Displaying items by tag: Overclocking

In the world of boutique computer builders Maingear is a name that really does stand out.  Their Shift line of custom-built, high-performance systems are some of the best you can get on the market. The reason for this is that they are not content with using the stock hardware that you get in many other “custom” builds. Yes, there are going to be parts that are the same as Maingear does not make its own CPUs, Motherboards or Video cards… yet.  However many of the other components that are taken for granted have been customized not only to provide a better look, but also to improve the overall performance of the system.

So the X79 is out along with the fastest CPU family on the planet (consumer CPU that is). This means that all of the P67, H67, H61 and Z68 boards are history right? Well you would be wrong. There are still a large number of motherboards out there from the P67 lineup that will not only turn your head, but also perform well enough to satisfy 99% of the enthusiast and gaming community. We have one of these in the house from Asus and are getting ready to see what it can do with our Core i5 2600k (you know the one that can hit 5.1GHz).  So let’s dive into the $300 Asus Maximum IV Extreme and see if it can drag your eyes away from the sexy new thing on the market.

Kingston HyperX Achieves Highest Memory Frequency in

Live Overclocking Session

   HyperX Memory Achieves Top Speeds of 3600MHz (CL10),

3479MHz (CL9), 3275MHz (CL8)

Detailed information about the session is available online:

• Record validation 3600MHz (CL10)
  
•  Record validation 3479MHz (CL9) 
• Record validation 3275MHz (CL8) 
• Photos of the session

 Fountain Valley, CA -- December 12, 2011 -- Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced that the Romanian overclocking team, Lab501, achieved three new world records with the world’s fastest dual channel memory kit, Kingston^® HyperX^® 2544MHz (Kingston part #: KHX2544C9D3T1FK2/2GX), during a live overclocking session.

Kingston is in the news again for breaking world records. This time it was a team of three mad Romanian overclockers that pushed things over the limit. The kits used were all dual-channel (sorry no quad channel OC records… yet) and have a stated top clock of 2544MHz (the kits in question are the KHX2544C9D3T1FK2/2GX) with a CL of 9.

We have now had the G1.Assassin2 up on the test bench for a little over a week now and are ready to talk about our experience with it. The G1.Assassin2 is Gigabyte’s current top of the line x79 motherboard and follows in the same trend as the other boards in the G1 line up. This means that you get the military theme, the built in audio card, and of course the KillerNIC E2100 NPU. However, there are also things that had us concerned about how the G1.Assassin2 might handle certain types of work. So let’s get started and see if all of the new features (like the 3D BIOS and 3D Power) work and if the concerns that we talked about in the design and feature review are valid or not.

Intel is enjoying some of the most successful quarters of their life. They have launched what is arguably the fastest desktop CPU that you can buy and have coupled it with a chipset that is clearly set to perform. We have already shown you what the CPU is capable of on a reference design motherboard and are now ready to dive into what the, more creative, companies have in stock for the X79 and Core i7 3960 combo. Today we are going to dive into the features of the Gigabyte G1.Assassin2. This X79 based board is the follow up to the very popular G1.Assassin (hence the “2” at the end) It features quite a few intriguing new features as well as what you would expect from a G1.Killer motherboard. These include an onboard KillerNIC and also a full CreativeLabs Audio card built right onto the board. Other features include a new “3D” bios improved power management and Bluetooth 4.0. Will these combine to bring about the same level of gaming platform we saw in the G1.Assassin? Or will the youngest member of the G1 family be a disappointment and not get invited to holiday dinner? Let’s find out…

With all of the excitement surround a CPU launch from both AMD and then Intel some of the smaller products have been overlooked. These are parts like the A75 chipset and the Llano CPU. We have had one of these up on the test bench for a while now. Mostly to run the performance tests and see where this hardware falls in terms of real performance, but also to try it out and see just what it is like to use.  After all this is a platform that AMD was putting a good deal of stock in for future sales and market share. We wanted to see what it would be like to actually use one. We have already taken a look at the design philosophy and features So without any further preamble we bring you the second half of our Gigabyte A75-UD4H motherboard review.

When the X79 motherboards hit the scene many people were not interested because they were looking forward to Ivy Bridge. As I wandered around the internet I saw multiple comments telling people not to bother with the new Sandy Bridge E CPUs because of this very thing. How much impact these comments had I really do not know, but what I do know is that a general consensus on the internet can be disastrous for sales. If you do not believe this just take a look back at Windows Vista.

Intel has been enjoying a rather successful few years. After the launch of their first generation Core processors Intel managed to slide neatly by AMD who had been running rings around the Pentium 4 CPU. Things did not stop there though, Intel continued to build on their success working to improve their caching model and the when they were finally ready they dropped the Second Generation of the Core Processor on the Market; this time with an Internal Memory Controller to go with their improved caching. This extended the gap between Intel and AMD a few more feet and lead on to other new products including Lynnfield and then Sandy Bridge with its own GPU built right into the processor die. With the success of these new processors Intel could have just sat back and waited until AMD caught up. Instead they are continuing to move forward and are now brining a new Flagship CPU to the Core i7 lineup. The official name will be the Core i7 3960X and also comes with a new chipset, memory standard, and socket.  So let’s take a look at this new chuck of silicone and see if it deserves its place at the top of the heap.

Just as AMD and Intel like to talk about how high their CPUs can run so memory manufacturers want to show off how fast their stuff can go too. Recently two Swiss overclockers from Ocaholic.ch managed to pull off a couple of world records. The memory kit that managed to pull of this feat was Kingston’s HyperX 2544MHz (part number KHX2544C9D3T1FK2/2GX). This is a pretty fast dual channel kit all on its own but once the voltage and the liquid nitrogen started flowing things heated up quickly.

The first world record was a blistering 3095 MHz at the low latency of CL6 set by Roger Tanner aka "splmann" and Marc Voser aka "Besi,". Tthis for those of you that are not familiar with what the CL number stands for let me explain a little. CL stands for Column Address Strobe Latency (sometimes referred to as CAS) it is represented by a number usually between 1 and 20. The number represents the amount of time between when the memory controller asks the memory to access a particular memory column and the time it is available for output; the lower the number the better.

When memory was slower it was easy to get a lower latency and make sure that the data was consistent. Now that we are hitting much higher frequencies and the memory controllers are on the CPU (and running at the same speed there too) it is becoming harder to keep these numbers low. This is what makes running memory at 3095MHz with a CL of only 6 so impressive. Right behind this feat was another record setting run, this time the CL was only 8 but the frequency went up a bit to 3175MHz.

Now while all of this was done with regular memory modules the amount of voltage used required some extra cooling. After all you can bet that they were not running the stock 1.5 volts through these modules to get the speeds they were reaching. So to keep things cool the HyperX modules were put into an aluminum and copper basin which was then filled with Liquid Nitrogen, just to keep things fun.

You can check out the pictures of the event over here
Validation for the 3095 CL6 run
Validation for the 3175 CL8 run

Source OCaholic.ch and Kingston

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