Theoverclocker issue 36

Issue 36 2015 rev 2.1

THE WORLD’S BEST OVERCLOCKING ONLINE MAGAZINE. THE KING!

K|NG MAXWELL EVGA GTX 980 Ti K|NGP|N EDITION FEATURE

REVIEWED

GIGABYTE Z170XGAMING G1

REVIEWED

ASUS MAXIMUS VIII EXTREME

GAME TIME

INTERVIEW

WARHAMMER: END TIMES – VERMINTIDE

Q+A WITH JONATHAN “STRONG ISLAND”PASSERO

THE END OF 2015: 2016 HERE WE COME! I

t’s taken long enough but it’s finally here, issue 36 of TheOverclocker magazine.

This is the last one for 2015 and the next one will be in 2016 after CES in January.

2015 has been both exciting and truly peculiar in many ways. For the most part, in hardware, gaming and overclocking things have been good. We’ve had more competitions, more overclockers, better hardware and of course a host of new motherboards, memories and graphics cards. We can’t say we didn’t get our fill of new products. One suspects 2016 will only get better, with the supposed return of AMD as a valid CPU/platform alternative, new GPUs from NVIDIA and AMD as usual, Broadwell-E, KabyLake and a who knows what else. Perhaps we may even start seeing some 3DXPoint drives as well. It is even more exciting right now than 2015 was, at least on paper.

That is all next year though, for this year I have to admit that as great as it’s been, it’s also shown that there are some issues present within the industry that do need to be dealt with one way or another. If hardware manufacturers and all the others are to continue to enjoy the boom in the DIY computing space, then we will need more ingenuity and less mimicry. We will need more creative ideas that are sensitive to the needs of the end users and not products that are made purely because it was possible to do so. There are many examples of this but I’m sure many can think of at least one.

I would also like to say that, it was in 2004 I believe that we were first introduced to Steam. The general consensus was that the system was buggy, a nuisance, and was far too DRM heavy amongst many other complaints. It is now 12, going to 13 years later and there isn’t a bigger gaming service than Steam. What we detested, we have now become fond of. It has ushered in a way for gamers to even fight back against the increasing poor release quality of Triple-A title via refunds. It has given a voice to indie developers and essentially proved to be a great enabler for both consumers and developers. In essence, the system works. It is far from perfect and is in need of fixing, but by and large it works. I do believe we will see a similar change with steam boxes and the controller that was introduced. For all the problems that those two products face, I know not to bet against Valve as I’ve been on the wrong side of Valve and its projects at just about every turn.

In overclocking related matters, especially regarding the Z170 platform and Skylake CPUs. In light of what was covered on the last OC-TV OC show, there was/is an inherent difficulty with overclocking the CPUs. Not something native to the design of course, but the mere fact that it is necessary to de-lid the CPU to be competitive. The risks involved prior to de8auer’s De-lid kit rendered many CPUs useless and if anything discouraged potential overclockers from taking part in extreme overclocking. This isn’t so much of a problem for the veterans and the seasoned competitors but is a massive problem for the novice and amateur crowd. The ones that are ready for liquid nitrogen would instantly be met with a high risk proposition that was previously not there. From personal experience, I have lost three CPUs and ultimately I was better off with just sticking to the X99 platform. If only from a financial perspective. Obviously the new de-lid tool rectifies this issue, but for many people including I, it is hundreds of dollars later and I’ll not be taking part in any extreme overclocking for the Skylake CPUs going into 2016 perhaps.

This brings me back to the point I was making earlier, as it has taken a community member, one with immense and many unquantifiable contributions to the overclocking landscape, to come up with a solution. With fewer resources than any one manufacturer, but with a commitment to helping the community and future overclockers. This tool could be easily manufactured in volume by any one vendor, yet it was not. Again, speaking to the lack of foresight and ingenuity. Odd when you consider that without the ability to de-lid CPUs successfully, it renders virtually all motherboards the same as the limits to frequency scaling are capped at roughly 5.7GHz. Such, an addition to any motherboard package would allow the differences between motherboards to manifest themselves in a real way. It is only then, there can be justification for that $500 motherboard or what have you. Binning is still part of the competitive extreme overclocking game, but taking away this additional step does in many ways help level the playing field again by removing unnecessary risk .

With that said, we will be back in 2016 covering some of the best items, events, overclockers hardware and games on the market.

Stay tuned and happy holiday season.

[ Neo Sibeko - Editor ]

Issue 36 | 2015 The OverClocker 3

REGULARS 28

3 - Editor’s note 6 - Interview with “Strong Island" 12 - HWBOT OC Leagues & OC-TV

FEATURES 16 - NAG OC WORKSHOP @ rAge 2015 18 - EVGA GTX 980 Ti K|NGP|N EDITION 40

REVIEWS 24 - ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme 28 - CORSAIR Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200 32 - GIGABYTE Z170X Gaming G1

GAME TIME 36 - Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide 40 - AORUS THUNDER M7

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

Editor Neo Sibeko Art Director Chris Savides Contributors Dane Remendes Pieter-Jan “Massman” Plaisier Timothée Pineau For editorial and marketing please contact:

18

4 The OverClocker Issue 36 | 2015

neo@theoverclocker.com

QA

Jonathan “Strong Island”Passero Country Name and City: I am from United States, Long Island, New York.

