshould take great care as to planningwhat it is exactly youll be fitting intothe system.

Despite the size, the interior ofthis case is relatively spacious or atleast a little more spacious than Ihad envisioned. Cable managementis a breeze if only because there areseveral rubberised openings whereyou can push cables through, to and

from the back of the case. As statedearlier, its in the little things that makethe Scout 2 a breeze to work with.

Aesthetically it wont turn heads likethe Cosmos 2, but its good lookingeven though its very subtle. Thehandles at the top of the case arestrong and carrying this is not onlysimple but comfortable. Its the oneof the better LAN case on sale. Its

designed in a way to have the weightof the system be as evenly distributedas possible so even if you have to walka distance it isnt too cumbersome.This is a definite advantage for thosewho have to take their computerseverywhere for LAN gaming.

Features wise, its the standardaffair. Much like the original Scout, ithas four USB ports at the front, thedifference however is that theresa slide cover provided for these. Ofmore importance, two of the ports areUSB3.0 compatible and all of themare placed horizontally as opposedto vertically on the original Scout. Asmall but necessary change, becauseyou can now fit those big USB plugs,typical of high performance USB3.0flash drives without rendering any of

the nearby ports unusable.The top of the chassis near the front

features three stylish but simplebuttons that curve along with thecase. The biggest one being the powerbutton in the middle, to the right is thereset button and the left has the lightswitch, simple but effective. This caseis charming in its simplicity, it doesntgo overboard in anything but provides

high quality finishes and sensibledesign to make it not only a pleasureto work in but attractive as well. Forthe asking price its more than a fairpurchase and it definitely gets myapproval, another stellar job from CMStorm then.

[ The OverClocker ]

c s orm.com

Much like theoriginal Scout case,it has four USB portsat the front, thedifference howeveris that theres a slidecover provided forthese.

TheOverclocker+Issue+21

Documents

Transcript of TheOverclocker+Issue+21