July 2017 - Overclockers

AMD Ryzen 3 1200 and 1300X CPU Review

July 27, 2017 Austin Matthews 12

Bringing in the tail-end of the newest AMD CPUs we have the Ryzen 3 lineup. This is AMD’s offering for the budget-minded PC user. Today we’ll be looking at the two quad-core offerings, the 1200 and 1300X. The 1300X has the XFR technology we’ve seen from the Ryzen 7 1800X, 1700X, and Ryzen 5 1500X/1600X allowing for boost speeds over their typical max. The 1200 is locked to its listed speeds, unless you’re overclocking. One major difference from the Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 CPUs is the exclusion of Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) from the Ryzen 3 processors. While this does mean a performance hit for multithreaded applications, it also cuts the cost of the product making it accessible to more users. Let’s take a closer look at the lineup now.

GIGABYTE Z270X-Gaming SOC Motherboard Review

July 18, 2017 Austin Matthews 7

Today’s newest victim for the torture table is GIGABYTE’s new Z270X-Gaming SOC, their flagship overclocking motherboard. This board has one job, and only one job, to be as fast as physically possible while pushing your CPU as far as possible. There’s notably fewer features than the Z170X-SOC Force, though, because GIGABYTE has gone back to the roots of the extreme overclocker with this board. If anything can handle the punishment, it’ll be this board.

MSI X370 XPOWER GAMING TITANIUM Motherboard Review

July 17, 2017 Shawn Jennings 1

The MSI X370 XPOWER GAMING TITANIUM is quite a mouthful but it’s also an amazing looking motherboard. The Titanium line from MSI has, in recent years, been their “top of the line” offering. It comes loaded with extras and has a unique styling which sets this board apart from it’s siblings. Currently it’s sitting in the upper price range of the AM4 X370 motherboards at $259.99 from newegg.com.

AMD THREADRIPPER AND RYZEN3

July 13, 2017 Shawn Jennings 5

The last few months have seen a flurry of CPU releases as the RED and BLUE teams go toe to toe, vying for their piece of the mainstream PC market”pie”. Today AMD has announced the pricing and availability for additional CPUs including the long awaited THREADRIPPER aimed directly at the HEDT ( High End Desk Top) segment. This niche of the enthusiast market has been dominated by Intel for years but I have a feeling that’s all about to change.

Noctua Accessories Review

July 13, 2017 Ed Hume 0

Noctua released a lot of items in May, including the NA-SAV3 and NA-SAV4 vibration isolators, the NA-SAC5, where SATA powers a fan, and the NA-FC1 a PWM fan controller. We will look at each of these accessories (and the kit)