TheOverclocker Issue17

Issue 18 2012
rev 2.0
THE WORLDS BEST OVERCLOCKING ONLINE MAGAZINE. SERIOUSLY.
The
X79
board to silence them all?
Feature
HWBOT COUNTRY CUP

Reviewed
AMD HD7970
Lifestyle
THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM
QA
Country Name: South Africa What language(s) do you speak? English On which forums do you spend most of your time on? I am not very big on spending time on forums but I do try and to keep up to date with the happenings (when I can find time) on HWBot, xtremesystems, Kingpin cooling, Prophecy and Below Zer0 forums Youre obviously a very competitive overclocker, where are you currently ranked and what are you hoping to achieve by the end of 2012? At the start of January I was ranked 9th in the OCL and 1st in South
started with overclocking the right way with DICE and then LN2. The rest as they say is history. What is your single greatest or most memorable overclocking achievement ever? LOC last year was a really humdinger and by far the most memorable to date. Throughout the competition Deadmeat and myself re-designed and refined our home grown GPU pot several times to cope with the huge amount of heat the 580 lightning was producing, along with the discovery of the crack syndrome that we were all trying to deal with. At the start the most I could clock the card to was 1200 MHz using an old slim pot but by the end of the competition my final submission I had managed to push the card to 1620Mhz with a score of P12440. The 3DMark11 World record was broken several times during LOC twice by me but in the end I was 59 points short and placed 2nd behind SuicidePhoenix who in the 11th hour submitted a winning score of P12499 with his lightning clocked to 1625Mhz what a rush To date what has been your favourite Motherboard and GPU to date? Tough question, over the years there have been several favourite boards
with with Andrew dRweEz Roberts

Africa but with the launch of the 7970s I have dropped down to 22nd *** place in the OCL but remained at the top of the South African league. If the hardware gods bless me with some good hardware my target for 2012 is the top spot in the OCL When did your interest in overclocking start and how did it start? Same old story as everyone else, overclocking was a natural progression from an interest in all things computer and wanting to squeeze every last bit of performance out of budget hardware. back in the day it started with trying squeeze out a few extra FPS in the Quake time demo benchmark at LANs but it was not until I moved to Gauteng and was introduced to Deadmeat that I
6 The OverClocker Issue 18 | 2012
that have taken centre stage in my bench room but to single one board out that had the most impact I would have to choose the REX (ASUS Rampage Extreme) This board was the game changer that gave me the ability to start competing with the likes of Vivi and Neo in the South African League. The MSI N580GTX Lightning is and probably will remain my favourite GPU with the 8800GTX in second place. Which is your most favourite benchmark if any and what is your least favourite and why? Favourite: 3DMark 11
Least favourite: SuperPI 32m Reason: finding a golden Hardware (CPUs and Memory) is near impossible for us here in South Africa with 3DMark 11 the Physics Test and combined test do not play a big enough role in the overall score to rule out the guys that have 200Mhz less on their CPUs This gives the average joe (like me) a chance for the number 1 spot with a good GPU and system tweaks. SuperPi 32M is not only boring but requires an awesome CPU and excellent memory. Added to the hardware requirements, the system tweaks can take longer to complete than the benchmark. I have better
things to do in life than sit and watch copy wazza complete only to have SuperPi crash at 16 or 20 loops. (Lol, I so agree - ED) Whats your current platform of choice for your overclocking? With the costs involved and my small budget I am limited to just the Intel platform. If I had the opportunity there is no doubt that I certainly would enjoy testing out some AMD platforms and broaden my skill set. What is your current take on online Futuremark or HWBOT overclocking competitions? Do
2012 | Issue 18 The OverClocker 7
you think they are helping to grow overclocking or are they dividing the overclocking scene? Defiantly growth, all the way. While some might not agree Massman, the guys over at HWbot are doing a great job and have added some much needed structure to the scene that in the long run will be to everyones benefit. How feasible is it for you to get access to LN2 where you live? Do all overclockers in your country have access to LN2 and how much is it? Yeah Ln2 is easy to get your hands on if you are in Johannesburg and cost R21/KG ($2.69!) + R80 ($10.25) per day Dewar rental. For larger orders you are able to negotiate slightly but not by much. The guys outside of Joburg are not so lucky and it is difficult to get your hands
on ln2 unless you have a contact at a university. How do you feel about the current qualifying procedure for international live overclocking invites? Another tough question, there are so many excellent overclockers around the world and I like to believe that the organisers try their best to make sure that everyone has an equal opportunity to qualify for the live events and only the very best are at these events but in reality the current system is flawed. The Europe MOA qualifiers last year are one example where a team (no names mentioned) might not have been selected on merit but rather on the contacts they had in the industry. There is no easy solution to this type of issue and there will
always be someone that feels hard done by it because they did not have the funds, there was no stock or they were not included etc. Over time the qualifying processes and procedures will be refined and all regions around the world will be included with or without a local office. What do you consider as the future of overclocking in terms of benchmarks and platforms? Do you think Sandy-Bridge-E has any relevance past 3DMark Vantage ad 3DMark11? Hard to tell where the platform will go. When we start seeing Andre, HiCookie or NickShi with a 6Ghz+ 6c12t 3960x paired with a new special bios for their LGA2011 board of choice really anything could happen. Take LGA1155 for instance, when Vince and the EVGA team found the 3DMark01 Bios tweak the game changed on a platform that was fairly well established. Ultimately I think in
a couple of months Ivy Bridge will take the centre stage the same way LGA1155 crushed the LGA1156/ LGA1336 platform. Do you think there will ever be a time where you lose all interest in overclocking? From time to time I do step back and slow down (normally when the credit card is maxed) but walking away completely just would not happen. We have to ask, but to date how many 2600K CPUs have you binned and what was your highest clocking one to date? I have managed to get through 29 2600ks before the prices increase to silly levels and I could no longer justify the loss when selling them. The highest: 5721 MHz and the lowest: 4800 Mhz! What would you like to say to manufacturers as a whole who are reading this? Yeah at the moment stock is a big
issue here so please dont forget about us in South Africa when allocating stock to the distributors. Is there anything you would like to extend to the community and other readers? For sure, The Overclocking community in South Africa might be small but our door is always open and new guys to the scene are always welcome so if youre interested in getting started or just want to come and watch one of our team sessions, just drop us a message and get in touch. What are you most looking forward to in 2012? Without doubt ivy bridge, Kepler and the hope that our local distributors could possibly carry stock within 3 month of a product launching. Outside of overclocking, what else are you as passionate about and spent an equal amount of time if not more doing?
A good game of golf is always welcome and I am starting to get into a bit of racing (carts and RC cars) but most of my time is spent in front of a PC. What do you do for a living and what does your typical day look like? I work as the supervisor of the HLS department for one of South Africas leading developers and suppliers of Time & Attendance, Access control and Data collection solutions. All our hardware and software solutions are designed in house and my team is responsible for the QA testing, documentation and ultimately releasing the products to the sales team. Any final words? Yeah, thanks for the interview and the time you guys spend getting this mag published. Keep up the good work.
*** Thanks to the 7970s my rank is plummeting daily not sure if you want to change this at time of publish
HWBOT Cou
Poland Owns!
NEITHER ROMANIA NOR RUSSIA, THE TWO BIG FAVORITES FOR LAST YEARS CUP, COULD CALL THEMSELVES CHAMPIONS OF 2011. OUTSIDER, POLAND, TOOK THE TITLE WITH AN IMPRESSIVE SET OF OVERCLOCKING RESULTS. AFTER GETTING CLOSE IN THE TWO PREVIOUS ATTEMPTS WITH A 3RD PLACE FINISH IN 2009 AND 5TH PLACE IN 2010, 2011 FINALLY TURNED INTO A SUCCESS STORY! BY WINNING FOUR OUT OF THE SEVEN STAGES AND FINISHING TOP THREE IN ALL BUT ONE, CONSISTENCY AND QUALITY WERE THE FOUNDATIONS OF THEIR DOMINATING VICTORY.
THE COUNTRY CUP Every year, HWBOT organizes an online overclocking competition; the HWBOT Country Cup which invites overclockers from around the world to champion their national flag during a month and a half or so of overclocking. This years cup was a little different as it featured three different levels of competition with seven stages in total, each with their own requirements and point scheme. Stage limitations varied from requiring a single score to five members contributing to the country average. Challenges ranged from pushing a single core Sempron to overclocking a 4-way SLI configuration and benchmarks from the still widely appreciated 3DMark01 benchmark to the equally despised PCMark7. The Country Cup is and was about variety and team work.
STAGES ONE TO FOUR: UCBENCH2011, WPRIME1024M, 3DMARK01 AND MEMORY CLOCK Stages one through four were all ten day campaigns requiring five submissions to form an average score per country. Poland and Greece won two each suggesting that both were ready to take this years title. Poland showed right from the start they were serious about winning this competition keeping their best scores until the last day of submission. The sandbagging wasnt necessary, however, given the quality of the results they submitted. 55k+ 3DMark01 by G.Foyle, crushed the competition. Rybas golden Sempron 145 resulted in a new global top score for 1x CPU Wprime102M and Xtreme Addicts 6.7G+ Core i5 661 are just few of the top scores set by the Polish team. The Greek team excelled
in consistency throughout these stages. Setting high-level scores across the board making it difficult for teams that didnt have five top results to compete. Noteworthy were performances by Russia, Bulgaria and Indonesia each reaching a top three position during these stages as well.
STAGES FIVE AND SIX: HEAVEN DX9 AND PCMARK7 The two level two stages required fewer contributors to the final score, but did increase the amount of points to win from 10 to 15. In other words, teams that were planning on winning had to step up their game and push harder. Poland and Greece continued their winning streak from stages 1 to 4 and ended up respectively 1st and 2nd in Stage 5. Stage 6, based on the PCMark7 benchmark, turned out to be surprisingly difficult for
untry Cup 2011

