TheOverclocker Issue 31

Issue 31 2014 rev 2.1

THE WORLD’S BEST OVERCLOCKING ONLINE MAGAZINE. REMASTERED. Feature

YOUR GAMING ARSENAL REDEFINED IN OUR 5 MOUSE ROUNDUP Reviewed

THE LAST OF US

REMASTERED

Reviewed

WE REVIEW FIVE OF THE BEST Z97 MOTHERBOARDS

THE DEFINITIVE WAY TO PLAY NAUGHTY DOG’S POSTAPOCALYPTIC OPUS

Interview Feature

8

THE POWER OF

INTEL’S 8 CORE BEAST - 5960X!

Q+A WITH DANCOP, ALL THE WAY FROM GERMANY!

THE SAME BUT BETTER

S

o here’s another issue of TheOverclocker. This time there is an unusual high amount of review content. This was caused mainly by INTEL’s release schedule and the bi-monthly nature of the magazine coming together at a very specific time to result in this issues content.

As you can imagine, with each new CPU -mainly the 4790K- there’s a platform or chipset rather to go with it. As if that wasn’t enough, just two weeks and a bit ago we had the new X99 platform show up. So that is obviously the big hurrah for 2014. Hence in this issue we are looking at no fewer than five motherboards and squeezing in the 5960X. Granted that all of these boards are Z97 offerings, it’s still a lot to evaluate in the time period we had between the last issue and this one. The immediate question that some may have is why didn’t we turn that into a feature where we do a direct head to head comparison between all boards. Initially that was the idea, but it turns out that despite all these vendors competing for your hard earned cash, they fundamentally have different price points and evidently priorities with each product. How each vendor structures its SKUs has made it nearly impossible to compare them head to head. For instance, it remains true after all these years that no one company marries overclocking and so called gaming features together like ASUS. In the unifying of these two demographics, it makes it hard to objectively compare their products with the competition. Still there’s nothing preventing you from reading the individual editorials as if they were a single piece. I have to admit as well that, during the writing process, it felt as if it was a single continuous article.

More relevant or rather more immediate, is the cover that we have for this issue. It’s the first time we have had a game on the cover and no you’ve not made a mistake and opened another publication. This was intentional and spurred on by several factors, one of which is that games have far better art than hardware.

It really is that simple. As a publication that prides itself in not only delivering accessible but honest content, we genuinely love making great covers. We get it right almost all the time but there have been times where we could have done better had we not been limited to just hardware. Thus, we have The Last of Us, adorning our front cover. (I should add that Dane, our game reviewer; is an exceedingly gifted writer).

Why a console game? Well, why not? Face it there are titles that make it worth owning a console even if you game primarily on the PC. If you don’t game on the PC and only use this platform for overclocking, then the incentive for purchasing a console should be even greater, because despite how easy it is these days to just power on a PC and play. It’s still a far simpler process on any one of the modern day systems. This is part of the reason why I’ve owned an XBOX and a Playstation along with a PC for as long as I’ve been a part of this magazine. The other reason is that, games such as “The Last of Us” are incredible pieces of art that unfortunately can only be experienced on these dedicated gaming platforms. Given that we, power users, enthusiasts and competitive overclockers have an incredibly high hardware turn over, there’s no financial reason not to own any one of these systems. Consider that each is around $400, it’s not much given that we regularly buy CPUs, memory, graphics cards that cost significantly more. At the very least we buy similarly priced components repeatedly in an attempt to find that golden sample or set.

Even more important, is that during the production of this magazine I happened to watch TheWitcher: Wild Hunt 35min video footage. If you’re into that kind of thing, do yourself a favor and download the 5GB~ or so video. To see it running in its full glory on what I can only assume is a high end PC was staggering and was probably the largest contributor in allowing video game art on the cover. That doesn’t mean the magazine is changing in any way, it is still primarily focused on matters of the overclocking ecosystem, enthusiasts, related technologies and gaming (in that order I might add).

We have just given ourselves creative license to create what can be an even more visually inspiring magazine. With that said, enjoy this issue of TheOverclocker. If you have any thoughts you’d like to share with us do feel free to write in.

Until next time, do take care and keep pushing.

[ Neo Sibeko - Editor ] Issue 31 | 2014 The OverClocker 3

REGULARS 3 - Editor’s note 6 - Interview with Daniel“Dancop” Schier 41 - OCTV Show Episode 5

FEATURES 12 – The Power of 8 Cores - 5960X 42 – Gaming Arsenal - Mouse Round up

REVIEWS 18 – ASUS Maximus VII Formula 22 – MSI Z97 XPOWER AC 26 – ASRock Z97 OC Formula 30 – EVGA Z97 Classified 34 – GIGABYTE Z97X G1 Gaming Wifi BK 42 – ASUS ROG Striker 46 - SAPPHIRE Radeon 290X Vapor-X

LIFESTYLE 50 - The Last Of Us Re-Mastered 52 – MSI GT72 Dominator

26

4 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

The Overclocker is published by OCL-Media (cc).

Editor Neo Sibeko Art Director Chris Savides Marketing & Sales Jayda Wu Contributors Dane Remendes Pieter-Jan “Massman” Plaisier Timothée Pineau For editorial and marketing please contact: jayda@theoverclocker.com or neo@theoverclocker.com

QA

with Daniel “Dancop” Schier Country Name and City: I live in Germany, in the city of Sinsheim. I’m married with three children and two dogs What language(s) do you speak?

German, English, a lil bit Spanish and French…but not enough to negotiate. :} Where does your nickname “Dancop” come from?

That’s a funny story! It was the first need for speed title with cops in it! My nickname in that game was Dancop – symbioses between Daniel and cop… easy, isn’t it? (Sure is –Ed) When did you begin overclocking with LN2 and what is it about LN2 that has you hooked?

My first Dry Ice experience was on the 7th of June 2013 and my first LN2 experience was at the freeocen session last year on the 24th of June.

Initially it was Roman (der8auer) and Andy (Benchbros) who “forced” me to do it. Evil! - people would say…Roman just wanted to sell more pots – but seriously, I think these two guys followed my progress in the enthusiast league for years.

In the end, I was pretty good there! Then Andy started persuading me – without much success. Roman visited me, for a regular meeting then, what a surprise! He brought a pot and dice! I just asked, why?

He said, try it and here I am!

But, before then, I was a great fan of Vince! He was the initial reason, I started overclocking! Due to him I entered the enthusiast league and at least HWBOT. Right now, I have the honor, to write with him on Facebook, and he answers :D Between 2D and 3D benchmarks, 6 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

which are your favourite? Which do you feel is harder and which is more reliant on hardware binning, if there’s a difference at all?

When you look at my first subzero results, they were all done with GPUs (Epic! -Ed). My first LN2 session, I did alone, was with an e-powered Titan! I love 3D, although I have to learn a lot! 2D was a lot harder for me to compete with other, more experienced, overclockers at! I think, both 2D and 3D have their own pros and cons. Binning cpus is for sure for 2D. In the past 3 month, especially as preparation for MOA, I’ve done a lot pf 32m and I’ve learned a lot.

During this time, I was pretty good, but my CPU died sadly!

your thoughts on it and perhaps suggestions for future competitions?

It was a really nice competition, especially at the point, we re-mounted everything. Our pot only sat on half of the CPU – which I'm pretty sure was responsible for us not having won any stage! I like such competitions, because everyone is limited by time and LUCK! You need at least a strong CPU, which we obviously had. Icke&Er had never benched haswell before, but he had a lot of experience with older hardware.

This combined with my experience on haswell was the key to our success!

Regarding future competitions I can only say, I’d love to see more! I wouldn't change any competition. Each of those have their own character!

You’ve just come off a strong finish at For the Gigabyte EOC, I’d like to see the GIGABYTE EOC 2014 competition it at least European wide – why not with Icke&Er. How was that competition worldwide? for you in general and what are

Online or live competitions, which do you prefer and why?

As I said earlier, I love all types of competition, except where I can’t compete obviously. Seriously though, each competition is so much work in regards to organisation, prizes, validation of results and so on. I really don’t have a preference. Sure, online you have enough time and you can always improve your scores while live competition involves a lot of luck. It all depends on the provided hardware, but hey that makes it interesting, doesn’t it?

Currently you’re sitting at #14 in the Elite league, are you making it a point to go higher or is that just not important to you?

Indeed it was very important and for my ego, it is still very important.

Climbing up this ranking, gave me some attention from vendors. At present I have, let’s say good support.

There are some things which could be improved upon such as CPU and DRAM support, but I like my situation right now. I did a lot in the past, to warrant this kind of support.

My real profession is industrial engineering. I studied a lot of strategic marketing and that is what I would like to give back to the vendors. When they send me something, my first goal is – breaking a record with that hardware in order to support their sales! (That is honest and direct; a rarity in this community, at least publicly – Ed!) What is your favourite graphics card or platform to overclock?

Oh that’s easy – everything that’s fun!

I mean, when you’re an overclocker, you want to get the most out of the hardware! The best scenario is to get more out of it than others! I have no preference be it Intel, NVidia or AMD. I prefer the fastest for the given benchmark!

Issue 31 | 2014 The OverClocker 7

Other than overclocking what do you do for a living or any other hobby that you spend as much time on as overclocking if not more?

One thing is clear – there isn’t a dime I have that I don’t invest in overclocking, except for my family.

I am happily married and I have two stepchildren as well as one own child! Overclocking sometimes is like a backlog of time. I think every overclocker knows, what I mean. At least each Madame at an overclocker’s side knows that!

Regarding vendor support, do you feel vendors do enough or would you like to see a more structured and transparent support system? By that I mean how would you feel about a situation where everyone knows who is being supported by which vendor?

First of all – vendors do enough! I mean, they don’t have to do anything.

But to be more concrete on your question, I think it is hard to make it more structured. If you wanna climb a ranking, you should be free in the choice of your preferred hardware.

Structure is always something like a duty to use that motherboard or 8 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

that GPU. Regarding the pro-cup it’s almost impossible to compete, when you’re forced to use only this particular brand.

On the other hand, I don’t have any issues with being the face of a vendor, but then we’re not talking about sponsorship but contracts!

The second part of your question is easily answered, when you look at my profile on HWBOT – there you can see all my sponsors.

As one of the most active users on the BOT, how often do you have overclocking sessions?

At least twice a month (that’s what I say to my wife) but to be honest once a week!

It’s a well-known fact that Germany has a huge DIY market, at least from the vendor side. Does that mean you’re seeing progressively more overclockers in your region or has it been the same number of people participating?

I don’t see a distinguishable increase in overclockers – sadly.

I wish that were the case, but that

task falls to media. Gaming is much more popular than overclocking. I do see huge improvement regarding that issue. OCTV does a great job.

We get more and more attention as overclocking is no longer a stupid money and time wasting hobby.

Let’s take me for example; I was always afraid of the water condensation which was the problem, not overclocking at sub-zero temperatures! We need more guides, more popularity, public shows, and tutorials and so on!

Any hardware you’re looking forward to this year? Granted X99 is here, what are your thoughts on the platform in general?

For sure all kinds of new GPUs and yeah – X99 will be a lot of fun! I think, this will bring us some insane results in the multithreaded benchmarks.

Considering it’s the architecture of the well-known Haswell perhaps will see a little decrease in CPU clocks and much more difficult behaviour regarding CB and CBB compared to X79. Who knows, maybe Intel did some nice improvements regarding that.

In your experience, have you had better luck with 4770Ks or are the 4790K CPUs on average for you much better overclockers ?

For sure the early batches of the 4770K were much better than the 4790K! Finding an old 4770K that does 6.2GHz 32m is much easier than finding a 4790K that does that! I had such luck, after my dead 4770K to find such a chip which died as well. But on average, I think the 4770K are the better choice.

What is your favourite Z97 motherboard right now?

All of them have their pros and cons.

I tried the Mpower, Xpower, M7H, M7F, M7G, Gigabyte SOC force and LN2. I’d love to test the Asrock one, but haven’t been able to yet.

To make one thing clear, the improvements on each z97 compared to z87 are pretty small. Asus was 10 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

great even on z87, Asrock was one of the best regarding mem and max CPU clock. Right now, you can reach almost all results on another vendor’s board – with more or less work!

What is your single greatest or most memorable overclocking achievement?

Those are the littlr things! Like 2666 6-10-6 on the MSI Xpower in 32m!

Things like an insane XTU score with low clocks. What I will really keep in mind though was my success in the Gigabyte catzilla challenge! I did 3 sessions to get that score. I truly learned how the card was to be treated! At that moment when I saw the result, I stopped and drank a beer. It was my goal, to achieve at the least, 43000 points and I got it. No matter what others scored, I wanted to get that score and I did it.

Anything you’d like to see changed in the overclocking community?

As I had mentioned earlier, media!

Push and promote our community and stop treating us like isolated noobs.

I think we spend a lot of time and money, including effort into achieving what we have!

Any other ideas or opinions you would like to share with the community and vendors regarding overclocking, hardware or anything related?

Coolermaster began to sponsor a team with LN2 for the pro-cup. I’d like to see similar initiatives from other vendors. Not necessarily the same way, but perhaps at contests.

Sure, winning money is pretty nice, but why not spend that on a contract for the winner?

Those things can be discussed, it's that’s just an idea for the vendors.

Think about it!

[ The Overclocker ]

8

THE POWER OF

INTEL Core i7 5960X

I

t’s finally arrived. The long awaited 8 core behemoth from INTEL has landed and it couldn’t have come sooner.

