From The Blog

Displaying items by tag: Overclocking

board01Asus has been a leading developer of motherboards for more years that most people can remember. We have had many different Asus products work their way through our lab and with very few exceptions have found them all to be very high quality. About three years ago Asus decided to make something of a philosophy shift. Instead of marketing on a spec for spec basis they would attempt to work additional features into their products. Of course they did not try to just stuff everything into their systems, but made the effort to offer features that made sense to each market segment. On top of this they designed a core feature set that is very robust and allows Asus to present their entire line as an enthusiast driven offering. With the launch of Intel’s Z77 chipset and the coming of their 3rd Generation Core i7 we now have the chance to look over a section of their Z77 product line from the ROG series to entry level. So let’s kick things off right at the top and dive into the features and design of the Asus Republic of Gamers Maximus V Gene (well those features that we can talk about).

IntroEVGA has built a name for itself inside the community of overclockers, gamers and other enthusiasts. Although they do not have the same volume as Gigabyte or Asus, they still put out some of the top boards when it comes to overclocking and performance. In fact as of this writing an EVGA Classified SR-2 Motherboard holds the number one slot in Futuremark’ s 3DMark 11 Hall of Fame. Unfortunately we do not have a Classified SR-2 in the shop for testing, but we do have an EVGA X79 FTW (151-SE-E777). This board features a matte black PCB, five PCI3 x16 slots and a lot more. So let’s take a look over the X79 FTW and check out both the design choices and features you can expect when you buy this board.

board06Earlier this year when we visited Gigabyte during CES they reiterated something that they said about three years ago. They are committed to providing a much better performing product and are gearing themselves more and more toward the enthusiast and gamer’s market. We have watched them make this shift since we first started working with them back in early 2005. Now 6+ years later we can say they have made this transition well. Their lineup has become much more diversified with a good separation of products. We have already shown you some of the top end boards like the G1.Assassin2 and the X79-UD5 and have goe though the design and features of the X79-UD3 so now we can tell you how this board really performs. Let’s take a look.

board03With the apparent delay of Intel Ivy Bridge and of course the Z77 chipset that goes with it) we there is going to be a continued demand for the X79 chipset and the pretty much every flavor of the LGA2011 CPU. To be honest I think that even after Ivy Bridge there will be a demand as the replacement for the LGA 2011 CPUs will not hit the market until around Q4 2012 or even later. So with that in mind we are taking a look at what at first glance appears to be a low cost X79 motherboard from Gigabyte. However, once you take a look at it you just might begin to see the serious overclocking and GPU benchmarking potential that it has. Let’s take a look at the Quad-SLI/Crossfire capable X79-UD3 from Gigabyte.

Monday, 13 February 2012 21:19

We finish up our time with the MSI X79A-GD65(8D)

board01After taking a look over the MSI X79A-GD65(8D) motherboard and some of MSI’s design choices (and the benefits they bring) we have dove into our performance testing. You may remember that we had concerns about the way the PCIe slots were segmented into Gen3 and Gen2. To check and see what effect (if any) this might have on performance we ran some of our tests with the GPU in the Gen2 slot and some in the Gen3 slot. We were more than a little surprised at what we found out. So let’s get into the performance half of our review of the MSI X79A-GD65(8D) and see what we found.

Wednesday, 08 February 2012 11:38

Gigabyte X79-UD5 Performance Review Part II

board03Not that long ago we talked to you about the features and design choices that Gigabyte made on the X79-UD5. This board is at the upper end of Gigabyte’s X79 lineup although it is not what you would consider an enthusiast board. Despite this Gigabyte has given it many of their enthusiast level features like their dual 3D BIOS, 3D power and some of the overclocking potential that we would expect from Gigabyte. Now it is time for us to dive into the usability and performance. So let’s see exactly  how the X79-UD5 performs.

board01The fourth X79 board we have in the lab is from MSI in the form of the X79A-GD65(8D). This board features the third generation of their Military Class of hardware as well as what MSI calls true Gen 3 PCIe The X79A-GD65(8D) has a price tag under $300 which makes these represents the lowest priced board we have tested so far. Now the question is; does the X79A-GD65(8D) have the same level of quality and performance as its more expensive peers, or will we find out that the old maxim “you get what you pay for” is true. We will take a look at both the performance and the design choices behind the X79A-GD65 and let you know. We will kick things off with the design and features.

Published in Consumer Motherboards
Wednesday, 01 February 2012 18:43

MAINGEAR Epic180 Performance Review Part II

Cooler01Not all that long ago we talked to you about the MAINGEAR Epic180 water-cooling system. This self-contained unit was built by CoolIT to MAINGEAR’s specifications and intended for use inside their Shift systems (sorry you cannot get one of these unless you buy a MAINGEAR computer). The design of the product take a lot of factors into account and while some of the choices seem very simple, if you look at other products out on the market they might not be so obvious to everyone.

Published in Enthusiast Peripherals
Thursday, 26 January 2012 22:58

Gigabyte's X79-UD5 drops in for a video shoot

board03Intel is in full swing with the X79 and their Sandy Bridge-E CPUs. We have watched as they have broken and re-broken records for performance and in some cases overclocking. Behind all of this we have the X79 chipset with its quad-channel DDR3 configuration and some impressive power specifications. Intel has also brought back BCLK overclocking which has made things very interesting. We have a few X79 boards in the lab and are working on finding out just what they can do and how they actually work in the real world. One of these is also our second Gigabyte motherboard; the X79-UD5. This will also be our first video preview where we show you and talk about the design and features. So let’s dive in and see what the GA-X79-UD5 has to offer…

Monday, 16 January 2012 22:26

Gigabyte at CES 2012... the Z77 makes its Debut

_MG_7313CES 2012; Las Vegas, Nevada – We had the chance to visit the Gigabyte booth and take a look at what they have to offer. Gigabyte has not always been a serious contender in the motherboard (or GPU) market, but starting about 5 years ago they took a long hard look at what they were doing and made some impressive changes. So with that in mind let’s take a look at what Gigabyte has to offer the market in 2012.

Published in Shows and Events
Page 6 of 9