[Review] Lexar JumpDrive TwistTurn0 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (169) on September 29, 2010
We have another flash drive from Lexar to test today. This one is the 8GB JumpDrive TwistTurn (MSRP $44.99), which is fitted with a rotating jacket that easily opens and closes for quick use. It has a plug-and-play design along with different colored models depending on the size of the TwistTurn. The TwistTurn has six different models, ranging in size from 2GB to 64GB. Needless to say, they have a flash drive to fit almost everybody’s needs.
Packaging:
Specifications:
The TwistTurn...
[Review] Lexar JumpDrive Retrax0 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (169) on September 28, 2010
We have the Lexar JumpDrive Retrax 8GB (MSRP $44.99) to review for you today. The Retrax comes in six different models, ranging in size from 2GB to 64GB, depending on your storage needs. It features a plug-and-play design, with a stylish paint job and a retractable USB connection to help prevent damage while not in use. Let’s continue with the review and see what this drive really brings to the table.
Packaging:
Features:
The Retrax:
In the above pictures, you can see the stylish b...
[Review] OCZ Gold (2×4GB) PC3-10666 Low Voltage Memory Kit1 Comment By ChewcloseAuthor: ChewName: Brian McLachlan Email: wmdieselmc26@cox.net Site:http:// About:See Authors Posts (8) on September 28, 2010
Recently the good folks at OCZ sent us out another set of budget minded RAM to review. This particular set is interesting due to the fact that it is an 8GB kit, but not the commonly found 4×2GB combinations that we typically see in enthusiast forums. This particular set is opposite in the sense that it’s just two modules, each of 4GB density for a total of 8GB, allowing for the possibility of up to 16GB should a user so choose. Based on the rather conservative specs of CL9-9-9 and 133...
[Review] BitFenix Colossus – Enthusiast Chassis6 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (169) on September 28, 2010
Today, we finally got our hands on a much anticipated chassis being released by BitFenix, the Colossus. BitFenix has plans on competing with the giants of the industry, such as Cooler Master, Lian Li, Silverstone, etc. BitFenix has created a massive case to say the least, weighing in at just under 40lbs. Hopefully this means solid construction with lots of features that we would not normally get. With the LED-lit front and side panels, this case is sure to catch plenty of attention from everyone...
Gaming in Tight Spaces v2.0 – MAX11L (featuring Corsair and Gigabyte)24 Comments By miahallencloseAuthor: miahallenName: Jeremiah Allen Email: miahallen.ironmods@gmail.com Site:http://www.ironmods.com About: Well, I was playing with computers ever since my Dad got a Commodore 64 when I was 6 years old (1986), when I was 10 (1990) he bought a custom build 486DX33, and I was in love. Mostly back then I was just a kid playing games, but my fascination with computers had a start. Because I had no money of my own, I was stuck playing with my Dad's computers, and really couldn't "play" too much. So in 1998, the year I graduated, I spent some of my college savings to by a "computer for school", haha. It had two Voodoo2 12MB 3D accelerators in it, so you can imagine how much school work was done on it ;-) It had an AMD K6-233 that I had a really mild OC on, but my custom computer builder friend Aaron had done all the work. So I can't really take the credit there. My fascination with graphics just kept growing and growing over the years, and I was constantly in a struggle to keep my games looking as sharp and smooth as possible. OCing played a big role.
My whole world was rocked in 2004 when I was deployed to Iraq as a US Army soldier. The whole year I was there I had a cheap IBM Thinkpad R40 with a 2GHz Celeron, 1GB DDR-333 RAM, a 60GB 4200RPM HDD, and ATI Radeon Mobility graphics (same technology as a 7000 series with only 16MB of memory). It started out rough as I was really into Command and Conquer Generals at the time, and the machine would only play the C&C slide show LOL. So, I downloaded PowerStrip, and OC'ed the GPU by 40%...amazingly, the game was playable!
Things changed dramatically in 2007 when I met a guy named Matt while I was stationed in Japan. He introduced me to www.ocforums.com, and the "Benchmarking Team" there. I had not had much interest in benchmarking previously, I always though of myself as more practical. But, I thought I'd play along and I joined the team. My first introduction to an actual competition was was is "The Raptor Pit", "Forum Warz 2008" in the spring of 2008. I was running a Q6600 and an 8800GTX. With air cooling I was able to bench my Q6600 at over 4GHz, and tore up the competition in my class. Overall OCF won the Forum War in 2007, Winter and Summer of 2008, and 2009...that means five in a row. I was not part of the first one in 2007, but the four since then, I have participated in. After winning the 2008 Winter and Summer Warz, Tom's Hardware Guide announced they were looking for nominations for individuals to compete in their first ever international overclocking competition, called "Overdrive". I was nominated, and chosen to compete in the North American semi-finals in Los Angeles in November 2008. I was placed on "Team IRONMODS" as they only had two guys, yet three man teams were allowed. We won the semi-finals in LA, and our prize was a trip to Paris the following month, to compete with the best in the world.
