[Review] Crucial Ballistix DDR3-2133 (3×2GB) – DDR3 with Thermal Monitoring3 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 April 26, 2011
Introduction:
The performance memory market has continued to push the performance envelope over the last few generations of hardware, each new development ushering in more speed and better performance. But beyond speed, memory has not yielded much material to the marketing departments. We all know that the marketing departments are tasked with getting products on the market and into your hands. But other than performance, the only marketable aspects in the segment are fancy heat spreaders, ...
[Review] Cooler Master Centurion C5 II – Red 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 (171) on April 25, 2011
The Cooler Master Centurion C5 II Red Edition from Japan will be getting tossed on the review table today to see what it is all about. The Centurion C5 comes with the inside painted in a dark red to offset the black exterior, which makes it really stand out and look different. You will have the option to use up to four fans, two of which are included, to help keep the inside nice and cool. The 5.25″ I/O bay is removable so that you can change the slot that it’s in, or just outright ...
How To: Installing RAM In Your Netbook0 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 (171) on April 25, 2011
Reasoning For This:
As Netbooks become more and more popular in our lives, it will be nice to know you can extend the Netbooks life longer with a few easy upgrades you can do yourself. Most Netbooks will come with 1GB of RAM, which in todays world or memory hogging applications, is an extremely minuscule amount of RAM. You could get some work done, but if you wanted multiple programs open or even multiple documents open at the same time, you will start to push the boundaries of the 1GB capabilit...
[Review] Lamptron FC5 V23 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 (171) on April 24, 2011
The new take on the Lamptron FC5 is the V2, which we have here today. The first edition FC5 V1 ran into a few problems, including the screen not being all that great and a whining sound produced when the voltage was lowered on fans. The faceplate of the V2 is CnC milled from aluminum with room for four control knobs and a new improved LCD over the old FC5. The LCD screen can be changed to seven different colors as well as two different temperature readouts, Fahrenheit and Celsius and voltage r...
[Review] Corsair HS1A Gaming Headset4 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 (171) on April 21, 2011
Corsair has recently released their new headset from their Gaming Audio Series line, the HS1A. The HS1A is a newer version of the HS1, with the “A” symbolizing the change from USB-only to analog audio connectors. The analog HS1A headset will leave a lot up to whatever sound card the user employs in conjunction with it. The 50mm drivers should help reproduce high-quality audio with the mids and highs inside the full-cover ear cups. The HS1A includes two types of ear cups that are easi...
[Review] Bitfenix Colossus Window Venom Edition6 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 (171) on April 20, 2011
A brand new option from Bitfenix for users who want to see their hardware, is the Bitfenix Colossus Venom Window Edition. People can choose from three color options, including Black/Red, Black/Green, or White/Blue to pick the best color combination to suite their needs. Featuring a newly-designed windowed side panel and two color-matched 230mm LED fans, the window is a fresh look at an old standby for PC enthusiast chassis users. The Colossus Venom features a complete wire management system on t...
[Review] OCZ RevoDrive 80GB4 Comments By NeuromancercloseAuthor: NeuromancerName: Rich Smith Email: rsmith@nettronic.net Site: About:See Authors Posts (27) on April 19, 2011
Introduction:
Solid State Drives are becoming faster and faster. With the advent of the SandForce controller, drives quickly started maxing out the capabilities of the SATA 3 Gbps interface. A quick fix was doubling the speeds SATA operates at and along came SATA3 operating at 6Gbps. Most motherboards have included SATA3 ports for about a year now, although only since P67 have they been native solutions on Intel motherboards. For AMD, SATA 6Gbps has been natively supported since SB850 debuted, h...
[Review] Sentey GS-6500 Burton High Tower2 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 (171) on April 18, 2011
The Sentey GS-6500 Burton High Tower is trying to make a name for itself with options galore, such as a built-in memory card reader on the top of case. We have six LED fans to help light up the Burton like the 4th of July, and a removable hard drive cage for easy installation, or to help make more room. The tool-free installation is also another feature that is becoming a must for cases these days, which the Burton has as well. The high gloss black paint job helps make this case stand out and sh...
[Review] In-Win BUC3 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 (171) on April 15, 2011
Built with a strong “shield” concept in mind, the BUC’s strong SECC steel construction and a hard-wearing, stylish black interior and exterior is aesthetically pleasing. With the clever EZ-swap HDD drive bay and a lockable door, it allows access to three HDD’s without having to remove the whole side panel. With the tool-less installation and vibration reducing drive bays help complete the package from In-Win. The convenient Super-Speed USB 3.0, USB 2.0, audio, and eSATA ports on ...
