[Review] Tt eSports Challenger Pro Gaming Keyboard1 Comment By TrembledustcloseAuthor: TrembledustName: Patrick Innocent Email: patrick@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About:See Authors Posts (10) on November 19, 2011
In the not so distant past, it was widely assumed that if you wanted quality PC gaming peripherals you would have to go to companies like Razer, Logitech, or SteelSeries to satisfy your high quality peripheral needs. Recently companies who have previously never offered gaming peripherals in their product line are now throwing their hats in the arena, attempting to dispel the belief that only established companies can offer really good gaming mice, headsets, keyboards, and other input devices.
...
[Review] CM Storm Sentinel Z3RO-G Gaming Mouse1 Comment By TrembledustcloseAuthor: TrembledustName: Patrick Innocent Email: patrick@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About:See Authors Posts (10) on October 3, 2011
A few weeks ago, we brought to you a review of CM Storm’s latest gaming peripheral, the Sirus Gaming Headset, which earned high marks. Today, we bring to you our review of another of CM Storm’s gaming peripherals, the Sentinel Z3RO-G Gaming Mouse, on a few sites called the Zero-G Gaming Mouse, which was released on July 4th of this year.
Lets see if this mouse is a Yankee Doodle Dandy, or if it should be tied to a bunch of bottle rockets.
Packaging and What’s Inside
The m...
[Review] Tt eSports Shock Spin Gaming Headset1 Comment By TrembledustcloseAuthor: TrembledustName: Patrick Innocent Email: patrick@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About:See Authors Posts (10) on September 16, 2011
For years, Thermaltake has been synonymous with providing PC cases, power supplies, and cooling solutions for various computer hardware to the PC community. Now, with the creation of their new division, Tt eSports, Thermaltake is trying to associate themselves with quality gaming peripherals. Tt eSports already has a few weapons in their fight against mediocre PC gaming accessories, such as the Challenger Pro Keyboard, the Shock & Shock One Gaming Headsets, and even gaming gloves.
Today ...
[Review] CM Storm Sirus True 5.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headset2 Comments By TrembledustcloseAuthor: TrembledustName: Patrick Innocent Email: patrick@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About:See Authors Posts (10) on August 29, 2011
Cooler Master has been synonymous with top PC related products for many years ranging from CPU coolers, fans, and of course cases. In 2008, Cooler Master seemed to have “declared war” on inferior gaming peripherals by introducing a new division, called CM Storm. Co-developed by what Cooler Master stated were the world’s most prolific enthusiasts and e-Sport prodigies, CM Storm promises to deliver truly ground-breaking, military grade hardware for the gaming revolution. Their mo...
[Review] Sapphire Pure Platinum H672 Comments By ArchercloseAuthor: ArcherName: Kevin Marlin Email: kevinsmarlin@embarqmail.com Site:http://www.techreaction.net About:See Authors Posts (18) on August 17, 2011
Introduction
Sapphire Technology is well known for their line of AMD/ATi video cards but they are also making motherboards. What can a video card company bring to the table? Name recognition that has been earned over the years by producing quality products.
Packaging
Sapphire has an all business approach with the packaging by pointing out the features. Other than the “Pure Platinum” badge it is a no frills look.
Product Shots
The Mosfets need no cooling and the Bluetooth does n...
[Review] iBuyPower Gamer Power BTS11 Gaming PC3 Comments By TrembledustcloseAuthor: TrembledustName: Patrick Innocent Email: patrick@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About:See Authors Posts (10) on August 8, 2011
Many in the PC community know the name iBuyPower for offering quality PC desktops, and laptops in use for gaming, workstations, and media. The California-based company has been around for ten years, and in that time they have accumulated many awards from sites like Maximum PC, AnandTech , PC World, and Gamepro just to name a few.
Today we get a chance to get our hands on iBuyPower’s latest custom gaming PC desktop dubbed the Gamer Power BTS 11. This rig is part of iBuyPower’s back...