The following month, Ton, Jake, and myself flew to Paris as "Team USA" to face off against the best from Taiwan, France, Germany, and Italy. It was a very intense competition, but after two heated days of battle (16 hours of benching), we emerged the victors. Amidst our celebration, Ton and Jake officially invited me to join "Team IRONMODS" on a permanent basis, and I graciously accepted. Ton, aka "TiTON", is a world renown case moder, and is also very well known for some of the AMD overclocking he has done. Jake, aka "CPT.Planet", is a genius overclocker, and a really fun guy. The team has a great synergy when working together, we really have complementary styles.
After winning the world championship in December 2008 things were a bit quite for a couple months, then in the spring of 2009 I received an invitation to the 2nd annual Gigabyte Open Overclocking Championship "GOOC". I would compete in the North American semi-final in LA, where the winner would win a ticket to the world championship in Taipei Taiwan during CES in June 2009. The competition was tough with 14 of the best from North America gathering for a 1 on 1 competition of OCing. But once again, I completed the competition well, and rose above the others. I won 1st place and the trip to the world finals in Taipei.
My luck ran dry in Taipei where I started off with a bad motherboard, and went through 5 more during the course of the competition due to various reasons. Despite the poor finish in Taipei, I have high hopes to redeem myself next year.See Authors Posts (24) on September 24, 2010
“Gaming in Tight Spaces” – Part Two
Last month I brought you part one in this series entitled “Gaming in Tight Spaces – mini-ITX (featuring Gigabyte, Silverstone, and Prolimatech)”. In that article, I talked a bit about the history of mini-ITX and my fascination with it. If you didn’t get a chance to look it over yet, feel free to check it out as I’ll be referencing it a lot in this article.
My goal with the original was to simply build a gaming PC in which I would be usi...
[Review] G.Skill Flare (2×2GB) DDR3 2000MHz6 Comments By ChewcloseAuthor: ChewName: Brian McLachlan Email: wmdieselmc26@cox.net Site:http:// About:See Authors Posts (8) on September 20, 2010
Not to long ago G.Skill sent us there flagship set of DDR3 memory specifically tuned for the AMD platform. Unfortunately, due to a busy schedule we are a little late to the party, but better late than never right? What this delay did allow me to do was to scan forum results, however, and one thing I noticed was that nobody was willing to show prime 95 stable results for any real length of time, which create a little skepticism for me. With that said, I believe it’s time to put this skeptic...
[Review] ARCTIC Sound P311 – Stereo Bluetooth Headset1 Comment By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (169) on September 17, 2010
We have found our way back to on-the-go devices, with our friends from Arctic Cooling sending us the ARCTIC Sound P311 Bluetooth headset. It is compatible with any Bluetooth supported device such as a laptop, phone, or music player. With a one-button connection, it makes this headset extremely easy to use and connect to your personal devices. The headset features Bluetooth v2.1+EDR, in which it supports secure and simple Bluetooth pairing. It has a high fidelity driver that ensures excellent so...
[Review] EVGA GeForce GTS 450 FTW Edition3 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (169) on September 13, 2010
With the new release of the GeForce GTS 450, Nvidia has targeted a specific segment of the market with a suggested MSRP starting at $129, which makes this a very budget-minded card. They went after, or as they say “laser targeted”, the gamers who don’t play everything on max settings with super high resolutions. Instead, their focus was on the people who play with resolutions of 1280×1024 through 1680×1050 on monitors of 17″-22″. The GTS 450 is the repla...
[Review] Arctic C1 – A mobile USB charger with solar panel0 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (169) on September 10, 2010
Today we will be looking at a USB charger with a solar panel. Yes, you read that correctly, a solar panel. We are sure you are thinking, “another USB charger?”. No worries, we thought the same thing until we opened it up and started examining it. Its built-in 4440 mWh lithium-ion battery can charge devices such as mobile phones, MP3 and PDA. With these types of products showing up more and more on the market, one has to ask, “why would I want/need to carry around another piece...
