2010 June | TechREACTION

[Blog] College-Kid’s-Budget Gaming PC Building – Things to Avoid and Things to Adore Like Your First Pony 10 Comments By TheDramaLlama on June 30, 2010 Hello, everyone! My name is Alvin (a.k.a. TheDramaLlama) and I’d like to poke fun at all the old… er, say hi to everyone here at TechREACTION. For my first blog, I’m going to do a rough overview on budget PC building. No, not your run-of-the-mill budget PC building, I’m writing about college-kid’s-budget gaming PC building, since college kids like me belong to a fantastic little niche, filled with people in situations I like to describe as, “Mommy, I have no...
[Blog] Asus 5870 + XFX 5850 CrossFireX Mismatch 2 Comments By wez on June 30, 2010 ATI 5870+5850 CrossFireX I’ve been playing around with two mismatched GPU’s in CrossFireX. Namely a reference model HD5870 from Asus and a custom PCB HD5850 from XFX. Perhaps not the most common setup, as most would much rather go for two identical cards. But if you happen to stumble upon the odd card, then why not give it a try, right? Hardware & Software Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P AMD Phenom II x6 1090T BE Kingston HyperX LoVo 1866 MHz 2×2Gb Asus ATI Radeon HD5870 1G...
[Blog] Super Talent Speed Series DDR3-2200 Review 2 Comments By BeepBeep2 on June 30, 2010 Corporate Info: Super Talent Technology Corporation, headquartered in San Jose, California, designs and manufactures a full range of DDR, DDR2, and DDR3 memory modules and Flash based storage solutions for Enterprise Servers, Workstations, Personal Computers and Consumer Electronics. An ISO 9001 certified company, Super Talent utilizes its state-of-the art factory and leading-edge components to produce award winning products with exceptional performance and outstanding reliability. Super Ta...
ASUS GeForce ENGTX480 w/ Voltage Tweak! 2 Comments By The Duke on June 28, 2010 The great people at ASUS have just sent us Nvidia’s latest. The ASUS ENGTX 480 is what we have in our hands today! With so much hype prior to launch and a few uncertainties floating around at the time of release, we will soon be able to provide more insight into what this card is capable of. A lot of people have been claiming that the GTX 480 will burn a house down with it’s heat output. Well, hopefully not for our sake, and we will be testing temperatures to give you some solid numb...
Rewriting the Book on CPU HSF Testing 9 Comments By Archer on June 21, 2010 To test a heat sink and fan assembly to the limit, a computer is not the best option. With some of the many variables, which can be attributed to the computer alone and completely outside the control of the tester, software and hardware results can be skewed to the point of being outright wrong. Things that can be controlled are often ignored and sometimes forgotten. Factors contributing to unreliable test results that can be controlled by the tester: Air temperature and humidity: When doing a ...
[Blog] Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD9 Motherboard Review 9 Comments By Deux on June 5, 2010 Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD9 Motherboard Review Patrick “Deux” VanValzah First off, I’d like to make sure you know what you’re going to get from this review. This isn’t going to be your run of the mill motherboard review where I ramble about the number of USB and SATA ports and run meaningless tests comparing motherboards and drawing conclusions from the tiny differences between boards. First I’m going to briefly discuss the features and layout of the board keep...
[Review] Cooler Master Elite 430 3 Comments By The Duke on June 2, 2010 Our good buddies at Cooler Master surprised us once again. What was waiting for us at the front door? The brand new Cooler Master Elite 430 mid-tower case (MSRP $59.99), that’s what! It is always a great way to start off the day when you have packages waiting for you at the front door. We unpacked it like it was Christmas all over again, and got to work examining this new edition to the Cooler Master Elite chassis line-up. Now it’s time for you to see exactly what we found with the ...
TechREACTION.net – Blog & Win – AMD June Giveaway! 6 Comments By EnJoY on June 2, 2010 All registered Bloggers have the chance to win free hardware at least once a month forever! That’s right! FREE HARDWARE! Just for being a registered and active blogger of TechREACTION.net. How do I sign up? Simple, first register at this page to become a TR blogger. Once you receive your account information, half the job is done. Second, go to the TechREACTION forums and register there as well. You must be registered in both places to be eligible. Bloggers are given sp...
Winner Announced! May AMD Phenom II X6 Giveaway! 1 Comment By EnJoY on June 1, 2010 It’s the 1st of another month again, and as always, that means it’s time to pick a winner of our monthly blogging giveaway. This past months giveaway was sponsored by AMD with the prize being a brand new Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition processor. The winner of the May AMD Phenom II X6 Giveaway is… Krab Thank you for your participation and contribution to this community. We hope you enjoy your new processor! Thanks to AMD for sponsoring the giveaway. Stay tuned tonight ...
[Blog] Microsoft Sidewinder X6 Keyboard 1 Comment By Krab on June 1, 2010 The Sidewinder X6 is one of Microsoft’s first gaming keyboards. Compared to a regular, basic, Dell one, it’s quite the fancy spectacle, with back-lit keys and a detachable keypad! Now, let’s take a look at the packaging. The keyboard is in a standard cardboard box. I don’t know how I can further describe cardboard boxes, maybe I can say it’s a rectangle? The design is pretty nice looking, but how much time do you honestly spend looking at cardboard boxes? A minute...
[Blog] Mission Unlock // Overclock – Intel Core i7-875k 13 Comments By parelem on June 1, 2010 Recently, I was handed a large case marked “Mission: Unlock // Overclock” along with an envelop marked “Top Secret.” Intrigued, I opened the envelop to find a series of smaller envelops labeled with phase numbers. Proceeding with the mission, I opened the phase 1 envelop. Inside the envelop I found a USB key, aptly shaped like a key, accompanied by instructions to plug it into a computer. Upon plugging the key in, I was greeted by a series of statements to complete and the option to gene...
Tenma 72-7712 dual channel temp probe, what happens with temperatures inside a PC. 7 Comments By Archer on June 1, 2010 The 72-7712 Digital Thermometer from Tenma Test Equipment is a dual thermocouple meter with internal logging capability, USB output for saving logged data and software up-link. This unit can become an integral part of a PC testing arsenal by allowing for isolation of case hot spots, heat sink testing and LN2/Dry Ice work. The limitations start to change and the performance bar can be raised when you know where it is hot and where it is not. Compatible with K-, J-, T- and E- thermocouples (oth...

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