After years of being limited (and I use that word loosely) to 12 threads on the desktop, barring the EVGA solutions, we as the enthusiast community finally have 16 thread threads of processing power to tap into. As INTEL shows in its slides, since 2003 up until this CPU, computing performance for the high end desktop has increased by a factor of 40 or more.

That’s incredible, in just over a decade.

Roughly the same financial investment in the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition of 11 years ago today nets you forty times the performance. Looking at it iteratively may obscure this fact but it’s only when taking it all in that you realize the remarkable progress that’s been made in the last ten years. It would have been ideal if we could boot up an old Extreme Edition based system from that time period and compared it to what we have here, but that is only fascinating in theory. In practice the frustration of having to deal with what would be an excruciatingly slow testing session would quickly shatter all nostalgia for the system.

More pressing is how this new CPU affects modern day computing tasks in comparison 12 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

to what INTEL delivered just a year ago with Ivy-Bridge E CPUs. That user space is likely the most affected by this CPU and that which stands to gain the most from it all. We are specifically concerned with the 5960X here, not the 5930K or the 5820K.Those we will look at another time. Right now we are primarily concerned with the additional two cores, thus four threads INTEL has enabled on their dies that function as desktop processors. It’s not easily looking at the CPU in isolation from the new platform, socket, DRAM generation and motherboards that support it all. There are minute to significant changes in each area, but we’ll not tackle any of that here. Once again, as with the other CPUs available for the socket, we’ll deal with them another time.

Since the INTEL Core i7 980X in 2010, (feels like it’s been far longer than that), we’ve been content with the small increments in performance due solely to IPC improvements. From Gulftown to Ivy-Bridge, 12 was the magic number. Provided we had the thread count, our chosen applications (in our context, - overclocking) this mattered above all else. For the longest time perhaps even up to the earlier this year, a good 12 thread CPU would be enough to keep you and your team competitive without necessarily having to invest in the latest

CPU. For all intents and purposes, a good 3960X or perhaps even a 3930K would see you through. It would not perhaps take you to the top of the leagues, but it would keep you competitive. This brings us to another point, which is that we have a situation with this CPU that makes it financially unviable to bin CPUs (that is if you’re not sponsored in some form) unless you have very deep pockets.

Unlike with Sandy-Bridge E or its successor, the highest end Haswell-E SKU has a tangible and insurmountable advantage over its “cheaper” stable mates. It is not feasible anymore to use a golden sample 5930K for instance to beat the competitors who are equipped with the 5960X. The two CPUs are

not in the same league performance wise and since this is the platform we employ for the multi-threaded benchmarks, cores matter perhaps as much as frequency.

In case there are those who are unaware for some reason. The 5960X is based on the same architecture as the other two CPUs, the only besides clock frequency is the L3 cache size, at a hefty (by today’s standards) 20MB and obviously all eight cores enabled as opposed to 6. For this difference the price premium is almost $500, steep perhaps but nothing we’ve not seen before.

More importantly, it is easier to justify the price premium, unlike before where the gains were minimal between the two most

EDITOR’S CHOICE AWARD

Issue 31 | 2014 The OverClocker 13

As soon as the Embargo lifted we had a number of records, including BenchBros new CineBench R15 World Record.

An impressive 5960X sample approaching 6GHz. Over 800 points higher than the previous 8 core CPU record at 1503.

expensive SKUs on the X79 platform.

It’s no secret that INTEL has been embracing the enthusiast and more specifically the overclocking community more than it has historically. The changes made to their CPUs in the performance and HEDT platforms are a testament to this. Artificial limitations are being eradicated at an alarming rate and with the 4790K for instance, a conscious effort to improve overclocking was made. If this paid on in practical terms is another issue entirely, but the effort was made and that is a commendable attitude or position for a company that is in essence without meaningful competition in this space.

Does the 5960X warrant its price tag but more especially the excitement and buzz?

The answer is a resounding yes. Given that it has the same retail value as the outgoing 4960X but provides real tangible performance gains. It makes a far more convincing argument for itself than perhaps any other INTEL CPU has in this space.

Even if you have no interest in competitive overclocking at all, the 5960X throws it’s weight around effectively, culling compute times significantly across the vast majority of suits that that are designed to take advantage of multiple threads, let alone the new instruction sets made available. From Adobe Premier Pro, Blender to Virtual Dub and more, there are plenty of programs that will instantly show gains by running on this CPU. The loss in frequency in comparison to the 4960X or any other CPU for that matter is meaningless compared to what is gained. Losing 600MHz is a lot and perhaps even more than one would think four extra

14 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

threads would compensate for, but if you need the single thread performance and frequency, then you have the 4790K. For everything else, there’s nothing better than the 5960X. Since the platforms launch recently, we’ve witnessed some remarkable results in all the relevant benchmarks on HWBOT. In the mathematical/compute benchmarks like wPrime, Cinebench, XTU (otherwise known as 3D benchmarks) the new “records” and milestone are not in how much faster the new CPU is over the 4960X, but it’s that there’s competition in the 8X CPU category where there previously wasn’t any in comparison. This doesn’t mean of course that the 4 and 6X categories are no longer worth the pursuit, it merely allows for a more competitive landscape with more options than before. This isn’t the case in the graphics benchmarks where the thread count advantage of the 5960X will effectively retire the hex core CPUs. It’s still very early in the platform’s lifetime and we’ll have to wait and see how it all plays out. Suffice to say, the 5960X changes the landscape dramatically.

X99 BRIEFLY

It doesn’t take keen insight to come to the conclusion that for the 5960X to be as effective as it is, it needs a strong underlying platform or chipset. To that end we have a few changes to the chipset. There isn’t a game changer if you exclude the support for DDR4, but it the changes do bring INTEL’s HEDT platform a little in line with what the Z97 offers. Sorely missed on the X79 chipset was native support for USB

3.0 which INTEL has remedied by allowing a total of 14 USB ports directly from the Chipset, eight of which are the older USB2.0 type and the remaining six super speed 3.0. This will hopefully get rid of those 3rd party controllers which were always an unnecessary cost to X79 motherboards. In addition to that, the number of SATA ports supported by the chipset increases from the previous six to ten, but all of them support SATA 6Gbps. Between these two changes it could eliminate the need for two additional third party ICs on the motherboard, which should in theory allow cheaper manufacturing and lower prices to the end user.

INTEL states that the chipset and more specifically the 5930K and 5960X support 40 PCI Express lanes. This is identical to what we had before with the X79 chipset, however natively supported configurations or distribution of these lanes seems to have changed. For instance on the X79 platform INTEL offered the following schemes; 2x16 & 1x8, 2x 16 & 3x8 and finally 1x16 & 2x8 & 2x4 which is enough to support 4-Way SLI/ Crossfire natively. However, with the X99 Chipset it looks as if the configurations have been simplified to 2x16 & 1x8 or 5x8. The first Lane routing and distribution is familiar, but the second and potentially the most interesting configuration of 5x8 is dependent on additional 3rd party logic. Not in the sense that a the familiar PLX switching chip is necessary but that this configuration isn’t natively supported by the chipset but it is a

possible one provided the necessary logic is added to the particular motherboard. Thus not all motherboards will be able to use all these schemes.

We are particularly interested in what vendors will do with these new possibilities especially with M2. popularity already surpassing that of mSATA which just never got off the ground. As a result of the chipset also offering more PCI-Express 3.0 lanes than Z97, there’s potential to see better M.2 performance as well for the vendors that choose to make use of more lanes on their solution than the standard 10Gbps we see on the majority of motherboards. There simply isn’t a need to be as conservative with PCI-Express bandwidth. Howe vendors will choose to use this chipset will vary and we’ll be looking at that in all the X99 motherboard reviews to follow in future. Until then we have to say that even the most basic motherboards for this chipset are offering a compelling set of features that we have longed for but were missing on all but the very high end X79 motherboards.

GAMING

It should come as little to no surprise to anyone that the 5960X offers no advantage in gaming over the 4960X or the Z97 CPUs for that matter. If anything this CPU could be a little slower as a result of the drastically reduced operating frequency. Fortunately the fact that it has no apparent advantage here in gaming does not mean that it is “slower” or offers a sub-optimal gaming

8-Pack unleashed a SLI Firestrike Extreme record of 15,011, nearly 1,000 points higher than the previous record as soon as the embargo lifted.

Issue 31 | 2014 The OverClocker 15

Gunslinger pushed out an impressive 26,417 in 3DMark Firestrike Extreme this time over 1,000 points higher than the previous record, set by 8-Pack.

experience, to the contrary. Games are almost always GPU bound and have been so for at least a decade. A faster CPU for the same architecture has not netted any benefit in gaming performance PWFS several generations of platforms. We’ve grown accustomed to this and things are no different today. Games are simply unable to take advantage of more than four threads That’s why even today there are many gamers using older generation CPUs such as the Core i5 2500K and are enjoying the highest fidelity in visuals on the most modern and demanding games. *U JT Gor that very reason the 5960X does more than well enough in gaming. In )JUNBO "CTPMVUJPO PVS UFTU UJUMF, the 5960X delivered identical performance UP the 4790K. The GPU was the limiting factor here.

This would probably not be the case in a 4-way SLI or $rossfire sFUVQ, but then we’d either be looking at ridiculously high frame rates that have diminished academic vaMVF and even less practical SFMFWBODF. 0UIFS UJUMFT GVSUIFS WBMJEBUFE PVS SFTVMUT with no measurable performance difference between all the CPUs outside the margin of error. Gaming at UHD/4K resolutions across multiple screens however maybe a different story as the bandwidth advantage for the X79 and X99 CPUs would be clear, but those are very extreme situations. If you do game like that, there’s no denying that you’ll need a CPU such as this one to full utilize all the rendering power you have at your disposal.

IN CLOSING

If the X79 chipset is anything to go by, X99 will be with us for a very long time, perhaps 16 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

anywhere between one to three years.

There’s certainly no reason for INTEL to usher in a new platform or CPUs anytime soon. The 5960X in particular is a sizeable leap forward in computing performance. It comes with the penalty of a higher TDP at 140W but that is a negligible cost compared to the dramatically increased threading performance it gives over the 4960X. The only losers in power consumption are the 5930K and 5820K. They do represent an improvement in IPC over their predecessors but that improvement is minute in comparison. If you are currently making use of the 4930K there’s little to perhaps no practical reason to upgrade to the 5930K purely for IPC increase. As an entire platform change, there are merits to this QFSIBQT. We didn’t’ get a lot of time to spend with the Core i7 5960X before this issue was due, but we were impressed with the CPU almost instantly. The motherboards this time around, unlike with X79 are in a better state upon arrival. There will be continued refreshes no doubt and with each firmware update they will get better, so will the overclocking results. We already have 6GHz capable CPUs and while we may not see speeds much faster than this, the number of CPUs capable of this frequency is sure to increase as INTEL refine their process along with the ever improving motherboard firmware. It is early in the platforms existence, but the 5960X has delivered more than we could have expected and we are thoroughly impressed with what INTEL has done here. The world’s first true 8-core desktop system has arrived and it is in one word, Mighty! 

[ The OverClocker ]

GAMING GEAR AWARD

ASUS Maximus VII Formula RRP: $354.99 | Website: www.asus.com

Test Machine • INTEL Core i7 4790K • CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 2x4GB DDR 2666MHZ CL10 • EVGA GTX 780Ti Classified K|NGP|N Edition • CORSAIR AX1500i PSU • Windows 7 64-bit SP1

I

t’s not often that we find ourselves testing and writing any kind of editorial on ASUS Formula motherboards. Usually it’s the Extreme, Impact and that kind of SKU. This time we have the MAXIMUS VII Formula. The highest end Z97 SKU from ASUS at present and it shows in pricing but

18 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

more importantly in the features set.

Unlike with the Maximus VI Extreme for example, there is a strong emphasis here on gaming and less so on the overclocking capabilities.

That is not to say it is unsuitable for extreme overclocking, it is to the contrary in fact.

ASUS, for the Maximus VII Formula, has elected yet again an abs plastic shroud over the motherboard and a steel backplate on the underside.

Resulting in perhaps, one of the best. if not the best looking Z97 boards we’ve seen.

It has the benefit of aiding

cooling of all the components on the board as well. This isn’t going to make a world of difference in anything, but it does help longevity which is something you may care about considering that you’re paying nearly $350 for this piece of engineering. Aesthetically then, it looks the part and it’d be a waste to have it in a windowless case as this one deserves to be seen.

What really makes a gaming motherboard these days is an intelligent NIC and a superior audio system, both of which are present here. Unlike other vendors though, ASUS has gone with the INTEL I218V controller which they claim not only has

lower CPU overhead but a higher throughput as well.

In addition to that, there are some changes to the actual RJ45 port which supposedly help protect the motherboard from lightning strikes and static electricity. So it’s more than just network traffic.

Oddly enough ASUS does not claim lower latency with this implementation, which is what KILLER network adapters are primarily known for in addition to prioritizing the right kind of traffic when gaming (which this controller does as well via the GameFirst III software).

How beneficial all this is to the end user is debatable, but it’s innovation nonetheless and we’d rather have it than

not. It all speaks to the quality with which ASUS constructs these gaming motherboards.