What language(s) do you speak in addition to English if any?

I took Spanish in high school but don’t speak any other language fluently.

Your nick, “strong island 1”, any special meaning behind it and what does it mean?

It’s something that people from Long Island say, meaning we are a powerful island. It originally was my xbox gamertag and I always kept it.

Now I changed it to Strong Island. The 1 doesn’t mean anything.

By extreme overclocking standards, you’re relatively new to LN2 overclocking. How long have you been overclocking with LN2 and what is it about LN2 that has you hooked?

It’s been almost 2 years since I first touched Liquid Nitrogen. I originally bought the 780 ti K|NGP|N Edition to overclock on water and I didn’t see much difference on water compared to my 780 ti Classified.

So I had to try and overclock on liquid nitrogen to try and see it’s full potential.

My first night went poorly and I almost gave up but the next day I called in sick from work and said to myself I had to give it one more try. That night I broke 1850mhz core clock and had like the #2 score on the 3dmark firestrike leaderboard.

That feeling was so amazing and I had so much fun that I never stopped using ln2 since then and I have been having a blast. If it wasn’t for the K|NGP|N Edition card allowing me to have those results on my first 6 The OverClocker Issue 36 | 2015

weekend I might not have ever stuck with it.

taste in my mouth but I would love to try it again.

How many live overclocking events have you attended if any and if not, which ones would you like to take part in in future?

I have actually never attended a live event. I have never been invited and there hasn’t been any near where I live. I really would love to experience Computex and the overclocking that went on there. It looked like so much fun.

Not too long ago you were benching an old 8800GTS graphics card.

Compared to modern GPUs, do you find this easier or harder to bench, is it more exciting or less so?

I have been having so much fun with my 8800gts 512mb. It is actually my very first successful zombie card. I am having a blast with it.

The other night on water cooling the 8800 zombie was scaling up to 1.65v, meaning there was so much oc headroom to play with, going up to about 950mhz on ambient temp water.

It’s a lot of fun. Plus you have the shader clock meaning a little more to tweak, which is always good.

The 8800gts 512mb card is pretty easy to bench and very relaxing on ln2 because it’s a small chip and doesn’t generate a ton of heat. I get excited benching any gpu so they are both fun in there own ways.

You bench as part of the massive and highly competitive overclock. net team, did you join that team in particular because of their quality or was it primarily because that was your chosen forum where you spent most of your time?

I had already been benching a lot for the overclock.net bench threads, especially Valley was my favourite, and I am a benchmark editor at OCN so it just felt natural to join the OCN team. A lot of the guys have been really cool over there teaching me about the ins and outs of hwbot and tweaking. The forums are also very busy so it’s fun to talk to people about overclocking and hardware.

Whom do you bench with primarily if anyone or are you a lone overclocker mostly?

Unfortunately I am a lone bencher.

I wish there were more people in my area to overclock with. I would love to.

The one time I did bench with someone it went very badly. We both brought gear to bench and we killed one of my kingpin cards and still had a ton of nitrogen left and he refused to use any of his gear after that and we couldn’t use the nitrogen. That left a little bad

In keeping with the old school benchmarks. Between 3DMark 2001se and Aquamark3, which is your favourite and do you believe that these benchmarks should still be given points going forward?

I really love 3dmark01, I haven’t had a ton of experience with Aqumark3. I really like these benchmarks because there is a ton of things to tweak. A lot of the new firestrike benches are mostly click and run, which I love also, but there is something really fun about challenging yourself and learning how to produce a great 3d01 score.

My highest so far is about 170,000 but I’m still working on it. Hopefully Skylake can help me with that. I would hate to see points removed, it’s nice to have a challenge to work

towards. I think the more 3d benches with points the better.

Between 3D benchmarks and the more CPU/memory focused ones such as XTU and SuperPi, GeekBench etc., which ones are you partial to?

I really love 3d benchmarks the most. It’s what I started on and it’s all I did on water cooling before trying ln2. When I first started ln2 I was only freezing the gpu and keeping the cpu on water. A little backwards compared to how most people start but I love 3d and gpu’s.

But now that I love ln2 I do the cpu benches also just because I like any kind of benching. Also with 2d you can usually use less ln2 and stretch it out a bit more which means more fun. I guess I just enjoy any type of overclocking really.

How much of overclocking do you think is finding the right hardware (binning) and how much is skill?

