Packaging:

Features:

Specifications:

• Model:  C-HS02-WA (White) C-HS02-KA (Black)
• Material: Plastic, PU Sponge with cloth, EVA
• Weight: 1.1 lbs / 0.5KG
• Dimension: 458 x 341 x 62 mm (18 x 13.4 x 2.4 inch)
• Compatibility: 9″ ~ 17″ notebooks
• UPC Code: C-HS02-WA (White): 845024000731, C-HS02-KA (Black): 845024000823

The Choiix Lapdesk:

Setup & Usage:

You can see just how our laptop fits onto the Lapdesk Comforter. Our laptop has a 15.4′ screen so that should give you a good idea of how the Lapdesk will fit your laptop. The laptop rests nicely on the bottom rubber stopper to help prevent it from sliding off while in use. You will also see from the bottom picture that our laptop leaves plenty of room in the back for wires, jump drives, batteries, etc.

The rubber stopper is high enough to easily block the laptop from sliding over it. As long as you don’t move wildly or jump around, your laptop will be safe and not slide off with this. If you do jump around wildly, flailing your arms in an erratic manner, we can guarantee that your laptop will be broken whether you try this product or not.

Another option in using your ;aptop and the Lapdesk together is the one illustrated above. We turned over the Lapdesk to the padded side and used the former storage area as a wrist pad. This is actually very comfortable with the padding, and while we ran the laptop for awhile in this position, the padding got a little warm but nowhere near as hot as your legs would become after a long work session utilizing laptop to thigh action.

Here you can see the final option of use with the Choiix Comforter Lapdesk. This works great when you are lying down and need to bring the screen up so you can see it better. Also, with the space underneath the laptop, it will help keep both the Lapdesk and laptop nice and cool.

Conclusion:

The Choiix Comforter Lapdesk is certainly a very useful product. Even if you only use it while at your desk, it is still a handy accessory to have around. With the three different positions available, the Lapdesk will fit most any situation that you may need it for. The Lapdesk is also able to hold 17′ laptops and, therefore, it can be used with almost any laptop on the market. Overall, the best thing that the Comforter Lapdesk does is to keep the heat off of your legs while using it on the couch or bed, which to us is really a life saver when writing those long video card reviews! The padding quality is good as well and feels nice and soft. Suffice it to say, if you are in the market for something to keep your laptop off of your legs and stop the heat, the Choiix Comforter Lapdesk should definitely make your short list.

The Choiix Comforter Lapdesk receives the TechREACTION.net Gold Silicon Award!







More information on the Choiix Comforter Lapdesk can be found here.

Packaging:

Features:

Specifications:

• Direction / Buttons: 3D/ 3Keys
• DPI Resolution: 1600 dpi
• RF Technical: 2.4GHz
• Batteries type: 2×AAA
• Dimension: 98(L)×57(W)×31.5(H) mm
• Interface: USB

Choiix Cruiser Mouse:

The mouse is extremely simple in it’s design, with left and right buttons and a scroll wheel. Once flipped over, you can see where the batteries will go, and the on/off switch which will help lengthen battery life. You will also see the button to adjust the height of the mouse to make it more ergonomically pleasing.

In the above two pictures you can see the USB nano receiver. It’s very small, but it gets the job done. It fits the goal of the slim and streamlined design perfectly!

Storage:

When you are finished with your work and would like to stow away the mouse and nano receiver, it’s actually quite simple. You raise the height of the mouse, with the button mentioned above, and you will see a storage spot in the back of the mouse.

All you have to do now is just slide in the nano receiver and you are done. If you would like to get the receiver out, just look at the picture on the right. You will see a sliding button; simply push it back and the receiver will slide out without any problems.

Installation & Usage:

Once you get the batteries installed and everything plugged in and turned on, you will notice how effortlessly the mouse slides over the mouse pad. Also, with the Blue Trace sensor, it gives you quick and precise tracking so you don’t need to move the mouse much in order to maneuver around the screen. This is a big plus when you are in tight quarters. With Blue Trace technology, it will also work on just about any surface, just in case you forget the mouse pad. You can see in the picture on the right just how it will look once the nano receiver is plugged into your laptop. It fits snug without much overhang to get caught on random items. Once plugged in and turned on, it will start right up once Windows installs the driver. We had no problems with this, and it took all of about 10 seconds for us to be able to use the mouse.

Now, we check out the ergonomic features of the mouse. You can use the mouse with the normal height or you can raise it up a little and get even more height to help the comfort of your wrist.   All you need to do to raise or lower it is push the button on the bottom of the Cruiser, as mentioned earlier. This is a nice feature if you are going to be using this mouse for extended periods of time. Every little bit helps in keeping you free of carpal tunnel syndrome!

Size:

We took a quick size comparison picture for you to see just how small the Choiix Cruiser is. It is being compared with a Logitech G5 mouse and you can see the noticeable size difference between this portable mouse and the larger desktop gaming mouse.

Conclusion:

Overall, this is a great mouse that gets the job done. The small size makes it extremely portable and the built-in storage area for the receiver is one less thing for you to worry about. Also, the mouse is able to work on almost any surface, whether it be wood, metal, carpet, glass, or nearly anything else. It will always be useful no matter where you happen to be.

We should, however, point out a couple of concerns we had while using the mouse and testing it. If you have big hands like we happen to, this mouse will take a little getting use to due to it’s small stature. Using something like the Logitech G5 for years and then switching to the Choiix Cruiser was a shock to our hand. So keep this is mind for the first couple of times that you use this mouse, as it will feel noticeably different. The other thing we want to point out is the fact that the nano receiver is so small. We think it could be easily lost under some papers or knocked off of your work area if not stored properly or kept track of.

We can’t hold those two issues completely against the Choiix Cruiser, however, because that is exactly what it was made to be; a small and streamlined portable mouse solution. We just wanted you to be aware of it before you make a purchase. If you can get past those two minor details, then this will be a solid addition to your on-the-go life.

The Choiix Cruiser receives the TechREACTION.net Silver Silicon Award!

For more details on the Choiix Cruiser, go here

The Breakdown:

This will be a straight comparison between these two above cards. It is unbiased with no agenda or “BS” whatsoever! There are people out there who believe that some sites get paid off by big companies to present their product in a good light, well not us. We will bring you honest results which we stand behind and would not be ashamed to show anyone at anytime. You will be able to find correct figures for the system and settings we used. All systems will be a little different, so keep this in mind.  Don’t go off on a tangent because a game is a few FPS different than yours.