Second and perhaps even more important is the on-board audio solution. Given that ASUS can boldly claim to make the best gaming /enthusiast grade audio cards and USB DACs (Essence series anyone?) it’s fitting that we’d expect nothing but the best here. To that end, the MAXIMUS VII delivers in spades with a components list unlike any other vendors.

Being different, doesn’t make it better, but when we looked at the kind of equipment that features what ASUS has here, it becomes very apparent that these component decisions were at the very least made Issue 31 | 2014 The OverClocker 19

“ASUS, for the Maximus VII Formula, has elected yet again an abs plastic shroud over the motherboard and a steel backplate on the underside.

Resulting in perhaps one of the best if not the best looking boards we've seen"

for qualitative reasons in addition to economical ones.

Any solution that features ELNA audio capacitors, paired with WIMA caps, a Cirrus Logic DAC and a TI op-amp is going to impress you to some degree. The only part of this entire equation which we can’t fathom is why ASUS chose the Realtek ALC1150 codec instead of the numerous others available on the market. There’s nothing wrong with the ALC1150 per se, but given that it is supported by such superior components which no doubt have added to the cost of the motherboard, it is puzzling to find this CODEC on such a motherboard.

The weakest link is here but you can be guaranteed that this is the best use of this CODEC on the market currently.

Competing vendors have made it a point to highlight that there are specific USB ports located at the rear which are meant to have your keyboard and mouse plugged into. These ports are supposedly low latency ports with a high polling frequency and more often than not feature some kind of gold plating for better contacts. We can confirm that there’s absolutely no difference between these ports and any other USB port on the motherboard in gaming 20 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

or in how your keyboard functions. With the ASUS KeyBot however, there’s some ingenuity which allows you to assign almost any keyboard, Macro functionality even if said keyboard does not have these features. This little chip allows you to program a variety of functionality to any keyboard including cold booting the system into specific states and booting directly to the UEFI, so you essentially don’t’ need a dedicated Direct to BIOS key. Once again this is a nifty little feature that is many times more useful than the supposed gaming ports that others may tout on their products.

This brings us to the motherboards performance.

There are many aspects of the Maximus VII Formula that we haven’t covered, but we could not possibly write about an ROG motherboard without analysis of how it performs in an overclocking context.

Yes, this is geared towards the premium gaming crowd, but even then it should not preclude one from being competitive at the highest levels of overclocking. This is where the power of the ASUS UEFI comes into play. The interface is laid out simply and intuitively. It is very detailed but most of the functionality and options are explained thoroughly eliminating any

guess work you may need to do. It’s a sublime interface that is not terribly exciting but is thoroughly detailed and simple to navigate. Tuning memory on this motherboard is splendid because with every setting there is some kind of assistance letting you know what it is you’re tuning and how it may affect overclocking or stability. Should it all go pear shaped, you can always revert to safe settings using the MemOK button. Speaking of which, this button is located in the most inconvenient place on the motherboard, where it’s very close to the edge of the aforementioned top cover.

It is reachable, but perhaps another location would have been better.

It should not come as a surprise that the Maximus VII delivered the quickest SuperPi 8M time of all Z97 motherboards we’ve tested to date. This lead was small, but it was there and we couldn’t match it with other boards with similar timings. You can rest assured that whatever limits you hit with the MVIIF, they are due to your CPU or memory but not the motherboard as it is robust as it is finely tuned.

Thus far we’ve yet to find any vendor or any motherboard in fact that can marry gaming and overclocking so well on a single product. For those

"the Maximus VII delivered the quickest SuperPi 8M time of all Z97 motherboards we've tested to date"

All results were obtained at 4600MHz on an un-optimized Windows7 64-bit. These are our results, yours may vary so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system.

MOTHERBOARD

Super Pi 8M

AIDA 64 Read

AIDA 64 Write

AIDA 64 Copy

3DMark11

INTEL XTU

Catzilla: 720P

MAXIMUS VII Formula (Tuned)

1.24.178

41139

42115

39878

16372 Graphics: 17888 Physics: 13314

1222

29826 Hardware: 28807

ASUS MAXIMUS VII Formula

1.24.677

33332

41923

36199

16307 Graphics: 17810 Physics: 13207

1202

29736 Hardware: 28725

Reference Z87 Board

1.25.425

32408

41882

35118

16057 Graphics: 17841 Physics: 12190

1159

29851 Hardware: 28838

who happen to have the ROG control panel, you’ll be happy to know that the MAXIMUS VII Formula is fully compatible with it and all the functionality you had on the MAXIMUS VI for example you’ll find here as well. With just the addition of that panel alone (which isn’t included with the FORMULA by the way) there’ll be few things if any you can do with the Z87 extreme board that you cannot do with this motherboard.

Once again the package which ASUS provides and its presentation is second to none. We’ve been impressed to no end by other ASUS boards, like the Rampage IV

Black Edition for example.

This isn’t that kind of product.

No, this is an evolution of the already great MAXIMUS VI Formula. It’s the little changes here and there that culminate into the best Formula motherboard ASUS has ever created. From where we stand there aren’t any boards which cater to high end gamers and enthusiasts like this one does. It’s the best combination of features available today for its intended market. If you’re building the ultimate Z97 gaming machine and are unwilling to compromise, the MAXIMUS VII Formula just may be what you need.

Summary No vendor balances gaming and overclocking features the way ASUS does with the Maximus range. This one is geared entirely at the gaming crowd and it delivers in spades. The features are numerous and the aesthetics unmatched.

It’s a grand motherboard only a few hairs short of perfection.

Would you buy it?

Yes

[ The Overclocker ] Issue 31 | 2014 The OverClocker 21

Hardware Award

MSI Z97 XPOWER AC RRP: $379.99 | Website: www.msi.com Test Machine • INTEL Core i7 4790K • CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 2x4GB DDR 2666MHZ CL10 • EVGA GTX 780Ti Classified K|NGP|N Edition • CORSAIR AX1500i PSU • Windows 7 64-bit SP1

M

SI’s overclocking motherboards have come a long way. With hits and misses along the journey, the last couple of years have resulted in solid progress and improvements all around. The biggest criticism leveled at MSI motherboards was almost always weak memory overclocking

22 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

capacity or capability. Given just how important this is, it became somewhat of a forgone conclusion that MSI motherboards were not capable of extracting the most out of your hardware. After all, other than memory there really isn’t anything else you can tune on a motherboard as the end user. It is in this regard that this stigma followed MSI’s boards even when they did not deserve it (which they haven’t for a while).

With the Z97 XPOWER and perhaps even the MPOWER, it’s a whole different story.

At least from our perspective, there isn’t anything about the XPOWER that makes it incapable of memory

overclocking compared to other OC focused offerings on the market. In our tests it was truly the limitation of the CPU if anything that prevented any further tuning or frequency scaling that might have been possible. What is worth saying though is that we did find it takes a higher voltage across the board to reach the same frequencies or at least tune it to the same efficiency as compared to the other motherboards.

This isn’t anything that should endanger your components at all (especially SAMSUNG memory) but it is worth keeping in mind that what is stable on another motherboard and not so on the XPOWER could simply be a matter of needing to use a higher voltage.

What that means or says about the power delivery on MSI motherboards we will leave for you to decide, but it certainly isn’t anything we would take away points for. On the flip side to this, we found that the MSI board mustered up some truly incredible numbers and efficiency wise matched all other boards

we tested and in some cases even exceeded them. This is perhaps not because the other motherboards are not capable, but by way of the vast array of options MSI brings to their UEFI. In addition to this, the effect such options have on overclocking and recommended setting help greatly. As with all

motherboards we have previously found to be immaculate; the entire experience of overclocking is a learning one. One is better at overclocking and tuning memory across the board after having used the XPOWER and this is something that not only inspires confidence in the user, but allows one to appreciate the exhaustive features presented by MSI and their efforts. We can only praise all involved in the design of the XPower because MSI has truly brought forth with the Z79 chipset, their best motherboard ever. Is this a perfect board? Well - no, it isn’t, but for the most part it's close enough. What prevents us from having the confidence to proclaim it so is the inconsistency we experienced with it. This is a major one, that we aren’t sure how MSI would address, but there certainly has to be a solution to this and it could be a simple matter of a UEFI option (it most certainly is) that is not user tunable or should be tuned by default by Issue 31 | 2014 The OverClocker 23

the engineers. During testing, we only used settings that are Hyper Pi 32M stable. Regular Super Pi 32M isn’t good enough and to make sure that we were not running a system that may keel over at any time or represent settings that we may not be able to repeat in future, we made sure that both normal and tuned benchmark results were Hyper Pi 32M capable. It’s not Prime95, but it’s a pretty intense test that is very much indicative of systems stability.

We would configure the system and it would appear stable, running endless loops of any given benchmark, then after a single reboot the system would fail to POST. This was an intermittent issue. When the board did recover, just to make doubly sure that it was not overly aggressive memory tuning, we would decrease the memory frequency to 2133MHz and even lower to just 1600MHz. However we would experience the same failure to POST at 24 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

settings that were previously rock solid. At this point we would have to clear the CMOS and start over again loading the profile and lo and behold, it would work. A subsequent reboot would be fine, only for it to fail on the third attempt.

This was very frustrating as there was no way of knowing what it was exactly that was causing the issue. We’ve not had this issue with any other motherboard and it is certainly an isolated case with this XPOWER. Perhaps it is just our perfect combination of hardware but whatever it was, it marred what was otherwise an incredible experience.

That aside, MSI has really gone to town with the features and package; MSI has all the necessary switches and buttons you expect. They are not as numerous as what you’d find on the Z97X-SOC Force for example, but they more than cover all the basics and a bit more. For $380 USD, one does expect to have every option available and in this

regard the XPOWER gets it right. We would appreciate having a “Mem OK” like feature as on the numerous ASUS motherboards and it would be great if there weren’t a limited number of ground points for V-check. There are three points which is an improvement over the older boards; however you can check more than three voltages at any given time, so why there aren’t any more ground points is anybody’s guess.

Much like the UEFI options, the package that MSI has put together with the XPOWER is incredible, including a CPU core guard for those adventurous souls who have taken it upon themselves to remove the heat spreader on the CPU. The core is very delicate and the Delid Guard will make sure your CPU pot does not crush the core or apply uneven pressure which is likely to destroy the CPU. To further assist those cooling with LN2, there’s a fan bracket which you may use to

"We can only praise all involved in the design of the XPower, as MSI has brought forth with the Z79 chipset, their best motherboard yet."

All results were obtained at 4600MHz on an un-optimized Windows7 64-bit. These are our results, yours may vary so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system.

MOTHERBOARD

Super Pi 8M

AIDA 64 Read

AIDA 64 Write

AIDA 64 Copy

3DMark11

3DMark Sky Diver

Catzilla: 720P

MSI Z97 XPOWER AC (Tuned)

1.24.474

41104

42133

39878

16279 Graphics: 17858

30950 Graphics: 43190

29755 Hardware: 28749

Physics: 13117

Physics: 13463

Reference Z87 Board

1.25.425

16057 Graphics: 17841

30708 Graphics: 43237

Physics: 12190

Physics: 13215

15963 Graphics: 17870

30689 Graphics: 43237

Physics: 12047

Physics: 13012

MSI Z97 XPOWER AC

1.26.295

32408

27555

mount any standard fan for extracting or directing LN2 fumes away from the POT and surrounding areas. This is a small convenience that is an added bonus to an already impressive package. The focus with which MSI has designed the XPOWER is commendable to say the least. All the bases have been covered and MSI has gone the extra mile to deliver what overclockers had asked of MSI for years.

Does it justify the retail price? Well you have to determine that yourself.

Given that it automatically makes you legible for MOA qualification but costs about as much as an of the other high end Z79 motherboards, then it’s certainly worth the investment. The XPOWER does many things right, but has a few kinks that prevent

41882

33523

35118

29876

it from being a definitive board for the chipset. We’d not however say that there’s an outright superior board on the market as that would not be true. Ultimately it will come down to what you are willing to pay for and what you may sacrifice. We do suspect that these motherboards, will end up in many high end gaming machines as well and even in that context the XPOWER does deliver the goods. As MSI’s most high end Z79 offering, the XPOWER is probably more than we could have ever expected it to be and it does leave us with a very positive and lasting impression. If you have the cash and are not moved by any one of the other motherboards at the very high end, do give serious thought to the MSI Z97 XPOWER, it’s the best one yet. [ The Overclocker ]

29851 Hardware: 28838

29803 Hardware: 28828

Summary MSI’s steady improvements in motherboard and BIOS design have finally paid off with the Z97 generation. There are so many features on the board and BIOS that MSI can probably claim to have as many and perhaps even more tuning options than any other vendor on the market. It’s incredible to see just how refined a product the Z97 XPOWER AC is.

Would you buy it?

At a maringally lower price

Issue 31 | 2014 The OverClocker 25

Value Award

OC Hero Award

ASRock Z97 OC Formula RRP: $219.99 | Website: www.asrock.com potential of that motherboard, instantly shot ASRock’s profile to the limelight and once • INTEL Core i7 4790K you’re in the spotlight, the • CORSAIR Dominator expectations are higher than Platinum 2x4GB DDR before. This is perhaps 2666MHZ CL10 where the Z87 OC Formula • EVGA GTX 780Ti Classified K|NGP|N Edition may have set a foot wrong a • CORSAIR AX1500i PSU little. In the landscape that had • Windows 7 64-bit SP1 the Maximus VI Extreme at the highest price point and the Z87X-SOC at the other end, the n 2012, out of nowhere Z87 OC Formula found itself in apparently,ASRock turned the no man’s land. Not competing overclocking world on its with either board in pricing head with the Z77 OC Formula. (performance was still second Prior to this board, ASRock to none) it didn’t garner the had been none existent to same overwhelming response competitive overclockers as its predecessor. and in fact we can attest to this because we never gave With the Z97 this time, ASRock much thought when it we have a throwback to the came to overclocking. original Z77 incarnation.

