[Review] Sapphire Radeon HD66702 Comments By ArchercloseAuthor: ArcherName: Kevin Marlin Email: kevinsmarlin@embarqmail.com Site:http://www.techreaction.net About:See Authors Posts (18) on December 7, 2011
Sapphire has sent us an interesting sample this time and honestly not much was expected. Considering the competition from both NVidia, as well as many offerings with the same graphics processing unit (GPU) from other vendors, we assumed this would be an average card, considering its single-slot, low-profile cooling. It did not work out that way. Though the AMD HD6670 is considered a minimalist GPU in the standard arena it is a bang for the growing small form factor computer (SFF) segment. So i...
[Review] GELID Icy Vision Rev 2 GPU Cooler5 Comments By GSG-9closeAuthor: GSG-9Name: Levi Tomes Email: gsg-9@mediocrocy.com Site:http://StypticDesign.com About:See Authors Posts (13) on October 12, 2011
Recently, GELID Solutions sent over some of there flagship cooling products. First up, is the Icy Vision Revision 2 GPU cooler.
Some words from GELID themselves:
The “Rev. 2 ICY VISION” cooler contains 5 power heatpipes in a unique heatpipe constellation. The heatpipes are interlaced into 85 optimized high-quality Aluminium fins. Together with a flat stack fin soldered Copper base, they enable the most efficient heat transmission and dissipation from GPU core in its class. Besides the heatsi...
[Review] MSI Z68A-GD65 G3 Motherboard5 Comments By NeuromancercloseAuthor: NeuromancerName: Rich Smith Email: rsmith@nettronic.net Site: About:See Authors Posts (27) on September 2, 2011
Micro Star International, or MSI as it better known, brings us one of their new G3 line of Intel Z68 motherboards today. The MSI Z68A-GD65 G3, is a feature rich, socket 1155 motherboard, designed for use with the current Intel Core i second generation series, Sandy Bridge CPUs as well as the forthcoming Ivy Bridge processors. Compatibility with a product that will not even be out for another year, implies an expectation of quality, and MSI backs the GD65 (and its big brother the GD80) with a 5...
[Review] Sapphire Radeon HD6770 Vapor-X3 Comments By ArchercloseAuthor: ArcherName: Kevin Marlin Email: kevinsmarlin@embarqmail.com Site:http://www.techreaction.net About:See Authors Posts (18) on July 15, 2011
Sapphire Technology has been around for ten years and has learned how to get things done the right way. Being one of the, if not the, largest supplier of AMD/ATi video cards Sapphire is a leader in design, innovation and application of new processes. Through what many consider a conservative approach to innovation; Sapphire has maintained a strong market share in an ever growing field of competitors. Is this HD6770 is one of the reasons why:
Though the packaged is a rather plain, no frills, box;...
[Review] k|ngp|n Cooling Liquid Nitrogen Containers – Pushing to the Limits3 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 June 28, 2011
Introduction
If extreme overclocking had a name, it’d be k|ngp|n. Vince Lucido (a/k/a “k|ngp|n”) is arguably the man who got such things started in the United States. Back when most people were still gawking at the extreme ventures of a few folks pushing overclocking to new heights with water cooling, this guy started to bring the truly extreme methods of employing liquid nitrogen (LN2) to achieve even more outrageous performance. While Vince was not the first person to use ...
[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 (168) 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...
[Review] MSI Brazos E350IA-E454 Comments By ArchercloseAuthor: ArcherName: Kevin Marlin Email: kevinsmarlin@embarqmail.com Site:http://www.techreaction.net About:See Authors Posts (18) on March 7, 2011
Meet The New Kid In Town:
MSI has seen the potential in the new AMD Fusion CPU. The MSI E350IA-E45 is a feature rich micro ITX board with the potential to be the heart of your next HTPC with it’s excellent integrated graphics; an effective home server with its 4x SATAIII ports, or even an adequate daily driver with DDR3 support and low heat output.
The packaging is pretty standard, including two SATA cables. The rear panel has a nice set of external connections. With 8 USB ports (two of...