Test System:

Overclocked:

*Red = ATI, Green =Nvidia*

3dMark:

Bad Company 2:

World in Conflict:

Synthetic Benchmarks:

3dMark:

FurMark:

Unigine – Heaven v2.1

Unigine – Tropics v1.3

Unigine – Sanctuary v2.3

Game Benchmarks:

*All tests ran at the applications highest allowable detailed settings*

Battlefield – Bad Company 2:

Call of Juarez:

Champions Online:

Company of Heroes:

Warhammer – Dawn of War II:

Dirt 2:

Far Cry 2:

Final Fantasy XIV:

Fuel:

Tom Clancy’s – Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter:

Just Cause 2:

Mass Effect 2:

Call of Duty – Modern Warfare 2:

Operation Flashpoint 2 – Dragon Rising:

Risen:

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:

1920×1200

1920×1080:

1680×1050:

1600×1200:

Street Fighter IV:

Team Fortress 2:

Wings of Prey:

World in Conflict:

Temperatures:

Computer Case

Tech Station

Temperatures were pretty even until we moved into the overclocked settings. Running at stock speeds, the two cards run at about the same temperature, with Nvidia taking the slight lead in load temperature. However, the 5870 does have a commanding lead in the idle/web surfing tasks with a 14-16C difference. I think this probably comes as a shock to most people, seeing everyone talks about how hot the Nvidia cards are in every aspect. The GTX480 was very respectable at stock speeds, but where the 5870 shines is in the overclocking. You can run this card fully overclocked and not turn your room into a sauna, the same cannot be said for the 480, with it hitting 99-100C during testing!

Power Consumption:

Notice in the test below that this is total system power consumption. We tried our best to push the load as much as possible on the video card and nothing else. We ran FurMark at the highest settings our system would allow and we feel this gives the most reliable readings on GPU load and on how much wattage the cards put out without stressing other components in the system too much. (Total consumption measured at outlet.)

As you can see from the chart above, the 5870 wins the power consumption tests hands down. With the 5870 overclocked, it is still under max load wattage of the stock GTX480. With the 480 overclocked, it raises some eyebrows with the amount of watts that the card eats up. This could be a problem for someone who is not expecting that much load and does not have an adequate power supply. Just be aware of this before buying.

Fan Noise:

We would have to say this is pretty much a tie between the two cards. They are both quiet during basic use, and then, they both get extremely annoying once the fan kicks in and you hit a higher percentage of fan use. So knowing how both fans sound, we could not give the edge to either of the cards. You could always water cool both cards and then you would no longer have to worry!

Conclusion:

As you saw from all of the gaming and synthetic benchmark tests we ran on the two cards, the GTX480 seemed to be in the lead for the majority of them. We thought the HD5870 would put up more of a fight than it did and we were wrong! The 5870 got “beaten up” for the most part and we almost felt bad. It was like putting a college freshman up against a well-seasoned senior in football. With that said, though, the 5870 is still an fantastic card. Yes, it did get beat, but if you look at the numbers it was cranking out, they were still very impressive, and it will easily run any game on the market without a problem. For the most part, the 480 will be able to boast of a few extra FPS while running the same games. We are guessing that the extra boost in performance is why the GTX480 costs $499, while the HD5870 is a little cheaper at $429 (these are MSRP prices of course).

There were a few bright spots for the HD5870, such as when we ran the power consumption and temperature tests. The 5870 was definitely the big winner in both of these tests. The idle power consumption of the overclocked GTX480 is actually superior to the overclocked 5870. This was a big surprise to us once we saw the final numbers on power usage. Just keep in mind how much power the GTX480 uses while overclocked under load as this could cause a potential system failure if your PSU is not up to snuff. Temperatures were also a big plus for the 5870. The stock idle temperatures were very low, but where it really shines is once we overclocked it. The max temperature we saw was only 84C, however, when we overclocked the GTX480 we saw a massive jump in temperatures with a max temperature of 100C! That is just a bit too high for us to feel comfortable while gaming for extended periods of time.

Overall, both cards were extremely impressive! You cannot go wrong with either choice, however, there are a few give-and-takes with both cards when considering the temperatures, power consumption, and price versus the game performance. It may also depend on how you feel about the cards and your brand loyalty, which personally we feel shouldn’t come in to play, but some can be more passionate in this regard. We can safely say that both cards will have no problem playing any game on the market. We are hoping this review will help you in your decision on which card or brand may be best for you. The results above were 100% legitimate and without biased opinions or personal agendas presented in the article. Take it for what it is; the truth between the two graphics cards.

No, that last part wasn’t a joke. I can no longer game barefoot. :’(

[Image courtesy of Newegg. Find the Windtunnel here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811103011]

Behold the massive glory that is the XCLIO Windtunnel. I mean massive literally, by the way, as this thing is a 2×2x1 full tower case that I can barely wrap my arms around. Surprisingly, it’s not incredibly heavy, but carrying it anywhere is ridiculously inconvenient. LAN parties are a no-go without a car with a tall trunk and plenty of cushions.

So, let’s get down to details. I won’t mention the easily-Google-able features of the case, but instead will be focusing on my experiences with unpacking/installing/maneuvering around it.

The Windtunnel has several very nice features going for it, including tool-less PCI ports, tool-less HDD/SSD slots, the aforementioned mind-bogglingly enormous fans, and lots of ventilation. Unfortunately, it also has several drawbacks. The so-called tool-less PCI ports are not actually tool-less if you have a large card like my Radeon 5770; they only cater to single-slot cards that have plenty of headroom near the case wall. Also, the tool-less HDD/SSD slot designer apparently never used any cables while testing the slots; despite being aesthetically pleasing and nicely arranged, the tool-less drive casings don’t provide enough room to attach 90° SATA and power cables. Indeed, it seems like whoever designed the slots assumed that all cable headers were – get this – completely straight. Giggity.

On the other hand, the Windtunnel does live up to its name. The two massive 250mm fans both draw air inside the case, which is then pushed out the top by the PSU and an optional 120mm rear fan not included with the case. You can adjust the RPM for each side fan individually with two knobs and switches on the side of the case; two more LEDs tell you whether or not each fan is running. Cool, but in reality not really that pragmatic, since even at full RPM, both fans barely make a whisper.

Installing parts in the Windtunnel could not be easier. This may simply be a characteristic of full tower ATX cases, but there is so much free space, you can literally stick peripherals inside to carry to LANs. (Disclaimer: TechReaction is not responsible for system damage due to jostling peripherals screwing up your parts.) Cable management is also a breeze thanks to the zipties and fasteners included with the case, although I didn’t really find it necessary to fasten anything down, as all the cables had a good 3-4 inches of free space to hover in anyway. The case has 4-5 front panel slots as well as 6 hard drive slots; indeed, my first thought when I popped it open was that they had sent me some superexpansive server edition of the case. Rest assured, you will run out of money far before you run out of slots in this case.

