June 2014 - Overclockers

Intel’s Next Top Live Streamer (INTL) Twitch.tv Contest

June 26, 2014 Dino DeCesari 0

This summer Intel is collaborating with GoodGame Agency (of Team Evil Genius fame) to bring the gaming community a reality web series, ‘Intel’s Next Top Live-Streamer’ (INTL), where many of the most entertaining streamers on Twitch.tv will compete in hilarious and exciting weekly challenges to become an official member of the Intel Stream Team. The grand champion will also get the ultimate makeover of his/her streaming studio, decked out with the latest 4th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 gaming/streaming system.

MSI Z97 XPower AC Motherboard Review

June 24, 2014 Joe Shields 22

With the release of Intel’s Z97 chipset, we have seen motherboards of nearly all flavors get reviewed here. From budget conscious boards all the way up to the ‘I am made for extreme overclocking as a primary function’ type boards. Today, we get to look at MSI’s flagship motherboard, the Z97 XPower AC. This board is a step above the previously reviewed MPower MAX AC in both physical size (it’s E-ATX) and by way of additional features and accessories. Being their flagship motherboard, overclocking should not be a problem even under extreme conditions such as LN2. According to MSI, this board broke some world records while using LN2 cooling… Exciting! Let’s get down to business…

ASUS STRIX GTX 780 6GB OC Edition Graphics Card Review

June 20, 2014 Dino DeCesari 21

Even though NVIDIA and AMD haven’t released new GPU platforms as of late, that’s not stopping ASUS from finding innovative ways to enhance the user experience on existing GPUs. To that end, ASUS recently announced a new line of cards that carry the STRIX branding. Initially, there will be AMD R9 280 and NVIDIA GTX 780 versions released. Today, we’ll be looking the the NVIDIA offering in the form of a GTX 780 OC Edition. The ASUS STRIX GTX 780 OC Edition comes complete with a factory overclock, an astounding 6 GB of memory, and a revised DirectCU II cooling methodology. Ok, I’m intrigued. Let’s run this card through the paces and see what ASUS has in store for us this time around!

ASRock Z97 Extreme6 Motherboard Review

June 18, 2014 Austin Matthews 23

Today brings another offering boasting Intel’s new Z97 chipset. This new series of motherboards brings compatibility with future Broadwell CPUs, M.2 SSDs, and SATA Express, along with other smaller changes. ASRock has released multiple boards on the Z97 chipset from their OC, Extreme, and Fatal1ty lines. This motherboard, as you can guess, is part of the Extreme series. Even though it isn’t part of the OC series this board has plenty of overclocking features, but it targets the more “average” user.

Nanoxia Deep Silence 4 Case Review

June 16, 2014 Ed Hume 0

Fresh from looking at Nanoxia’s largest case, we will now look at their smallest. The Deep Silence 4 is a four-slot case compact case that is designed to fit a mATX motherboard. Nanoxia clearly took pains to retain their sound deadening design and other valuable features; they worked to keep noise in while sweated to keep the cost out. Did they succeed? Let’s see.

Intel i7 4790K Devil’s Canyon CPU Review

June 12, 2014 Dino DeCesari 261

The much anticipated release of Intel’s Devil’s Canyon CPUs were officially announced at Computex 2014, which we already mentioned in our launch day article. Review samples were a bit delayed, but we now have the i7 4790K on hand and can give you the performance numbers many of you have been waiting for. Make no mistake about it, the Devil’s Canyon processors are aimed at the overclocking and enthusiast crowd. With its higher base and turbo clocks, improved thermal design, and a more robust power delivery scheme, it certainly sounds good on paper. Let’s get started and find out what Intel has in store!

Zeusminer “Blizzard” ASIC Scrypt Miner

June 11, 2014 Joe Shields 14

It… has arrived. The volatile world of Cryptocurrency has made its way to the Overclockers.com front page with today’s article on a ASIC Scrypt miner. For months now, some have been waiting excitedly and some have been dreading their market saturation, but it looks like the dam is finally starting to break and Scrypt Miners of all shapes, sizes, and speeds will soon be hitting the streets. Today Zeusminer was kind enough to let us borrow one of their Blizzard miners to kick the tires and take it for a spin.

EVGA TORQ X10 Gaming Mouse Review

June 9, 2014 Dino DeCesari 1

EVGA recently announced a new gaming mouse to be added to their ever growing product line – the TORQ X10. We got our first look at the TORQ X10 back in January at CES 2014, but now EVGA is ready to make it available to the masses. The TORQ X10 mouse comes in two versions, one with a real carbon fiber surface and another without. Both versions are identical in functionality and design, but the real carbon fiber model will be a bit more expensive. The TORQ X10 comes loaded with features and customization options that should appeal to a wide swath of gamers and enthusiasts alike. So, let’s find out how EVGA did with their first foray into the gaming mouse market!

Kingston HyperX Beast DDR3-2400 4X4GB Memory Kit Review

June 6, 2014 Dino DeCesari 4

Kingston needs no introduction to most of you as they are well known among computer enthusiasts for providing high-performance memory and storage products. Kingston recently informed us that their HyperX family of performance memory stands ready for use in Z97 chipset based motherboards. They kindly offered up a 16 GB kit (4X4 GB) of their HyperX Beast DDR3-2400 MHz to try out on the new chipset, so that’s exactly what we’ll do. Specifically, the kit in hand is part# KHX24C11T3K4/16X and boasts redesigned heatspreaders and a rather impressive set of specifications. Let’s get started!

BIOSTAR Hi-Fi Z97WE Motherboard Review

June 4, 2014 Joe Shields 1

Today we will be looking at BIOSTAR’s first Z97 chipset based offering, their Hi-Fi Z97WE board. If you remember, last year we reviewed the Hi-Fi Z87X 3D. This board appears to fall into the same budget board category boasting a lot of audio features. Let’s take a look at see how this board shakes out!