I would say it’s mostly a balance between the 2. Even if you find a great cpu, if you don’t have any skill

than you won’t be able to max out the clocks. Just because a cpu is capable of a crazy speed doesn’t mean the overclocker will be able to get that speed out of it. Also if you have crazy good skills and have a terrible cpu your skill will not be able to overcome the bad cpu. So to me it’s definitely a balance. Usually just using ln2 it will be pretty easy to get to a certain speed, but it’s those last mhz that really take the skill and separate the top benhcers.

What is your single greatest or most memorable overclocking event and/ or achievement?

Honestly my first time overclocking on ln2 and hitting 1850mhz core clock has really stuck with me and I still smile when I think about it. I was also really proud of myself when I broke into the top 100 of the extreme league.

It took a lot of work and dedication to get there.

A couple weeks ago I also hit #2 ranking on the OCN team rankings which was cool, now I’m third. It really felt great because the team is full of a

lot of great overclockers.

Also when I booted up my first zombie mod that felt amazing. I never thought I would be able to do it. I used to see people benching with them and I would get so discouraged thinking it was impossible for me. I finally got a hold of an epower and gave it a shot.

I tested the card on ln2 and hit 1215mhz core which is the 2nd or 3rd highest core clock ever submitted for that gpu. I was really proud of myself.

The problem is the card has quimonda memory and the memory does close to 300mhz less than other top cards so it really hurts my score. I’m going to try the card with Samsung memory soon with an asus power board I got a hold off.

Overclocking as an eSports. Do you agree that this can be fun to watch live with an audience?

This is a tough question. I think it would need some changes to become fun to watch live. Maybe adding random hardware and time limited rounds could make it fun to watch.

Right now it is a little boring to watch Issue 36 | 2015 The OverClocker 7

benching them on ln2 they make you smile.

Other than overclocking, what are your other interests and what occupies most of your days?

I am really into sports. I am a huge New York Yankee and New York Giants fan. I played baseball and football for a long time, all the way thru high school.

I am also really close with my 5 year old niece Savanna and I spend a lot of time with her, she is my best friend, her Dad hasn’t really been around, so I have tried to fill that role for her. I really love her. She just started Kindergarten so it’s been fun experiencing that with her and my Sister.

Other than that I try to work a lot of overtime to afford all the ln2 and hardware so I feel I am pretty busy at all times. I am a Material Damage Specialist for SCA Appraisal Company and we are really busy right now.

As always games are what lead most people into overclocking, was this true for you as well and if so tell us a little about that journey.

Well I have always had a gaming console since I was a little kid. I used so we need to make it a little more exciting for this to really become fun to watch live.

I think we should always keep the online subs the way we have it now but for live comps we definitely need a different format.

When you overclock, are you primarily doing it for points, for the fun of it or is it a combination of the two?

At first it was completely fun. My first few ln2 sessions I didn’t even sub them to hwbot. I just took screenshots of precision x to show on overclock. net and submit to some of the bench threads there, it was all about fun.

Now I have started to care a little bit more about the points. So I would say it’s a mixture of both. I still have a ton of fun doing it but I definitely try for the most points possible and after a good run I go right to hwbot on my tablet to check what the ranking is while still benching, it gets addicting to try and move up in the rankings.

It takes a lot of work and doesn’t happen overnight so it’s very satisfying when you start to see some good results.

8 The OverClocker Issue 36 | 2015

What is your favourite motherboard and graphics card to overclock of all time?

I would have to say the EVGA 780 ti K|NGP|N Edition is my favourite card of all time, it gave me so many fun sessions. When you bench that card you know that the pcb is not holding you back and that you are getting the absolute most out of the gpu. It feels like it’s built like a tank and can take and voltages you throw at it. It was a landmark gpu.

I really love my Gigabyte x99 SOC Champion. There is just something about that board that is very special.

It feels like it was made to push hard and not break a sweat. I love how it only has 4 dimm slots and left off a lot of features we don’t need for XOC. I hope the other manufacturers will follow and all have a XOC line like that.

It feels good that the design is optimized for overclocking, like the memory slots being closer to the cpu for shorter traces. It was a very innovative idea to do on a normal sized board and I really love it. My Gigabyte z97 SOC Force is a close second. I am still benching that board and it has never given me a single issue cold. These boards just feel right, it’s almost hard to explain. When

a computer only for work. I then wanted to build a custom pc for work and figured it would be nice to game on also. So I built a modest pc.

Then once I built it I found overclock. net and started seeing all the custom builds and new parts coming out.

Forums can really push you to want to build something better and get new parts.

So I built a really awesome water cooled gaming build. I then started benching Valley and started to compare my scores on the forums, I kept trying to get better scores on water and got really addicted to it and moved to other benches like the 3dmarks and Catzilla.

Then the 780 ti K|NGP|N Edition came out and I really started pushing things and got introduced to the XOC world. It didn’t feel right to keep a card like that on water so that is what started this whole thing for me.