Unfortunately, any front-panel peripherals you add will have to have a small form factor; the front panel of the Windtunnel rests almost flush against the front slots, leaving no room for knobs and switches (read: sound cards with volume knobs, fan controllers with speed knobs, etc). I ran into this issue when trying out my X-Fi Fatal1ty, and ended up leaving it out of my build, with my only other alternative being breaking the front panel off of the case.

People have also been complaining about the flimsy plastic feet at the bottom of the Windtunnel; however, all the full tower cases I’ve encountered include these swiveling feet, most likely due to their size and ease of… tippingness? However, I had no problems with them, as I kept them retracted most of the time and made sure a single foot was never used for leverage on the entire case.

The one really big disappointment I ran into was the lack of a temperature monitor. In the past, XCLIO included an LED temperature monitor mounted inside the front casing, as you can see from the above screenshot; however, it has since stopped including these. Granted, they only measured internal ambient temperature anyways, and for any serious overclocking, you’d be better off with hardware or software monitors of individual components, but it was still a cool feature that is inexplicably missing.

I would highly recommend the XCLIO Windtunnel to anyone who frequently swaps parts or needs an excessive cooling solution. The Windtunnel will handle the largest motherboards, GPUs, and aftermarket coolers without breaking a sweat, and makes swapping components an absolute breeze. I am currently using the Windtunnel with a regular ATX motherboard, and can’t even imagine the ridiculous amount of space offered by an EATX mobo in conjunction with this case.

Now, off to buy some woolly socks.

Regards,

TheDramaLlama

Packaging:

*We do need to point out that on the box it has “Power Output: Up to 10w per Channel.” It also mentions 10w per channel in the instruction manual. This is wrong. It’s real power output is 20W per channel. This typo has been fixed in retail samples.*

Features:

• CNC-milled face plate from blocks of 3/4″ thick solid aluminum
• Bring out that full aesthetic appeal you always wanted in the 5.25 inch bay
• Four knobs to control four 3-pin connectors
• User’s choice of displaying Celsius or Fahrenheit for the bottom line readout

Specifications:

The Lamptron -FC6-:

Once we opened the box we finally got to see this beauty. We took everything out for a quick picture in order to show everything inside that you would get when you purchase this fan controller. Here are a few quick notes on the wires. The power connection extender is just under 10 inches. The fan connection extenders are about 20.5 inches long. The 4 temperature sensors are 32 inches from end to end. This should provide enough length to place the sensors anywhere you would like in a mid-size case.

Most skeptics out there have an idea that most fan controllers are wimpy, with cheap aluminum and/or plastic. For the FC6, this could not be further from the truth. You will find this out once you pick up this unit. It feels heavier than the other average fan controllers on the market and there is a very good reason why. This fan controller is CNC milled from blocks of 3/4″ thick solid aluminum.

This is solid craftsmanship. Nothing felt cheap or loose on the back of the PCB, and the fan connections are placed in the middle and labeled nicely for ease of use.  The power connection is placed in the top right out of the way. It is always a plus to have big connections and wires off to the side, however, Lamptron did put the temperature sensor connections under the power connection. We were curious as to why? There are a lot of other options they had and they chose that area. I guess we could let this slide for now, but maybe in the future they might consider looking into a new location for the temp sensor connections.

Setup and Installation:

The one thing that had us scratching our heads was the power connection which was an extremely tight fight with the power connector. We had to jam it on to the point of bending the PCB. We have noticed this on previous models as well. Hopefully you only have to plug it in once or twice, as we are not sure how much it could really take when using this kind of force.

Here is a look at one of the wires installed on a hard drive. A quick side note: the Lamptron FC6 does not come with tape so you will need to use your own. The temperature probe installs just as easily as any other probe you will use and takes very little time. Temperature probes are always nice to have around your system, especially if you are overclocking. You can install them on your RAM, North Bridge, CPU, inside your water cooling setup to know how hot your water is, and outside the case to gauge ambient temperatures. There are a lot of uses that can be very helpful to the average computer user and especially the more extreme overclocker.

With the FC6 installed into our testing case, you can see how great it looks matched with a solid black case. This fan controller adds a lot to the aesthetic look of the case.

Front Panel Display:

You can choose from a couple different readouts on the front panel display. It all really depends on what you want to look at.

• Alarm Status Display: The alarm is indicated by the alarm character
• Bottom Line Readout Mode Displays: Temperature Mode (Celsius and Fahrenheit) indicated in units of 0.1
• Fan Channels: Adjust the fan RPM’s with the corresponding switch (knob)
• RPM Display: RPM is displayed in units of 10 RPM for each channel, fans need sensor wires for this function to operate

The seven color options: (Red, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, Purple, White)

The seven color choices are always nice. It gives you some options so that you aren’t stuck with one or two colors you may not like very much. The colors are vibrant and the display crisp, which is a big deal because there are some cheaply made fan controllers and other peripherals where you have to be at just the right angle to see what is on the screen. There is nothing like spending $40-$50 on something you can’t even read! However, with the FC6 you will not have to worry about that problem because Lamptron provides quality in this regard.

Conclusion:

The Lamptron FC6 receives the TechREACTION.net Silver Silicon Award!







You can purchase the Lamptron FC6 fan controller at Performance-PCs.
Thanks to Lamptron for the review sample.

Cooler Master’s quick introduction to the case:

“With pure innovative strength, Cooler Master, the leader in enthusiast computer components, has unleashed yet another prevailing arsenal to compete in the full-tower chassis segment. Proud and robust in its appearance, the HAF 932 Black Edition presents its sturdy sentinel housing and revolutionary High Air Flow structure to enhance and protect any hardware component that is worthy of the highest performance.  The Black Edition comes with an all black interior on top of all the features along with a window side panel.”

Features:

Specifications:

Packaging:

Picture Montage:

With the pictures of the front, you can see an aesthetically pleasing view. The solid black finish has always been a classic look with computer cases. As far as we are concerned, you cannot get any better! Each drive bay has a honeycomb mesh covering adding to the pleasing look of the case. The HAF also gives you extremely easy access to the I/O panel. This is a nice touch and will save you a lot of hassle from trying to dig around in the back of your computer.