3 Step Overclocking Guide – Lynnfield60 Comments By miahallencloseAuthor: miahallenName: Jeremiah Allen Email: miahallen.ironmods@gmail.com Site:http://www.ironmods.com About: Well, I was playing with computers ever since my Dad got a Commodore 64 when I was 6 years old (1986), when I was 10 (1990) he bought a custom build 486DX33, and I was in love. Mostly back then I was just a kid playing games, but my fascination with computers had a start. Because I had no money of my own, I was stuck playing with my Dad's computers, and really couldn't "play" too much. So in 1998, the year I graduated, I spent some of my college savings to by a "computer for school", haha. It had two Voodoo2 12MB 3D accelerators in it, so you can imagine how much school work was done on it ;-) It had an AMD K6-233 that I had a really mild OC on, but my custom computer builder friend Aaron had done all the work. So I can't really take the credit there. My fascination with graphics just kept growing and growing over the years, and I was constantly in a struggle to keep my games looking as sharp and smooth as possible. OCing played a big role.
My whole world was rocked in 2004 when I was deployed to Iraq as a US Army soldier. The whole year I was there I had a cheap IBM Thinkpad R40 with a 2GHz Celeron, 1GB DDR-333 RAM, a 60GB 4200RPM HDD, and ATI Radeon Mobility graphics (same technology as a 7000 series with only 16MB of memory). It started out rough as I was really into Command and Conquer Generals at the time, and the machine would only play the C&C slide show LOL. So, I downloaded PowerStrip, and OC'ed the GPU by 40%...amazingly, the game was playable!
Things changed dramatically in 2007 when I met a guy named Matt while I was stationed in Japan. He introduced me to www.ocforums.com, and the "Benchmarking Team" there. I had not had much interest in benchmarking previously, I always though of myself as more practical. But, I thought I'd play along and I joined the team. My first introduction to an actual competition was was is "The Raptor Pit", "Forum Warz 2008" in the spring of 2008. I was running a Q6600 and an 8800GTX. With air cooling I was able to bench my Q6600 at over 4GHz, and tore up the competition in my class. Overall OCF won the Forum War in 2007, Winter and Summer of 2008, and 2009...that means five in a row. I was not part of the first one in 2007, but the four since then, I have participated in. After winning the 2008 Winter and Summer Warz, Tom's Hardware Guide announced they were looking for nominations for individuals to compete in their first ever international overclocking competition, called "Overdrive". I was nominated, and chosen to compete in the North American semi-finals in Los Angeles in November 2008. I was placed on "Team IRONMODS" as they only had two guys, yet three man teams were allowed. We won the semi-finals in LA, and our prize was a trip to Paris the following month, to compete with the best in the world.
The following month, Ton, Jake, and myself flew to Paris as "Team USA" to face off against the best from Taiwan, France, Germany, and Italy. It was a very intense competition, but after two heated days of battle (16 hours of benching), we emerged the victors. Amidst our celebration, Ton and Jake officially invited me to join "Team IRONMODS" on a permanent basis, and I graciously accepted. Ton, aka "TiTON", is a world renown case moder, and is also very well known for some of the AMD overclocking he has done. Jake, aka "CPT.Planet", is a genius overclocker, and a really fun guy. The team has a great synergy when working together, we really have complementary styles.
After winning the world championship in December 2008 things were a bit quite for a couple months, then in the spring of 2009 I received an invitation to the 2nd annual Gigabyte Open Overclocking Championship "GOOC". I would compete in the North American semi-final in LA, where the winner would win a ticket to the world championship in Taipei Taiwan during CES in June 2009. The competition was tough with 14 of the best from North America gathering for a 1 on 1 competition of OCing. But once again, I completed the competition well, and rose above the others. I won 1st place and the trip to the world finals in Taipei.
My luck ran dry in Taipei where I started off with a bad motherboard, and went through 5 more during the course of the competition due to various reasons. Despite the poor finish in Taipei, I have high hopes to redeem myself next year.See Authors Posts (24) on September 7, 2010
Introduction
So many users are searching around the net these days looking for advice on how to overclock their new systems but don’t know where to start. To help everyone out, I decided a how-to guide was in order. Searching around forums can be confusing and intimidating. There are so many people willing to give advice, but who can you trust? It’s hard to know, and I’ve seen many users sent on wild goose chases because they are following advice that doesn’t solve or even add...
[Sticky] Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 – 3 Step Overclocking Guides15 Comments By miahallencloseAuthor: miahallenName: Jeremiah Allen Email: miahallen.ironmods@gmail.com Site:http://www.ironmods.com About: Well, I was playing with computers ever since my Dad got a Commodore 64 when I was 6 years old (1986), when I was 10 (1990) he bought a custom build 486DX33, and I was in love. Mostly back then I was just a kid playing games, but my fascination with computers had a start. Because I had no money of my own, I was stuck playing with my Dad's computers, and really couldn't "play" too much. So in 1998, the year I graduated, I spent some of my college savings to by a "computer for school", haha. It had two Voodoo2 12MB 3D accelerators in it, so you can imagine how much school work was done on it ;-) It had an AMD K6-233 that I had a really mild OC on, but my custom computer builder friend Aaron had done all the work. So I can't really take the credit there. My fascination with graphics just kept growing and growing over the years, and I was constantly in a struggle to keep my games looking as sharp and smooth as possible. OCing played a big role.