What are your four favourite games of all time and what are your three favourite benchmarks of all time?

My favourite games of all time is tough because I love a lot of games, but I would have to say the original Bioshock, followed by Fallout 3, all the Madden Football Games, and Left for Dead.

Bioshock was so amazing, the world and atmosphere they created was so special, I have never felt that feeling with another game. Playing multiplayer Left for Dead was some of the best gaming memories I have, it was so much fun. Also when the original Gears of War was released, the multiplayer was so much fun.

Some of the battles in the mansion were great.

My 3 favorite benchmarks are Catzilla, Valley, 3d Mark Firestrike.

and why is that?

I still get very excited every single time I get to use ln2, I think getting into the rankings and getting involved with hwbot has made it even more exciting because it gives me something to work towards and the forums give you a place to talk about it. I really love the new OC Esports platform because the competitions add some excitement and give us something different to overclock for. The low clock challenge I was in, was really fun and it really even’s the playing field because it removes binning from the equation. I am still very happy with overclocking and I hope to bench with other people in the near future.

If you could change one single thing in overclocking what would it be?

I really wish some of the tools available to the elite guys were more readily available to guys just starting out. Like Afterburner Extreme and the ASUS and Galax power cards. It’s really frustrating when you love this stuff so much and people submit with it but some of us can’t. It would be nice for everyone in the extreme league to have the same available tools.

As far as rankings go, you’re in the top 80 in the Extreme league. Where are you looking to move to in the next say one or two months and what benchmarks will you be focusing on to get you there?

My goal is to make sure I steadily rise up the rankings. I need to improve my top 20 hardware subs. My plan is to combine my 8800 gts zombie and skylake and go for the legacy 3d benches and 3dmark vantage.

Hopefully that will give a nice boost to my rankings.

I am also focused on making sure I participate in the upcoming oc esports competitions. I am still missing a lot of the competition points for my profile so that will really help my ranking also.

Your general sentiments about overclocking regarding its future. Are you as excited as when you ran your first LN2 session, more so, less etc.

Any particularly strong hardware you have at present that you will be relying on to help you achieve this goal?

10 The OverClocker Issue 36 | 2015

I just got the asus maximus viii extreme and I have 2 6700k’s to test. I also just purchased a 8800 gts 512mb card with Samsung memory. So I am going to change my zombie from the 8800 gts with quimonda memory to the Samsung card.

Hopefully a nice 6700k and 8800 gts will get me some nice hardware points. That’s my plan for right now. I also have a EVGA 580 Classified I hope to get some hardware points out of.

I really love the EVGA 980 ti K|NGP|N Edition I just got a few months ago, it feels just like the 780 ti K|NGP|N did. I plan to use that a lot in the coming weeks. It uses so much ln2 I need to wait until I can order a big 180 Liter tank so I can have some real fun. It is another amazing gpu from EVGA, K|NGP|N and TIN. Finally, is there anything you’d like to say to everyone reading this?

I would first like to say thank you for reading this. It’s exciting to get more involved with the world of extreme overclocking. I hope we all have a lot of fun overclocking in the future and I really hope competitive overclocking is around for a long time. I hope it can become more popular because that would only help us all who really love it. The more it grows, the more opportunities we will all have. We need to embrace the newcomers because it’s the future. I really hope I get to meet some of you at overclocking events and hopefully there are some people close to New York and NYC that I can bench with. [ The Overclocker ]

 

2015 Overclocking Season In every issue of The Overclocker we present you an overview of the Official World Overclocking Ranking, the HWBOT Road to Pro & the HWBOT League rankings. Thumbs up to everyone who made the hall of fame!

Official World Overclocking Ranking 693 pts

616 pts

Topdog

565 pts

Ksateaaa23

Xtreme Addict

HWBOT Road To Pro Gubben

KRONOS PRO OC

Pasatoiutd

DrWeez

GGI78

GENiEBEN

Sebro

Rasparthe

HWBOT OC Leagues The current leaders starting from Elite going to Rookie are Dancop, Zwitterion, Vadimua, Sn0wMe, Ventel.

Elite

Extreme

Enthusiast

Novice

Rookie

1

Dancop

Zwitterion

Vadimua

SergeyR

Traktor

2

8 Pack

Bullshooter

Pho5ph0ric

Sn0wMe

TAGG

3

Xtreme Addict

Rauf

Raules009

Sandalo

4

Der8auer

minicoopers

George.kokovinis

keika

Kos_S

5

Splave

Hideo

Niuulh

ncm_md

andressergio

Ventel

(standings as of December 04, 2015)

Competition Results The third quarter 2015 is definitely another active one. With a total of 27 competitions there was plenty of action to follow!