The top of the HAF has several interesting features. You first may notice the monstrous exhaust fan at the top, which is a staggering 230mm large! Needless to say, this fan removes a lot of air. The other feature on the top, is the tray that could hold flash drives or keys or whatever you would like to store there.  However, if you lift up the rubber top, you can install a fill port for your water cooling. This is a great addition to the case, because Cooler Master has taken out the potential disaster of you destroying the case while trying to add water yourself. I give it a big thumbs up for the well thought-out design for the top.

The honeycomb mesh slot covers are a nice touch, and go well with the overall look of the case. The tool less expansion card slot addition is another great feature. The clips are easy to work with and, although it may take a minute or two to figure out, they are well worth it!

The motherboard installation cheat sheet is always helpful to see. Especially when it is inscribed into the motherboard tray where it is easy to find and read. Now, you will never have extra stand-offs or stand-offs in the wrong holes. We have had our fair share of battles throughout the years with this.

Cooling Solution:

Air Cooling:

The pictures above show the massive fans that will cool your case. With the large 230mm exhaust fan up top and the and another 230mm fan in the front, this case will move a large volume of air around. The front 230mm fan is positioned so it will blow fresh air over your hard drives to keep them nice and cool. The front fan will also be blowing on your GPU which is another big plus. Anything you can do to help keep your GPU cool is always a good thing.

Water Cooling:

Wire Management:

A big key to successful airflow in a case is the wiring. If wires are everywhere, and not neat and orderly, it will restrict airflow and raise the temperatures of your components. With the HAF 932, Cooler Master did a wonderful job with cable management options. You have holes cut in the motherboard tray specifically to route your wires behind in order to come through those holes. This helps to keep the clutter in front of the motherboard to a minimum and also increases airflow. With as big as full-tower cases are these days, we would expect nothing less. This case does not let us down, it brings a multitude of options to help hide wires.

Installation:

Test System:

• CM eXtreme Power Plus 550w
• MSI 785GM-E65 AM3  m-ATX
• ASUS GTX480
• WD 320GB
• ASUS DVD RW

With everything installed, you can see that even with the big ASUS GTX480 installed, there is plenty of room. The cover does not contact the card as you will see below. It is good to see all the extra room you will have.   If you wanted to go SLI/Crossfire, you would be able to and not have to worry about anything.

As you can see from the picture on the left, there is no contact with the cover and GTX480. Now you can feel comfortable about leaving it in the case and not having to throw it away. On the right, you can see how snug expansion cards will fit with the tool less installation for them. The clips snap right into place and hold the card firm and in place.

The drive bays are also another easy install. All you do is slide in the drive of your choice, get it to where it is flush with the front, and push the button. When you push the button, it pushes out pins that will go into the drive holes and hold it into place. If you ever want to take the drive out, push the button again and it will retract the pins and you are set to take out the drive.

One last tool less installation to check out. The hard drive was very easily installed. Just pull out the bracket where you want to install the hard drive, and line up the pre-installed pins with your hard drive holes, and you are done! Pretty simple, eh?

Final Thoughts:

To sum it up in one word, “wow!” We have heard good things about the HAF line of chassis, but until today, have never been hands-on with one. To say that it exceeded our expectations would be selling this case short. A lot of the things we have been complaining about with computer cases for years, the HAF 932 got it right! The spacious interior is a great thing to see inside of a case. It will leave you plenty of room to work with things and create better air flow. It also allows room for today’s top of the line graphics cards. As you see, there is plenty of room for our GTX480 inside.

The cooling options were better than expected. The two massive 230mm fans circulating air is a great thing for this case. It is actually so big that normal 120mm fans would probably fail miserably in this case. We are glad Cooler Master recognized this and came up with a plan to combat that issue. The tool free installation was a great addition to the case. It just gives it an even higher touch of class.

Options, options, options! This case has them for you to take advantage of, which allows you to make this case truly one of a kind. The top 230mm can be removed and has holes drilled for three 120mm fans to take its place. The water cooling holes pre-drilled can be moved to the bottom of the case if so desired. The PSU can be moved to the top of the case if you like that look better. There is just a lot of mixing and matching you can do with this case which makes it great for the tinkerer. One thing people may frown upon is the sheer weight of the case. Like we said earlier, it weighed in just under 30 pounds, and who knows what it would weigh when fully loaded. This would not be a very user-friendly case if you had to move it around a lot.

We will definitely be recommending this to all our friends and possibly even strangers on the street! If you are in the market for a full tower that is pure quality, this should definitely be at the top of your list!

Purchase the HAF 932 Black Edition

More information on the HAF 932 Black Edition.

The Coolermaster HAF 932 Black Edition has received the TechREACTION.net Gold Silicon Award!

Packaging:

The ASUS EAH5870:

Specifications and Features:

Specifications:

• Bus Standard: PCI Express 2.1
• Video Memory: GDDR5 1G
• Engine Clock: 850 MHz
• Memory Clock: 4.8 GHz ( 1.2 GHz DDR5 )
• Memory Interface: 256-bit
• D-Sub Max Resolution: 2048 x 1536
• DVI Max Resolution: 2560 x 1600
• D-Sub Output: Yes x 1 (via DVI to D-Sub adaptor x 1 )
• DVI Output: Yes x 2 (via HDMI to DVI adaptor x 1 )
• HDMI Output: Yes x 1
• DisplayPort: Yes
• HDCP Support: Yes
• Adapter/Cable Bundled: 1 x DVI to D-Sub adaptor
• 1 x CrossFire cable
• 2 x Power cable
• 1 x HDMI to DVI adaptor
• Software Bundled ASUS Utilities & Driver
• Note the Card Size is 10.25 inches x 5 inches.

Features:

Overclocking Software and Results:

ASUS SmartDoctor is included as one of the utilities on your ASUS driver CD. Once installed and running, you will be greeted with the above screen. This is where you can tweak the voltage on the card. You will also be able to change your core speed and memory from this area as well. Our one complaint with the software, as mentioned in our ENGTX480 review, is the GUI. It looks so 90’s compared to other software on the market that does the same thing. We think the GUI could use a nice revamping to give it a better and more up-to-date look.

In the ‘Settings’ area of SmartDoctor, you can see two different sections, one for fan control and another for temperature alarm. The Fan Control section is very easy to customize and will let you set how fast you want your fan running at specific temperatures. This is a very simple way to tweak the fan settings in order to get the most out of your card. The other screen shot (right) let’s you put alarm settings on your video card’s temperatures. This may help keep your mind at ease during long gaming sessions.