Follow Up: Catalyst Drivers On The HD 6970 – 11.1a/11.1/10.12 Compared16 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 (168) on January 31, 2011
After our recent review of the ASUS HD 6970 and seeing the lackluster results that we were presented with, we decided to set out and give the 6970 another shot. Was it just another bad driver from AMD that seemed to have crippled the 6970, or was it in fact just the card itself that wasn’t meeting our expectations? So what we have done is take the Catalyst 10.12 driver that we reviewed the card on and put them up against the new 11.1 WHQL and 11.1a Hotfix drivers that were released Janua...
[Review] ASUS Radeon HD 6970 2GB10 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 (168) on January 18, 2011
The codename “Cayman” represents the 6900 series of cards from AMD. The refined GPU boasts of more performance per mm², new and improved image quality features, enhanced multimedia acceleration and next-generation display technology with HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort 1.2. It should also be pointed out that with the new 6 series launch, there is a new naming strategy from AMD. The 6900 series are now considered the high-performance cards and the 6800 series have now taken on the roll of being t...
[Review] AMD Radeon HD 68501 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 (168) on November 16, 2010
With the massive success of the 5 series launch back in September of last year, AMD is looking to continue their momentum with the brand new 6 series line of graphics cards. The codename “Northern Islands” is the second generation of DirectX 11 architecture from AMD. The refined card boasts more performance per mm², new and improved image quality features, enhanced multimedia acceleration and next-generation display technology with HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort 1.2. It should also be p...
|LN2Cooling.com Evaporator Under Dry Ice| – |Phenom II X6 1090T Overclocking|1 Comment By SlappacloseAuthor: SlappaName: Matthew Sembinelli Email: matthew.sembinelli@gmail.com Site:http://slappablog.wordpress.com About: Hardware Enthusiast, and OverclockerSee Authors Posts (17) on November 16, 2010
In part one, I showed the unboxing of the pot I received for testing. This is a very large, and well-designed evaporator mainly used for LN2 and LHe. I decided I’d just recreate the thread with part one and two so you guys can see it all in one place:
I know some of you saw my recent dry ice runs on my Phenom II rig. In a few threads I discussed that for my next run I will have a different pot to play around with — and I assure you that promise was kept.
The video is up! Click...
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...
[Blog] Gaming in Tight Spaces…..mini-ITX (featuring Gigabyte, Silverstone, and Prolimatech)14 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 August 13, 2010
History of mini-ITX
I was sitting in my office, browsing tech news online almost a decade ago when I first saw the mini-ITX form factor. My mind immediately started fantasizing about the possibilities such a small system would afford. Thoughts of internet terminals built into kitchen cupboards, or car PCs entertained my imagination for years. As the early VIA based systems got into reviewers’ hands and performance results started hitting the press, like many others, I was left wanting. ...
The ‘He Said, She Said’ Shootout: GTX480 vs. HD587012 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 (168) on July 18, 2010
After seeing plenty of topics in various tech forums regarding the decision between the GTX480 or the HD5870, we figured it was time to chime in on the debate. With support from ASUS allowing us to review these two cards, the ENGTX480 and EAH5870, we have all of the information we need for this stand alone head-to-head. We hope that after seeing the comparisons we can help put to rest some of the debates and provide a clear cut answer to “which is the best for my money?”.
The Break...
[Review] ASUS EAH5870 V2 1GB3 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 (168) on July 9, 2010
With the much anticipated release of the Radeon HD 5 series a success on many levels, the ATI crowd has much to celebrate. The new 5 series cards put ATI back on top of the video card market. They can now boast of the new DX11 capability and the Eyefinity technology introduced with the higher-end 5 series cards. The 5870 is almost at the top of the pack for the new generation of cards, with the 5970 in the lead and the 5450 bringing up the rear. All in all, ATI has to be loving the massive succe...
[Blog] Asus 5870 + XFX 5850 CrossFireX Mismatch2 Comments By wezcloseAuthor: wezName: Robin Lindqvist Email: coccis_wez@hotmail.com Site:http://www.techreaction.net About:See Authors Posts (4) 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...