- GIGABYTE GIGABYTE Z97 Last Hurrah Challenge - Ambient

GIGABYTE Z97 Last Hurrah Challenge - Extreme

1 Arhaam

73 pts

1 Xtreme Addict

79 pts

2 Coldest

63 pts

2 Lucky_n00b

62 pts

3 Fgi

53 pts

3 Rauf

58 pts

- MSI MSI Godlike OC Tournament 2D Battle - Ambient

MSI Godlike OC Tournament 2D Battle - Extreme

1 IvanCupa

44 pts

1 Lucky_n00b

50 pts

2 Raules009

44 pts

2 DrWeez

49 pts

3 Nvidiaforever2

41 pts

3 Perica_barii

39 pts

MSI Godlike OC Tournament 3D Battle - Ambient

MSI Godlike OC Tournament 3D Battle - Extreme

1 Raules009

68 pts

1 DrWeez

65 pts

2 Nvidiaforever2

59 pts

2 Zzolio

59 pts

3 IvanCupa

49 pts

3 Lucky_n00b

50 pts

- HWBOT Road to Pro HWBOT Challenger Series

Pro OC Series - Round 3

Division 1 Round 3

Steponz

91 pts

1 Team Pro OC EU

182 pts

Division 2 Round 3

D0minat0r

118 pts

2 Ph_Team Hungary

163 pts

Division 3 Round 3

Demac

96 pts

3 KPC Pro OC #2

141 pts

Division 4 Round 3

Gubben

106 pts

HWBOT Team Cup 2015

Division 5 Round 3

Topdog

93 pts

1 Classicplatforms.com

1007 pts

Division 6 Round 3

Kristjan.krusic

41 pts

2 Overclock.net

896 pts

Division 7 Round 3

QuickFast

95 pts

3 AwardFabrik

855 pts

- HWBOT Series Rookie Rumble #21

DianaOC

150 pts

Novice Nimble #4

Cowcotland

232 pts

Rookie Rumble #22

SergeyR

136 pts

Novice Nimble #5

Overclock.net

232 pts

Rookie Rumble #23

SergeyR

150 pts

41 pts

Rookie Rumble #24

SergeyR

150 pts

Old School is Best School #4 XTREME OC Team Bulgaria

Rookie Rumble AMD #18

Niuulh

141 pts

Old School is Best School #5 Belarus OC Team

25 pts

Rookie Rumble AMD #19

Ncn_md

136 pts

Rookie Rumble AMD #20

Kos_S

136 pts

Rookie Rumble AMD #21

Kos_S

132 pts

(standings as of November 20, 2015)

The OC Show Your overclocking talk-show In each episode of the OC Show, Pieter (Massman - HWBOT) and Tim (Xyala OverClocking-TV) cover the latest news from the overclocking community. This second season of the show introduces a new format - the best way to keep up with the latest from the overclocking scene.

Here are the last episodes of the OC Show Season 2:

The key topics discussed in the last episodes are: • HWBOT Team Cup • HyperX OC Takeover Season 3 • HWBOT Country Cup • Featuring Z170 motherboards by ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte • Intel Skylake CPU delidding • and more!

Relax, grab some pop-corn & enjoy the show.

Questions?

If you have questions, you can tune-it for the bi-weekly live Q&A session hosted on the OverClocking-TV Twitch channel.

Ask Us Live

NAG OC WORKSHOP @ rAge 2015 TURNING GAMERS INTO OVERCLOCKERS!

C

hange is ,as we are all aware inevitable. In fact it is mandated for all subjects of the natural world. In our sporting teams, traditional or otherwise. We see new champions and the guard constantly evolving allowing for new competitors to enter the stage. This is particularly true for all competitive endeavours and overclocking is no different. It is in light of this that, we are great advocates for all things related to amateur and novice overclocking. From the hardware to the live and online competitions. For the seasoned competitor these may not be interesting at all, but it is from this talent pool where the next 8 Pack, Dancop, XtremeAddict, der8auer, Rbuass, steponz, etc. will come from.

For there was a time when none of these individuals were taking part in overclocking, at least at this level.

In light of this, it was decided that we would embark on a series of overclocking workshop and amateur competitions going forward. These would be live competitions sponsored primarily by NAG Online, which is former gaming and technology print magazine. For roughly 18 years, the publication served as one of the few sources of cutting edge gaming related and PC DIY technology news.

16 The OverClocker Issue 36 | 2015

Having made the transition to an online only publication, 2015 saw what we can only hope to be the first of many overclocking workshops and amateur overclocking competitions.

This year’s event took place in Johannesburg, South Africa at the largest gaming expo dubbed "rAge" (really awesome gaming event). At rage 2015, we – TheOverclocker Magazine - had the opportunity to work with of course NAG Online, CORSAIR, G.SKILL and MSI to bring the first NAG OC workshop. During this three day event, those with little to no experience overclocking would have the opportunity to learn about overclocking and compete for prizes, provided of course by the aforementioned sponsors. What made this of particular interest is that, show attendees were able to take part, many for the first time in what they had only read or heard about elsewhere, but never tried for any number of reasons.