Overclocking Results:

We started overclocking with no voltage tweak, just to see what we could get out of the card, for people who do not like to mess with voltages. We finally ended up with an overclock of 950/1335, a 9.4% gain on core speeds and 11.2% increase on memory speeds. Next, we upped the voltage to 1.39 on the 5870 and ended up with a nice overclock of 1008/1351, a 16.1% increase on core speeds and 12.5% increase on memory speeds. Overall, these are very nice overclocks, as no overclocking is guaranteed by manufacturers.

Overclocked Benchmarks:

All Settings At Stock:

CPU stock GPU OC @ 950/1335

CPU stock GPU OC @ 1008/1351 @ 1.39v

CPU @ 4GHz GPU OC @ 1008/1351 @ 1.39v

3dMark – All Settings

We will not add much to the charts above as they do a great job of speaking for themselves. You can clearly see what each setting used on the video card will get you in terms of gaming performance. Now you can make a more informed decision on what settings you will need to run your game of choice, whether it is overclocked or not.

Synthetic Benchmarks:

3dMark:

FurMark v1.7:

Unigine – Heaven v2.1

Unigine – Tropics v1.3

Unigine: Sanctuary v2.3

Game Benchmarks:

*All tests ran at the applications highest allowable detailed settings*

Alien Breed Evolution:

Battlefield – Bad Company 2:

Call of Juarez:

Champions Online:

Company of Heroes:

Warhammer – Dawn of War II:

Devil May Cry 4:

Dirt 2:

Far Cry 2:

Final Fantasy XIV:

Fuel:

Tom Clancy’s – Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter:

Just Cause 2:

Mass Effect 2:

Call of Duty – Modern Warfare 2:

Risen:

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:

1920×1200

1920×1080:

1680×1050:

1600×1200:

Street Fighter IV:

Team Fortress 2:

Wings of Prey:

World in Conflict:

Temperatures:

Computer Case

Tech Station

With the temperature chart above, you can see how good the temperatures really are with this card. Idle temperatures, under all three clock settings, are very low and acceptable for any air-cooled card. The ASUS EAH5870 does a great job at keeping load temperatures in check, even when we raised the voltage on the card, the load temperature only reached 84C with FurMark running. This is a great accomplishment to have a card with this much horsepower not melt everything in sight while running Furmark on the stock cooler. We were quite impressed with just how well the ASUS EAH5870 did in our temperature test.

Power Consumption:

Notice in the test below that this is total system power consumption. We tried our best to push the load as much as possible on the video card and nothing else. We ran FurMark at the highest settings our system would allow. We feel FurMark gives the most reliable readings on GPU load and on how much wattage it puts out without stressing other components in the system too much. (Total consumption measured at outlet.)

With the tests above, you can see just how much wattage you can expect to use during gaming/benchmarking. This should assist you with your PSU shopping and the uncertainties that it always brings. You can now refer to the chart above, and make a better decision on how many watts your PSU will need to be able to deliver. The chart will also give you an idea of what to expect from the much loved energy bill you will get every month. The power consumption of this card is definitely not as much as we were thinking it would be. The 5870 had a very friendly 419w usage, fully loaded and overclocked, with extra voltage added to it. Idle wattage is also quite low, which is nice because we can’t always be gaming, as unfortunate as that may be. Overall, very respective numbers in terms of power consumption for such a powerful card. ATI worked hard on this aspect and it shows.

Fan Noise:

We did not have a decibel meter handy at the time of testing. However, you really don’t need one because there is a definite point where you will start to notice the fan. We have found this line to be at just about the 55% mark.  You will notice, without a doubt, that the fan is working when you crank up the fan to 100%.  There is no way a normal person can sit in the same room for an extended period of time at this speed. It drove us crazy while we ran it for a few tests, and that was only for about 10 minutes. Maybe some people like the sound of a jet engine coming from their case, however, we could certainly do without it. Suffice it to say that you will not want to leave the fan running at 100% for extended periods of time, but for short benching runs it should be tolerable. The good thing about this card is that with the overall cool temperatures that the card produces, you will rarely, if ever, have to hear the fan noise much over 60%. For this, we are grateful to ASUS/ATI and the cooling solution they have provided.

Conclusion:

Overall, the ASUS EAH5870 did a great job with everything we tested it with. It took graphically demanding games and pulled up a lawn chair, sat back, laughed at them, and asked for more. The 5870 kept all the minimum FPS at a playable level at all times. We feel the minimum FPS is one statistic overlooked in gaming and other benchmarks and this is why we provide minimum, maximum, and average FPS for all to see. Average FPS alone can be very misleading, so we make the extra effort to show you everything we can. Overclocking the card was easy, as we have come to expect from ASUS and their great bundled tweaking software. Once they update the interface of the software, we will be sure to shut up about the Windows 95 look of it.

Temperatures of the 5870 were better than expected. We were thinking a card with this much power/performance would crank out a lot of heat. The 82C max temperature we saw with Furmark was a pleasant surprise. As most people will not ever see this temperature, unless possibly while benchmarking, this is great news. The fan, however, is still loud once the card gets hot and the fan gets above 60% speed. This is not a big concern, as explained above, as it would only get to that point during benching.

Our final thought? We would not think twice about recommending this card to any of our friends. The ASUS EAH5870 is a great performing card! For the price, you cannot go wrong and we would be hard pressed to find any competition for it in this range. ASUS has a winner on their hands with the EAH5870, and it will definitely be a card to reckon with for a long time to come.

The ASUS EAH5870 V2 has earned the TechREACTION.net Gold Silicon Award!







You can find the ASUS EAH5870 V2 currently on sale at NewEgg for $389.99 (after MIR).

Thank you to ASUS for the review sample.

• Native TRIM support
• Max IOPS Firmware
• Seek Time: .1ms
• Slim 2.5″ Design
• 99.8 x 69.63 x 9.3mm
• Lightweight: 77g
• Operating Temp: 0°C ~ 70°C
• Storage Temp: -45°C ~ +85°C
• Low Power Consumption: 2W in operation, .5W in standby
• Shock Resistant up to 1500G
• RAID Support
• Included 3.5″ Desktop adapter bracket
• Compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7, Mac OS X and Linux
• MTBF: 2 million hours
• 3-Year Warranty
• Max Read: up to 285MB/s
• Max Write: up to 275MB/s
• Sustained Write: up to 250MB/s
• Random Write 4KB (Aligned): 50,000 IOPS

OCZ Technology’s Official Product Page

First Look

OCZ Vertex 2 Package Contents

The SSD comes in a simple cardboard box with a cardboard insert for holding the drive, 3.5” hard drive bay adapter, screws and a decal stating “My SSD is faster than your HDD”. The decal is much larger than a case badge, and it was actually a little surprising to see it considering how simple, but classy the retail packaging is.  Not going to prejudge an SSD based on it’s cover, or a silly sticker!  Let’s open it up and put it to the test.