HIGHLIGHT REEL
the Polish team, finishing only 6th, whereas their main competitors Greece and Indonesia took places 2 and 1. Rather surprisingly, Belgium took 3rd place in the PCMark7 stage, one which was not loved by many competitors. Statements like Seriously, hate it and This stage will be complete fail give you an idea of how unloved this one was. Hate or not, it was still a part of the competition. Although ending only 2nd in this stage, the Greek team showed why they are regarded as top in the PCMark scene. Not only did they smash the existing top score, they did it on two different platforms. Indonesia did very well too (obviously) and won the stage the same way Greece placed 1st and 2nd in stage 1 through 4: consistency. Stages 5, based around the Heaven DX9 benchmark, and 6 also brought along a couple of interesting results. Take for instance Xtreme Addicts mighty impressive GTX 285 hitting clocks all the way up to 1290/1550 or the already mentioned top scoring Stelaras hitting 8902 points in PCMark7.
Several teams did seem to underestimate the challenge involved with this stage. Greece, for instance, submitted their only result in the last 5 minutes of the competition! Indonesia as well as Poland suffered from efficiency problems, causing them to lose several hundred points...
result in the last 5 minutes of the competition! Indonesia as well as Poland suffered from efficiency problems, causing them to lose several hundred points in the benchmark. Nevertheless, the three main contenders for the Country Cup title put their cards on the table, each running a full LN2 4-Way SLI setup. The difficulty of such a system setup cannot be underestimated and even just for attempting to run this kind of configuration, they each deserve a medal for bravery. In the end, it was Poland which took the win, hitting well over 6800MHz on an AMD Bulldozer with 4x GTX580 at 1050/1150. Indonesia came close, with a 6600MHz CPU and the graphics cards clocked at a very solid 1150/1200. Greece came in third with a CPU clocked just below 6300MHz and the four graphics cards running at 1100/1150, impressive to say the least. Looking further down the rankings, we spotted Hungary running almost 6.9GHz on their FX8150 as well as a bunch of 3-Way SLI configurations. the scores he submitted to the competition to a different country. However, since this happened after the competition had been closed (and final ranking was made), this will have no effect on the final ranking or prize distribution. Hardware sharing In stage four, one of the teams apparently shared memory sticks across submissions. Hardware sharing is indeed not allowed, but the HWBOT staff believes that it wasnt clear enough at the start of the competition. The memory clock stage revolved around memory overclocking using different platforms (not memory itself), which might have confused members. The staff takes full responsibility for this problem and will not remove the submissions made in that stage. The staff will use a different approach in future competitions. X58A-OC mainboard After the competition finished, a member noticed a strange relation between the IMC and memory clock for certain submissions in stage 4. We looked into the issue and the reported frequencies seem legit. Further research is necessary, but what the outcome may be, the validations count for this competition. More info: link.
STAGE SEVEN: 3DMARK11 The highlight of this years Country Cup competition was stage 7. Only one submission per country was required, but given the difficulty of the stage limitation (AMD CPU, no GPU limitation) 25 points were awarded to the winning score. The HWBOT staff tested this configuration a couple of weeks before the competition was announced and having experienced the level of difficulty, we were aware that this stage was likely to be decisive for the final ranking. After all, it wasnt just a matter of picking the right hardware (Bulldozer or Thuban), but also figuring out how to hit top frequencies on the CPU core, the CPU memory controller, the memory as well as the graphics cards, certainly no easy task. Several teams did seem to underestimate the challenge involved with this stage. Greece, for instance, submitted their only
THE NAUGHTY ONES! Before we conclude this write up, lets shed some light on a few controversial issues which arose during the competition.
Deleting submissions Due to an internal problem related to the distribution of the prizes, one member of a team moved
END With over 1,000 results submitted, the HWBOT Country Cup 2011 is
HIGHLIGHT REEL 2
statistically speaking a success. About 250 overclockers from around the world stepped up and held their countrys honor high. Not only can we say that the top teams of this year (Poland, Greece and Indonesia) put up a consistent set of top scores, lots of other countries put up a good fight with the resources they had. Take Canada, for instance: with a few results on liquid nitrogen they managed to secure 9th place overall. Mr.Paco and Chuckgunz from Puerto Rico secured a solid 16th place as a two man team. The United States
were nowhere in the beginning, but thanks to a very strong finish, a perfect landing in the top-10. From the pictures posted by various members in the forum topic, we can safely assume that the Country Cup was, again, good for countless hours of shared fun. Whether that was shared across the internet or physically benching in one room, sharing our passion for overclocking is what the HWBOT Country Cup is all about. In any case, we take what we learned last year and hope to see you all for next years competition!
Information regarding the winners of our custom Country Cup cooling gear will follow in the forums. HWBOT Country Cup 2012 Champions: Yotomeczek, ryba (PurePC.pl), Xtreme Addict, Chaos, Opson, G.Foyle, RemiKo, koziro, TM3K-, VapoR., CoY0t, KUBA TM, Lisqu, Khalam, ViNG, Mariosti, and metka. For feedback regarding HWBOT competitions, please check out this forum thread: http:// hwbot.org/forum/showthread. php?t=36694.
GEIL EVO TWO PC3 19200

QUAD CHANNEL RAM
RRP: $145 | Website: http://www.geil.com.
Test Machine
Intel Core i7 2600K ASUS MAXIMUS IV Extreme Plextor M3 256GB SSD ANTEC HCP 1200 PSU Windows 7 64-Bit
Value Award
ts always interesting how INTEL platforms always manage to set the new benchmark for the standard memory amount in peoples desktops. This is also true for overclockers as well because all of a sudden 16GB sets are all the rage at least for performance sets. As cheap as DRAM has become though, 2400MHz 16GB sets are mostly selling north of the $200 mark and despite this being a reasonable price its still a lot of money to sink into RAM in addition to all other costs associated with the X79 platform. Good thing then we have
sets like the GEIL EVO TWO 8GB 2400MHz kit. 8GB of memory is still more than most people will require at present especially for overclocking. 8GB of memory, a PC3-19200 rating and a $145 price tag, you have a really cost effective set for enthusiasts. For this kind of money, the GEIL EVO TWO is surprisingly impressive. We had an issue with the XMP profile which would automatically set timings that would not POST on our particular system, which would hang the system at 31 on the POST LED. After some fiddling we realized that the secondary settings applied via X.M.P were too aggressive. Oddly enough, manual tuning of these, using the recommended settings allowed the system to boot. The offending settings were DRAM RAS
# to RAS Delay and DRAM READ to PRE Time. The XMP profile configured both of these settings to a value of 4, however the ideal settings was 5 and 6 which fixed the issue. After that it was pretty easy going all the way to the most comfortable limit of our CPU IMC The default timings of 11-11-11-30-2N are nothing to write home about and are quite loose to be honest, however we quickly realized that 10-11-10-281T was doable with a slight adjustment in VDIMM. Setting 1.66V stabilized the system and as result we got some pretty good performance out of the set. Sadly however this was as low as we could go because anything tighter than this rendered the system unable to POST. Dropping the Memory multiplier and selecting 1866MHz divider allowed
Benchmarks
The following results were obtained on an un-optimized Windows 7 64-bit system, with the CPU sped at 4600MHz. As with all benchmarks your own results may vary from ours. These are only used as a guide to what kind of performance you can expect on a similarly configured system.
Frequency 2510 MHz 2510 MHz 2400 MHz 1866 MHz
AIDA 64 Read 22788 22561 22494 21015
AIDA 64 Write 17461 17522 17512 17511
AIDA64 Copy 20246 20194 20101 19188
AIDA 64 Latency 40.6 41.3 41.6 45.7
MaxxMem 1260 1237.3 1244.7 1108.5
Super Pi 8M 1m31.104 1m31.853 1m31.276 1m32.555
Timings 10-12-11-30-1T 11-12-11-30-1T 10-11-10-28-1T 8-9-8-24-1T
us to drop the timings to a respectable 8-98-24-1T. However the sacrifice we had to make in frequency was too much for the tightened timings to compensate for. As such, this was the slowest configuration we recorded. It is worth noting however that AIDA64 doesnt really tally the results of the various frequencies and settings properly, so the results are in a very narrow band which underplays the differences these various settings would actually make to your benchmark runs. 3DMark03 while not presented here shows some impressive gains when comparing the lowest speed we tested against the highest overclock we achieved. We ran two settings at 2510MHz and at 10-12-11-30-1T we needed significantly more voltage
(1.7V) than at 11-12-11-30-1T but there was a difference in the benchmarks and one that is sure to make itself very evident in Super Pi 32M and other dependant benchmarks. A more comfortable setting for this speed was 11-12-11-30-1T which was achievable at 1.66V. If you have a CPU that has a capable IMC this should be easy to achieve with very little adjustment in the VCSSA voltage or VTT. On that note, we also found that in the X.M.P settings, this set was configured for a VCSSA voltage of 1.4V at 2400MHz, which is seriously high for operating an everyday system. So wed be cautious of setting such a voltage should you come across any instability. 1.2V proved to be more than enough for any configuration we tested. [ Neo Sibeko ]
Summary
Overall we are impressed with the set, the X.M.P issue is annoying but its nothing that cant be fixed easily. This set gets thumbs up from us especially at such an aggressive price. GEIL has produced a decent set with the EVO TWO PC319200. It may not set the overclocking world alight, but its sufficient for most peoples overclocking endeavours on the X79 platform
Would you buy it?