Providing the platform however, isn’t enough and as the name of the event suggests. This was a workshop and as such, expert advice from at least two seasoned and elite overclockers was a must. These two competitors came in the form of ViVi and dRweEz, which many elite

overclockers are familiar with. If only because, these happen to be the best overclockers that have ever emerged from that corner of the globe. Yours truly helped with some coaching, along with local hardware enthusiast Warren “Tweak” Kramer. Over the three day event, entrants received a 20 to 30 minute coaching session, then had the opportunity to compete over a period of 90 minutes.

During the coaching session, entrants were taught how to capture valid HWBOT screenshots, introduced to INTEL XTU and 3DMark FireStrike.

These two benchmarks proved perfect for the workshop, highlighting CPU frequency, memory tweaking, overclocking and GPU clock tuning.

The three fundamental domains of overclocking at every level. Since this was an introduction to overclocking and an amateur event, there was no use of the Liquid Nitrogen or Dry Ice. Competitors made use of the CORSAIR Hydro Series H80i cooler, which proved more than capable of handling the INTEL Core i7 6700K CPU, well up to 4.9GHz in some instances.

Power was delivered by the CORSAIR RM650, GPU and motherboard provided by MSI and LCD displays by BenQ. The MSI Z170 Gaming M7 served as the base

platform with the MSI GTX 950 Gaming GPU and G.Skill’s RipJaws4 DDR4 2400MHz memory. An average gaming machine, but one that revealed to the entrants and on lookers just how much latent potential it held not only for competitive overclocking but gaming as well.

The importance of the event, helped to dispel the myth that overclocking was a sure way to damage hardware, which hasn’t been true for over a decade. With first-hand experience, competitors and on lookers had the opportunity to see just how robust DIY components have become over the years. The systems ran repeatedly, for hours on end each day without issue ridding the competitors of their “fear” of overclocking. Once that was dispelled, the addiction to an ever increasing score took over. As many of you know, once the overclocking bug bites, it tends to stay with you. The impression made on amateurs far outweighed what we could have ever achieved with any demonstration of extreme overclocking using liquid nitrogen. As much as those demonstrations and even competitions will make their way back to the show floor in future rAge expos. The heart of the workshop remains the amateur component. As it helps connect

what we often take for granted with clock speeds north of 5.7GHz to the average gamer, many of whom are still operating their systems at default clock speeds or at around 4.5GHz for the experienced ones. The NAG OC Workshop brought overclocking down to a simple and straightforward goal that all could understand and be part of. As true as the statement may be, telling onlookers and gamers that overclocking is “making one’s computer run faster” isn’t saying much of anything at all. It is as good as a dictionary definition, but of course tells one nothing about the mechanics and purpose of such an endeavour in a material sense.

Fascinating about such competitions is how the hardware that many expert and veteran overclockers take for granted, still holds such a sense of wonder and awe amongst amateurs.

The hardware that is passable for the elite overclocking community is what many amateurs hope to one day upgrade to. Moreover, the idea that any one of them may win the very same hardware they were using guaranteed the competitors that they could go back home, dial in the very same settings and experience the same performance.

Throughout, the workshop received

over 80 entrants, and the final came down to six of the best. As a testament to the elimination process, the last day saw not only the highest scores on average, but of course the highest XTU and 3DMark FireStrike score overall. The 3dMark FireStrike top score for the GTX 950 was actually the highest recorded on HWBOT at the time. Something that when announced of course made the sense of achievement that much great for the eventually winner Fenix.

2016, will likley see the return of the NAG OC Workshop in Cape Town as part of the HWBOT world Tour. Not only will it be larger, but with the success of the 2015 event in Johannesburg, it’s clear that the most effective and direct way of promoting overclocking is through such events. We look to events such as Jagat-Review’s AOCT and the Brazil’s Campus party for inspiration.

Two of the most impressive amateur overclocking gatherings on the calendar. Places from which future champions will certainly come.

Until the next NAG OC Workshop, be it you’re a professional overclocker or an amateur. Keep pushing it! [ The Overclocker ] Issue 36 | 2015 The OverClocker 17

K|NG MAXWELL EVGA GTX 980 Ti K|NGP|N EDITION

EDITOR’S CHOICE AWARD

18 The OverClocker Issue 36 | 2015

LAST ISSUE WE REVIEWED A MIGHTY GTX 980 Ti POWERED GRAPHICS CARD. YOU MAY READ THAT REVIEW OVER HERE. THIS TIME AROUND, WE HAVE A SUPERIOR CARD IN A DIFFERENT LEAGUE. A PURPOSE BUILT EXTREME OVERCLOCKING CARD THAT IS UNQUESIONTABLY - THE BEST THE HAS EVER BEEN!