My whole world was rocked in 2004 when I was deployed to Iraq as a US Army soldier. The whole year I was there I had a cheap IBM Thinkpad R40 with a 2GHz Celeron, 1GB DDR-333 RAM, a 60GB 4200RPM HDD, and ATI Radeon Mobility graphics (same technology as a 7000 series with only 16MB of memory). It started out rough as I was really into Command and Conquer Generals at the time, and the machine would only play the C&C slide show LOL. So, I downloaded PowerStrip, and OC'ed the GPU by 40%...amazingly, the game was playable!
Things changed dramatically in 2007 when I met a guy named Matt while I was stationed in Japan. He introduced me to www.ocforums.com, and the "Benchmarking Team" there. I had not had much interest in benchmarking previously, I always though of myself as more practical. But, I thought I'd play along and I joined the team. My first introduction to an actual competition was was is "The Raptor Pit", "Forum Warz 2008" in the spring of 2008. I was running a Q6600 and an 8800GTX. With air cooling I was able to bench my Q6600 at over 4GHz, and tore up the competition in my class. Overall OCF won the Forum War in 2007, Winter and Summer of 2008, and 2009...that means five in a row. I was not part of the first one in 2007, but the four since then, I have participated in. After winning the 2008 Winter and Summer Warz, Tom's Hardware Guide announced they were looking for nominations for individuals to compete in their first ever international overclocking competition, called "Overdrive". I was nominated, and chosen to compete in the North American semi-finals in Los Angeles in November 2008. I was placed on "Team IRONMODS" as they only had two guys, yet three man teams were allowed. We won the semi-finals in LA, and our prize was a trip to Paris the following month, to compete with the best in the world.
The following month, Ton, Jake, and myself flew to Paris as "Team USA" to face off against the best from Taiwan, France, Germany, and Italy. It was a very intense competition, but after two heated days of battle (16 hours of benching), we emerged the victors. Amidst our celebration, Ton and Jake officially invited me to join "Team IRONMODS" on a permanent basis, and I graciously accepted. Ton, aka "TiTON", is a world renown case moder, and is also very well known for some of the AMD overclocking he has done. Jake, aka "CPT.Planet", is a genius overclocker, and a really fun guy. The team has a great synergy when working together, we really have complementary styles.
After winning the world championship in December 2008 things were a bit quite for a couple months, then in the spring of 2009 I received an invitation to the 2nd annual Gigabyte Open Overclocking Championship "GOOC". I would compete in the North American semi-final in LA, where the winner would win a ticket to the world championship in Taipei Taiwan during CES in June 2009. The competition was tough with 14 of the best from North America gathering for a 1 on 1 competition of OCing. But once again, I completed the competition well, and rose above the others. I won 1st place and the trip to the world finals in Taipei.
My luck ran dry in Taipei where I started off with a bad motherboard, and went through 5 more during the course of the competition due to various reasons. Despite the poor finish in Taipei, I have high hopes to redeem myself next year.See Authors Posts (24) on September 7, 2010
Introduction
So many users are searching around the net these days looking for advice about which components to purchase and how to overclock. This guide is not meant as a comparison between AMD, and Intel. This guide assumes you’ve already decided to purchase an Intel based system, and takes you to the next step…..deciding which one. The emphasis here is on value, overclocking, and overall system performance. If you want to continue searching out other opinions, please consider each...
3 Step Overclocking Guide – Bloomfield and Gulftown97 Comments By miahallencloseAuthor: miahallenName: Jeremiah Allen Email: miahallen.ironmods@gmail.com Site:http://www.ironmods.com About: Well, I was playing with computers ever since my Dad got a Commodore 64 when I was 6 years old (1986), when I was 10 (1990) he bought a custom build 486DX33, and I was in love. Mostly back then I was just a kid playing games, but my fascination with computers had a start. Because I had no money of my own, I was stuck playing with my Dad's computers, and really couldn't "play" too much. So in 1998, the year I graduated, I spent some of my college savings to by a "computer for school", haha. It had two Voodoo2 12MB 3D accelerators in it, so you can imagine how much school work was done on it ;-) It had an AMD K6-233 that I had a really mild OC on, but my custom computer builder friend Aaron had done all the work. So I can't really take the credit there. My fascination with graphics just kept growing and growing over the years, and I was constantly in a struggle to keep my games looking as sharp and smooth as possible. OCing played a big role.