[Review] SteelSeries 7H – Professional Gaming Headset3 Comments By EnJoYcloseAuthor: EnJoYName: Alex Joy Email: alex@techreaction.net Site:http://www.techreaction.net About:See Authors Posts (53) on July 1, 2011
Introduction:
SteelSeries is not a new name in the world of high-end gaming gear. In fact, their heritage stretches back to the early days of Counter-Strike when they made actual mouse pads made of… you guessed it… steel! Ah, those were the days, hard wrist on a cold pad at 3am, refusing to care about how I’d feel the next day when I had to go to class. But alas, SteelSeries have moved on from the original products that made them so famous among gamers. Now they offer a plet...
[Review] Thermaltake eSPORTS CHALLENGER Pro9 Comments By GSG-9closeAuthor: GSG-9Name: Levi Tomes Email: gsg-9@mediocrocy.com Site:http://StypticDesign.com About:See Authors Posts (13) on March 21, 2011
Introduction:
The Challenger line of Tt keyboards includes the Challenger, the Challenger Pro and the Challenger Ultimate. Today we have up for review the Thermaltake Challenger Pro.
Packaging & Contents:
The Challenger Pro arrived in a glossed cardboard packaging with a rather eye catching design fitting to the design of the keyboard itself.
Specifications:
Red illumination back light Red illumination backlight design simulates the true-to-life gaming atmosphere.
64KB on board me...
[Review] Gigabyte P67A-UD7 VS ASUS Maximus IV Extreme – Battle of the Titans!19 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 January 27, 2011
Introduction
If you haven’t already seen our complete Asus Maximus IV Extreme (MIVE) motherboard review, Parts ONE and TWO, you’re missing out. Part 1 covered synthetic testing with the i7 2600K CPU at 5.1GHz to give an idea of the power that this platform contains. Part 2 was a full blown comparison between X58 and Sandy Bridge, with a helping of AMD Thuban for good measure. We also awarded the MIVE the TechREACTION.net Gold Silicon award for its outstanding performance.
Today, we’ll g...
[Review] Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti – GF114 is mean!8 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 January 25, 2011
The hunter has been released, again, but most people will come to know it as the GTX 560 Ti. The Ti on the end may bring back memories to many of the old-school gamers. Around 2002, Nvidia came out with the Ti line. First with the GeForce 3 series and later with the GeForce 4, however, it disappeared shortly thereafter. But now it is back with a vengeance on the GTX 560 line of cards. Of course, this premium line of cards will go for a little more money, but hopefully the performance makes i...
[Review] Cooler Master Spawn Gaming Mouse3 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 January 20, 2011
The Spawn gaming mouse is light weight and ergonomically designed for comfort in long gaming sessions. The Spawn gaming mouse was built for professional FPS gamers who prefer a claw grip. Engineered to execute precise in-game tactics, Spawn comes loaded with an ultra high-performance 3500 DPI sensor that includes on-the-fly adjustment. The Spawn is manufactured with Japanese-made Omron micro-switches that are meant to endure up to five million clicks. Presented in an eye-catching crimson red h...
[Blog] Psyko Audio 5.1 Gaming Headset Review0 Comments By cralorcloseAuthor: cralorName: Chris Email: cralor@gmail.com Site: About:See Authors Posts (2) on January 16, 2011
Psyko Audio has delivered gamers with their first product, the Psyko Audio 5.1 Gaming Headset. The Psyko Audio 5.1 Gaming Headset was recognized as 2009 CES’ most innovative headphones. This headset strives to give you a gaming audio experience like no other. We will take a look at all of its extensive features, as well as the technology behind this unique headset.
Packaging:
Features:
Next: In-Depth Look, Thoughts, and Conclusion
[Review] ASUS Maximus IV Extreme – Sandy Bridge VS The World (Part 2/2)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 January 14, 2011
Introduction – Part 1 Recap:
On January 2nd, NDA was lifted for the new “Sandy Bridge” architecture from Intel. TechREACTION was ready with a hands-on look at the new Republic of Gamers motherboard from Asus, the Maximus IV Extreme. With minimal time for testing, we were only able to bring you a portion of the review in Part 1, but we promised a follow up article to answer the remaining questions about the Maximus IV Extreme, and real world use with Sandy Bridge. Well, to...