[Review] Swiftech Polaris 1203 Comments By BoTcloseAuthor: BoTName: Edward Reese Email: bot@codisha.com Site:http://www.codisha.com About:See Authors Posts (15) on April 14, 2011
Introduction:
Today we are reviewing Swiftech’s latest and greatest in air cooling, the Polaris 120. The Polaris 120 is Swiftech’s comeback to the mainstream air cooling market. Swiftech had its very successful debut into the air cooling market in 2001, and the company became public in 2005. Swiftech was founded in 1994 by Gabriel Rouchon or “Gabe” as many might know him on the various forums in which he frequents. In the last few years, the company has focused on water...
[Review] Thermaltake V9 BlacX Edition4 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 (171) on April 12, 2011
Thermaltake brings the world’s first dual bay docking station on the top of the V9 BlacX Edition case. Coated in black from the inside to the outside, this case adds overall quality and a rugged construction in combination with SECC material, increasing the durability and reliability. The innovative dual bay docking design allows you to swap 3.5″ or 2.5″ SATA drives and transfer data conveniently without opening the case or installing the drives. Rich in features, such as an e...
[Review] Silverstone GD06 – Grandia Series6 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 (171) on April 7, 2011
Building off the successful GD04 and GD05, SilverStone created the Grandia GD06 to again raise the expectation enthusiasts have for HTPC (Home Theater Personal Computer) chassis. These improvements were made with the compact depth maintained (340mm) and exterior visuals enhanced as the GD06 fits perfectly in the living room. Its five hard drive storage includes two hot-swappable bays for maximum flexibility while a front door lock and a rear Kensington Security Slot ensure security for the ins...
[Review] SteelSeries Xai Pro Gaming Laser Mouse4 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 (171) on April 6, 2011
At first glance, the SteelSeries Xai mouse looks like an ordinary run-of-the-mill type budget mouse. Not until further investigation did we really understand what makes the Xai a high quality gaming mouse. The ability to program buttons and create your own macros with precisely timed key press sequences would be a start to figuring out the Xai. If we stopped there, it would already be an OK mouse, which would probably be somewhat popular. Once you dig further into the Xai however, the true bea...
[Review] ASUS HD 6950 2GB – Voltage Tweak3 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 (171) on April 4, 2011
ASUS has sent us their version of the Radeon HD 6950 to run through the paces today. The ASUS HD 6950 2GB is factory overclocked right out of the box by 10MHz, which really is not anything to write home about, but it’s there nonetheless. ASUS does include their voltage tweak software to help gain a better overclock, which we aim to attempt as we have in all of our reviews. The ASUS HD 6950 is also fitted with a non-reference, full aluminum cover to help dissipate heat better. The HD 6950 c...
Introduction:
The performance memory market has continued to push the performance envelope over the last few generations of hardware, each new development ushering in more speed and better performance. But beyond speed, memory has not yielded much material to the marketing departments. We all know that the marketing departments are tasked with getting products on the market and into your hands. But other than performance, the only marketable aspects in the segment are fancy heat spreaders, ... 
The Cooler Master Centurion C5 II Red Edition from Japan will be getting tossed on the review table today to see what it is all about. The Centurion C5 comes with the inside painted in a dark red to offset the black exterior, which makes it really stand out and look different. You will have the option to use up to four fans, two of which are included, to help keep the inside nice and cool. The 5.25″ I/O bay is removable so that you can change the slot that it’s in, or just outright ... 
Reasoning For This:
As Netbooks become more and more popular in our lives, it will be nice to know you can extend the Netbooks life longer with a few easy upgrades you can do yourself. Most Netbooks will come with 1GB of RAM, which in todays world or memory hogging applications, is an extremely minuscule amount of RAM. You could get some work done, but if you wanted multiple programs open or even multiple documents open at the same time, you will start to push the boundaries of the 1GB capabilit... 
The new take on the Lamptron FC5 is the V2, which we have here today. The first edition FC5 V1 ran into a few problems, including the screen not being all that great and a whining sound produced when the voltage was lowered on fans. The faceplate of the V2 is CnC milled from aluminum with room for four control knobs and a new improved LCD over the old FC5. The LCD screen can be changed to seven different colors as well as two different temperature readouts, Fahrenheit and Celsius and voltage r... 