My whole world was rocked in 2004 when I was deployed to Iraq as a US Army soldier. The whole year I was there I had a cheap IBM Thinkpad R40 with a 2GHz Celeron, 1GB DDR-333 RAM, a 60GB 4200RPM HDD, and ATI Radeon Mobility graphics (same technology as a 7000 series with only 16MB of memory). It started out rough as I was really into Command and Conquer Generals at the time, and the machine would only play the C&C slide show LOL. So, I downloaded PowerStrip, and OC'ed the GPU by 40%...amazingly, the game was playable!
Things changed dramatically in 2007 when I met a guy named Matt while I was stationed in Japan. He introduced me to www.ocforums.com, and the "Benchmarking Team" there. I had not had much interest in benchmarking previously, I always though of myself as more practical. But, I thought I'd play along and I joined the team. My first introduction to an actual competition was was is "The Raptor Pit", "Forum Warz 2008" in the spring of 2008. I was running a Q6600 and an 8800GTX. With air cooling I was able to bench my Q6600 at over 4GHz, and tore up the competition in my class. Overall OCF won the Forum War in 2007, Winter and Summer of 2008, and 2009...that means five in a row. I was not part of the first one in 2007, but the four since then, I have participated in. After winning the 2008 Winter and Summer Warz, Tom's Hardware Guide announced they were looking for nominations for individuals to compete in their first ever international overclocking competition, called "Overdrive". I was nominated, and chosen to compete in the North American semi-finals in Los Angeles in November 2008. I was placed on "Team IRONMODS" as they only had two guys, yet three man teams were allowed. We won the semi-finals in LA, and our prize was a trip to Paris the following month, to compete with the best in the world.
The following month, Ton, Jake, and myself flew to Paris as "Team USA" to face off against the best from Taiwan, France, Germany, and Italy. It was a very intense competition, but after two heated days of battle (16 hours of benching), we emerged the victors. Amidst our celebration, Ton and Jake officially invited me to join "Team IRONMODS" on a permanent basis, and I graciously accepted. Ton, aka "TiTON", is a world renown case moder, and is also very well known for some of the AMD overclocking he has done. Jake, aka "CPT.Planet", is a genius overclocker, and a really fun guy. The team has a great synergy when working together, we really have complementary styles.
After winning the world championship in December 2008 things were a bit quite for a couple months, then in the spring of 2009 I received an invitation to the 2nd annual Gigabyte Open Overclocking Championship "GOOC". I would compete in the North American semi-final in LA, where the winner would win a ticket to the world championship in Taipei Taiwan during CES in June 2009. The competition was tough with 14 of the best from North America gathering for a 1 on 1 competition of OCing. But once again, I completed the competition well, and rose above the others. I won 1st place and the trip to the world finals in Taipei.
My luck ran dry in Taipei where I started off with a bad motherboard, and went through 5 more during the course of the competition due to various reasons. Despite the poor finish in Taipei, I have high hopes to redeem myself next year.See Authors Posts (24) on September 7, 2010
Introduction
So many users are searching around the net these days looking for advice on how to overclock their new systems but don’t know where to start. To help everyone out, I decided a how-to guide was in order. Searching around forums can be confusing and intimidating. There are so many people willing to give advice, but who can you trust? It’s hard to know, and I’ve seen many users sent on wild goose chases because they are following advice that doesn’t solve or even add...
3 Step Overclocking Guide – Clarkdale17 Comments By miahallencloseAuthor: miahallenName: Jeremiah Allen Email: miahallen.ironmods@gmail.com Site:http://www.ironmods.com About: Well, I was playing with computers ever since my Dad got a Commodore 64 when I was 6 years old (1986), when I was 10 (1990) he bought a custom build 486DX33, and I was in love. Mostly back then I was just a kid playing games, but my fascination with computers had a start. Because I had no money of my own, I was stuck playing with my Dad's computers, and really couldn't "play" too much. So in 1998, the year I graduated, I spent some of my college savings to by a "computer for school", haha. It had two Voodoo2 12MB 3D accelerators in it, so you can imagine how much school work was done on it ;-) It had an AMD K6-233 that I had a really mild OC on, but my custom computer builder friend Aaron had done all the work. So I can't really take the credit there. My fascination with graphics just kept growing and growing over the years, and I was constantly in a struggle to keep my games looking as sharp and smooth as possible. OCing played a big role.