Test environment

For the performance testing, the following system was used

• Windows 7 x64
• Asrock Extreme X58 Motherboard
• Core i7 920 D0
• 2×1 GB DDR3 @ 1866 7-8-7
• 2x 150GB WD Velociraptors 60GB partition
• Hitachi 5900RPM 500GB drive eSATA connection
• EAH4890 stock speed
• DIY Benching station
• Corsair 750W

For the initial review, the system was left at stock speed with a fresh install of Windows 7 x64, latest driver installs and benchmarking applications.  Windows had a static page file set with system restore and hibernation disabled.  No other modifications were made. The review will compare the Vertex 2 SSD to a pair of Western Digital Velociraptor 150GB hard disk drives. At 10,000 RPM, the Velociraptor’s represent the best consumer level performance mechanical drives available.  They are larger, hotter and louder than an SSD, but offer nearly 5 times the storage capacity, and a decent desktop experience. Applications used for benchmarking are the following:

• PCMark 05 HDD Test Suite
• ATTO Disk Benchmark
• Bootracer
• Crystal Disk Mark 3.0 x64
• Everest Disk Tool
• HD Tach
• HD Tune

The tests were run in the following manner. 1) Windows installed on RAID 0 Array 128K stripe, OCZ Vertex 2 as storage device 2) Windows installed on OCZ Vertex 2 drive, RAID 0 as storage 128K stripe

Empirical Data

PCMark 05 HDD Test Suite

As an older benchmark, there is more to compare it to, and this test is one that holds back many people on the hwBot.  There is a massive performance boost in this benchmark by running an SSD.

XP start-up time saw a massive increase from under 20 MB/s to 126 MB/s, and application loading and general usage saw an almost 8 fold increase in speed. In every test, the SSD is the clear victor over the Velociraptors.

Boot Racer

After seeing the ridiculous increase in performance in PCMark 05, the SSD was expected to be far and away the victor in this benchmark.  The raptors in RAID 0 are tremendously fast, however, managing a 22 second boot time (best of 3 tests: 47/22/22).  The OCZ drive managed to boot in just 16 seconds (best of 3 tests: 22/17/16)

ATTO Disk Benchmark

ATTO Disk Benchmark tests throughput of a partition with sizes ranging from 512K to 8MB.  Settings were left at defaults, 256 MB length, overlapped i/o and queue depth 4.  The OCZ drive was tested as both an OS drive, and as a storage drive. The Raptor RAID was tested the same, with an additional test with a whole disk partition (279GB formatted).  All data was being stored on a Hitachi 5.9K storage drive linked through the JMicron eSATA controller. ATTO wanted to benchmark it as well and the results are included.

As you can see  there is very little difference in read performance between using the drive as an OS or storage device.  Any file of 128K are going to be running at maximum throughput on an SATA II interface. Exactly as advertised 285MB/s read and 275MB/s write speeds.  At the .5-4K range, the difference is slightly more in favor of storage performance. Write speeds were significantly more effected on the OS drive over the blank storage test, but the difference was still within 5MB/s.

The Raptors saw a larger performance hit in both write and read test when used as an OS drive.   Once the transfer size got to 128K and larger, the write performance was consistently 5-10MB/s higher than the read speeds. The Raptor’s performance at .5-128K was terrible from 25-50% of the performance of the single SSD.  Once the file sizes increased, the RAID array performed closer to the speeds of the Vertex 2, but never quite as good.

The size of the partition on the Raptor RAID had little effect in this test. Just for perspective, a 500GB storage drive was also benchmarked on the JMicron eSATA controller built into the motherboard.  Whether it was the controller or the 5900RPM spin speed, small file sizes absolutely suffered on the external drive. Larger sizes had much better performance; about what one expects from a cheap and large single HDD.

Crystal DiskMark 3

Crystal Diskmark by default uses a larger portion of the disk for benchmarking.  Despite listing 512K and 4K lengths, the scores do not match up with those done in ATTO Disk Mark.

The difference between OS and storage functions is negligible, the only thing to note is a 40% gain in performance on 4K writes as an empty storage device.

The difference between OS and storage drives for the Raptors was still small, but more pronounced than on the SSD.  Sequential read and write performance was far and away higher on the Raptors over the SSD, with write performance 2.5 times higher than the SSD.  On 512K and 4K performance the Vertex 2 excels with 20-35 times the performance of the Raptor 60GB storage.

Performance actually improves moving to a whole-disk partition on the Raptors, although the gain is ridiculously low. The 500GB eSATA drive performs at about half, to one quarter the performance of the RAID array.  Nothing shocking about that.

Everest Ultimate Disk Tool

Because the writes destroy all data on the drives and tests the whole drive, not just the partition, the read suite and write tests were performed only on storage drives. The 500GB eSATA drive was also included for the read tests.  Everest random write returns 0.0 results for the OCZ  and as such was not included in the chart.

The Raptors did very well in many of the categories, with well over 400MB/s in buffered read and write.  The OCZ drive dipped in about a dozen locations on the buffered write test, while the raptors were continuously up and down.  This pulls the SSD’s avg write speed to nearly the max speed score, and sends the raptors down to about the same speed as the SSD.  Access times are absurdly low with Solid State Drives, however CPU usage tends to be higher.  Higher CPU usage showed up under a few tests with the SSD, which you will see more later on.

HD Tach / HD Tune

HD Tach and HD Tune are two benchmarks that have been serving the PC enthusiast community for a very long time.  Generally regarded as not being “sufficient” for measuring the performance of SSDs, they are included for reference purposes only.  The Raptors have some impressive results in these tests, however, overall the performance crown goes to the SSD.

Conclusion

The OCZ Vertex 2 SSD is a must-have for any performance enthusiast’s parts list.  OCZ has produced an insanely fast solid state drive with competitive pricing.  The drive comes in a 2.5″ format, so it should work with most SATA capable laptops, although SATA II will be required to ensure no bottle neck on the drive interface. Light weight, super fast, good pricing and lower heat and noise also help to make this a stellar buy. Running two of these drives in RAID 0 would almost bottle neck an ICH10R 3.0GBps controller, and provide ample room for game installations, or plenty of space for working on large photos or HD video editing. A Windows 7 install with hibernation and system restore disabled and a 2GB page file will use about 11GB of disk space. Because Windows 7 is the only OS with TRIM support, you will get the best performance out of using this OS and keep your SSD running good as new with little user interaction.