It may not have the water As you can imagine the block on the PWM, but just performance and overclocking about everything else is the

Test Machine

I

26 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

same, save for the additional features this chipset brings with it. To that end, we have a motherboard that is not only cheaper than the Z87 OC Formula, but is in our opinion an even better motherboard.

It is simple, but refined in a way no other ASRock board has been in the past. All the features work exactly as they should and this is the only motherboard we’ve ever used where all the pre-set profiles function with all the memory modules we have. It’s in the small things where the OC Formula earned our respect and praise.

Before we go further into that, it is worth addressing an issue, which is unavoidable as it takes place in a public space. For those who are not aware of it, there

was a recent back and forth on a social network site (we’re being purposefully vague here) where ASRock either as a whole or representative parties took to casting doubt on a competitors recent achievements. How all this unfolded was rather distracting and disappointing because this particular motherboard can stand on its own merits. There really isn’t a need for that kind of thing. In this competitive environment, we do believe any opportunity that arises to present any one particular product in a positive light should be taken advantage of as opposed to the deliberate attack on a competing product. This board really doesn’t need any of that because it is an impressive piece of engineering and we’re

confident in fact that it is the finest ever from ASRock.

With that said, our experience with the Z97 OC Formula was probably the smoothest we’ve had with any motherboard. This is not to take anything away from any other competing product, but as stated earlier, it just simply worked with no troubleshooting at all. Stability was not ever an issue and it was with this board that we attempted feats with memory tuning we’d not have tried with others.

There were no intermittent issues at all. If the motherboard passed our Hyper Pi 32M run, it meant the board was stable from cold boot to warm restarts. Tuning Issue 31 | 2014 The OverClocker 27

our various memory including Samsung, PSC and Hynix memory was entertaining to say the least. Just as we were convinced that the memory timings couldn’t get any tighter at our chosen voltage limit (1.75V which is low in context of our testing kits) the motherboard would surprise us and allow us even lower latencies and higher scores.

Unlike the ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 which we were comparing this board to at some point, the OC Formula actually had lower performance when it wasn’t tuned. That is, if you simply load the X.M.P profile on both motherboards and everything else is equal, the OC Formula is slower than the Extreme 6.

Puzzling at first, but there’s sense in this if indeed it was intentional (which we doubt).

With the Extreme 6 and the target demographic, there’s not likely to be any kind of 28 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

tuning that takes place by the end user. At the very least it will not go past applying the X.M.P settings and configuring basic CPU frequencies. It is unlikely to go into advanced timing/RTL/IOL tuning which is, well where all the fun is.

Thus to ensure said users get the best performance out the box without having to do any manually tuning, the Extreme 6 may be tighter by default. As such, do not be too concerned about the mediocre results in the normal run; they do not represent what this motherboard is capable off. For that you should look to the tuned results, where the Z97 OC Formula delivered our second best Super Pi 8M result of all motherboards.

More than just the result, it’s the ease in which we achieved it that made the greatest impression. A long time after we had finished testing this motherboard

we continued to tune it even further guided by the many prolific overclockers online which were showing incredible results on this motherboard.

In fact, at the time of writing, the 5GHz Super Pi 32M Haswell challenge on HWBOT had Splave in first place using the Z97 OC Formula. A single result alone does not make a motherboard impressive, but it is indicative of what you may achieve with it, given that CPU frequency is not a factor.

True enough, the quality of the silicon within the CPU will determine how tight your timings are and how fast you can operate the memory, but to see so many ASRock OCFormula boards (Z87 and Z97) litter the top spots speaks volumes in itself. Thus, there’s no question here about how capable this motherboard is.

It’s once again second to none in efficiency and at this price; it’s hard to think of reasons not to like it.

"at the time of writing, the 5GHz Super Pi 32M Haswell challenge on HWBOT had Splave in first place using the Z97 OC Formula"

All results were obtained at 4600MHz on an un-optimized Windows7 64-bit. These are our results, yours may vary so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system.

MOTHERBOARD

Super Pi 8M

AIDA 64 Read

AIDA 64 Write

AIDA 64 Copy

3DMark11

INTEL XTU

Catzilla: 720P

Z97 OC Formula (Tuned)

1.24.302

41207

42171

40012

16288

1222

29871

Graphics: 17829

Hardware: 28838

Physics: 13263 Reference Z87 Board

1.25.425

32408

41882

35118

16057

1159

Graphics: 17841

29851 Hardware: 28838

Physics: 12190 ASRock Z97 OC Formula

1.25.488

27902

41651

32956

16143

1156

Graphics: 17795

29543 Hardware: 28547

Physics: 12808

This brings us to its value proposition. You can buy an even cheaper overclocking centered motherboard in the Z97 SOC Force and it will have several features via the motherboard buttons and switches which are not available on this board.

There’s no getting around that, but you do receive M.2 support and the Purity Audio 2 which is for the most part better than what is on the SOC Force. You also get the conformal coating which adds to the cost so it’s not a direct comparison which one can make between the two in terms of value. If it’s worth paying the additional $20 for the OC Formula will be up to you to decide. In the perfect world we would own both motherboards (and perhaps another one). For the commanding price we can’t really find anything wrong at all with the Z97 OC Formula.

It delivers the goods in every

discipline and it overclocks like a bat out of hell. We’d be hard pressed to advocate for any other motherboard in ASRock’s overclocking lineup.

Gone is the fancy POST LED as seen on the Z87 iteration and there’s no water cooling the PWM here, but we don’t imagine anyone being too upset about this.

It’s getting increasingly hard to find something to dislike about overclocking motherboards these days and the OC-Formula is yet another motherboard that further makes it so.

For this kind of money you can’t go wrong. Be it you’re a fan or not, you’d be doing yourself a disservice by not at least trying out the Z97 OC Formula. It’s a lot better than you could imagine and it certainly gets our vote of confidence.

Summary The OC Formula series of motherboards only span three chipsets (barring X99) and in that time the motherboards have never been as impressive as the Z97 iteration.

It’s a throwback to the original board and that is probably the greatest complement we can give to the Z97 OC Formula.

You can’t go wrong with this one and it’s worth every dollar. It’s an incredible motherboard.

Would you buy it?

Without hesitation!

[ The Overclocker ] Issue 31 | 2014 The OverClocker 29

EVGA Z97 Classified RRP: $359.99 | Website: www.evga.com

Test Machine • INTEL Core i7 4790K • CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 2x4GB DDR 2666MHZ CL10 • EVGA GTX 780Ti Classified K|NGP|N Edition • CORSAIR AX1500i PSU • Windows 7 64-bit SP1

H

ere’s a motherboard that we had very low expectations of. It’s not because EVGA has never produced a good board before, but because their focus has always been on the bigger platforms. X79 was a troublesome chipset for the company and every other vendor, but because of this bias towards the very high end. It was for 30 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

the longest time looking as if EVGA just didn’t have an easy to tune, competent overclocker's motherboard.

We fully acknowledge that EVGA serves gamers and high end gamers at that, first before overclockers.

However this is the very same special interest group which if you receive their blessing, will make sure your product is more than welcomed by every other demographic. In other words, nobody is as likely to find bugs on any piece of hardware as a competitive overclocker.

With the Z79 Classified, there was little to no hype around the board. In fact we were surprised that EVGA had a board out that early in the chipsets life cycle. Granted it wasn’t too

different from Z87, it remains astonishing that such a competent motherboard was delivered in a short space of time. Not only did it show up on time but in a mastered state.

With few to none of the issues we had experienced with the X79 Classified and that motherboard had a very long gestation period.

At $360 odd, it is surrounded by the most high end competitor products

on the market. Its direct competition is several of the motherboards we have in this issue as well. Since EVGA has rarely if ever played the price game (where bottom dollar is king) the Z79 Classified finds itself in some really tough competition against the likes of the ASUS Maximus VII Formula, the MSI Z79 XPower AC and GIGABYTE’s G1 Gaming WiFi Black Edition. These are all premium motherboards and thriving in that landscape is always going to be tough.

Fortunately EVGA ticks plenty of boxes with this offering.

Surprisingly, EVGA has turned to what we believe to be the best

audio processor on the market at present barring the Creative C20K2 chip. Much like GIGABYTE, EVGA has gone with that chip’s successor in the SoundCore3D IC. Don’t get this confused, this is an expensive IC and easily accounts for a sizeable fraction of the retail price.

With that you also receive “special” audio grade Japanese capacitors much like every other competitor has been doing recently.

There’s no PCB noise isolation here and no op-amp to speak of. The solution is more than good enough for gaming and it does sound impressive. More could have been done with it, with the

surrounding components but it is impressive and it’s a pity that EVGA doesn’t do much to sell it on their website or anywhere else for that matter.

Another reason for the high price is support for 4-way SLI through the PLX switching chip. All PCIExpress slots can be enabled or disabled and while we do appreciate 4-Way support. On this platform, it isn’t necessary. For this kind of price though it is understandable.

This along with dual INTEL NICs tells us that EVGA was intentionally going for the high end gamer rather than the overclocker. How useful having dual LAN is will Issue 31 | 2014 The OverClocker 31

depend on the individual, but again, we’d rather see it on this board than not at all at this price.

Aesthetically we can’t complain, the colour scheme is simple while elegant. It isn’t as flashy as all other gaming boards, but it does have the distinguished honor of being the only board that hasn’t taken to black and some form of red. Here’s hoping that EVGA continues in this direction as they remain the only option for customers who are not moved by the red and black colour scheme. It won’t bowl you over visually, but it does look the part for the price. As usual, only the best components are used which these days is nothing less than what we would expect from any and all vendors at this level.

Finally we get to the UEFI and performance. This is where it got even more interesting. You see, EVGA 32 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

has carried over their UEFI from the X79 Classified (the later updates) and as much as we were impressed then we remain so today. It’s simple, butter smooth and works like a charm. There’s really nothing too confusing here and everything is exactly where you would expect to find it. It’s functional and isn’t taxing on your visual senses.

It works and we can find nothing to dislike about it. The competition does have fancier options and they do provide more visually appealing interfaces, but as far as functionality and layout is concerned, we are more than happy with what EVGA has.

Options wise, there are a few or rather strange entires. For some reason, the engineers at EVGA have taken to labelling all the tertiary memory timings in an unfamiliar way that is completely different to what every other vendor has. For instance, you’ll find

that “tRDRD” is “tRRSR”, “tRDWR” is labelled as “tRWSR” and so forth. Thus tuning this board can tend to take much longer than it should. This is not going to matter for gamers, but to the enthusiasts and competitive overclockers trying to get the most out of their systems, it just adds an unnecessary step. You have to translate all the settings you’re used to having into what EVGA has. The memory utilities from other vendors work just fine with this board such as ASRock's Timing Configurator, ASUS MemTweakIT and GIGABYTE’s MemoryTweaker.

This is important as well because EVGA does not have such a utility for this board or any other for that matter in their recent products.

EVGA E-Leet is great in what it allows you to do from within the operating system but it does lack the ability to let you read out all the memory timings that you would be concerned with

"it's astonishing that such a competent motherboard was delivered in a short space of time" All results were obtained at 4600MHz on an un-optimized Windows7 64-bit. These are our results, yours may vary so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system.

MOTHERBOARD

Super Pi 8M

AIDA 64 Read

AIDA 64 Write

AIDA 64 Copy

3DMark11

INTEL XTU

Catzilla: 720P

Z97 Classified (Tuned)

1.24.833

41080

42061

39804

16381

1213

29779

Graphics: 17870 Physics: 13356

EVGA Z97 Classified

1.25.722

33091

41716

35654

16023

Hardware: 28747

1173

Graphics: 17862 Physics: 12357

Reference Z87 Board

1.25.425

32408

41882

35118

16057 Graphics: 17841 Physics: 12190

when optimizing system performance.

Speaking of which, performance on the EVGA board was as good as can be expected (that is roughly in line with our reference motherboard) except where memory latency, as measured

by AIDA 64, was concerned.

For some reason, at the default X.M.P settings, the motherboard had the highest memory latency we’ve ever recorded at 48ns. This isn’t going to affect any gaming performance or any 3D benchmark at all, but it might affect your Super Pi 32M adversely. We witnessed this in our own tuning results where the Super Pi 8M time was slower than it should have been even with the system tuned as much as possible without exceeding the 1.75V DRAM voltage we limit all our DRAM tuning to. Again this is not a train smash and certainly not anything that should deter you from the board if you’re a

gamer, but it is worth noting.

Without the memory tuning the motherboard delivers average to slightly less than average performance, but if you take the time out to go through the tuning options available for the memory, the Classified can be made to, for a lack of a better word, “sing”.

Overall this is a solid motherboard from EVGA actually it’s their best since the days of the 1366 platform.

Barring what they may deliver with X99, this is EVGA’s most prolific motherboard we’ve ever come across. Value wise, it could stand to be a little cheaper as it doesn’t provide anything that you can’t get from any other vendor at a lower price, however EVGA does have a loyal following and its fans will likely not be swayed by the high price to any other vendor’s offering. If this board is anything in one word, we’d have to go with capable, perhaps even impressive.