Theres no reason not to buy this set for the asking price. If you need an emergency OC set this kit will do just fine.
The Score
7 .5/10
Motherboard Myth Busting

ASUS CROSSHAIR V FORMULA VS GIGABYTE 990FXA-UD5 - THE EFFICIENCY SHOWDOWN
ERP: Gigabyte GA- 990FXA UD - $180 | ASUS Crosshair V Formula -$220 Website: http://www.gigabyte.com | http://www.asus.com/
Test Machine
AMD FX 8150 and 1090T CPU 4GB Corsair Dominator 12800C8 Asus GTX480 (WHQL 285.62 drivers) Western Digital 1Tb Green Caviar HDD Corsair AX1200 PSU Windows 7 64Bit Pro SP1 fully patched
the official press kits containing the CH V board. We ran some benchmarks that would hopefully demonstrate this claimed difference. We performed these at the Stock speeds of our AMD CPUs on a new install of Windows 7 Pro. The main stress points were CPU, RAM and GPU efficiency.
ANALYSIS
his is not the typical review you might find in more common websites or magazines. The intention here was to see how efficient the Asus board really is in comparison with Gigabyte's cheaper offering, the UD5 and if theres some truth to the claimed poor performance of the Crosshair V Formula. The 990FXA-UD5 was one of the boards that had been used by some websites; showing completely different results compared to most reviews using
LOOK AT THE TABLES BEFORE YOU READ THIS! Time to get cracking, starting with the AMD FX-8150 CPU results. As the Crosshair V Formula was designed with the Zambezi architecture in mind one would expect it to perform well yes? Well, as you can see there's not much between the boards. It's so close that we consider the results to fall within the margin of error. Did I test correctly you may ask? Yes of course as these results
you see here represent the 3rd run on the FX CPU and even more on the Crosshair V with several bios updates. The outcome was the same, both boards put out similar numbers with the FX 8150 CPU. It makes me wonder how some publications managed such compelling numbers for their FX-8150 reviews. I am perplexed by the numbers which showed the FX-8150 thrashing the 2700K CPU comprehensively. Looking a little bit deeper into some of the other reviews on these very same websites, I saw testing methods, software and games being altered between each review making it pretty hard to compare hardware reliably. Add to which the award rating was so biased awarding Must buy, Gold awards and similarly overrated praises. Conclusion: Thank god for the end user reviews and testing. I also tested both boards with a Phenom II X6 1090T CPU and again
Results
Motherboard 990FXA-UD5 CROSSHAIR V Super Pi 32M 1172.104 1171.722 Wprime 1024 276,125 276,04 AIDA 64 Copy 17752 17785 AIDA 64 Read 13685 13621 AIDA 64 Write 10189 10266 CineBench 10 20389 20411
Results
Motherboard 990FXA-UD5 CROSSHAIR V Cinebench 11.5 6.01 5.99 X.264 Pass 1 276,125 276,04 X.264 Pass 2 37.29 37.26 Winrar 4450 1156 PCMark07 2621 2638 3DMark 06 17398 17421
the numbers were too close to call. I call this myth busted. The numbers are the truth and thats that.
NUM-NUTS GALLERY We test motherboards here repeatedly and just about anything else that can be user upgraded in a system. Over the last year or two, motherboard efficiency has slowly crept into the realm of myth in its entirety. On the modern platforms we have there just isnt a significant difference in the numbers between one board and another unless something is amiss. However with all things equal what we are really looking at now is how easy it is for us to reach those stratospheric speeds that we so long for. Not only the ease in which we can reach these speeds but how quickly and
reliably we can do this. So going into a motherboard review we dont expect surprises in the numbers but rather in what is presented as an entire package. In this day and age, it may be better to look for what a vendor does incorrectly on their boards rather than what they do right because the performance as Leeghoofd has shown is not a reliable way of making a purchasing decision as the difference just arent there despite what some publications and sites may claim. -Ed
SUMMARY No matter how hard we tried to find the massive performance discrepancies between the boards it wasnt going to happen. Both
boards performed admirable well during our numerous reruns of our test suite. With no quirks or major hiccups. Not even when testing ram frequencies of 2400 MHz CL9. If you want to go for a 990FX board, both boards will do just fine. Being very close in performance, the price is another thing. The UD5 is cheaper, though lacks some of the bells and whistles of the ASUS offering. To really recommend one over the other is a mission as my main priority is efficiency, not looks nor the included software bundle. Let's close the AMD FX chapter and pray to the gods of hardware that Piledriver will be something worthwhile. Though with the current Intel offerings and Ivy Bridge soon, 2012 may be a rough ride for AMD's CPUs. [ Leeghoofd ]
PATRIOT PYRO SE 240GB

RRP: $459 Website: http://www.patriotmemory.com
Test Machine
Intel Core i7 2600K ASUS Maximus IV Extreme AMD RADEON HD7970 ANTEC HCP 1200 Windows 7 64-bit
Recommend Recommended Award
Benchmarks
The following results were obtained on an un-optimized Windows 7 64-bit system, with the CPU sped at 4600MHz. As with all benchmarks your own results may var similarly configured system.
Drive Patriot Pyro SE 240GB OCZ Vertex 3 240GB IOPS PATRIOT WildFire 120GB Intel 510 SSD 120GB PATRIOT PYRO 240GB
Average Read 506.6 504.1 498 454.9 218.8
Average Write 311.5 303 260 198.2 243.9
IO Meter IOPS 18482.2 18128.8 16711.7 13521.3 16268.5
4K Read (QD32) 181.5 179.4 152.9 87.57 128.5
4K Write (QD32) 262.1 237.9 138.1 62.86 223.1
PCMark Vantage HDD 52553 50462 60346 40621 48674
eve had two PYRO drives here at TheOverclocker. The first one didnt impress us much. While the performance was significantly better than the SSDs of old and the price was fair for a 240GB drive, there were better options on the market and in particular the WildFire drive. So we decided to forgo that review when we were made aware of an updated drive dubbed PYRO SE. We werent told exactly what it was that differed in this drive from the first iteration but suffice to say the performance differences are massive. In fact peculiar to the performance of this drive is that it managed to oust the Wildfire 120GB. From what we can see, the WildFire 240GB likely offers the same performance as the PYRO SE 240GB we have here. This brings us to another oddity about the PYRO SE. Currently this drive retails for exactly the same price as the Wildfire drive, yet based on our understanding the PYRO series was supposed to be a little more affordable while only suffering a small performance penalty. Looking at the benchmarks one can clearly see this is not the case. The PYRO SE was faster than the
Wildfire drive in ever y discipline save for the PC Mark Vantage Test. Granted this is the test most of you reading this care about, however one would have to be wear y of basing their purchasing decision solely on that test as we truly believe that overall the PYRO SE is the better drive. When compared to a favourite of ours, the OCZ Vertex 3 MA X IOPS edition, we see that our chosen drive is faster in ever y benchmark and moreover it is a good $20 cheaper. We still believe the Vertex 3 to be a great drive, but the PYRO SE is just better in ever y way. A surprise then given that one can clearly see the shortcomings of the original PYRO drive. Theres really no reason to even look at the original drive when this is available as an alternative. We quickly checked under the hood of this drive and found the tried and tested SF-2281 controller paired with 25nm MLC NAND chips and obviously no cache. So the typical setup found in most high performance desktop SSDs these days. The performance however is anything but ordinar y and whatever tuning that has occurred has produced a great drive but one that may ver y well make the
Wildfire drive irrelevant as theres really no reason to go with that drive with all things as they are. This is easily amongst the fastest desktop SSDs weve tested to date, beating out all our previous favourites. On a side note, wed also like to add that on the Wildfire drives weve experienced some random locking up causing the system to hang. A cold boot would be needed to fix this, however we experienced none of that with the PYRO SE. So its something worth keeping in mind as to date theres not been a firmware for the WildFire drive that were aware of that fixes this issue. The PYROS SE is therefore ver y easy to recommend and is our choice of drive from PATRIOT. [ Neo Sibeko ]
Summary
Theres not much to argue here, the numbers speak for themselves. The Price may be a little steep for some, but weve not tested another drive of this capacity and performance that is cheaper. Patriots done a stellar job with the PYRO SE and this is definitely a drive to buy if youre in the market for a high performance SSD.
Would you buy it?