The OCZ Vertex 2 EX Series 60GB SSD receives the TechREACTION.net Gold Silicon Award!

One thing to note, out of the box some of the tests showed comparatively poor performance on the first 20-25% of the SSD. This happens to coincide with the size of the windows 7 installation files, however, it was noted before Windows was installed to the SSD. This was noticed in both Everst linear read test (begin) with 215MB/s compared to 253MB/s middle and end, and also with HD Tune reading 119MB/s compared to the 150MB/s average for the other 80% of the drive. What this means, if anything, is unclear, keep an eye out for updates to include a response from OCZ.

It should also be noted that the SandForce controller is cache-less. The burst and buffered scores achieved by the Raptors in RAID are a testament to this. Both have scores way outside the specifications of the hard drives and it is solely because of cache writing, not the performance of the drives themselves. The SSD scores are exactly in line with the capabilities of the drive for the same reason.

Thank you to OCZ Technology for providing the Vertex 2 review sample.

You can find the OCZ Vertex 2 60GB in stock at several major e-tailors starting at as low as $185 before shipping!

Corporate Info:

Super Talent Technology Corporation, headquartered in San Jose, California, designs and manufactures a full range of DDR, DDR2, and DDR3 memory modules and Flash based storage solutions for Enterprise Servers, Workstations, Personal Computers and Consumer Electronics. An ISO 9001 certified company, Super Talent utilizes its state-of-the art factory and leading-edge components to produce award winning products with exceptional performance and outstanding reliability. Super Talent is an active member of JEDEC, ONFI and USB-IF standards bodies, and holds over 200 patents in Flash and DRAM technology.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Preface:

I’ve recently picked up my own pair of this aggressively priced entusiast DDR3 by Super Talent. Located on 2077 North Capitol Avenue, San Jose, CA and founded by Abraham Ma, founder and CEO of MA Labs, Super Talent started itself as a US company offering Value RAM at low prices. When DDR2 rolled around, Super Talent stepped up to the plate and offered some very enticing DRAM offers using enthusiast-loved Micron D9 IC’s. Super Talent made it’s name known. DDR3 appeared and Super Talent quickly took the lead with it’s screaming fast “Project X” modules. The company has now designed low-voltage enthusiast modules based around Elpida Hyper for Intel’s P55 platform.

This is one of those kits.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Test System:

AMD Phenom II 965 BE  C3 @ 3.4-3.6 Ghz
ASUS M4A89TD Pro/USB3
4GB Super Talent Speed Series DDR3-2200 CL8 at CL6-6-6-18 1T
Two Sapphire HD5770 Vapor-X in CrossfireX
OCZ GameXStream 700w
Intel X25-V
Two Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB in RAID 0
Custom Water Loop

____________________________________________________________________________________

Testing methodology:

 
In this review, I will test this kit at 4 different voltages (1.5v, 1.6v, 1.65v, 1.7v) at CL6-6-6-18 1T for maximum stable frequencies in Prime95. CL6 is chosen due to Integrated Memory Controller constraints of my CPU. Each test will last one hour, and then I will turn it off and move to the next voltage.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Testing Results:

 1.50v: 1512 Mhz

1.60v: 1621 Mhz

1.65v: 1670 Mhz

1.70v: 1718 Mhz

Final Result at CL6: 

Rating:

Asthetics: 9

Functionality: 8

Performance: 7

Value: 8

Final Score: 8/10

Conclusion:

These sticks can be had in the US for a mere $219.99 on Ewiz.com at time of writing. While not up to par as most Elpida Hyper Sticks, these sticks do exibit a much smaller price. Performance per price is outstanding and this kit is perfect for anyone who runs a normal everyday machine. Even that bencher on a budget would love these sticks. Be it a cruncher, folder, gamer, or multitasker, this kit will get the job done without leaving too big a hole in your wallet. Thanks for reading!

Packaging:

The ASUS ENGTX 480:

Specifications and Features:

Specifications:

• Graphics Engine NVIDIA GeForce GTX480
• Bus Standard PCI Express 2.0
• Video Memory GDDR5 1536MB
• Engine Clock 700 MHz
• Shader Clock 1401 MHz
• Memory Clock 3696 MHz ( 924 MHz DDR5 )
• RAMDAC 400MHz
• Memory Interface 384-bit
• D-Sub Max Resolution 2048 x 1536
• DVI Max Resolution 2560 x 1600
• D-Sub Output Yes x 1 (via DVI to D-Sub adaptor x 1 )
• DVI Output Yes x 2 (DVI-I)
• HDMI Output Yes x 1
• HDCP Support Yes
• Adapter/Cable Bundled 1 x DVI to D-Sub adaptor
• Software Bundled ASUS Utilities & Driver
• Design Garage&Supersonic Sled
• Note The card size is 11” x 5.5” inch

Features:

• NVIDIA PhysX™ ready
• Microsoft® DirectX® 11 Support - Bring new levels of visual realism to gaming on the PC and get top-notch performance
• Microsoft® Windows® 7 Ready - Enable PC users to enjoy an advanced computing experience and to do more with their PC
• SLI Support - Multi-GPU technology for extreme performance ode
• Take Your Game Beyond HD -Dual-link DVI able to drive the industry’s largest & highest resolution flat-panel displays up to 2560×1600

Test system:

Overclocking Software and Results:

ASUS SmartDoctor Overclocking Software:

ASUS SmartDoctor is included as one of the utilities on your ASUS driver CD. Once installed and running, you will be greeted with the above screen. This is where you can tweak the voltage on the card. You will also be able to change your core speed and memory from this area as well. Our one complaint with the software is the GUI. It looks so 90’s compared to other software on the market that does the same thing. We think the GUI could use a nice revamping to give it a better and more up to date look.

In the ‘Settings’ area of SmartDoctor you can see two different sections. The Fan Control section is very easy to customize and will let you set how fast your want your fan running at certain specific temperatures. This is a very simple way to tweak the fan settings to get the most out of your card. The other screenshot (right) let’s you put alarm settings on your video card’s temperatures. This may help keep your mind at ease during long gaming sessions.

Overclocking:

Overclocking the ASUS GTX480 was actually very simple. After a few minutes of tinkering with the card, we finally got our max overclock of 852MHz core and 3696MHz memory (stock) with 1.138v. We are pretty sure the card has a lot more to give. However, without being able to get the temperatures under control on air, we could not go any further. With a 859MHz core clock we saw artifacts and reached a whopping 102C. If we were able to put the card under water, we are pretty sure we could squeeze a little more out of it. One thing we did notice, in the picture (below), every time we tried to overclock the memory, even the slightest bit, we would get this error. With this error message, it made the memory impossible to push any further than it already was. This is a little disappointing, but what can you do?