[Review] ASUS Maximus IV Extreme & Core i7 2600K – Overclocking On P67 (Part 1/2)31 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 January 2, 2011
*** Part 2 has been posted, feel free to check it out here ***
Introduction
Today we’re facing the launch of a brand new architecture from Intel dubbed “Sandy Bridge”. If you haven’t seen the leaks around the net over the past few months, you haven’t been paying attention. Everyone is excited about the potential of this new architecture, and it’s no wonder. The rumors of nearly 5GHz with air cooling coupled with a healthy dose of architectural efficiency...
[Review] ARCTIC M551 Gaming Mouse2 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 December 23, 2010
The ARCTIC M551 has a resistant surface coating to protect the mouse from wearing out. This helps to maintain the mouse at top-notch quality during day-to-day use. This mouse operates with a laser optical sensor, which helps it have ultra-high sensitivity levels that offers ideal precision and speed. The sensitivity levels can be adjusted from 800, 1,600 to 2,400 dpi by simply pressing the “dpi” button on the mouse itself. The current sensitivity level is displayed by an LED light on...
[Review] Arctic Cooling M571 Gaming Mouse0 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 October 19, 2010
Arctic Cooling has sent us a nice looking, budget-oriented, gaming mouse for review. The M571 has adjustable dpi levels with one push of a button for on-the-fly transitions while gaming. It also has a quiet, smooth scrolling wheel, and next to it is a multi-shot button which can be useful in shooters. The ergonomic design of the mouse gives it a great feel while it is in your hand, which is accompanied by adjustable weights in the bottom of the mouse. You can use these weights to customize the f...
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] 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...
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...
In the not so distant past, it was widely assumed that if you wanted quality PC gaming peripherals you would have to go to companies like Razer, Logitech, or SteelSeries to satisfy your high quality peripheral needs. Recently companies who have previously never offered gaming peripherals in their product line are now throwing their hats in the arena, attempting to dispel the belief that only established companies can offer really good gaming mice, headsets, keyboards, and other input devices.
... 
A few weeks ago, we brought to you a review of CM Storm’s latest gaming peripheral, the Sirus Gaming Headset, which earned high marks. Today, we bring to you our review of another of CM Storm’s gaming peripherals, the Sentinel Z3RO-G Gaming Mouse, on a few sites called the Zero-G Gaming Mouse, which was released on July 4th of this year.
Lets see if this mouse is a Yankee Doodle Dandy, or if it should be tied to a bunch of bottle rockets.
Packaging and What’s Inside
The m... 
For years, Thermaltake has been synonymous with providing PC cases, power supplies, and cooling solutions for various computer hardware to the PC community. Now, with the creation of their new division, Tt eSports, Thermaltake is trying to associate themselves with quality gaming peripherals. Tt eSports already has a few weapons in their fight against mediocre PC gaming accessories, such as the Challenger Pro Keyboard, the Shock & Shock One Gaming Headsets, and even gaming gloves.
Today ... 
Cooler Master has been synonymous with top PC related products for many years ranging from CPU coolers, fans, and of course cases. In 2008, Cooler Master seemed to have “declared war” on inferior gaming peripherals by introducing a new division, called CM Storm. Co-developed by what Cooler Master stated were the world’s most prolific enthusiasts and e-Sport prodigies, CM Storm promises to deliver truly ground-breaking, military grade hardware for the gaming revolution. Their mo... 
Introduction
Sapphire Technology is well known for their line of AMD/ATi video cards but they are also making motherboards. What can a video card company bring to the table? Name recognition that has been earned over the years by producing quality products.
Packaging
Sapphire has an all business approach with the packaging by pointing out the features. Other than the “Pure Platinum” badge it is a no frills look.
Product Shots
The Mosfets need no cooling and the Bluetooth does n... 
Many in the PC community know the name iBuyPower for offering quality PC desktops, and laptops in use for gaming, workstations, and media. The California-based company has been around for ten years, and in that time they have accumulated many awards from sites like Maximum PC, AnandTech , PC World, and Gamepro just to name a few.
Today we get a chance to get our hands on iBuyPower’s latest custom gaming PC desktop dubbed the Gamer Power BTS 11. This rig is part of iBuyPower’s back... 
Introduction:
SteelSeries is not a new name in the world of high-end gaming gear. In fact, their heritage stretches back to the early days of Counter-Strike when they made actual mouse pads made of… you guessed it… steel! Ah, those were the days, hard wrist on a cold pad at 3am, refusing to care about how I’d feel the next day when I had to go to class. But alas, SteelSeries have moved on from the original products that made them so famous among gamers. Now they offer a plet... 