Yes most certainly, especially with the price that its retailing for over at TigerDirect at $369.99
ry from ours. These are only used as a guide to what kind of performance you can expect on a
Read IO/s 12385.94 12151.66 11192.11 9054.37 10895.21
Write IO/s 6096.26 5976.58 5519.68 4467 5373.33
Avg. IO Response 0.4327 0.4411 0.4785 0.5914 0.4915
Max IO Response 50.5731 44.379 54.3345 467.421 54.2461
The Score
8/10
ASUS HD7970 3GB

RRP: $559 | Website: http://www.asus.com
Test Machine
Intel Core i7 3960X @ 4.6GHz G.Skill RipJaws Z F3 16GB 2400C11 Plextor M3 256GB SSD ANTEC HCP 1200 PSU Windows 7 64-Bit SP1
Hardware Award
ight then, by now youve probably seen all the amazing scores delivered by AMDs RADEON HD7970 graphics cards. Standard performance out the box while impressive has underwhelmed some who were expecting GTX590 and 6990 beating performance. However this was always an unjustified expectation because at no point since the dawn of modern day GPUs has one generation doubled the performance of the previous generation. Still, a 15% to 20% performance boost from the GTX580 is nothing to snivel
at especially considering that the GTX 580 is still a very potent piece of silicon that has proved capable of 100% overclocks. In the results you can see that we didnt include any GTX580 numbers, this is simply because theres no reason to compare it to a graphics card we are well and truly familiar with. Instead youll see the overclocked settings and this is really where the power of theHD7970 is. Its easily the most overclockable graphics card we have ever had. 1,2GHz on the core is easily achievable and the memory overclocking is nothing short of spectacular. Our particular sample was less than average but we were still able to reach a 1.6GHz memory clock which is impressive regardless of how you look at it. Percentage wise, one could argue that GTX580s cards
overclocked equally well, but thats forgetting that weve never seen 1.2GHz and higher as an average overclock. Our particular card ultimately stopped at 1255MHz at 1.254v on the GPU core using the standard cooler. With the GPU clock set to this speed and the memory at 1.55GHz we were able to record a 3DMark11 Performance score of P10381 which would need a GPU clock of at least 1.3GHz on the GTX580 and a significantly higher overclock on the CPU. Having said that weve seen memory clocks as high as 2000MHz, delivering the most memory bandwidth weve ever seen on a GPU. This card is certainly going to be a favourite with all kinds of overlockers, from the amateurs to the pros, theres lots of potential in this card unlike with the 6970 it replaces. That card was to say the least disappointing
Benchmarks
The following results were obtained on an un-optimized Windows 7 64-bit system, with the CPU sped at 4600MHz. As with all benchmarks your own results may vary from ours. These are only used as a guide to what kind of performance you can expect on a similarly configured system.
VGA ASUS Radeon HD7970 Overclocked
Clocks 925/1.375GHz 1200/1.6GHz
3DMark03 127540 146989
3DMark06 34163 35551
3DMark Vantage 36606 42346
3DMark 11 (P) 8208 10083
Unigine Heaven Xtreme 1812.419 2258.072
Crysis 2: 1080p DX11 60.09 63.4
The Direct CU II 7970, thats the one we really look forward to. Check it out in Issue 19.
Sum Summary
The HD7970 is a little more than what we could have expected from AMD. With a brand new design and some clever optimizations, has resulted in the largest GPU core we have ever seen packing more than 4 billion gates in a package smaller than what the previous GPU could manage. With a 384-bit bus, impressive overclocking headroom and very strong performance, the HD7970 just may be the highlight GPU of 2012, unless NVIDIAs part proves just as potent.
especially when considering how good the 5870 was for extreme overclocking. In a gaming context, theres nothing to fault on the HD7970. Out the box it performs spectacularly managing to improve tessellation performance dramatically from the previous generation cards. With AA applied, it threatens the GTX590 and HD6990. For those interested purely in the gaming credentials of the 7970, it will certainly deliver on that front and because it will not have any multi-GPU issues, it is arguably a better purchase than a 6990. We are thoroughly impressed by this card and only wonder what the competition can offer in
the near future that would make us consider not going with the HD7970.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION As great as this card is, theres the annoying issue of the shim around the GPU core which you can either try to peel off using a heat gun, or sand it down. Others have used copper plates that fit on top of the GPU, regardless, mounting a pot on this GPU is going to prove to be a mission and will most certainly void your warranty. Hopefully theres an easier solution that can be found but in the meantime it would be wise to exercise caution when mounting a pot. [ Neo Sibeko ]
Would you buy it?

Certainly, theres no reason not to buy this card. The prices may be high right now, but I still believe its well worth owning especially if youll be shooting for personal records and the like.
The Score
8/10
GIGABYTE G1.Assassin 2
RRP: $399.99 | Website: http://www.gigabyte.com
Test Machine
CPU= Intel 3960X GIGABYTE GTX 570 Crucial C300 Corsair XMS 1600MHz 2GBx4 Corsair AX1200 Windows 7 Ultimate
he GIGABYTE G1 Assassin 2 is GIGABYTEs top of the line gaming motherboard for the X79 platform. When we look at this board, we are really looking at a mix of the X79-UD3 and X79UD5, with some hefty gaming upgrades which give it the high price tag. The Assassin2 boasts only 4-DIMMs, 3-Way GPU support and this was done without the use of multiplexers such as used on the UD3 and UD7 to switch lanes for SLI. This gives the G1 Assassin 2 a nice eATX form factor with enough room to change your memory with a full size GPU
in the first slot. The same spacing was provided to the UD7, but the UD7 is XL-ATX. The G1 Assassin2 has the gun heatsink, which many have spoken unkindly about. The board employs two USB 3.0 controllers from Fresco Logic, and even provides a front panel USB 3.0 bay so that the user will be able to use the internal header. When we look at the VRM on this board, it is identical to the one on the X79-UD3 in that we have an 8+1 (VCore + IMC/VCCSA) phase design employing a more robust 3-MOSFET scheme, in which there are 2x 25A low-side FETs and one 50A high-side FET per phase. The VTT power is provided by a 2 phase design located south of the CPU, but here GIGABYTE chose to use the really nice spec 40A IR power stages. GIGABYTE also gave each set of 2-DIMMs one of
these power stages as well. GIGABYTE employed a 6+2 phase IR digital PWM for the VCC and VCCSA, and gave two 3+2 phase IR digital PWMs the job of managing both VDIMM VRMs and the VCCIO VRM. What is even better for those users who like the main benefit of Digital PWMs which is the user control, GIGABYTE has implemented more Digital PWM controls than we have ever seen before. Make sure to flash to BIOS F7 if you already own this board, as it will guarantee that the VRM wont overheat, of course when overclocking you need to have airflow over the VRM heatsink anyway. The only X79 motherboard to carry legitimate Creative audio hardware and the Bigfoot NIC is also the G1 Assassin 2. The Creative hardware is what all the users who buy this board
Benchmarks
We ran the benchmarks at 4.5GHz on both motherboards on an identical Windows 7-64bit Setup. 3DMark Vantage CPU Score X79-UD7 G1.Assassin2 44911 45220 3DMark Vantage GPU Score 22215 22309 3DMark11 Physics Score 14146 14121 3DMark11 GPU Score 5523 5529 Battlefield 3 SuperPi 1.5X 1M wPrime 1024
92.56 93.328
476.3 479.549
127.684 129.057
probably buy it for, as it isnt just the Creative 20K2. It is also all the DDR memory, DACs/ADCs, AMPs, Nichicon capacitors, EMI shield, and even a single phase PWM which take up a large chunk of the on-board PCB. If that isnt enough for you the Bigfoot NIC also carries many of those attributes; 1GB DDR2, Spansion Flash ROM, Marvell PHY, and has a two single phase VRMs. For the G1 series GIGABYTE adds extra fan support which previously was absent on all its previous boards, this is made possible by an extra Winbond HW monitoring chip which works in conjunction with the iTE SIO. GIGABYTE has even added more fan control into the UEFI, so that 3 of the fan headers have smart fan control from the UEFI. Now we move to the BIOS, as this is one of the most interesting parts of this board. The 3D BIOS consists of an interactive picture of the board which can be viewed from another angle, as well as the ability to select parts of the board which you want to control. If you want to change the SATA port settings all you have to do is click on the SATA ports, if you want to change the VRM settings you can click on the VRM heatsink. It is pretty well laid out, but we find ourselves not using it. We prefer using the advanced mode, as its faster to use a keyboard
than to click on options. Its like clicking on an onscreen keyboard compared to typing. Of course if you dont know your way around the BIOS the 3D mode will be much easier for you, which might be the case with many of this boards buyers. We imagine that the majority of first-time/ returning G1 owners will have an easy time setting up this board. We didnt hit any major snags, but we didnt really use any BIOS earlier than F7. Overclocking is one arena where we feel the G1 Assassin 2 can do a bit better. In the same conditions as the UD7 the G1 Assassin gave us a slightly lower CPU OC. We were however easily able to get 4.8GHz stable as well as 2133MHz memory on the G1 Assassin 2, on the UD7 I was able to do 4.9GHz and 2400MHz memory under the same conditions. When the X79-UD7 first released I was at the same 4.8 and 2133 until a better overclocking BIOS came out, which is probably a matter of time for the Assassin 2. We found that 4.8 GHz in itself is enough for anyone who is using this board to handle unless you have a phase change cooler because at 4.8GHz stable on our CPU was getting way too hot! This board does lack on-board power and reset buttons, but surprisingly we have a bunch of interesting buttons on the
back panel. For the first time on a G1 board we have Clear CMOS, Dual BIOS button, and a simple 1-Touch OC button which will OC all CPU cores to 4G. [ Sin ]
Summary
Despite a slightly lower CPU OC, only 4-DIMMs, price, and lack of power and reset buttons we think that GIGABYTE did a pretty good job with this G1 Assassin2. Everything works as it should, and the UEFI is pretty nice. We do think there is some room for improvement in terms of the BIOS overclocking, and while the overclocking might need to be improved, the other features are working just as advertised. Like previous G1 boards, the gaming efficiency as compared to the UD7 is a bit better. What will really determine whether this board is right for you is if you want the Creative 20K2 audio package, Bigfoot NIC and extra fan control as those are the defining features that you are paying extra for.
Would you buy it?