Overclocked Game Benchmarks:

3dMark:

Battlefield – Bad Company 2:

Stock

CPU @ 4GHz // GPU @ 852/3696

World In Conflict:

Stock

CPU @ 4GHz // GPU @ 852/3696

We will let our charts do most of the talking, however we would like to point out one thing from the charts above. As you can see in the Bad Company 2 comparison, it increased minimum FPS from as little as 4 to as high as 21 FPS. These are huge gains, we feel, as minimum FPS is where you will see all of your lag and stuttering. If these numbers are high, like they are in Bad Company 2, it will severely limit the lag/stuttering in your game play which will make your gaming a much more enjoyable experience.

Synthetic Benchmarks:

3dMark:

FurMark:

Unigine – Heaven V2.1

Unigine – Tropics V1.3

Unigine – Sanctuary V2.3

Game Benchmarks:

*All tests ran at the applications highest allowable detailed settings*

Alien Breed – Evolution

Battlefield – Bad Company 2

Call of Juarez:

Champions Online

Company of Heroes:

Warhammer 40K – Dawn of War II:

Devil May Cry 4:

Dirt 2:

Far Cry 2:

Final Fantasy XIV:

Fuel:

Global Agenda:

Tom Clancy’s – Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter:

Grid:

Just Cause 2:

Mass Effect 2:

Call of Duty – Modern Warfare 2:

Operation Flashpoint 2 – Dragon Rising:

Risen:

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:

1920x1200

1920x1080

1680x1050

1600x1200

Street Fight IV:

Team Fortress 2:

Wings of Prey:

World In Conflict:

Temperatures:

The testing conditions were as follows.

• Ambient Room Temp: 27-28C
• Ambient checked before and after tests.
• Card left idle at test settings for 20 minutes to get back to idle temperature.
• Tested on both our tech station and inside a computer case.
• Load temperatures checked with FurMark and Bad Comapny 2

Tech Station

Computer Case

With the charts above, you should notice two things right away. The temperatures from the tech station to the computer case were almost exactly the same. Once extra volts are applied to achieve a higher overclock, the card starts producing unbearable heat. It heated up our lab noticeably in about 15 minutes of just running the overclocked tests that you saw above. With the card reaching 99-100C fully overclocked, it can be safely said that it is the hottest card we have ever tested! Playing a game with this card is not too bad, however if you play games for extended periods of time while overclocked, it will most likely become unbearably hot in the room. Trust us! We would highly recommend water cooling or other high-end aftermarket cooling for this card if you plan to overclock it. With that said, as long as you run it at stock settings, the card seems to keep the temperature at a very respectable level.

Power Consumption:

Notice in the test below that this is total power consumption. We tried our best to push the load as much as possible on the video card and nothing else. We ran FurMark at the highest settings our system would allow. We feel FurMark gives the most reliable readings on GPU load and on how much wattage it puts out without stressing other components in the system too much. (Total consumption measured at outlet.)

With the tests above, you can see just how much wattage you can expect to use during gaming/benchmarking. This should assist you with your PSU shopping and the uncertainties that it always brings. You can now refer to the chart above and make a better decision on how many watts your PSU needs to be able to deliver. The chart will also give you an idea of what to expect from the much loved energy bill you get every month. As you may have noticed with stock settings, the load is not too high at 442w. The shocker here is what we ran into when we had the card fully overclocked and fully loaded.  This beast eats through 682w of raw power!  You should have seen our jaws drop when we saw it hit 682w! Such a leap in power consumption was not expected, but that appears to be the nature of the Fermi architecture.

Fan Noise:

One of the main areas in which high performance GPU’s have issues is the noise created from the fans trying to keep the GPU cool. Once again, this is sadly the case for the GTX 480.  However, a bright spot in this negative aspect is that the fan does not create a high pitch squeal/scream like some of the other cards we have tested. Though it is loud and rather obnoxious when it hits high speeds. We will stick with our opinion, previously stated in other reviews, that a single fan cannot adequately cool a monster card like the GTX 480, nor will it ever be quiet at high speeds. Multi-fan solutions seem to be the best way to go from what we have seen/tested. We will say that the fan does a great job of cooling and keeping the noise level under control the majority of the time and especially when at stock speeds. A gaming session, unfortunately, will bring out the sometimes obnoxious noise that the single fan creates. You can get around this to a certain extent by running the card at stock settings.

Conclusion:

Overall, the ASUS ENGTX 480 did an amazing job! It took everything we threw at it, chewed it up and gave us an outstanding performance in the games that we tested it with. We are keen on minimum FPS, as we feel this is one of the most important parts of gaming. The GTX 480 kept the minimum FPS levels at a very respectable and playable level in all of the games tested. This is a big plus because while others may be hitting a lag spike here and there, you are not! We figured there might be a game or two that would give this card some problems, but frankly we were wrong. Even when we tested every game under maximum allowable settings, the GTX 480 kept on kickin’!

We will have to dock the card some points however, for the extreme fan noise and high temperatures. The fan noise is not too bad and as we said earlier, you can tweak the settings and run the card at stock speeds which should be perfectly fine in regards to the noise levels. We just cannot say the same if you begin to overclock the card, and you will definitely need a water cooling setup to keep your sanity. Really though, the major concern we have with the card is the outrageous overclocked temperatures (100C… really?). These cards have not been on the market long enough to find out just how such heat will effect the card over the long term. So, if they can handle the heat and last for years and years, then more power to them, but only time will tell on that. We would also like to point out that when the card runs at stock settings, we have no gripe with the temperatures and this is how the consumer should look at the card.

Having said all this, we would not hesitate to recommend this beast to our friends. The voltage tweak is a great tool and comes in very handy to get the most out of this card that you can. The temperature issues when overclocking can be easily solved by using aftermarket cooling, which most enthusiasts purchasing this card will want to do anyway. The performance of the ASUS ENGTX480 is impressive! It can take on any game on the market and asks for more! This is huge for us because there are some amazing games out there now and after this year’s E3, we know they are many many more to come. This is one card you can’t go wrong with from a performance standpoint.

The ASUS GeForce ENGTX480 receives the TechREACTION.net Gold Silicon Award!

Thank you to ASUS for the review sample! You can find this card at most any online retailer, including NewEgg!