My whole world was rocked in 2004 when I was deployed to Iraq as a US Army soldier. The whole year I was there I had a cheap IBM Thinkpad R40 with a 2GHz Celeron, 1GB DDR-333 RAM, a 60GB 4200RPM HDD, and ATI Radeon Mobility graphics (same technology as a 7000 series with only 16MB of memory). It started out rough as I was really into Command and Conquer Generals at the time, and the machine would only play the C&C slide show LOL. So, I downloaded PowerStrip, and OC'ed the GPU by 40%...amazingly, the game was playable!
Things changed dramatically in 2007 when I met a guy named Matt while I was stationed in Japan. He introduced me to www.ocforums.com, and the "Benchmarking Team" there. I had not had much interest in benchmarking previously, I always though of myself as more practical. But, I thought I'd play along and I joined the team. My first introduction to an actual competition was was is "The Raptor Pit", "Forum Warz 2008" in the spring of 2008. I was running a Q6600 and an 8800GTX. With air cooling I was able to bench my Q6600 at over 4GHz, and tore up the competition in my class. Overall OCF won the Forum War in 2007, Winter and Summer of 2008, and 2009...that means five in a row. I was not part of the first one in 2007, but the four since then, I have participated in. After winning the 2008 Winter and Summer Warz, Tom's Hardware Guide announced they were looking for nominations for individuals to compete in their first ever international overclocking competition, called "Overdrive". I was nominated, and chosen to compete in the North American semi-finals in Los Angeles in November 2008. I was placed on "Team IRONMODS" as they only had two guys, yet three man teams were allowed. We won the semi-finals in LA, and our prize was a trip to Paris the following month, to compete with the best in the world.
The following month, Ton, Jake, and myself flew to Paris as "Team USA" to face off against the best from Taiwan, France, Germany, and Italy. It was a very intense competition, but after two heated days of battle (16 hours of benching), we emerged the victors. Amidst our celebration, Ton and Jake officially invited me to join "Team IRONMODS" on a permanent basis, and I graciously accepted. Ton, aka "TiTON", is a world renown case moder, and is also very well known for some of the AMD overclocking he has done. Jake, aka "CPT.Planet", is a genius overclocker, and a really fun guy. The team has a great synergy when working together, we really have complementary styles.
After winning the world championship in December 2008 things were a bit quite for a couple months, then in the spring of 2009 I received an invitation to the 2nd annual Gigabyte Open Overclocking Championship "GOOC". I would compete in the North American semi-final in LA, where the winner would win a ticket to the world championship in Taipei Taiwan during CES in June 2009. The competition was tough with 14 of the best from North America gathering for a 1 on 1 competition of OCing. But once again, I completed the competition well, and rose above the others. I won 1st place and the trip to the world finals in Taipei.
My luck ran dry in Taipei where I started off with a bad motherboard, and went through 5 more during the course of the competition due to various reasons. Despite the poor finish in Taipei, I have high hopes to redeem myself next year.See Authors Posts (24) on September 7, 2010
Introduction
So many users are searching around the net these days looking for advice on how to overclock their new systems but don’t know where to start. To help everyone out, I decided a how-to guide was in order. Searching around forums can be confusing and intimidating. There are so many people willing to give advice, but who can you trust? It’s hard to know, and I’ve seen many users sent on wild goose chases because they are following advice that doesn’t solve or even add...
[Review + Contest] Intel Solid-State Experience: A look at X25-M’s8 Comments By parelemcloseAuthor: parelemName: Julie Gierald Email: julie.gierald@gmail.com Site:http://techaggregate.com About: 20 something tech enthusiast from ChicagoSee Authors Posts (3) on September 6, 2010
As memory chip manufacturers develop better and cheaper manufacturing processes, the computer storage market is quickly becoming saturated by Solid-State Drives. On the bandwagon, Intel is quickly developing gamer and enthusiast class 34nm NAND Flash memory for their Solid-State Drives.
Intel markets their X25-M Mainstream SATA Solid-State Drives towards gamers, claiming they will provide greater gaming performance over mechanical drives. Will the X25-M really get us into the game faster? Let...
[Blog] 36GB Raptors in Raid0 – Can this dog still hunt?9 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (169) on September 6, 2010
I got bored the other day and started looking at SSD’s with their read/write speeds and got to thinking. Yes, when I get bored and start thinking, it can be scary, especially to my bank account. However, for once, I had everything I needed to satisfy my curiosity and my bank account is grateful! Let’s get this show on the road … Shall we?
Why Bother?
This is a good question, and hopefully, I can answer that. From my perspective and from how I set my systems up, I have always ha...