Yes, if I had enough money in my wallet and were looking for a nice sound card at the same time.
The Score
8/10
G.SKILL
Test Machine
Intel Core i7 3960X ASUS Rampage IV Extreme Corsair Force GT 90GB SSD Corsair AX1200 Windows 7 64-Bit
RipJaws Z F319200CL9Q 16GB MEMORY

RRP: $629.99 | Website: http://www.gskill.com
timings, this is more than likely the heaviest binned kit. There is no doubting these modules are designed for serious speed and at the default timings of 9-11-10-28 they dont disappoint. We had no trouble pushing this kit past 2500 MHz fully stable, and it was happy to clock further to 2525 MHz for 32m stability. When we tightened the CAS latency slightly to bring the timings to 8-11-10-28 things changed dramatically and the frequency dropped right down to 2296 MHz. This would indicate the new generation of Hynix ICs, which are found on most of the high frequency quad channel kits, are extremely sensitive to CAS changes. Fortunately in our further testing, we determined that for benchmarking on X79
Recommended Award
rom humble beginnings GSkill have slowly encroached into the realms of enthusiast memory. The release of an amazing range of X79 memory kits potentially furthers GSkills push towards market supremacy, but theyre not quite there yet. The extreme high end has long been dominated by Corsair, but GSkill are hoping their latest 2400 MHz 9-11-10-28 quad channel memory kit might have something to say about that. While this isnt GSkills highest rated X79 kit, when taking into consideration the
you are significantly better off running with higher frequency and looser timings than lowering the frequency at all. To bolster our evidence that CAS has a huge impact on frequency, we tightened only the TRCD and found we were able to reach 2248 MHz, with the resultant timings of 8-10-10-28. While this combination of timings and frequency isnt amazing by P67 standards, keep in mind we are pushing 4 sticks of memory and the ICs are totally different than the previous manufacture favourite, PSC. We tried tightening the CAS latency further to 7 to no avail, the system simply wouldnt boot. It was though possible to tighten the TRCD again to effective timings of 8-9-9-28 but at these tight
Summary
Benchmarks
Instead of performing traditional benchmarks, we have chosen to focus on pushing the memory frequency. We used the Hyper PI benchmark as a stability test. Frequency 2504 2296 2248 2082 Timings 9-11-10-28 8-11-10-28 8-10-10-28 8-9-9-28 Voltage 1.65 1.65 1.65 1.65 Settings 125 strap, 2133 divider 125 strap, 2000 divider 125 strap, 2000 divider 100 strap, 2000 divider
timings we were only able to achieve 2082 MHz, resulting in a significant performance hit in benchmarks. Throughout our testing we tried increasing the vdimm but this didnt have any noticeable impact on frequencys or primary timings but did help with tightening the sub timings.
OUT TAKE While this kit is obviously an amazing performer, not all users are going to be able
to take advantage of the frequencies on offer due to IMC limitations. Many X79 users are experiencing ram walls ranging anywhere from 2350 MHz with most CPUs not capable of piercing the 2500 MHz barrier. Unfortunately this will mean users either have to buy and sell costly CPUs until they find a suitable IMC or settle for lower frequencies, knowing the modules can do much more. [ PRO ]
There is no doubt this is a pricey kit of memory, but quality costs money and this kit exudes that exactly. I think its safe to say GSkill are finally in the same league as Corsair in the high performance memory market. These sticks are slightly disappointing when tightening the timings, but tight timings and low frequency for benchmarking are a thing of the past, X79 is all about raw frequency. We believe the Ripjaws-Z 2400 MHz 9-11-10-28 are as good as any kit on the market today.
Would you buy it?

If we were building a super-rig with no cost limitations these would be our first pick, but budget conscious users might need to look elsewhere.
The Score
9/10
New ASUS P9X79 Motherboards
New Tech
Gear you up with Control Insight

Youre due for a new PC, and we have the motherboards to make that build really irresistible
ontrol is very important in a motherboard, and DIY experts always look for boards that put power in your hands. Better control means improved tuning, which in turn opens up overclocking possibilities. ASUS' new P9X79 motherboards cover many aspects of control. With extensive overclocking features for both the CPU and DRAM, they provide the finest computing experience, made even more effortless by the intuitive UEFI BIOS and one-click SSD Caching system boost. Added levels of control and tuning The P9X79s give you control opportunities in every way, featuring the most detailed and considerate design of any X79 motherboard. Here are some of the highlights you should keep in mind:
Triple digital power controls: ASUS has embedded New DIGI+ Power Control CPU and DRAM digital voltage controllers on the board, two for the DRAM, and one for the CPU. You can use these to adjust voltages and switching frequencies for different overclocking scenarios. New DRAM tuning possibilities allow you to make the most of DDR3 memory for ultimate performance with VCCSA load line calibration and 30% more DRAM current capacity. Overclocking the memory is easier than ever before, plus it can be pushed further for faster performance. All of these features can be accessed via UEFI BIOS to ensure complete control, while digital power conversion and fast voltage sensing equate with greater Vcore stability. Easy BIOS control: ASUS has updated the exclusive UEFI BIOS with new features. Theres an F12 BIOS snapshot hotkey and an F3 system info shortcut, so you get insight into system conditions and can make alterations as needed. DRAM Serial Presence Detect, faulty DIMM detection, and POST troubleshooting are all excellent features that make building a new PC on X79 easy and rewarding. You even get USB BIOS Flashback, which allows for BIOS flashing in seconds from any USB storage device while on standby power, even without key components such as the CPU and memory installed. So if anything goes wrong with a build or an Plug and push to complete BIOS updates with any USB storage overclock, corrections are easy. Its all about speed Support for up to 64GB of system memory with an 8-DIMM design on ASUS X79 motherboards provides the capacity for users to make full use of modern 64-bit software, ideal for rendering detailed images or manipulating large files without the bottlenecks of conventional storage. It also allows users to set up big RAM disks and speed up frequently accessed programs; minimizing the impact of storage transfer delays whilst maximizing user benefit. Exclusive ASUS SSD Caching offers a streamlined hybrid design that combines great speed with big capacities. It kicks off with one click, no rebooting needed, and testing shows us that its around three times faster than mechanical hard drives. For connectivity, ASUS P9X79 boards have BT GO3.0!, a multi-mode Wi-Fi manager that combines functionalities such as instant data syncing and using Bluetooth devices as remote controls, all in one utility. It also allows for more devices to be connected with no extra adapters. You will be especially impressed with USB 3.0 Boost, an ASUS exclusive that adds UASP support to USB 3.0, resulting in up to 170% faster data speeds. When used with compatible devices, the increase is really noticeable.
Easy caching. One click to boost system performance without rebooting
High convenience! Bluetooth 3.0 and Wi-Fi onboard to save your slot space and USB ports
Moving on to next-gen Dont forget the P9X79s finally bring us many developments weve been waiting years for: 64GB quad-channel memory on mainstream boards, PCI Express 3.0 (at last!), native multi-GPU acceleration, and much more. Time for a new PC!
GET IN TOUCH WITH US!
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ASUS recommends Windows 7 Ultimate.
ROG G74 Series