T

here’s simply no two ways about it, this is the best extreme overclocking graphics card on the market and for that sole purpose it deserves a separate, editorial from the regular one. Before I get into the details of the KPE card, it is imperative that we look at what such graphics cards mean to the overclocking community and enthusiast in general. As I am partial to automobile analogies, I will once again use one and suggest that the 980 Ti KPE is for all intents and purposes the McLaren P1 of the DIY\enthusiast space. Much like that car represents more than just it’s 0-100km/h(0-62mph) time and top end, the 980 Ti KPE is more than just it’s shipping clocks and how far it will go with the retail cooler.

The graphics card is massively expensive and by any measure $1,000, is a lot of money for what is NVIDIA’s second most powerful single GPU solution. It is similar to that LaFerrari which costs more than not costs more than a Tour Bus. The prices may be similar, but the purposes are different and the value for each is not derived solely from the purchase price. There are many other factors that influence just how valuable this graphics card is to those who are suited and ready to use is for its intended purpose. Sure you can use it for your gaming and have amazing performance. However, that rings true for all GTX 980 Ti offerings, from the reference to the most elaborate models. What makes any one model different cannot be found in games unfortunately. In much the same way that the brilliance that is the McLaren P1 (unlike the Formula 1 team) is to be found on track days and track meets. It’s not to say however, that owners spend all their time doing laps and that is the only way they derive value from their purchase. It’s also in the regular commute to where ever they may go on weekends. It’s in the admiration

from those who are conscious of how rare the specimen they gaze upon is.

All this is analogous in many ways to owning such a graphics card. If you’re an extreme overclocker which is sponsored by EVGA in any capacity that avails this card to you. Then you’re in luck as it’s about as earnest an investment into an overclocking product as you’re ever likely to find.

For the individual that is far removed from the easily recognizable faces of overclocking. This $1,000 investment is their McLaren P1 and

“...ONLY WHEN YOU LOOK BENEATH THE HOOD, PEELING AWAY THE LAYERS CAN YOU TRULY APPRECIATE THE ENGINEERING THAT UNDERPINS THIS PROJECT.” the appreciation is truly more than skin deep.

It is not the fantastic all copper cooler that it ships with, it isn’t the LED support and customization it allows, nor the ability to operate in single slot fashion with a water block. Even though one is capable of appreciating it all. These aspects of the 980 Ti KPE are what double stitched fine leather and full HD HUDs are to hyper-cars. They complete and refine an already brilliant package, adding that little extra by making those commutes to the store that much more pleasant.

It is only when you look beneath the hood, peeling away the layers can you truly appreciate the engineering that underpins this project. This graphics card was designed to be the best. Be that you believe it perfect or not is not the point. Of

course in any engineering exercise designing a product for volume production imposes practical and material limitations. It is unlike when one or a team design a project that will exist only in the lab and never see the light of day. Within the many confines and restrictions that dictate what can and cannot be produced in volume. The EVGA GTX 980 Ti K|NGP|N Edition goes farther than all others and for this reason alone, it warrants praise unlike any other. All the additional circuitry, the trace layout, the component selection and so much more all comes down to speed. How far and how fast can it go in the right space?

That is key here, the right space and that means outside the realm of air or water cooling. That may not be something you may like to read and maybe even something EVGA would not want to publicise for any number of reasons, but the fact is this is a track machine and there’s no hiding it. If you do not appreciate its competitive edge, then you will sadly come away underwhelmed.

There is no promise that any vendor, including EVGA can make that guarantees a GPU that will reach 1600MHz right out the box. This is regardless of the silicon quality and sure enough a hand full of samples may be able to do that, but that may not hold true in your environment and to that end, the air overclocking potential can’t be in any meaningful way higher than what other customized 980 Ti’s will deliver. The fact is most GM200 GPUs will have an air/water limit of around 1480 ~ 1550MHz. Not many will fall below the low end of that, but a select few may be able to reach 1567/1580MHz, but these are far and few between.

With that said, we must still do the air cooled testing before the real fun begins with the real LN2 experience.

AIR COOLED OVERCLOCKING

Before we go anywhere, let’s be clear about one thing and that is GPU voltage/VDDC/NVVDD or whatever Issue 36 | 2015 The OverClocker 19

you may want to refer to it as. This has little to no effect on overclocking headroom when dealing with the air cooling. It is not something that we may want to acknowledge but it is true. With the GM200 cores as used on the 980 TI at least, temperature seems to be the limiting factor when dealing with air and water cooling. Even with the low operating temperatures courtesy of what is arguably the best-crafted cooling complex on any commercial graphics card to date. There simply isn’t a way to keep temperatures low enough for the GM200 core to scale past the already established and familiar 1555MHz~ ceiling. No tuning tool will help alleviate this and certainly no home brewed BIOS. This limitation speaks more of the silicon and what protection mechanisms NVIDIA may have in place rather than any one thing EVGA or any other vendor could do. For the same reason that a CPU that has a limit of 4.7GHz is not going to get any better regardless of what motherboard you place it in. There’s no way around that with liquid and air cooling.