[Review] Cooler Master HAF 9123 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (169) on September 6, 2010
Cooler Master has been so kind as to send us their latest version of the HAF line of chassis. This mid-tower HAF 912 is aimed at enthusiasts on a budget (MSRP $59.99), yet it still has most of the aesthetics and qualities of the more expensive HAF that have come before it. The 912 helps keep the legacy of the HAF line of chassis going strong, bringing with it the ease of installation, excellent airflow, and compatibility with water cooling. We will be taking a detailed look at all of these fe...
[Review] ARCTIC SOUND S1111 Comment By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (169) on September 3, 2010
Today we will be putting the ARCTIC Sound S111 through the paces. These dice-shaped portable speakers are USB powered and can easily be powered with a laptop. All you need is a 3.5mm jack on your device and these speakers with work for you whether you have an MP3 player, DVD, computer, or even a cell-phone for that matter. The S111 can supposedly amplify the volume at a greater extent, while not sacrificing the balance of the bass or vocals. We will have to see how this claim stands up as we ru...
[Review] ARCTIC C2 – Universal USB Charger0 Comments By The DukecloseAuthor: The DukeName: Drew Briggs Email: drew@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About: Just keeping it real for the average joe overclocker and computer user.See Authors Posts (169) on September 3, 2010
Well, as you have come to expect, our on-the-go featured articles are still going strong. With the ARCTIC C2 four USB port universal charger, this should help clear up USB ports on your laptop for more important things. The C2 is geared toward the frequent flyers who carry around a lot of USB chargeable devices. With the four AC plugs, you can travel to about 150 different countries and still be able to use the C2 to charge your devices. Using the four USB ports can save a lot of time over char...
Remote HTPC Control – Comparing Cideko Air Keyboard | Freespace Loop Mouse | Gyration Media Center Remote0 Comments By 64NOMIScloseAuthor: 64NOMISName: Simon Solotko Email: solotko@gmail.com Site:http:// About:See Authors Posts (8) on September 1, 2010
I have been going down the long path of investigating 10′ control options and there were three that sounded like they could be the best out there – so we bought them all and have been putting them through their paces. Ultimately, I like each of them, each performs exceptionally, and I would reccomend them all. 10′ control for the PC was pretty stale until the iPod touch basically took over, but these dedicated devices are a step forward and as long as your eyesight is good make...
We have another flash drive from Lexar to test today. This one is the 8GB JumpDrive TwistTurn (MSRP $44.99), which is fitted with a rotating jacket that easily opens and closes for quick use. It has a plug-and-play design along with different colored models depending on the size of the TwistTurn. The TwistTurn has six different models, ranging in size from 2GB to 64GB. Needless to say, they have a flash drive to fit almost everybody’s needs.
Packaging:
Specifications:
The TwistTurn... 
We have the Lexar JumpDrive Retrax 8GB (MSRP $44.99) to review for you today. The Retrax comes in six different models, ranging in size from 2GB to 64GB, depending on your storage needs. It features a plug-and-play design, with a stylish paint job and a retractable USB connection to help prevent damage while not in use. Let’s continue with the review and see what this drive really brings to the table.
Packaging:
Features:
The Retrax:
In the above pictures, you can see the stylish b... 
Recently the good folks at OCZ sent us out another set of budget minded RAM to review. This particular set is interesting due to the fact that it is an 8GB kit, but not the commonly found 4×2GB combinations that we typically see in enthusiast forums. This particular set is opposite in the sense that it’s just two modules, each of 4GB density for a total of 8GB, allowing for the possibility of up to 16GB should a user so choose. Based on the rather conservative specs of CL9-9-9 and 133... 
Today, we finally got our hands on a much anticipated chassis being released by BitFenix, the Colossus. BitFenix has plans on competing with the giants of the industry, such as Cooler Master, Lian Li, Silverstone, etc. BitFenix has created a massive case to say the least, weighing in at just under 40lbs. Hopefully this means solid construction with lots of features that we would not normally get. With the LED-lit front and side panels, this case is sure to catch plenty of attention from everyone... 
“Gaming in Tight Spaces” – Part Two
Last month I brought you part one in this series entitled “Gaming in Tight Spaces – mini-ITX (featuring Gigabyte, Silverstone, and Prolimatech)”. In that article, I talked a bit about the history of mini-ITX and my fascination with it. If you didn’t get a chance to look it over yet, feel free to check it out as I’ll be referencing it a lot in this article.
My goal with the original was to simply build a gaming PC in which I would be usi... 