Corsair has recently released their new headset from their Gaming Audio Series line, the HS1A. The HS1A is a newer version of the HS1, with the “A” symbolizing the change from USB-only to analog audio connectors. The analog HS1A headset will leave a lot up to whatever sound card the user employs in conjunction with it. The 50mm drivers should help reproduce high-quality audio with the mids and highs inside the full-cover ear cups. The HS1A includes two types of ear cups that are easi... 
A brand new option from Bitfenix for users who want to see their hardware, is the Bitfenix Colossus Venom Window Edition. People can choose from three color options, including Black/Red, Black/Green, or White/Blue to pick the best color combination to suite their needs. Featuring a newly-designed windowed side panel and two color-matched 230mm LED fans, the window is a fresh look at an old standby for PC enthusiast chassis users. The Colossus Venom features a complete wire management system on t... 
Introduction:
Solid State Drives are becoming faster and faster. With the advent of the SandForce controller, drives quickly started maxing out the capabilities of the SATA 3 Gbps interface. A quick fix was doubling the speeds SATA operates at and along came SATA3 operating at 6Gbps. Most motherboards have included SATA3 ports for about a year now, although only since P67 have they been native solutions on Intel motherboards. For AMD, SATA 6Gbps has been natively supported since SB850 debuted, h... 
The Sentey GS-6500 Burton High Tower is trying to make a name for itself with options galore, such as a built-in memory card reader on the top of case. We have six LED fans to help light up the Burton like the 4th of July, and a removable hard drive cage for easy installation, or to help make more room. The tool-free installation is also another feature that is becoming a must for cases these days, which the Burton has as well. The high gloss black paint job helps make this case stand out and sh... 
Built with a strong “shield” concept in mind, the BUC’s strong SECC steel construction and a hard-wearing, stylish black interior and exterior is aesthetically pleasing. With the clever EZ-swap HDD drive bay and a lockable door, it allows access to three HDD’s without having to remove the whole side panel. With the tool-less installation and vibration reducing drive bays help complete the package from In-Win. The convenient Super-Speed USB 3.0, USB 2.0, audio, and eSATA ports on ... 
Introduction:
Today we are reviewing Swiftech’s latest and greatest in air cooling, the Polaris 120. The Polaris 120 is Swiftech’s comeback to the mainstream air cooling market. Swiftech had its very successful debut into the air cooling market in 2001, and the company became public in 2005. Swiftech was founded in 1994 by Gabriel Rouchon or “Gabe” as many might know him on the various forums in which he frequents. In the last few years, the company has focused on water... 
Thermaltake brings the world’s first dual bay docking station on the top of the V9 BlacX Edition case. Coated in black from the inside to the outside, this case adds overall quality and a rugged construction in combination with SECC material, increasing the durability and reliability. The innovative dual bay docking design allows you to swap 3.5″ or 2.5″ SATA drives and transfer data conveniently without opening the case or installing the drives. Rich in features, such as an e... 
Building off the successful GD04 and GD05, SilverStone created the Grandia GD06 to again raise the expectation enthusiasts have for HTPC (Home Theater Personal Computer) chassis. These improvements were made with the compact depth maintained (340mm) and exterior visuals enhanced as the GD06 fits perfectly in the living room. Its five hard drive storage includes two hot-swappable bays for maximum flexibility while a front door lock and a rear Kensington Security Slot ensure security for the ins... 
At first glance, the SteelSeries Xai mouse looks like an ordinary run-of-the-mill type budget mouse. Not until further investigation did we really understand what makes the Xai a high quality gaming mouse. The ability to program buttons and create your own macros with precisely timed key press sequences would be a start to figuring out the Xai. If we stopped there, it would already be an OK mouse, which would probably be somewhat popular. Once you dig further into the Xai however, the true bea... 
ASUS has sent us their version of the Radeon HD 6950 to run through the paces today. The ASUS HD 6950 2GB is factory overclocked right out of the box by 10MHz, which really is not anything to write home about, but it’s there nonetheless. ASUS does include their voltage tweak software to help gain a better overclock, which we aim to attempt as we have in all of our reviews. The ASUS HD 6950 is also fitted with a non-reference, full aluminum cover to help dissipate heat better. The HD 6950 c... 
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