29847 Hardware: 28849

1159

29851 Hardware: 28838

Summary Without much hype and fanfare, EVGA has delivered possibly their best motherboard in years. It’s not flashy, it’s even lacking in a few places, but it sure delivers a solid offering out the door. With the Z97 Classified, EVGA hit the ground running and it would be a shame to overlook it, be it you’re a gamer or an aspiring competitive overclocker, do give it seroius thought.

Would you buy it?

At a slightly lower price most certainly!

[ The Overclocker ] Issue 31 | 2014 The OverClocker 33

Hardware Award

GIGABYTE Z97X Gaming G1 WiFi BK RRP: $349.99 | Website: www.gigabyte.com

Test Machine • INTEL Core i7 4790K • CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 2x4GB DDR 2666MHZ CL10 • EVGA GTX 780Ti Classified K|NGP|N Edition • CORSAIR AX1500i PSU • Windows 7 64-bit SP1

W

e’ve looked at a number of Z97 boards previously and have found that the differences between competing vendor offerings is increasingly diminished with each successive chipset.

Understandable because there isn’t much difference between the Z87 and Z97 chipset. Thus, there is very little for vendors to do to try and make these newer

34 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

boards more attractive.

That doesn’t mean however that we should accept that all boards will be the same and offer little to no advances. To the contrary, it’s a great opportunity for all the engineering teams involved in motherboard design to think of new and exciting ways to distinguish their products from the each other. Add value where there previously wasn’t any. A great example that was capitalized on is the audio component of motherboards. Every vendor has some sort of headphone amplifier and makes use of contextually expensive audio capacitors around their audio solution. As you may suspect, GIGABYTE chose to follow in their tradition of providing Creative Labs audio processors instead of relying solely on Realtek

codecs. This is but one area where they managed to set themselves apart. This decision has paid dividends by offering the best overall audio solution on the market , only eclipsed by their previous efforts (controller side) with the original G1 boards that featured the C20K2 audio processor. This is not to be undermined, because it just may still be the most important reason for choosing the GIGABTYTE gaming models over the competition.

With future motherboards, perhaps there may be a little more that’s needed because

it’s an advantage that can be matched thus equalizing the playing field. One of the features we would have liked to see on the Gaming G1 is M.2 support. We understand that support for this could have been omitted due to space constraints (the board is full as it is) or perhaps the limitations imposed by supporting 4-way SLI, but we still wish we had that as an option. Talking about 4-Way SLI, this brings us to another point which is the GPU support on the G1. There’s only one other competing motherboard we know of that has 4-way SLI support on a gaming board (Z97 Classified) and oddly enough that board shares a common feature set with the Gaming G1 but costs more.

That motherboard however does have M.2 support as

well. Perhaps GIGABYTE could have forgone the PCIExpress 1X slots and used those for M.2 instead. After all, one is unlikely to resort to a dedicated sound card on such a motherboard given how impressive the on-board solution is.

As the most expensive and premium Z97 gaming motherboard in their line-up, we are glad to have Wi-Fi (ac support) and Bluetooth on this model. So there’s no board that can claim to offer more in that regard. Instead, we look to the Ultra Durable range and notice that there is native thunderbolt support on the UD7 TH. Granted that this connection also relies on PCI-Express of which there are very limited lanes on the Z97 chipset. Perhaps a sacrifice could be made

where there is only 3-Way SLI support, but there’s M.2 and a single Thunderbolt connector. That way we recieve every feature available or possible on the Z97 platform, making it truly the ultimate and most high end gaming board from GIGABYTE. Finally we must speak of the single graphics card performance of this board. It relies on the PLX switching chip for 4-Way SLI support (thus providing all connected cards with 8X of bandwidth) but as we all know, that chip robs you of single GPU performance slightly. Most vendors have a way around this by either wiring a specific slot directly to the CPU and providing a dedicated slot or routing traces on the board in a way to negate the Issue 31 | 2014 The OverClocker 35

slight performance penalty incurred in single GPU mode.

There’s no such solution on this motherboard, thus you’re going to have to deal with the small reduction in performance as made evident in our performance data. It’s not going to be the difference between a title that is playable and one that isn’t.

However it is a performance discrepancy that one should be aware of before deciding to purchase.

If these seem like criticisms they are not, but rather suggestions because we are properly impressed with this board and our expectations are forever higher. They are more advances we would like to see, given just how similar the Z87 model was to this 36 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

one. That which allows any motherboard to be called a gaming motherboard is still present. So GIGABYTE has you covered there.

Should you decide to build a powerful Z97 gaming machine, this will serve you well and you’ll not want for anything. For $350 it’s not an easy board to beat in features.

It really does tick all the right boxes and makes a valid case for itself.

With the position that GIGABYTE finds itself in, expectations from their products are forever going to increase. Trading blows with the industry number one (at some point being number one) necessitates that the innovation and features offered take place at an accelerated pace.

Being better than everyone else is not good enough, but pioneering some features is necessary. GIGABYTE made tremendous strides in their UEFI and ridding themselves of the 3D BIOS. The next step needed is implementing more options on these gaming boards. Right now the magic in the entire range is brought about by the mechanical aspect and component quality which remains impeccable.

It is however, not matched by the BIOS/software feature set. The Board is still more than capable of powering any high end machine, but there’s some distance that needs to be covered before there’s a real threat to the likes of the ASUS Maximus range for instance.

For example, we would like to see some of the features on the SOC board make it on

"GIGABYTE chose to follow in their tradition of providing Creative Labs audio processors instead of relying solely on Realtek codecs"

All results were obtained at 4600MHz on an un-optimized Windows7 64-bit. These are our results, yours may vary so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system.

Motherboard

Super Pi 8M

AIDA 64 Read

AIDA 64 Write

AIDA 64 Copy

3DMark11

INTEL XTU

Catzilla: 720P

Z97 G1 Gaming WiFi (Tuned)

1.24.194

41141

42140

39913

16140 Graphics: 17449 Physics: 13442

1220

29564 Hardware: 28548

Z97 G1 Gaming WiFi

1.24.973

32440

41885

34878

15938 Graphics: 17440 Physics: 12952

1172

29558 Hardware: 28563

Reference Z87 Board

1.25.425

32408

41882

35118

16057 Graphics: 17841 Physics: 12190

1159

29851 Hardware: 28838

to the Gaming range. Not the BClk adjustments or anything of the sort, but simple features such as Memory Safe button.

Given just how advanced the audio part of this motherboard is. The ability to pass audio through the motherboard, even when the system is off, in a fashion similar to what the MAXIMUS VI Impact allows would be a great addition as well. These and many more are possible avenues that remain untapped by the G1 series which could propel the range even further ahead than it is.

All that however is what can be done to improve an already great motherboard. As it stands, with all that GIGABYTE offers and the asking price, this is a decent motherboard that is well worth your attention.

The red and black scheme has grown on us and we’ve gotten used to it. For those who seek an aesthetically pleasing motherboard for their windowed cases, this one won’t disappoint. This is especially with the all the lights on when the board when is powered.

For everyone else, you may consider then Ultra Durable range if you have to have M.2 support, but then you’ll lose out on the audio portion. It’ll be up to you to weigh those options, but if you’re remotely interested in gaming then we would still stick with the Gaming G1 WIFI. It’s a board that despite making few changes to its predecessor remains a very strong contender in this highly contested market. [ The OverClocker ]

Summary The Z97X Gaming G1 is not too different to what we saw before with the Z87 iteration. A few improvements here and there including the addition of SATA-Express make this a viable alternative to the other gaming orientated boards on the market. For $350 it’s fairly priced and in line with the rest of the competition, delivering where it counts.

Would you buy it?

Yes

Issue 31 | 2014 The OverClocker 37

S G N I K N

A view from the community  

A R

In every issue of The Overclocker we present you an overview of the HWBOT League rankings. From Pro OC to Rookie you can find the top-10 of each category in the tables below. Thumbs up to everyone who made the hall of fame!

" " OC League Rankings "

A lot has changed in the past months, not in the least due to the Haswell-E release. The current leaders starting from Pro OC going to Rookie are OCUKPro, 8 Pack, BarboneNet, Poparamiro, Doug2507 and Spider220075.

Pro OC

Elite

Extreme

1

OCUKPro

451 pts

1

8 Pack

2609.3 pts

1

BarboneNet

1770.6 pts

2

Team Pro OC EU

443 pts

2

TeamAU

2417.4 pts

2

zzolio

1764.9 pts

3

KPC PRO OC #2

392 pts

3

Vivi

2259.3 pts

3

Moose83

1578.3 pts

4

KRONOS PRO OC

359 pts

4

Wizerty

2259.3 pts

4

Hideo

1564.7 pts

5

Hardware.Info Pro OC

302 pts

5

sofos1990

2031.3 pts

5

mtech

1523.6 pts

6

NP2Korea Pro OC

301 pts

6

Xtreme Addict

1820.7 pts

6

michel90

1415.6 pts

7

United Overclockers

235 pts

7

Gunslinger

1760.1 pts

7

Amateurs

1348.8 pts

8

Ph_Team Hungary

165 pts

8

Smoke

1640.2 pts

8

Mikecdm

1336.9 pts

9

Overclockers Pro OC

165 pts

9

der8auer

1630.0 pts

9

T0lsty

1336.9 pts

163 pts

10 AndreYang

1620.1 pts

10 _12_

10 JagatReview.com

Enthusiasts

Novice

1262.6 pts

Rookie

1

poparamiro

924.5 pts

1

Doug2507

675.6 pts

1

spider220075

330.8 pts

2

sergii.ua

810.9 pts

2

Yurikal

608.4 pts

2

zwitterion93

325.1 pts

3

vadimua

762.6 pts

3

NATA 58

557.0 pts

3

Soorena

314.2 pts

4

Punk Sods

720.9 pts

4

Natybaby2013

418.0 pts

4

S4ch4Z

236.5 pts

5

zupernico

705.3 pts

5

nvidiaforever2

398.4 pts

5

manurap46

200.3 pts

6

Menthol

702.3 pts

6

jpmboy

396.5 pts

6

george.kokovinis

199.2 pts

7

helkis

652.0 pts

7

PSYB3R

372.7 pts

7

diablo1313

193.2 pts

8

ACIDSYS

647.5 pts

8

Matsglobetrotter

341.9 pts

8

ToDay

159.5 pts

9

Berchorange

632.5 pts

9

NeCrOmAnCiN

317.0 pts

9

JunkDogg

138.0 pts

623.1 pts

10 sprayman.ws

311.9 pts

10 william.takeshita

10 alexmx

125.1 pts

(standings as of September 11, 2014)

2

RANKIN " OC League Rankings "

GS

The summer months of the northern hemisphere were quite intensive for the competitive overclockers this year. Below you can find an overview of all competitions and their winners.

- MSI Master OverClocking Arena 2014 -

MSI MOA 2014 Class A AM Qualifier

MSI MOA 2014 Class A EMEA Qualifier

1 Rbuass

75 pts

1 Vivi

2 Mikecdm

54 pts

2 Xtreme Addict

3 nacho_arroyo

47 pts

3 zzolio

MSI MOA 2014 Class A APAC Qualifier

59 pts 57 pts 54 pts

MSI MOA 2014 Class B WW Qualifier

1 rhodie

56 pts

1 Psyins

123 pts

2 oc_windforce

55 pts

2 Zmn668

106 pts

3 DFORDOG

50 pts

3 magavk

94 pts

- HyperX OC Takeover HyperX OC Takeover 2014 LATAM Qualifiers

HyperX OC Takeover 2014 Far East Qualifiers

1 acschenck

57 pts

1 TeamAU

65 pts

2 nacho_arroyo

56 pts

2 DFORDOG

52 pts

3 pxhx

52 pts

3 r0yal_flush

42 pts

- Rookie Rumble Rookie Rumble #6

Rookie Rumble AMD #3

1 Soorena

130 pts

1 imreloadin

126 pts

2 2ShEp

108 pts

2 M3TAl

110 pts

3 electron libre

97 pts

3 ptraswn

101 pts

Rookie Rumble #7

Rookie Rumble AMD #4

1 nvidiaforever2

150 pts

1 JunkDogg

119 pts

2 Soorena

108 pts

2 S-mars7078

114 pts

3 electron libre

105 pts

3 northsys

103 pts

Rookie Rumble #8

Rookie Rumble AMD #5

1 nvidiaforever2

150 pts

1 JunkDogg

118 pts

2 zwitterion93

114 pts

2 harrynowl

116 pts

3 KaRtA

86 pts

3 Galaor

114 pts

- Other competitions GIGABYTE Z97 Catzilla OC Challenge

ROG OC Showdown | Z97

1 Dancop

41 pts

2 TeamAU

34 pts

3 WebTourist

25 pts

2

1 TeamAU

55 pts

2 DFORDOG

51 pts

3 Chi-Kui Lam

50 pts

The OC Show Your Overclocking talk-show

In This Episode In the fifth episode of the show, we go over the latest competition news with Der8auer. We discuss EOC 2014, MSI MOA 2014 qualifiers, HyperX OC Takeover qualifiers and the AOOC 2014 tournament. We also cover the HWBOT activities at Gamescom and have a look at the plans for future HWBOT events.