We can improve it, we have the technology. Better. Stronger. Faster. The G74Sx comes loaded with a superfast 2nd generation Intel Core i7 Processor, Genuine Windows7 Ultimate and discrete NVIDIA GTX 560M GPU for the best gaming and multimedia experience available in a gaming notebook. Designed with portable power in mind, the G74Sx is the future of gaming notebooks from ROG.
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The X79 Board to Silence Them All?
79 Motherboards are aplenty and were bound to see countless revisions for at least the next 12 months. Much like with X58, each generation of boards coincided with better CPUs and higher overclocks. With X58 its hard to say what the ultimate board was as the later 990 X and 980X CPUs were such wonderful overclocking CPUs that they negated the differences in most offerings. Especially at such stratospheric speeds, it was merely a test of which board was quicker to overclock rather than which one wouldnt make the speed at all. At least that was the case with the better CPUs. Our own attempt to find the ultimate X58 board didnt end so well with several dead 990X CPUs hence you never did see that feature. So in order to avoid such a catastrophe, we decided to do this round up earlier rather than later. We managed to gather four motherboards, two in the high end and two which we would consider the value options. The INTEL DX79SI would be used to keep these boards honest, because the last thing any vendor would want is a motherboard that is no better than the INTEL board but commands a greater price tag. Our testing methodology was simple; Try and figure out which is the most efficient board, the easiest to overclock, the most feature packed board in terms of overclocking options and ultimately the best value motherboard in its chosen segment. This was easier said than done because the X79
platform is inherently targeted at the high end so the boards will always be less about value and more about features and functionality. With each board offering 4-way graphics courtesy of the numerous PCI-E lanes made available by the CPUs we had thought of testing 4-way graphics on each board, but getting a hold of four 7970 graphics cards at the time proved to be anything but simple and while we initially did test with two 6970 Graphics cards in crossfire. We decided to re-do the entire feature using the beastly HD7970. During our testing, we also had to switch out CPUs so what you are seeing here is actually our third attempt at this, because when we had almost collected all the results, our chosen 3960X CPU started to degrade in what can only be termed a phenomenal rate. From the chosen 4625 MHz we were using (37x125) to not being able to pass a single CineBench run at anything above 4000MHz, we had somehow managed to depreciate our CPU. As such we had to resort to the 3930K, however the results were near identical and moreover this CPU actually had a great IMC that was capable of close to 2600MHz with all four sticks installed. What follows on the next page is a breakdown of our thoughts on each board and ultimately the results when put through our standard benchmarks. We would investigate how much difference there actually is in the various implementations of the X79 chipset is any at all.
S EDITOR CHOICE AWARD
ASUS Rampage IV Extreme
hen we received this board we were expecting the Rampage III Extreme in essence, except with a new socket and a few others changes that were relevant for the different chipset. However, we were immensely mistaken, pleasantly surprised and most importantly blown away. This may be the first board we tested, but in a way it set the tone for the rest of the competitors. In some ways its what all vendors should be shooting for as theres simply nothing out on the market that puts together such a compelling package both in what it can do and what it features. The space we have here is too small to delve into every single feature and nuance, but suffice to say, options like VGA Hotwire are not only a
first but an easy sell. It makes mods on graphics cards a breeze and its unlikely to ever get easier than this. Youll get the new OC-Key as well which sits between your DVI connector on your graphics card and your screen feeding your display an overlay of information about your system on the fly. You can also stop using your dedicated digital thermometer and just plug your K-probes directly into the boards Sub-Zero Sense connectors right on the board so you can read both GPU and CPU Pot temperatures easily via the OSD provided by the OC-Key. There are many other features that we have not gone into but worth a special mention is the most detailed and fully featured BIOS on any X79, no scratch that, on any motherboard to date.
Everything you could think of tweaking is there and best of all the options are explained in a succinct and simple manner most people will understand. Overclocking this board is a breeze and should you find yourself with a particularly tricky CPU, this is the board youll want to use for it. The built in profiles actually work and will take your CPU or memory to much higher speed than any other board can or at least quicker than any other. The only downside we could find was the first PCI-Express slot is located far too close to the Heatsink south of the CPU socket. This made it rather inconvenient to remove a GPU once installed. Other than that, theres really nothing else we can point to that we had issues with. The Rampage IV Extreme is simply incredible. Verdict: [LEGENDARY]
ECS X79R-AX
hen we first received this board, we were not moved at all. While it looked adequate aesthetically, it suffered from many of the oversights on the INTEL board which we were willing to accept on the DX79SI, but found annoying on a 3rd party board which should at the least attempt to produce a better product. For instance, while we do appreciate the POST LED, Reset and Clr CMOS buttons, can anybody explain to us why these (save for the Clr CMOS) are located south of the board where they will be rendered useless should you install a graphics card on the third slot? We understand that this is a standard ATX motherboard, but for a board with 12 SATA ports, wed have appreciated better placement of these, especially since its as clear as day how suboptimal the positioning is of these buttons
is on the INTEL DX79SI. Everything else was standard affair though and for a $289 motherboard we couldnt really complain much, besides this is an ECS board we are talking about and a slightly different approach is in order. We moved to the BIOS, initially had some frustrations with the shipping version as it had some odd behaviour that made it very difficult to overclock. By the time we got around to doing this round up though many of these had been ironed out. Sadly we still had no VDroop setting, which was a pity because it can be really big on this board. For instance 1.428V (Measured) could go down to 1.356V under load. Bclk adjustment was disappointing as well because you had to go up in 1 MHz an increment which isnt ideal as you cant tune the exact memory or CPU clock you need. Voltage adjustments were
no walk in the park as well as we really dislike using offsets when theres no option of keying in the desired voltage directly. It makes tuning an arduous task unnecessarily. Add to that this board has such a high cold bug temperature, its an exercise in frustration trying to go sub-zero. However, believe it or not this is easily ECSs best offering to date, and it is oddly enough a better board overall than the other budget board here. The things it does do, it does very well and once wed figured out its preferred overclocking procedure it was pretty smooth sailing. Despite all our complaints, with enough time spent with this board and the very attractive pricing, this board is easily the Value board of the lot. Much better than the INTEL board, but only costing $10 more. Verdict: [SUPERIOR]
Recommended Award
GIGABYTE X79-UD7
ow then we get to the successor of one of our favourite boards of all the time. The X58-OC was spectacularly late to market and didnt quiet arrive at the price we had all anticipated. However, late as it was, it was a legendary board and had some unique firsts that we highly appreciated which were obviously carried forward into the X79 version. Sadly though the OC range is no longer with us, at least in name but the design philosophy lives on. We now have the X79-UD7 which has the OC moniker on the SB heat sink in case you didnt recognise the orange and black theme. Unlike any other board here, this one is virtually identical to its previous iteration. With some changes appropriate for the
new chipset. Everything else however is very much like the X58-OC. So we were off to a good if not a great one. Sadly though, with the shipping F2 BIOS of this particular sample we had, things were not looking good. GIGABYTEs first attempt at a UEFI BIOS was less than pleasant. It was without a question the slowest BIOS we had ever come across. The 3D picture and easy mode was cumbersome and of little value really. It still remains so today and if anything takes away from what is otherwise a good board it would have to be this feature. With each successive update, the overclocking has been improving or to put it another way, it has been getting easier. From a board that was downright
disappointing to one that is actually pleasurable to use and to overclock with. It doesnt have the exhaustive feature list of the Rampage IV Extreme, but then again no motherboard on earth has. Suffice to say, everyone, including end users were caught with their pants down in respect to that product. Right now with the BIOS version we tested with(F9a), configuring this board, was extremely simple, the only oddity was that Vdroop compensation has been configured in a very peculiar way (it was straight forward with F4 though) which makes it less obvious what exactly it is youre setting. Other than that, the X79-UD7 is a winner. Others may be partial to the UD3, but were not as moved by that board. This is the special one as its really a pleasure to use. Verdict: [EXQUISITE]
ASROCK X79 Extreme9

srock seems very serious about getting into the good books of the overclocking crowd, i.e. you reading this are most likely the individuals Asrock is hoping to attract with their more recent offerings such as this board. Oddly enough the Extreme9 is very similar in layout to the ECS board. Sure enough it has eight DIMM slots instead of four, but it also has an excessive amount of SATA ports (12 as well) and has the Power, Reset and Post LED in the same tragic location as the ECS and INTEL boards. Its also a standard ATX board with a Molex power header for providing extra power to the graphics card. This board unlike any other here however, does not feature voltage measuring points at all so thats a missed opportunity
especially because it retails for $344 which is just $25 less than the UD7. However in its defence, the Extreme9 does have a smooth BIOS. It doesnt mean all the options work, but its quick and slick with all the basic and advanced functionality you would expect out of a vendor taking the overclocking market seriously. Sadly, this is also where things werent going according to plan. The Asrock board could only muster a memory clock of 1866MHz and 2133MHz being bootable but nothing remotely close to stable. It also requires SpeedStep to be enabled for you to use the higher multipliers. Much like the ECS board it also has 1 MHz increments to the Bclk so you can imagine what fun that is. As a result of the oddity with the memory multiplier,
the Asrock board was the slowest in the benchmarks bar the INTEL board. For a board that costs this much it does leave a slightly bitter taste in the mouth. We also found that our VCSSA voltage had to be much higher on this board than on any other, but we do suspect that under load it could be dropping and causing the board to crash. Overall this isnt a bad board and it still has a higher memory multiplier than the most we could get from the INTEL board, so that alone with some other enhancements make it a better product. If its worth the asking price, well thats another thing. Do though look out for the Fatal1ty board which is supposedly much better and is in every way superior to the Extreme9. Verdict: [FINE]
Benchmarks
All tests were run with an identical Windows 7 64-bit setup. As usual your own results may vary so only use these as a guideline. Our observations show that many tests are within the margin of error so one shouldnt put too much emphasis on 50 points or so in any benchmark.
Benchmarks
ASUS RAMPAGE IV EXTREME (005b) 3DMark03 127025 3DMark05 40962 3DMark06 33958 3DMark Vantage 36420 GPU:33919 CPU:46760 AIDA 64 Latency 42.5 3DMark 11 8217 Graphics: 7645 Physics: 15034 Cinebench 11.5 13.43
wPrime 1024 112.008
SuperPi 8M 1m31.619
AIDA 64 Copy 20067
Price $469.99
Benchmarks
GIGABYTE X79UD7 (F9a) 3DMark03 127361 3DMark05 40695 3DMark06 33971 3DMark Vantage 36569 GPU:34076 CPU:46853 AIDA 64 Latency 48.9 3DMark 11 8207 Graphics:7643 Physics:14928 Cinebench 11.5 13.42
wPrime 1024 111.945
SuperPi 8M 1m31.931
AIDA 64 Copy 19966
Price $369.99
Benchmarks
ASRock X79 Extreme9 (1.9R) 3DMark03 124667 3DMark05 40597 3DMark06 33776 3DMark Vantage 36243 GPU:33691 CPU:46900 AIDA 64 Latency 46.5 3DMark 11 8137 Graphics: 7576 Physics: 14640 Cinebench 11.5 13.4
wPrime 1024 112.958
SuperPi 8M 1m32.649
AIDA 64 Copy 19234
Price $344.99
Benchmarks
ECS X79R-AX (B29A) 3DMark03 127101 3DMark05 40844 3DMark06 33874 3DMark Vantage 36241 GPU: 33702 CPU: 46819 AIDA 64 Latency 46 3DMark 11 8182 Graphics: 7621 Physics: 14881 Cinebench 11.5 13.39
wPrime 1024 112.569
SuperPi 8M 1m31.276
AIDA 64 Copy 19385
Price $289.99
Benchmarks
INTEL DX79SI (0380) 3DMark03 124321 3DMark05 40537 3DMark06 33506 3DMark Vantage 34946 GPU: 33507 CPU: 40115 AIDA 64 Latency 47.9 3DMark 11 7985 Graphics: 7586 Physics: 11903 Cinebench 11.5 11.27
wPrime 1024 141.149
SuperPi 8M 1m33.288
AIDA 64 Copy 19205
Price $279.99
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