[Review] Sapphire Radeon HD5770 1GB PCI-E5 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 (168) on April 4, 2010
With the much anticipated release of the 5xxx series a success on many levels, the ATI crowd has much to celebrate. The new 5 series cards put ATI back on top of the video card market. They can now boast about the amazing DX11 compatibility and the Eyefinity technology introduced with the higher end 5 series cards. The 5770 is in the middle of the pack for the new generation of cards, with the 5970 in the lead and the 5450 bringing up the rear. All in all, ATI has to be loving the massive succes...
Overclock Your Holodeck | X86 Voyages To Your Living Room1 Comment By 64NOMIScloseAuthor: 64NOMISName: Simon Solotko Email: solotko@gmail.com Site:http:// About:See Authors Posts (8) on March 25, 2010
X86 has one more chance in the race toward the living room and it starts now. Behold, the only platform with the roadmap to bring the vision of virtual reality into the present. Or transform the television into an entertainment platform. The upcoming AMD Phenom II X6 processor and its progeny may well find its way into your living room - through an inevitable cascade in living room applications. I am a biased insider, so take caution as you consume what lies below.
The High End | Virtual...
[Blog] 5770 CF vs. 5870 – Game Performance Comparison16 Comments By wezcloseAuthor: wezName: Robin Lindqvist Email: coccis_wez@hotmail.com Site:http://www.techreaction.net About:See Authors Posts (4) on March 20, 2010
A pair of ATI 5770 1Gb in Crossfire vs. a single ATI 5870 1Gb. One could call it a fair fight considering the price point of both setups. They will be put through their paces in some of today’s game titles…
Test Setup
Hardware
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE (4,2GHz CORE/2,9GHz IMC)
RAM: 2x 2GB OCZ Platinum (1550MHz 6-6-6)
Monitor: LG W2600HP-BF 1920×1200 pixels
GPU: Two ATI HD 5770 1Gb (Crossfire) & one ATI HD 5870 1Gb
Software
...
Sapphire has sent us an interesting sample this time and honestly not much was expected. Considering the competition from both NVidia, as well as many offerings with the same graphics processing unit (GPU) from other vendors, we assumed this would be an average card, considering its single-slot, low-profile cooling. It did not work out that way. Though the AMD HD6670 is considered a minimalist GPU in the standard arena it is a bang for the growing small form factor computer (SFF) segment. So i... 
Recently, GELID Solutions sent over some of there flagship cooling products. First up, is the Icy Vision Revision 2 GPU cooler.
Some words from GELID themselves:
The “Rev. 2 ICY VISION” cooler contains 5 power heatpipes in a unique heatpipe constellation. The heatpipes are interlaced into 85 optimized high-quality Aluminium fins. Together with a flat stack fin soldered Copper base, they enable the most efficient heat transmission and dissipation from GPU core in its class. Besides the heatsi... 
Micro Star International, or MSI as it better known, brings us one of their new G3 line of Intel Z68 motherboards today. The MSI Z68A-GD65 G3, is a feature rich, socket 1155 motherboard, designed for use with the current Intel Core i second generation series, Sandy Bridge CPUs as well as the forthcoming Ivy Bridge processors. Compatibility with a product that will not even be out for another year, implies an expectation of quality, and MSI backs the GD65 (and its big brother the GD80) with a 5... 
Sapphire Technology has been around for ten years and has learned how to get things done the right way. Being one of the, if not the, largest supplier of AMD/ATi video cards Sapphire is a leader in design, innovation and application of new processes. Through what many consider a conservative approach to innovation; Sapphire has maintained a strong market share in an ever growing field of competitors. Is this HD6770 is one of the reasons why:
Though the packaged is a rather plain, no frills, box;... 
Introduction
If extreme overclocking had a name, it’d be k|ngp|n. Vince Lucido (a/k/a “k|ngp|n”) is arguably the man who got such things started in the United States. Back when most people were still gawking at the extreme ventures of a few folks pushing overclocking to new heights with water cooling, this guy started to bring the truly extreme methods of employing liquid nitrogen (LN2) to achieve even more outrageous performance. While Vince was not the first person to use ... 