Discuss this episode:

url.hwbot.org/tosdiscuss

The OC Show Concept As The Overclocker moved to a new publishing platform, Neo

(editor-in-chief) informed us it is now possible to embed videos in the magazine. He suggested to embed an OCTV video in each magazine. The response from OCTV was very positive, and quickly the idea rose to do a bimonthly chit-chat talk about overclocking related topics.

located in Taiwan, setting up this kind of initiative is much easier."

In each episode, Pieter (Massman - HWBOT) and Tim (Xyala - OCTV) cover things that happened in the overclocking community. This includes upcoming events, new hardware releases, interesting overclocking records, benchmark discussions, and maybe even a tiny bit of industry gossip. "This is long overdue" says Tim, "but now that OCTV and HWBOT are both

"TheOverclocker is today's main go-to magazine-style read for overclockers and hardware enthusiasts" says Tim, "it makes sense to share our content to the TOC readers first." Of course this video is also hosted on the OCTV YouTube channel, and can be shared and embedded by everyone.

HWBOT and OCTV have collaborated on several productions in the past. The OC Show marks as a first long-term scheduled partnership.

Why TheOverclocker?

GAMING GEAR AWARD

ASUS ROG STRIKER RRP: $309.99 | Website: SPH BTVT DPN

Test Machine • INTEL Core i7 4790K • CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 2x4GB DDR 2666MHZ CL10 • GIGABYTE Z97X SOC-Force • CORSAIR AX1500i PSU • Windows 7 64-bit SP1

I

n a perfect world or at least a perfect enthusiast and gamer’s world, everyone would have a GTX 780 or better graphics card and we’d all be gaming at 120Hz on UHD G-sync enabled monitors.

That would be gaming nirvana indeed, but unfortunately we aren’t quite there yet.

Certainly not for the displays, but for GPUs we’re getting there. This is not saying that the GTX 760 offers anywhere near the performance of a GTX 780, but consider that right now, the standard GTX

42 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

760 is half the price of a 780.

It offers more than half the performance though and this is what we are concerned with ultimately.

For just over $300, this is not the cheapest GTX 760 on the market, as these can be had for as little $239. However those are the 2GB models which are unlikely to be desirable for anyone given just about every triple A title is using HD textures.

As such, a more honest comparison would be between the 4GB models where the ASUS ROG STRIKER fairs much better as it’s in line with other 4GB offerings from other vendors.

What ASUS is hoping to do here is give you a little bit extra to sway you into buying their GTX 760 over the MSI or EVGA card for instance which coincidentally

retail for a similar price. The clock speeds are identical for all three cards, but the ASUS model goes the little bit farther in providing you with the most aesthetically pleasing design of them all. Indeed aesthetics are subjective but there can be no denying that the plastic shroud in the standard ROG red and black scheme does look striking. Aiding in the visuals department is the glowing ROG logo atop the card that can be customized using GeForce Experience LED Visualizer. If you’re not too concerned with that you can let the load on the graphics card determine the colour.

It’s not going to make this a resounding winner over the competing cards, but it does add that little bit extra which goes a long way into justifying the cost to the end user.

Build quality as you would

looping it for hours on end in what we assume is a much warmer environment.

Temperatures alone won’t be the deciding factor for many of you, but operating fan noise as well. This is where the card really did live up to the claims as it was very quiet and actually bearable even with the fans set to maximum rotation. It’s not something everyone could live with but we certainly couldn’t hear it over the whirl of the other system components. You may think it’s not an important thing to consider at first but nothing becomes more annoying than fan noise after hours of gaming especially when you’re not using headphones.

expect is impeccable with ASUS choosing an 8-Phase VRM which is unusual for a mid-range graphics card.

Consider that the NVIDIA reference GTX TITAN Black uses a 6-phase VRM and that’s powering a NVIDIA’s highest end single GPU solution. As usual this graphics card allows you to adjust voltages via software. You may choose to use the ASUS GPU Tweak or Inspector tool or any other utility you prefer. How far you’ll fair with your overclock will obviously be dictated by the particular sample and your operating temperatures, but it’s worth noting that the sample we had performed admirably. Once again this

isn’t going to be blow your socks off performance for overclocking. For that you’ll need much more exotic cooling methods, but what ASUS has put together with the Direct CU II is respectable to say the least. It’s not as elaborate a cooling solution as we’ve seen from other vendors and the heat pipes certainly get very warm to the touch but it does do the job by keeping the GPU well under the 80’C mark.

ASUS claims that their cooling solution allows the card to remain at 65’C. We couldn’t match this in our testing environment but we only fell short by a mere 3’C which is truly impressive given that we were running a very stressful benchmark on the system

We can’t be sure where but at some point in the marketing material 4K or UHD gaming rather was mentioned.

Obviously this is for justifying the 4GB of memory over the standard 2GB. Sound in theory but not so much in practice. We did performance measurements on a number of games but also recorded how much of the memory on the graphics card we were utilizing. It turns out that even with 8XMSAA at 3840x2160; the most we ever used was just over 3GB of memory.

That’s a lot and more than what any GTX 780Ti has. Thus 4GB does make sense, but do consider that the game in question (Hitman: Absolution) isn’t playable on a GTX 780Ti at those settings. Not because of the lack of memory exclusively but because the processing power just isn’t there to provide a play experience that is above 30fps. (Ideally we’d want above 40fps). For the GTX 760 then there’s all but no hope of accomplishing this. That is an extreme case though and we’ve no reason to believe that 8xMSAA is necessary at that resolution on any reasonably sized screen (30” and smaller). Thus, the ASUS ROG Striker or any other GTX 760 for that matter isn’t for gaming at UHD resolutions, but WQHD works perfectly, Issue 31 | 2014 The OverClocker 43

All results were obtained at 4600MHz on an un-optimized Windows 64-bit. These are our results, yours may vary so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system.

44 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

even in Metro Last Light we were able to record above 32 fps using the highest graphics fidelity options available save for SSAA. That is admirable given that this is a taxing game for a great many graphics cards even those costing three times as much as the ROG STRIKER (we’re looking at you TITAN Black Edition!).

In other games we recorded frame rates in the 40s which is certainly more than playable.

Another claim we had to take a look at was that the ROG STRIKER was 10% faster than the standard GTX 760.

10% in the context of frame rates doesn’t mean much unless you know the actual value but we found that we on average recorded 5% better performance in the real world. It was only when we overclocked the card that we achieved 10% better performance and sometimes more (near 20% in some games). The overclock

we employed as stable was at the edge, but not where the system would crash or be unable to complete our entire test suit. It was artifact free and more importantly didn’t require voltage adjustments. Actually the reason for that was we found voltage adjustment didn’t add much to the stability of the set GPU clock. What we needed was better cooling (water block for instance) to truly benefit from it. Merely increasing the GPU voltage yielded very little gains for a significant rise in operating temperatures. For the more adventurous individuals and those who are chasing Hardware points on HWBOT, there is plenty of fun to be had here with the ROG STRIKER. In a gaming context and environment it’s almost over engineered, but we’ve no doubt that it will be a worthwhile piece of overclocking gear in the right hands with much better cooling.

In closing, ASUS has put together a neat little card here with the ROG STRIKER. We do wish that there was more in the package, something like a bundled game or something else other than just the bare essentials to make it stand out a little more. After all you are buying a ROG product and one that is supposedly platinum as well. That aside, as far as GTX 760 cards are concerned there isn’t a faster GTX 760 on the market and certainly not one that can claim to look better. This one gets our recommendation and gaming gear award.

[ The Overclocker ]

Would you buy it?

For the price, there isn’t a better GTX 760, thus we would certainly buy this one.

Issue 31 | 2014 The OverClocker 45

GAMING GEAR AWARD

Hardware Award

SAPPHIRE VAPOR- X R9 290X RRP: $645.88 | Website: www.sapphiretech.com

Test Machine • INTEL Core i7 4790K • ASRock Z97 OC Formula (V1.1) • CORSAIR Dominator 2666 C10 • INTEL 730 480GB SSD Corsair AX1500i PSU • Windows 7 64-bit SP1 (Catalyst 14.7 RC1)

T

here rumour mill has been rife with the much anticipated release of the next generation of graphics cards from both AMD and NVIDIA. Thus it’s perfectly fitting that many users may want to put off buying high end graphics card at present.

As sensible as that may be however, mid-range to high end graphics cards have very long life spans. Especially when we are talking about graphics cards costing $500 or more such as this one.

This card from SAPPHIRE represents their most high end Radeon 290X SKU, thus it

46 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

is fitted with not only their best cooling technology (barring some LCS units we have seen in previous generations) along with the highest GPU clock speed of any retail 290X. The only other matching card is the MSI Radeon Lightning 290X. Throughout this review we’ll be making constant comparisons with that card, if only because both clock in at 1080MHz and are the closest in pricing.

With this 290X, Sapphire has - as can be expected dumped the reference cooler and PCB. Instead all the engineering efforts have been put towards providing the best showing for the 290X GPU possible. Does all of this additional effort mean anything? Yes it does. It may not be in outright maximum clock speed, but the mere fact that this card will run 1080MHz out the box and even 1,180MHz is testament to this. Clock speed alone however is not enough as

it must be looked at within the context of operating temperatures. To this end we recorded a maximum temperature of 73’C which is very good and it further highlights just how woeful the original AMD issued cooler was which was regularly allowing the GPU to reach 95’C. The Vapor-X runs 22’C cooler and to date is the lowest load temperature we have recorded on any 290X. Cooling of their high end parts is an area that SAPPHIRE possibly takes far more seriously than their competitors. It’s a tough market and seeking out even the smallest advantage can prove near fruitful. Fortunately for SAPPHIRE, they have one up on the competition via their “PCB Component heat spreader”. Briefly stated it's an exposed copper layer of

the PCB that has a heatsink attached to it. This cools the PCB directly, further reducing temperatures even on the GPU. The degree to which it helps is unknown to us but it is one of the features or technologies if you prefer that help make this the coolest 290X we’ve tested to date.

Noise levels are always hard to measure , but in the environment we tested in the Vapor-X was quiet enough apart from when we had the fan speed set to 80% or higher.

It is only then we considered the fans loud. In comparison to the standard cooler that AMD provides however, making use of the same fan profile, this is far more tolerable. So make of that what you may, but from where we stand noise is not an issue or concern here at all.

Well what of the performance? This is arguably where this 290X shines brightest because out the box performance is

fantastic. There’s no valid reason to fiddle with the clock speed unless you’re going for some serious overclocking achievements.

If you’re squarely focused on gaming and nothing else, you’ll never need to use any overclocking utility as there’s not a single game available today that you cannot enjoy at the highest graphics settings possible (Barring a few erroneous settings in games like Metro – Last Light’s SSAA) at least at 1080p.

Should you want to take part in the numerous overclocking competitions on forums or in the amateur leagues on the BOT, you’ll be happy to know that this graphics has some considerable headroom. This sample topped out at 1180MHz, which is a respectable 100MHz higher than the shipping clocks. In comparison to the reference 290X that’s a healthy 180MHz higher. Memory clocks faired equally well as we managed 6,300MHz (1,550MHz SDR) which is 1.2GHz higher than the reference card frequency and 660MHz over SAPPHIRE’s shipping clock.

Since the Radeon 290X has a very wide memory bus and subsequently, plenty of

bandwidth. Memory clocking will have less of an impact on performance than increasing core clocks. With that said, it was still good fun finding the limits of this card and the frequencies we settled at were more than sufficient.

For all that this card does right though, not all was perfect. There were some issues we wish would not persist, one generation upon another. This is to do with AMD primarily and not SAPPHIRE, but it is a caveat that is worth noting.

When you initially install an AMD powered graphics card, you’re going to have to fiddle with the over scan/ under scanning options in the control panel. The display size for some reason never fills up the whole screen and this is something you must fix manually. There’s absolutely no reason for this to be happening and it’s just an annoying step that for one reason or another has not been patched for years on end. Directly related to that is the creation of custom display profiles and timings.

Most users who use NVIDIA Issue 31 | 2014 The OverClocker 47

All results were obtained at 4600MHz on an un-optimized Windows 64-bit. These are our results, yours may vary so only use these as a guideline for a similarly configured system.

48 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

powered GPUs take this for granted, but there is no such option in the Catalyst Control Centre. You may use a third party tool for this but it’s something that is unnecessary and there's an opportunity for AMD’s partners to integrate this functionality into their own tools.

The last aspect of this graphics card we’d like to look at is the value proposition.

This is dicey because we have to admit that SAPPHIRE has put plenty into this card, a lot more than what pictures can show. The build quality is exceptional and it performs and looks like a $650 graphics card. There can be no denying that but it does face some competition from the ASUS ROG MATRIX R9290X and as mentioned before the MSI Radeon 290X Lightning. The former is priced below the SAPPHIRE card, while the latter is more expensive at $699.99. The lightning card as mentioned earlier matches the SAPPHIRE card in clock speed, while the ROG card clock is 30MHz off. We have not tested either of these cards so it’s difficult to say in relation to them, where the SAPPHIRE offering would be in regards to

value for money. What we can say for sure is that the other two are more ready for extreme or competitive overclocking, using more exotic cooling than this card can hanlde. It’s the small things such a voltage measuring points and dedicated LN2 BIOS switch which makes these two resonate with the competitive overclockers.

For gamers, this is close to as good as it gets.

There just aren’t many alternatives. The PowerColor LCS AXR9 which features a full water block costs $45 less but it alienates every user without a DIY liquid cooling loop, thus it cannot be compared directly.