RRP: $59.99 | Website: www.elderscrolls.com/skyrim/ | Developer: Bethesda Game Studios Publisher: Bethesda Softworks | Genre: Role-playing game
t begins as it has so many times before. You arrive in your new fantasy home a prisoner. A faceless, nameless would-be hero (or villain, if you like to swing that way) armed with a tale thatll soon be yours to weave and mould as you see fit throughout the countless hours of gameplay youre about to embark upon. The experience is yours. The choices are yours. The world is yours. This is gaming at its most grandiose, offering a newschool, mainstream-appeasing RPG, but one draped in old-school ideals. This is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and here be dragons. Studies show that dragons automatically make anything they appear in at least 25 percent more awesome. And yet, Skyrim doesnt even need these winged reptiles to be a magnificent showpiece of what gaming is capable of when people ditch the modern combat crap and scripted spectacle shenanigans, and instead dare to dream a little bigger. Itll be familiar fare to anyone whos played the fourth Elder
38 The OverClocker Issue 18 2012
Scrolls title, Oblivion, but bear in mind that this is not a direct sequel to that title; its actually set 200 years after the events that transpired therein. But whereas Oblivion had an alarming number of fans of the third Elder Scrolls title (Morrowind) scratching their heads and wondering why Bethesda had forsaken them while the rest of the gaming world wondered what it was they were whining about, Skyrim manages to find a happy medium between those two fantastic previous entries. Its a long-running series, see, one thats feverishly followed by droves of die-hard fans who could argue Elder Scrolls lore for an entire fortnight without running out of steam. These people also like to whinge about their opinion that the newer titles cant live up to those that came before, but I think youd be hard-pressed to find a fan of the series (or even just someone who loves RPGs in general) who cant accept Skyrim as being an absolutely phenomenal roleplaying experience.
THE EXPERIENCE IS YOURS. THE CHOICES ARE YOURS. THE WORLD IS YOURS. THIS IS GAMING AT ITS MOST GRANDIOSE...
2012 Issue 18 The OverClocker 39
As previously stated, there are dragons, and I should probably spend a bit of time discussing them. Theyre important because, while previous games in the franchise have referenced the existence of dragons in the game worlds fictional history, weve never before actually encountered them firsthand. Now, as the prophecy foretold within the titular Elder Scrolls shambles onward, the reappearance of every childs favourite winged fantasy beasties arrives with it. As the last Dovahkiin, or Dragonborn, your job is to hunt down these dragons, absorb their souls to grant yourself fancy new powers called Shouts and use said Shouts to aid you in killing more and more of them until eventually you can confront the biggest and baddest of the bunch to stop him from consuming this gorgeous fantasy world. Thats essentially the main
storyline (without giving too much away), but, just as it always is with games bearing the coveted Elder Scrolls title, the real beauty lies with everything in between. Theres a wealth of possibilities in the extraordinarily detailed and distraction-filled land of Skyrim, and Id hazard stating that some of the secondary quest lines available can rival the level of engagement youll get from the main quest, possibly even surpassing it. Its not just the superb multitude of side quests you find littered around the world and scribed in your in-game journal thatll keep you busy either, but also the tertiary activities and superfluous fluff that you can immerse yourself in that make this a title thats easy to get lost in, setting yourself personal goals each step of the way. Fancy yourself a bit of a blacksmith or an alchemist? Collect raw materials from around the world,
AS THE LAST DOVAHKIIN , OR DRAGONBORN, YOUR JOB IS TO HUNT DOWN THESE DRAGONS, ABSORB THEIR SOULS TO GRANT YOURSELF FANCY NEW POWERS CALLED SHOUTS...
craft yourself some spiffy armour to keep your hide safe from foes looking to add a few new holes to your face, or brew some tastily potent potions thatll give you an edge in the challenges you encounter. Or, if youd rather follow a more peaceful path for a time, simply sell the items you fashion to earn some cash to buy yourself a home and decorate it. Up for a bit of exploring? Theres a massive, magnificently populated world in which to muck about, discovering new towns in which to search for potential quests to undertake, or simply basking in some of the absolutely awe-inspiring scenery that so convincingly makes this fantasy world one of the best there is. If youre up for a bit of dungeoneering, you could roam the map clearing out trap-filled dungeons and bashing skeleton skulls while searching for loot.
Theres so much to do that you shouldnt be surprised if you find yourself ignoring the main story entirely, instead sketching your own rough work of role-playing art on the blank canvas that is Skyrim. Its difficult to find things to complain about with this game when youre blinded by all the wanton tomfoolery on offer, but the game still has its flaws. For one thing, its incredibly buggy. Theyre furiously patching it at every turn, but nevertheless, you should definitely expect to see some oddities should you take the plunge into these depths. Granted, in a game of this magnitude, bugs are always going to be commonplace, and while I havent encountered anything that completely broke the game, they should still be mentioned. Theres also the NPC (Non-Player Character) AI, which likely has been greeted by many a
ITS DIFFICULT TO FIND THINGS TO COMPLAIN ABOUT WITH THIS GAME WHEN YOURE BLINDED BY ALL THE WANTON TOMFOOLERY ON OFFER, BUT THE GAME STILL HAS ITS FLAWS.
facepalm from AI programmers around the world. When youre joined by NPC companions, theyll happily get stuck behind rocks, recklessly dive in front of your sword swings, blindly stumble into traps that you carefully navigated past, and generally be totally brainless nutjobs, albeit totally brainless nutjobs with impressive armour and weaponry should you outfit them accordingly. Enemies are similarly daft, making it much too easy to exploit poor pathfinding and such to ensure easy kills when facing enemies whod ordinarily be able to craft a nice rug out of your remains after killing you with a single attack. Its become customary to see shoddy AI in Elder Scrolls titles, however, so its oddly, erm, comforting to see it here. Bugs and dodgy AI are not what youll remember once youve sunk dozens of hours into Skyrim, however. Youll remember defiantly swinging your piddly sword at enemies you had no hope of defeating before spectacularly meeting your end. Youll recall unleashing torrential arrows at a dragon lining up for its final, desperate strafing run of fiery doom before shouting it to death atop a snow-capped mountain. Youll be left with fond memories of that time you accidentally
unleashed a fireball in the middle of a crowded marketplace and got a bit of totally undeserved jail time for your obviously accidental troubles. Youll remember your companion Lydia and the good times you had together prior to her inevitable demise, probably because she got in the way of a power attack youd just performed. Its only the great, the goofy, the gloriously beautiful moments youll remember here, and Skyrim has those and more by the mammoth-load. Its easily one of the best RPGs ever created, one thatll keep you busy for ages and will stay with you long after you finally stop playing and move on to the next big thing. [Dane Remendes]
Would you buy it?

Definitely. Especially because I already bought the Collectors Edition, which raised my Awesome Score by at least 50 points, Im just sayin.
The Score
9/10
COOLER MASTER COSMOS II