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... 
Meet The New Kid In Town:
MSI has seen the potential in the new AMD Fusion CPU. The MSI E350IA-E45 is a feature rich micro ITX board with the potential to be the heart of your next HTPC with it’s excellent integrated graphics; an effective home server with its 4x SATAIII ports, or even an adequate daily driver with DDR3 support and low heat output.
The packaging is pretty standard, including two SATA cables. The rear panel has a nice set of external connections. With 8 USB ports (two of... 
After our recent review of the ASUS HD 6970 and seeing the lackluster results that we were presented with, we decided to set out and give the 6970 another shot. Was it just another bad driver from AMD that seemed to have crippled the 6970, or was it in fact just the card itself that wasn’t meeting our expectations? So what we have done is take the Catalyst 10.12 driver that we reviewed the card on and put them up against the new 11.1 WHQL and 11.1a Hotfix drivers that were released Janua... 
The codename “Cayman” represents the 6900 series of cards from AMD. The refined GPU boasts of more performance per mm², new and improved image quality features, enhanced multimedia acceleration and next-generation display technology with HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort 1.2. It should also be pointed out that with the new 6 series launch, there is a new naming strategy from AMD. The 6900 series are now considered the high-performance cards and the 6800 series have now taken on the roll of being t... 
With the massive success of the 5 series launch back in September of last year, AMD is looking to continue their momentum with the brand new 6 series line of graphics cards. The codename “Northern Islands” is the second generation of DirectX 11 architecture from AMD. The refined card boasts more performance per mm², new and improved image quality features, enhanced multimedia acceleration and next-generation display technology with HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort 1.2. It should also be p... 
In part one, I showed the unboxing of the pot I received for testing. This is a very large, and well-designed evaporator mainly used for LN2 and LHe. I decided I’d just recreate the thread with part one and two so you guys can see it all in one place:
I know some of you saw my recent dry ice runs on my Phenom II rig. In a few threads I discussed that for my next run I will have a different pot to play around with — and I assure you that promise was kept.
The video is up! Click... 
“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... 
After seeing plenty of topics in various tech forums regarding the decision between the GTX480 or the HD5870, we figured it was time to chime in on the debate. With support from ASUS allowing us to review these two cards, the ENGTX480 and EAH5870, we have all of the information we need for this stand alone head-to-head. We hope that after seeing the comparisons we can help put to rest some of the debates and provide a clear cut answer to “which is the best for my money?”.
The Break... 
With the much anticipated release of the Radeon HD 5 series a success on many levels, the ATI crowd has much to celebrate. The new 5 series cards put ATI back on top of the video card market. They can now boast of the new DX11 capability and the Eyefinity technology introduced with the higher-end 5 series cards. The 5870 is almost at the top of the pack for the new generation of cards, with the 5970 in the lead and the 5450 bringing up the rear. All in all, ATI has to be loving the massive succe... 
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... 
With the much anticipated release of the 5xxx series a success on many levels, the ATI crowd has much to celebrate. The new 5 series cards put ATI back on top of the video card market. They can now boast about the amazing DX11 compatibility and the Eyefinity technology introduced with the higher end 5 series cards. The 5770 is in the middle of the pack for the new generation of cards, with the 5970 in the lead and the 5450 bringing up the rear. All in all, ATI has to be loving the massive succes... 
A pair of ATI 5770 1Gb in Crossfire vs. a single ATI 5870 1Gb. One could call it a fair fight considering the price point of both setups. They will be put through their paces in some of today’s game titles…
Test Setup
Hardware
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA790FXT-UD5P
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE (4,2GHz CORE/2,9GHz IMC)
RAM: 2x 2GB OCZ Platinum (1550MHz 6-6-6)
Monitor: LG W2600HP-BF 1920×1200 pixels
GPU: Two ATI HD 5770 1Gb (Crossfire) & one ATI HD 5870 1Gb
Software
... 
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