The closest card we can find to this one happens to be from SAPPHIRE actually, which is the regular* VAPOR-X edition.

Its GPU clock is 50MHz lower and the memory clock is 5,300MHz as opposed to 5,640MHz on this model. With that though you do get to save $65 which is more than what a single “triple A” title will cost you. It’ll be up to you which one you go with and what you’re willing to pay for this added performance.

with the “SAPPHIRE Vapor-X R9 290X Tri-X OC” (This is a very long name) and most certainly think it the best R9 290X we’ve come across. It’s a mighty impressive card, that you should seriously look into. [ The Overclocker ]

Summary SAPPHIRE has in our opinion produced the best Radeon 290X any gamer can hope to buy.

It may not be ready out the box for extreme overclocking, but this isn’t what this product is about. It is squarely aimed at high end gamers and enthusiasts and it delivers to this demographic in spades.

At this price, there are few if any other competing Radeon 290X cards you should be considering.

Would you buy it?

Without a doubt

Here, we stand impressed Issue 31 | 2014 The OverClocker 49

50 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

THE LAST OF US REMASTERED GENRE: Third-person action adventure | DEVELOPER: Naughty Dog PUBLISHER: Sony Computer Entertainment | WEBSITE: http://thelastofus.com WEBSITE: $49.99

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ike many people who didn’t own a PlayStation 3 during its time as Sony’s flagship console, I didn’t have the opportunity to play The Last of Us when it was originally released last year. Obviously there was no way of steering clear of the flurry of praise that was levelled at it, and it’s one of those games I knew I’d regret not having played years down the line. Clearly I was being overly dramatic, and I should’ve known that Sony wouldn’t let this formerly PS3-exclusive gem live solely on last-generation hardware, not with the throng of HD remakes and enhanced editions that older games are constantly treated to these days.

Enter The Last of Us Remastered, the definitive way to play Naughty Dog’s post-apocalyptic opus.

For your money, you’re getting enhanced visuals (running natively at 1080p and a smooth 60 frames

per second – although you can lock it to 30fps if you prefer), improved audio options, director commentary and more. You’re also getting all the post-launch DLC that The Last of Us received, consisting of some multiplayer stuff and the Left Behind single-player DLC. If you already played the game on PS3, tore through its DLC and experienced all that it has to offer, it’s difficult to recommend getting the Remastered edition, unless you traded in your PS3 for a PS4 and absolutely must have the game in your collection – which, given how incredible this game is, wouldn’t surprise us at all.

Anyway, on to the game and why anyone who hasn’t played it should make every effort to do so right now. The Last of Us elevates itself above its third-person action peers by virtue of its poignant narrative.

Its story follows two unlikely companions, journeying across the United States. But this is no sedate road trip where the most dangerous obstacle is screaming children in the backseat, or the sudden need for a restroom when there’s no reprieve in sight. This is a deadly trek through a nightmarish future.

It’s set 20 years after the world is brought to its knees by an outbreak of a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus, which infects the majority of the population and turns them into flesh-hungry monsters.

Issue 31 | 2014 The OverClocker 51

The start of the game introduces us to player character Joel, a smuggler and hired gun in this miserable new world of ration cards and basic survival. Joel’s tragic past has left him a hollow shell, oblivious to any hope or beauty that may still exist in the world. That changes when he meets Ellie, a 14 year-old girl who never knew the world before it went to hell. In Ellie, Joel finds a shot at redemption – a chance to regain his humanity. In Joel, Ellie finds far more than just a seasoned bodyguard shielding her from the horrors surrounding them.

There’s no overstating this: The Last of Us boasts one of the strongest stories ever told by a video game. It’s utterly captivating and full of moments of charming tenderness – in stark contrast with the brutal environment enveloping them. The relationship between Joel and Ellie gradually evolves into one of the most striking companionships in all of gaming. As you’d expect, there’s no way to really get into the meat of the story without spoiling it, so you’ll have to take my word for it when I say that it’s a deeply personal, affectingly human tale, one that you really shouldn’t miss.

To be completely honest, sometimes I actually felt as though the “game” bits in The Last of Us are far too reliant on traditional mechanics and appealing to the masses when the narrative is so far ahead of the curve. That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with it – everything the game does, it does unrelentingly well, and is polished to absolute perfection. It’s a mix of quiet exploration, tense stealth segments and hard-hitting action.

The game presents a mix of human and post-human enemies (and there are some frightening ones among them), and a number of ways to dispose of them. Stealth is always a key component, because ammo for firearms is scarce and going in guns blazing is a sure-fire way to alert more foes to your presence and get your face promptly chewed off. So stealth attacks and subtle sneak-ery is the way to go, throwing objects to create distractions and dispatching enemies with silent kills.

When things get out of hand and you’re faced with a seemingly endless stream of enemies, there’s a nifty contextual cover mechanic 52 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

that isn’t really a cover mechanic at all, but feels organic and useful anyway. Between the guns and the melee combat, skirmishes in The Last of Us are visceral and bloody, really hammering home a sense of how ruthlessly brutal the world has become. Or how ruthlessly brutal it already is, except now there’s also a horrible fungus involved.

The enemy AI is often worryingly intelligent, which makes battles even tenser. You can use melee weapons like steel pipes to dish out more melee damage, but they’ll eventually break, so you’ve got to use them sparingly. Ellie will help out in combat by throwing objects at enemies or calling out their position.

There’s also a crafting system in the game. Finding components hidden in the game world lets you craft items like shivs (for quicker, quieter silent kills), health kits and Molotov cocktails. Fiddling with your inventory is a stressful affair, because it’s all done in real time – the game doesn’t pause when you need to dig around in your

backpack, leaving you feeling very vulnerable if you suddenly need to grab another weapon from your pack during combat. Along the way you’ll also find various collectables used for upgrading Joel’s stats, like his maximum health and his crafting speed.

The stealth and action bits are plenty exciting, but it’s the moments of quiet in between, when you’re traversing the world with Ellie and interacting with her, that are the most memorable. There are so many remarkable moments in this game that I’m sure will stay with me forever, and I’m grateful for having experienced them. It all ties back into that incredible narrative. The well-written, masterfully directed script and the expertly delivered voice acting. The stark beauty that exists between the cracks in this dark future. The reminders that, even in a future dominated by bloodthirsty, fungus-fuelled mutants, other human beings are always your greatest threat. And yes, it helps that the technology

driving everything is incredible, with stunning visuals powering the desolate look and feel of the carefully crafted environments, alongside brilliantly realistic animations and expressions that successfully breathe life into the characters.

The Last of Us is outstanding.

The Last of Us Remastered is even better. You should play it.

[ Dane Remendes ]

Would you buy it?

The Last of Us is outstanding. The Last of Us Remastered is even better.

You should play it.

The Score

9.6/10 Issue 31 | 2014 The OverClocker 53

TECH, GADGETS, MOVIES, LIFESTYLE. ALL IN ONE MAGAZINE!

Read it here

In this issue we dedicate our pages to al lthings zombies, including a survival guide, as well as the topn ten zombies in pop culture!

SplicedMagazine

@splicedmag

www.splicedmagazine.com

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GAMING ARSENAL

FIVE OF THE BEST T

here’s probably not a single person who takes themselves seriously as a fan of PC gaming who hasn’t picked up by now that gaming is huge. In fact PC gaming has gained so much momentum in recent years it’s invalidating many large publishers statements about PC gaming not being a viable source of revenue. We have always maintained that despite the rampant piracy on the platform, there are still copious amounts of revenue streams left to be exploited due to the very nature of being an open platform.

Thus we have the equivalent of every Tom, Dick and Harry, manufacturing gaming peripherals. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of peripherals to pick from. From vendors who have no business even attempting such markets to ones that are veterans of the business, all of them vying for our money and doing whatever they can to oust each other in the minds of gamers.

To that end I gathered, five gaming mice and pit them against each other to see which one would reign supreme.

Mice roundups are always going to

be subjective. No two people have the exact same preference and hand shape or grip. It’s just not possible to design a mouse that is comfortable for everyone but there can be a general consensus on what is useable and what isn’t.

With that said, this was my experience with the various gaming mice and how they stacked up against each other. Once again mouse performance is entirely subjective, but hopefully my experiences resonate with many of you and it will help you figure out which mouse best suits your needs and gaming habits.

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PRICE: $83.99 WEBSITE: www.cougar-world.com SENSOR: ADNS-9800 WEIGHT: 130g (weight management) SIZE: 127 x 83 x 38mm (palm adjustable) BUTTONS: 8

COUGAR 700M

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hen I initially looked at the 700M it reminded me of the numerous MAD CATZ mice, particularly the R.A.T series of mice.

However, as i became familiar with the mouse I realized that these two had very little in common despite a similar design . Cougar states that the 700M is built around a single folded aluminium structure which results in one of the strongest and most certainly the lightest aluminum mouse on the market. That’s great in theory and perhaps even in practice, but how that affects game play is anybody’s guess. It certainly didn’t feel any sturdier than the other mice even though it was the second lightest after the Kone Pure.

Where structural strength goes I’ll have to take Cougar’s word for it, but for game play and comfort we may differ from the marketing material. This is in particular when it comes to comfort and how the mouse is designed ergonomically. It’s supposed to fit both claw and palm grip style users, but I found it near 58 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

impossible to use if you didn’t claw it.

It’s not that the mouse is small, but a large part of what would support your palm is missing at the rear of the mouse. With the wider standard palm rest, the base of my hand was constantly dragging on the mouse mat and even more so with the “Sport mode” rest. This design makes sense if you don’t drive the mouse from the base or back of your hand but rely on your fingers. If you drive from the wrist outwards, a lot of the support that you’d have with a traditional mouse is missing, thus it led to premature fatigue as I’d not developed the muscles to support the sides of my palm which essentially hovered over the mouse. I’ve no doubt you could get used to gaming this way, but my question would be, why you’d choose such a specifically designed mouse if there are others on the market which would be a more natural fit for you?

That aside, the 700M has some great software that not only works as you’d expect but presents all the basic features in a way that makes

programming it child’s play. With a vast array of features, I thought it would be rather tricky to navigate, but it turns out to be the second most intuitive software package just behind what Logitech offers with the G502.

I liked the fact that the weights are located in a central shaft of the mouse just behind the DPI switch. This means the mouse is center weighted and thus, it doesn’t have a tendency to move better in any one direction over another. The weights are easy enough to remove and they do change how the mouse behaves dramatically. I tended to use only a couple of the weights and that helped relieve some of the fatigue my hand was enduring due to the lack of full palm support. This is the only mouse here that is tailored to a very specific demographic. Despite what Cougar claims, it’s really meant for claw grip users with small to medium sized hands. For those users this could possibly be the most comfortable mouse of the lot. For my money though I’m still a 200M advocate even though the 700M is superior on paper.

PRICE: $99.99 WEBSITE: WWW.EVGA.COM SENSOR: AVAGO-9800 WEIGHT: 121G (WEIGHT MANAGEMENT) SIZE: 114.3 X 57.15 X 38.1MM (HEIGHT ADJUSTABLE) BUTTONS: 9

EVGA TORQ X10 CARBON

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VGA’s first entry into this highly saturated peripherals market is a commendable one. Not only did EVGA manage to make the second most comfortable mouse in the roundup, they did it with software that is complete and virtually free of bugs. There’s nothing overtly wrong with this mouse that would suggest to you that this is a first time effort. Good considering that it is the most expensive mouse out of the lot. Of all possible concerns, price is what it may come down to because in this peripherals race where there’s a hierarchy, it’ll be hard to convince buyers to ditch their well-known and trusted brands for a new comer. The reputation that EVGA has in their other business ventures may be noteworthy, but in the gaming world they are yet unproven with no prolific team sponsor to speak of or the heritage which other competitors have.

Still, do not overlook this mouse based purely on that because it is in contention for being the most comfortable mouse in this entire

roundup. Ambidextrous mice are not usually going to satisfy any user group entirely but surprisingly so this perfectly symmetrical design does the job better than most mice dedicated to right hand users.

It’s perfectly balanced for a user like me with a relatively small palm but long fingers. The height adjustment mechanism uses a torque screwdriver (hence the name we suspect) that’s bundled with the mouse. At maximum height, the palm rest is where I found the most comfort and gaming for hours on end was a pleasure and I suffered no fatigue.

The buttons on the side deserve special mention, because they are likely to become polarizing. They have some travel despite the early button press actuation. You may either press them into the mouse or flick them upwards; both methods work in registering a key press. I found that because of their location which is just slightly higher than where any other mouse side buttons would be, I tended to flick upwards to use them (knifing or reloading) and this

worked surprisingly well. I’m not sure if this was a conscious decision

by EVGA to go this route, but it does work. The only downside I can think of is for those clinical players who at the highest levels need to be able to repeatedly press these side buttons as quickly as possible.

They may have an issue with this implementation as it just won’t allow you to be as lightning fast as you could be using a more traditional buttons.

An anomaly and perhaps the greatest shortcoming to an otherwise excellent mouse is the profile switch button which is located underneath the mouse. I’ve no idea how this came to be but for some reason EVGA decided to place the profile switch button in the most inconvenient and most inaccessible place possible.

Thus you’ll have to rely on the DPI buttons to quickly adjust your settings as needed.

Other than that this is a sublime offering that costs a little too much in the context of its competition but nonetheless offers incredible comfort and a good gaming experience.