ERP: $349 | Website: www.coolermaster.com
2 1
f you thought the previous Cooler Master cases were big (i.e. the HAF-X for example), youd have to see the COSMOS II in person to fully appreciate how gigantic this case is. Cooler Master has even added a new section in its case description listing it as an Ultra Tower. I didnt even know there was such a thing. Needless to say though, this is an oddly appropriate name because this is one a hell of a case. The most prominent characteristic of this chassis other than the overwhelming size is its build quality. There arent any sharp edges to maim you and the odds of coming across a metal splint are next to none. Some serious care has been taken into forging this aluminium and steel-allow behemoth. If youre thinking of this possibly being your LAN party
case which you can use to further pwn your victims, Im afraid thats unlikely because short of being the size of Phil Heath, youre not going to want to move this around. Its 48.5lbs/22kg and when its empty and by the time youre done fitting in all your appropriate hardware it easily reaches 70lbs. It is however an ultra-tower and I didnt expect it to be light. At such a steep price, size and build quality are appreciated but to be truly worth it the COSMOS II needs to deliver something that no other case has. At the least be a good amalgamation of previous high end offerings. In a way the COSMOS II is exactly that, combining the HAF-X and the previous generation COSMOS into one epic tower that does more things correctly than youd
expect. I like this one. It may not be to everyones liking but I can definitely see the appeal in it and it is deserving of praise. This case touts 4-way Graphics support and indeed this is possible. However, wed like to imagine this will appeal to those who use EVGA SR-X like boards or other equally large boards. Put that together with triple fan radiator support and not only will you have one heavy machine, but one that is sure to turn heads. Inside this particular case there may not be an SR-2 sized board but we guarantee you, its a comfortable fit.
Ah the control panel of luxury is what I like to call it. The buttons have blue LEDs
S EDITOR ICE CHO AWARD
which light up when the case is powered. They look slick and they feel good. A mark of quality thats in line with the rest of the case. Theres a slider on top which covers the buttons should you so choose but I prefer to keep it open, if only just to break the front of the case a little which can be a bit bland in all that moulded black. I keep thinking that theres a missed opportunity here to include some kind of knob for controlling the fan speeds even if its just one.
The opposite side panel reveals ample space for cable management. Theres literarily nothing you cant hide back here so theres no reason to ever have a
messy case. Just be sure that your PSU has long enough cables to reach the various components in your case. As for drive bays, there are a lot of them. A lot more than Ive seen in any high end case to date and I see many. Pity you cant cool the drives right at the bottom but with so much airflow in this chassis heat shouldnt really be a problem. I do however wish there was a true plug and play mechanism where drives slot in as they are and need not be mounted on the bracket then fitted in the case. Still, the sheer amount of bays available is impressive and I dare say even a little excessive. $300 is a lot to ask for a case, $350 is bordering on
ludicrous, but you have to see the COSMOS II to truly appreciate it. The design may not appeal to all as the black is too monotonous, but I do like the lines and I must admit it does grow on you. I dont think I could ever get tired of the various reactions I get from people when they see this case. This one gets two thumbs up from me. [ Iron-Synapse ]
The Score
9/10
Issue 18 2012 The OverClocker 45
ASUS VG278H
ERP: $699.99 | Website: http://www.asus.com/Display/LCD_Monitors/VG278H/
he last 3D Monitor we looked at was the predecessor to this very model, the VG236H. While that monitor was amongst the better 3D monitors on the market at the time, that doesnt really say much. After all, 3D Vision certified monitors at the time were generally bad when compared to regular TN monitors that sold for a significantly lower price typically. So while I remained a 3D Vision fan, I still believed one needed two monitors for everyday use so the VG236H would only be used for 3D gaming and nothing else. As a result I expected much of the same with this model, however to my surprise; it was nothing like the 23. Besides being larger, its actually slimmer, and for its size its relatively light which was a pleasant surprise as I had always found the VG236H (My personal gaming monitor at the time) cumbersome. As usual the first thing I did with the monitor is connect all my consoles to it, and this is when I discovered that the display only had Dual-Link DVI, HDMI 1.4a and the standard D-Sub connector. Gone was the component connection on the previous unit. However this really wasnt an issue because one could still connect all relevant devices. As a result of the upgraded HDMI specification, the VG278 monitor supports Blu-Ray 3D movies and 3D games on the PlayStation 3, a feature sorely missing on several competing monitors. Best of all was the actual display quality. In comparison, its significantly better than any other 3D Vision monitor Ive used before. In fact it was expressively better than the SAMSUNG P2770H that I had used for a long time and the colour reproduction was almost identical to that of the SAMSUNG XL2370. In motion as well, it performed very well and just to make the experience a little sweeter, it features two 3W
stereo speakers. These are not ideal for serious gaming, but are more than adequate for the quick game or video clip that you want to share with someone without committing to your dedicated audio setup. What is rather odd though is the absence of a remote control which together with the component video option would have given this monitor a perfect score. But other than those two missed opportunities, this monitor is really worth the price tag. Unlike the VG236H this doesnt seem excessively expensive as you arguably get one of the best gaming TN screens around. Add to which, the 3D Vision support makes it even more appealing. When you throw in the 3D over HDMI capability it becomes pretty hard to beat. Image quality as well is massively improved courtesy of a better substrate, a quicker response time, and white LED backlighting which gives the colours better richness. A noteworthy features as this
was very hard to achieve with the previous unit without producing a very harsh image. The 23 model boasts a better brightness on paper but in practice, the VG278H is much brighter. Add NVIDIAs 3D Lightboost technology to the mix and you can finally see whats happening in the stereoscopic games. Gone are the days of excessive darkness, and eye strain. If youre thinking about 3D gaming, this is where you should start and if you owned the previous model like me get rid of it and buy this one. Its definitely worth the price. [ Neo Sibeko ]
The Score
9/10
CORSAIR VENGEANCE K90 & M90

ERP: 129.99 (Keyboard) $79.99 (Mouse) | Website: www.corsair.com
Recommended Award
210 for a matching mouse and gaming combo isnt cheap. Regardless of what vendors promise, at the end of the day theres a cheaper gaming combo thats about $100 less that wont make you significantly worse at a game of Battlefield or COD. Keyboards and mice like these two are for the hard-core gaming crowd. In fact this particular set at least where the keyboard is concerned is for the semi pro or professional gamer. That group of people who take their gaming to the next level where every advantage they can get will matter. Much like with graphics cards, CPUs or anything like that we tend to buy the best and most expensive parts not because they are markedly superior to cheaper components. We buy them because wed like to believe that should we decide to peruse 3DMark records or join a professional gaming league, we have the hardware for it already. More than that, a lot of us buy these peripherals because they are just cool to own. Much like nobody needs 4-way graphics, nobody really needs a mouse with 15 buttons. There simply isnt a usage scenario that would necessitate so many buttons on a mouse. Keep in mind that this isnt unique to CORSAIR but others such as LOGITECH (G700) have similar
products which defy logic but for some reason hold an esoteric appeal. With the CORSAIR K90 in particular, despite disliking this keyboards aesthetics, the feel of it has grown on me. I had changed from a trusty LOGITECH G15 so I could see how feasible it was to live with the K90 and I have to say Im impressed. Its of much better build quality, sure enough it looks dangerous and you do not want this falling on your feet but then again this keyboard could probably withstand a hurricane. The feel of it is whats remarkable. I wrote this review on this very keyboard and it feels great to type on. The buttons respond quickly and the mushy button press I had grown accustomed to with the G15 is gone. The K90 is precise, responsive and Im never unsure of which button I pressed. How odd then that a keyboard made for gaming is actually better to type on than most typist keyboards Ive used. In a gaming context which is what this keyboard is about it exceeded my expectations once again. For a gamer like me who is light years away from being anywhere close to competent in most FPS games, I could actually appreciate the difference between this and the G15. Theres a lot more
that a professional gamer can extract from this keyboard than I can, but if it works for a n00b like me, then its sure to work wonders for the seasoned FPS player. The mouse, well Im not entirely moved by it, the left face has far too many buttons. RTS fans may love it, but I suspect Im not the only one who finds them more than unnecessary. Other than that the mouse feels very good, its sturdy without feeling cumbersome. It glides easily enough and the sensitivity is second to none as its a little smoother than both my Sidewinder and Razor Mamba. Despite the initial impressions, I like the K90 keyboard, the M90 less so, but together they do make a compelling argument for the asking price especially in comparison to more expensive alternatives which may offer similar features, but nowhere near the build quality and feel of these two. [ Iron-Synapse ]
The Score
8.5/10

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Issue 18 2012

THE WORLDS BEST OVERCLOCKING ONLINE MAGAZINE. SERIOUSLY.

board to silence them all?

HWBOT COUNTRY CUP

THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM

with with Andrew dRweEz Roberts

6 The OverClocker Issue 18 | 2012

2012 | Issue 18 The OverClocker 7

untry Cup 2011

2012 | Issue 18 The OverClocker 11

GEIL EVO TWO PC3 19200

Frequency 2510 MHz 2510 MHz 2400 MHz 1866 MHz

AIDA 64 Read 22788 22561 22494 21015

AIDA 64 Write 17461 17522 17512 17511

AIDA64 Copy 20246 20194 20101 19188

AIDA 64 Latency 40.6 41.3 41.6 45.7

MaxxMem 1260 1237.3 1244.7 1108.5

Super Pi 8M 1m31.104 1m31.853 1m31.276 1m32.555

Timings 10-12-11-30-1T 11-12-11-30-1T 10-11-10-28-1T 8-9-8-24-1T

Would you buy it?

Motherboard Myth Busting

18 The OverClocker Issue 18 | 2012

2012 | Issue 18 The OverClocker 19

PATRIOT PYRO SE 240GB

Recommend Recommended Award

Average Read 506.6 504.1 498 454.9 218.8

Average Write 311.5 303 260 198.2 243.9

IO Meter IOPS 18482.2 18128.8 16711.7 13521.3 16268.5

4K Read (QD32) 181.5 179.4 152.9 87.57 128.5

4K Write (QD32) 262.1 237.9 138.1 62.86 223.1

PCMark Vantage HDD 52553 50462 60346 40621 48674

22 The OverClocker Issue 18 | 2012

Would you buy it?

Read IO/s 12385.94 12151.66 11192.11 9054.37 10895.21

Write IO/s 6096.26 5976.58 5519.68 4467 5373.33

Avg. IO Response 0.4327 0.4411 0.4785 0.5914 0.4915

Max IO Response 50.5731 44.379 54.3345 467.421 54.2461

ASUS HD7970 3GB

VGA ASUS Radeon HD7970 Overclocked

Clocks 925/1.375GHz 1200/1.6GHz

3DMark03 127540 146989

3DMark06 34163 35551

3DMark Vantage 36606 42346

3DMark 11 (P) 8208 10083

Unigine Heaven Xtreme 1812.419 2258.072

Crysis 2: 1080p DX11 60.09 63.4

Would you buy it?

Would you buy it?

RipJaws Z F319200CL9Q 16GB MEMORY

28 The OverClocker Issue 18 | 2012

Would you buy it?

New ASUS P9X79 Motherboards

Gear you up with Control Insight

Easy caching. One click to boost system performance without rebooting

GET IN TOUCH WITH US!

+27 11 783 5450 twitter.com/asus_za

ASUS recommends Windows 7 Ultimate.

ROG G74 Series

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The X79 Board to Silence Them All?

32 The OverClocker Issue 18 | 2012