Introduction:
The Challenger line of Tt keyboards includes the Challenger, the Challenger Pro and the Challenger Ultimate. Today we have up for review the Thermaltake Challenger Pro.
Packaging & Contents:
The Challenger Pro arrived in a glossed cardboard packaging with a rather eye catching design fitting to the design of the keyboard itself.
Specifications:
Red illumination back light Red illumination backlight design simulates the true-to-life gaming atmosphere.
64KB on board me... 
Introduction
If you haven’t already seen our complete Asus Maximus IV Extreme (MIVE) motherboard review, Parts ONE and TWO, you’re missing out. Part 1 covered synthetic testing with the i7 2600K CPU at 5.1GHz to give an idea of the power that this platform contains. Part 2 was a full blown comparison between X58 and Sandy Bridge, with a helping of AMD Thuban for good measure. We also awarded the MIVE the TechREACTION.net Gold Silicon award for its outstanding performance.
Today, we’ll g... 
The hunter has been released, again, but most people will come to know it as the GTX 560 Ti. The Ti on the end may bring back memories to many of the old-school gamers. Around 2002, Nvidia came out with the Ti line. First with the GeForce 3 series and later with the GeForce 4, however, it disappeared shortly thereafter. But now it is back with a vengeance on the GTX 560 line of cards. Of course, this premium line of cards will go for a little more money, but hopefully the performance makes i... 
The Spawn gaming mouse is light weight and ergonomically designed for comfort in long gaming sessions. The Spawn gaming mouse was built for professional FPS gamers who prefer a claw grip. Engineered to execute precise in-game tactics, Spawn comes loaded with an ultra high-performance 3500 DPI sensor that includes on-the-fly adjustment. The Spawn is manufactured with Japanese-made Omron micro-switches that are meant to endure up to five million clicks. Presented in an eye-catching crimson red h... 
Psyko Audio has delivered gamers with their first product, the Psyko Audio 5.1 Gaming Headset. The Psyko Audio 5.1 Gaming Headset was recognized as 2009 CES’ most innovative headphones. This headset strives to give you a gaming audio experience like no other. We will take a look at all of its extensive features, as well as the technology behind this unique headset.
Packaging:
Features:
Next: In-Depth Look, Thoughts, and Conclusion
Introduction – Part 1 Recap:
On January 2nd, NDA was lifted for the new “Sandy Bridge” architecture from Intel. TechREACTION was ready with a hands-on look at the new Republic of Gamers motherboard from Asus, the Maximus IV Extreme. With minimal time for testing, we were only able to bring you a portion of the review in Part 1, but we promised a follow up article to answer the remaining questions about the Maximus IV Extreme, and real world use with Sandy Bridge. Well, to... 
*** Part 2 has been posted, feel free to check it out here ***
Introduction
Today we’re facing the launch of a brand new architecture from Intel dubbed “Sandy Bridge”. If you haven’t seen the leaks around the net over the past few months, you haven’t been paying attention. Everyone is excited about the potential of this new architecture, and it’s no wonder. The rumors of nearly 5GHz with air cooling coupled with a healthy dose of architectural efficiency... 
The ARCTIC M551 has a resistant surface coating to protect the mouse from wearing out. This helps to maintain the mouse at top-notch quality during day-to-day use. This mouse operates with a laser optical sensor, which helps it have ultra-high sensitivity levels that offers ideal precision and speed. The sensitivity levels can be adjusted from 800, 1,600 to 2,400 dpi by simply pressing the “dpi” button on the mouse itself. The current sensitivity level is displayed by an LED light on... 
Arctic Cooling has sent us a nice looking, budget-oriented, gaming mouse for review. The M571 has adjustable dpi levels with one push of a button for on-the-fly transitions while gaming. It also has a quiet, smooth scrolling wheel, and next to it is a multi-shot button which can be useful in shooters. The ergonomic design of the mouse gives it a great feel while it is in your hand, which is accompanied by adjustable weights in the bottom of the mouse. You can use these weights to customize the f... 
“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... 
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... 
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... 
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