Not to long ago G.Skill sent us there flagship set of DDR3 memory specifically tuned for the AMD platform. Unfortunately, due to a busy schedule we are a little late to the party, but better late than never right? What this delay did allow me to do was to scan forum results, however, and one thing I noticed was that nobody was willing to show prime 95 stable results for any real length of time, which create a little skepticism for me. With that said, I believe it’s time to put this skeptic... 
We have found our way back to on-the-go devices, with our friends from Arctic Cooling sending us the ARCTIC Sound P311 Bluetooth headset. It is compatible with any Bluetooth supported device such as a laptop, phone, or music player. With a one-button connection, it makes this headset extremely easy to use and connect to your personal devices. The headset features Bluetooth v2.1+EDR, in which it supports secure and simple Bluetooth pairing. It has a high fidelity driver that ensures excellent so... 
With the new release of the GeForce GTS 450, Nvidia has targeted a specific segment of the market with a suggested MSRP starting at $129, which makes this a very budget-minded card. They went after, or as they say “laser targeted”, the gamers who don’t play everything on max settings with super high resolutions. Instead, their focus was on the people who play with resolutions of 1280×1024 through 1680×1050 on monitors of 17″-22″. The GTS 450 is the repla... 
Today we will be looking at a USB charger with a solar panel. Yes, you read that correctly, a solar panel. We are sure you are thinking, “another USB charger?”. No worries, we thought the same thing until we opened it up and started examining it. Its built-in 4440 mWh lithium-ion battery can charge devices such as mobile phones, MP3 and PDA. With these types of products showing up more and more on the market, one has to ask, “why would I want/need to carry around another piece... 
Introduction
So many users are searching around the net these days looking for advice on how to overclock their new systems but don’t know where to start. To help everyone out, I decided a how-to guide was in order. Searching around forums can be confusing and intimidating. There are so many people willing to give advice, but who can you trust? It’s hard to know, and I’ve seen many users sent on wild goose chases because they are following advice that doesn’t solve or even add... 
Introduction
So many users are searching around the net these days looking for advice about which components to purchase and how to overclock. This guide is not meant as a comparison between AMD, and Intel. This guide assumes you’ve already decided to purchase an Intel based system, and takes you to the next step…..deciding which one. The emphasis here is on value, overclocking, and overall system performance. If you want to continue searching out other opinions, please consider each... 
Introduction
So many users are searching around the net these days looking for advice on how to overclock their new systems but don’t know where to start. To help everyone out, I decided a how-to guide was in order. Searching around forums can be confusing and intimidating. There are so many people willing to give advice, but who can you trust? It’s hard to know, and I’ve seen many users sent on wild goose chases because they are following advice that doesn’t solve or even add... 
Introduction
So many users are searching around the net these days looking for advice on how to overclock their new systems but don’t know where to start. To help everyone out, I decided a how-to guide was in order. Searching around forums can be confusing and intimidating. There are so many people willing to give advice, but who can you trust? It’s hard to know, and I’ve seen many users sent on wild goose chases because they are following advice that doesn’t solve or even add... 
I got bored the other day and started looking at SSD’s with their read/write speeds and got to thinking. Yes, when I get bored and start thinking, it can be scary, especially to my bank account. However, for once, I had everything I needed to satisfy my curiosity and my bank account is grateful! Let’s get this show on the road … Shall we?
Why Bother?
This is a good question, and hopefully, I can answer that. From my perspective and from how I set my systems up, I have always ha... 
Cooler Master has been so kind as to send us their latest version of the HAF line of chassis. This mid-tower HAF 912 is aimed at enthusiasts on a budget (MSRP $59.99), yet it still has most of the aesthetics and qualities of the more expensive HAF that have come before it. The 912 helps keep the legacy of the HAF line of chassis going strong, bringing with it the ease of installation, excellent airflow, and compatibility with water cooling. We will be taking a detailed look at all of these fe... 
Today we will be putting the ARCTIC Sound S111 through the paces. These dice-shaped portable speakers are USB powered and can easily be powered with a laptop. All you need is a 3.5mm jack on your device and these speakers with work for you whether you have an MP3 player, DVD, computer, or even a cell-phone for that matter. The S111 can supposedly amplify the volume at a greater extent, while not sacrificing the balance of the bass or vocals. We will have to see how this claim stands up as we ru... 
Well, as you have come to expect, our on-the-go featured articles are still going strong. With the ARCTIC C2 four USB port universal charger, this should help clear up USB ports on your laptop for more important things. The C2 is geared toward the frequent flyers who carry around a lot of USB chargeable devices. With the four AC plugs, you can travel to about 150 different countries and still be able to use the C2 to charge your devices. Using the four USB ports can save a lot of time over char... 
News Headlines
Categories
Tags
Links
Archives