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PRICE: $79.99 WEBSITE: WWW.GAMDIAS.COM SENSOR: AVAGO 9800 WEIGHT: 154G (WEIGHT MANAGEMENT) SIZE: 127.14 X 84.46 X 43.2MM (SIZE ADJUSTABLE) BUTTONS: 11

EDITOR’S CHOICE AWARD

GAMDIAS Zeus eSport Edition

I

had previously not heard of GAMDIAS prior to COMUTEX 2014; however I was drawn to their booth simply because it was perhaps one of the most stimulating booths that any peripheral vendor had. Little did I know that this sense of loftier presentation would echo through in their products such as the Zeus.

Be advised that this is the eSport Edition and not the regular version.

As far as I can tell there really isn’t any mechanical difference between the two and all discrepancies are cosmetic. Regardless, this is my personal favorite out of every mouse that I received for this round up. Perhaps I was wooed by the presentation which is by far superior to all other efforts here. Mind you, I’m not saying the others didn’t try, but it was the packaging right down to the customizability of the mouse that impressed me. It is just a mouse, but in as far as making you feel that your $80 is well spent, the Zeus is peerless and stands far ahead of every offering I’ve ever come across.

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That aside, the build quality of this mouse is impeccable. It’s a large mouse and the heaviest here so that may have a lot to do with the perception of quality. It has a weight management system which I must admit may not be to everyone’s liking.

The weights are placed in parallel at the rear of the mouse so it may cause the rear to act as an anchor point unintentionally. I did not have this problem and found the weight distribution to be perfect for my needs.

Comfort levels for this mouse were unprecedented as it fit my hands like a glove. Using a palm grip is best for this kind of mouse as it is fairly large, but being able to rest my entire hand on it without too much arching or excessive overshoot placed it at the top of my list. As far as digit placement, the Zeus again stands out allowing you to adjust the position of your thumb, ring and pinky finger independently. If you prefer a wider grip like I do this is perfect as I could easily prevent my ring finger from resting on its neighbor which is always

the case with other mice. There are three rubber side pieces which fit between these adjustable panels on the body, allowing further tuning for comfort.

The downside of this mouse sadly is the Hera suit, which - much like the website - is far too busy and just unappealing. This is a subjective matter of course, but there is far too much going on which can make figuring out what you’re doing unnecessarily challenging. It has all the customization features you’d expect, but it’s all presented with an interface or skin that confuses the entire process. If there was anything to complain about with the Zeus it would be this part as it’s the weakest link in this entire chain and is in desperate need of some work.

That aside, this still remains my mouse of choice and the one I ended up settling with. Legitimately priced with supreme comfort. I am a convert of the Zeus and would recommend this mouse emphatically.

PRICE: $79.99 WEBSITE: WWW.GAMING.LOGITECH.COM SENSOR: PROTEUS CORE 12,000 DPI WEIGHT: 130G (WEIGHT MANAGEMENT) SIZE: 127 X 83 X 38MM BUTTONS: 11

LOGITECH G502

E

xpectations of Logitech’s gaming mice are always going to be high, perhaps even unfairly so. As the oldest gaming mouse vendor here, every mouse is looked at with more scrutiny than any other mouse would be. Thus, it was important to not set unrealistic goals for the G502 but at the same time not be too forgiving of any shortcomings it may have had.

Fortunately for Logitech, the G502 does more right than it does wrong; in fact there was only one aspect of the mouse I found issue with and that was the scroll wheel. This kind of scroll wheel is going to be polarizing and understandably so because it is a drastic departure from what most users are accustomed to.

There are two modes to the wheel; a familiar notched setting and then there’s the free spinning mode. For the former, the individual cogs are very pronounced and do take effort to engage. The upside is that you’re unlikely to select the wrong inventory item or scroll past a desired weapon or in-game item. The alternate / more

controversial mode is the “hyper-fast scrolling”. This free spinning mode is not notched at all, thus you have to be precise when using the wheel. It is interesting to say the least because I found that it works great for navigating documents and web pages, but was unusable when gaming. How severe this is will depend on the game obviously but in UT3 I preferred the more traditional setting.

More about the wheel, it has a tendency to rattle, leading you to suspect that there’s a defect with the mouse, but it turns out that it’s not a design flaw rather a design decision.

So be advised that this play of the wheel is not a factory defect at all.

One of the major features that Logitech promotes with the G502 is the ability to tailor it for different surfaces.

The mouse supposedly tracks motion differently depending on the profile you select. Logitech has a few that are pre-configured that match several of their mouse mats; however you can create your own profiles that best fit your gaming surface. I tested all the

mice on the same surface, but when I selected the different profiles there wasn’t a noticeable difference. I can imagine this would make a difference for those armed with the various mouse mats from Logitech or other vendors however.

As for the 12,000 dpi sensitivity, there’s not much I can say about that as anything above 4,000 DPI is unusable for me, let alone 12,000. It’s a great tick box feature but ultimately not one that represents any real advantage unless you happen to have a very high resolution display(s). It is worth noting that as a showing of the detail the sensor can resolve - it’s remarkable.

Overall this was mouse was very much what I expect from Logitech. The software is second to none and is peerless amongst all in this roundup. If the mouse doesn’t communicate this refinement and years of experience, the software does.

It’s well presented and intuitive, easily the simplest and most appealing out of the lot. This is a commendable mouse and everything one would expect from a Logitech device.

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PRICE: $69.99 WEBSITE: WWW.ROCCAT.ORG SENSOR: PRO-AIM LASER SENSOR R3 WEIGHT: 121G SIZE: 132 X 75 X 40 MM BUTTONS: 7

Value Award

Roccat Kone Pure

H

ere’s a mouse that I had previously reviewed in issue 28 of the magazine. In all that time I stand by what I had said about it and believe it still to be one of the best mice around, especially for those with smaller hands. In the context of all these other mice though, I do feel the competition has stiffened and the sheer variety of mice available on the market necessitate that ROCCAT come out with a better version of the Kone Pure. (Tyon may be the one –Ed!) Ergonomically, the Kone isn’t molded in such a way as to alienate any user, regardless of your grip. Granted for the palm users it’ll be a little difficult given that the mouse is rather small, thus the base of your palm may drag on the mouse mat along with having your digits do the same. Still, if your hands are small enough that shouldn’t be an issue.

For FPS I found this mouse to be about as simple in button layout as they come. This is actually a good thing as you aren’t battling with a tremendous amount of buttons. The Shift+ feature essentially allows you

62 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

to double up on the number of buttons available. Having said that, using the shift key for a secondary feature is always going to incur a time penalty and this is where mice with perhaps two more buttons would win over the Kone Pure.

Given that every other mouse here had a weight management system, I do feel that 90g is a little on the light side and even 20g would have gone a long way into making this mouse feel just right. It is by no means an average mouse by any stretch of the imagination. It is a gaming mouse through and through, but for the more casual gamer it could perhaps do with being a little heavier and a tad larger. The build quality is second to none and as simple as it is, you do feel that you’re dealing with a quality product. Most of the power or usability of this mouse is actually in the software that ships with it. ROCCAT has put so much into it, that without downloading the software, you’re using less than half the features of the mouse. This is perhaps also where ROCCAT

could make some improvements.

The software had tremendous lag where changing a single setting and saving. The software would become unresponsive very often. It turns out that this is due to anti-virus software, which has some compatibility issues with the driver. At the time of writing this review there was no update, but one is sure to come in due time. What is great about the software though is that it gives you statistics about your mouse use, including distance travelled, total number of clicks and how many times you used the Shift+ function. ROCCAT even gives you achievements by reaching specific milestones in using your mouse.

(Think Steam achievements!)

Overall this is still one fine mouse that is worthy of your attention. It doesn’t excel at any one thing enough to make it a stand out offering, but at the same time it doesn’t do anything overtly wrong to warrant your dismissal. It is a worthy mouse and if anything has proved itself at the highest levels of competitive gaming with a very attractive price.

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MSI GT72 Dominator RRP: $2,899 | Website: www.msi.com

I

was tasked again this issue with reviewing another MSI gaming notebook. This time, a powerful or rather, the most powerful gaming notebook MSI has ever built. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out if you look at the benchmark results. Sure it’s not going to match a mid-range desktop machine, but that doesn’t matter. You shouldn’t be expecting any notebook to do that.

What the GT72 does do however is make some generational improvements over the previous GT70. Gone is the bright red edition of many moons ago along with the generic rounded look of the previous model. In its stead we have angular lines that are reminiscent of the ASUS GX notebooks or better yet the AORUS X7. The GT72 treads between these two design types and delivers something that is subdued, but unmistakably gaming. It doesn’t shout its intended use nor should it, instead it looks like a road warrior, perhaps even a mobile workstation. If you pull this out in front of anybody, they will know you mean serious business. It’s either you’re in need of an upgrade from your early to mid-90s laptop (in 64 The OverClocker Issue 31 | 2014

size) or you’re there to present a real-time 3D rendering of a future real estate investment or some such thing. It’s not pretty by any stretch of the imagination and the GS60 is light years ahead in aesthetics. However, unsightly it is far from. It’s just business all around with a hint of excitement.

In previous reviews I expressed concern with what vendors sell as key features for their offerings. This was usually RAID arrays with promises of ridiculous sequential data throughput. This hasn’t changed with the GT72 but the use of four 128GB M.2 drives in a RADI0 array has to be respected. As usual I was not able to match the claimed 1.6GB/s read speed but I did record over 1.2GB/s which is more than enough. More meaningful, was the 4K read and write speed which was impressive delivering well over 600MB/s respectively.

I’m inclined to think this is the reason boot up times are insanely quick. Actually this is the fastest notebook I’ve ever used and makes my older gaming notebook seem truly archaic by comparison.

“The MSI GT72 Dominator is incredibly powerful alright and it is better than its predecessor in almost every way imaginable...”

Gaming on this notebook is of utmost importance, as one doesn’t buy an this kind of machine for any reason but playing games (or at least this should be the primary reason). Powered by the GTX 880M and the 4710HQ, it was always going to handle all games splendidly on the 1080P display. The truth is that as much as I’m impressed by the wonderful 17.3" FHD TN display, I was hoping that with the GT72, MSI would surprise us all and deliver a QHD panel where all the processing and GPU power would get a chance to shine. As it is, a GTX 870M is pretty much able to play most modern games at 1080P. What the 880M allows you to do is add MSAA to that which is great, but not as impressive as what a higher resolution would yield on such a screen.

button would allow you to set this manually) and cycling through various illumination schemes. This is perhaps one of the more frustrating things with the notebook as it is pretty difficult to get a single solid white backlight without jumping through hoops. The SteelSeries software allows all manner of light effects, across all layers (There are three layers of LED lighting on this notebook) but selecting a simple one colour option is anything but intuitive. That goes hand in hand with the inability to reduce or increase brightness via the software. You have to do that via a two button key press on the opposite end of the keyboard. With this key combo you can cycle through a few brightness levels including turning the backlight on and off, but for the different colour configurations you need to use the separate “shortcut” key. The enitre experience is not well executed and it complicates what Catzilla 1.3 1080p: 7691 should be an otherwise simple and 3DMark Firestrike: 5160 straightforward process.

BENCHMARKS

Playing FPS games on the GT72 was more than splendid as you can expect. The PCMark 8 Creativity Suit: 4699 only issue I had concerned the notebooks height off any given As with all other notebooks Battery test (PCMark8): 65min44sec surface, as it meant that the in the family, MSI makes use mouse was noticeably lower. of Dynaudio speakers. These To alleviate this, I had to stack are slightly larger than what several magazines and place a mouse mat over them. was on the GT70 and are more powerful on paper, but This isn’t something MSI can do anything about but it is in practice just aren’t as loud. I do suppose MSI was not worth being aware off as it can get annoying gaming on going for volume here but quality and in that regard uneven surfaces. they have succeeded. The audio is much deeper with far more depth and clarity, especially in the mid-range. It is Another noteworthy change from the GT70 is that on however not as loud as before, in fact I would dare say the GT72, the keyboard is mounted on a separate or this speaker system is a touch is too soft even with the independent frame from the notebook casing with only the volume cranked all the way up. It is best then to bring keys peeking through. As such, no matter how hard your gaming headset with you as once again this will be you may press the keys (within reason of course) there will the best way to experience audio. be no flexing at all. This also causes the keys to have an extremely shallow travel and they are a little less meaty to In closing, such notebooks are always going to feature hit than on other MSI notebooks. This is great for gaming the best of the best in hardware. The challenge for vendors but it isn’t ideal for typing as I was prone to is how they bring all that power into a package that is not more mistakes being used to more travel. Assuming you’ll only accessible, but appealing. The MSI GT72 Dominator want to do some typing, be mindful of this as it will take is incredibly powerful alright and it is better than its some time to get used to. predecessor in almost every way imaginable, but there is still some distance to be covered before it becomes a highly Along the keyboard to the left is a set of short cut keys sought-after notebook like the GS60 Ghost in its niche. For including one for instantly starting your game streaming, this price, you’re not going to do much better at present. switching to an enhanced/high performance fan profile, force If you have the money to spend, do give the GT72 some enabling the discreet GPU (Supposedly some programs do consideration. [ Iron-Synapse ] not automatically switch to the discreet GPU therefor this

Issue 31 | 2014 The OverClocker 65

The“ I nf i ni t eKi ngs �l ogoandbr andi ngar er egi s t er edt r ademar ks .