So with that established, does that mean the 980 Ti KPE isn’t worth overclocking on air cooling? Not at all, if anything it will still provide far more fun than the vast majority of GTX 980Ti cards on the market, especially given that unlike what may hold true for some competing cards, there is no special software required here. With EVGA’s Precision tool, you can maximise performance on air and water-cooling and perhaps even with dry ice, which I will get to later on.

For one, unlike many GTX 980 Ti cards on the market, this model uses Samsung GDDR5 memory.

You should be familiar with the advantages these memory chips bring over the regular SKHynix sourced GDDR5. In general these chips overclock further and seem to have better timings, thus leading to slightly better performance. This isn’t something you’d observe normally as most people would not have two of the same cards next to each other only differing in where the GDDR5 is sourced from. However, via trusted sources and in house testing, one can confirm that this general perception of the performance differences between the memory vendors holds true. With that said, reaching a 2GHz memory clock with this card is guaranteed and perhaps 20 The OverClocker Issue 36 | 2015

even 2050MHz will work just fine with no tuning at all. Where you may need to add a little more voltage to the memory via a 3rd party tool, is past this point. Some graphics cards have been known to reach as far 2250MHz, but a safe bet for just about all of the K|NGP|N cards is 2050MHz. Again, do not take this memory frequency for granted as there are many cards which will not reach 1950MHz let alone the 2GHz mark. It may only be 50MHz*, but it’s a 50MHz that’s there for certain. You should also keep in mind that memory frequency is also dependant on the memory controller within the GPU, so if you are not able to go much farther than 2GHz, that is more than likely a reflection of your card’s silicon quality rather than anything on EVGA or SAMSUNG’s part. It really is a silicon lottery and the

controls that you have at your disposal to overcome that are limited. Do not despair however, as where an untouched DRAM frequency may stop, the classified tool available here, may get you that much farther. Using voltages up to 1.75V exclusively for overclocking sessions should not be an issue, however if you’re planning on gaming at the overclocked memory frequency and voltage, it is best to keep to a frequency that obviously produces no artifacts and more importantly needs no additional voltage applied, this will ensure no long term damage to the memory.

Where the core is concerned, well, there’s not much to say. This particular sample would do 1555MHz 3DMark FireStrike Ultra stable, and not 1MHz more regardless of the additional voltage applied. For HWBOT Unigine Heaven Extreme

benchmark, that limit is lower at 1535MHz. Various benchmarks obviously have different limits, but please keep in mind that this is one of the hardest if not the hardest benchmark for modern day graphics cards. Not only does it place a heavy burden on the GPU at any given point, but it lasts significantly longer than any other 3D benchmark that’s in use today, thus it compounds the effect of temperature on the stability of your overclock. It is however a good measure of just how good your particular sample and subsequent overclock is. If you are able to complete even a single run, then your overclock is good to go with the Futuremark family of benchmarks and to some degree Catzilla as well.

Even though this is not a gaming review, it is to be stated that for those who would purchase this card only for gaming, then a good limit to set as far as overclocks are concerned would be 1500MHz/2000MHz, which is more than enough performance for any game on the market.

Here are few tips regarding your air overclocking. They will not magically make your GPU clock higher, but they will ensure

maximum performance for the most part making sure that should you compete in the air-cooled/water cooled competition classes, you get the best performance possible.

- Enable K-Boost, the constant changing of clocks within benchmarks and between game tests will lower your score. K-Boost however must be balanced with the NVIDIA control panel settings.

You will have to play around with the power settings to find the right settings.

- By Default the graphics card has a lot of droop under load. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing and perhaps necessary to stabilize the benchmarks. So disabling it isn’t necessarily to your benefit all the time.

- There’s really no need for any voltage adjustment when using air/ liquid-cooling. For the most part, the limitations to clock speeds are cooling rather than voltage. For instance, this particular sample gained almost 100MHz just by limiting maximum temperatures to 20’C under load, reaching 1650MHz with no adjustment to GPU voltage. It is unlikely any liquid cooling solution

can achieve this, but perhaps chilled water setups may do the trick.

- Using the shipping cooler, there’s no need for much other than setting the fan speed to 100%. Perhaps with the sliders for power and temperature thresholds increased as much as possible.

LN2 OVERCLOCKING

This is where the fun begins. In fact, this is precisely what the card is designed for. If you head over to kingpincooling.com to you will be able to find almost everything you need to get started. A rough guide to what temperatures and voltages to use, along with several tips to try in case things are not going as expected.

What is true for LN2 overclocking and GTX 980 TI cards is that, it isn’t as simple as just lowering the temperatures and setting a high clock speed. That approach, as tempting as may be, will not yield any meaningful clock speeds and in fact will make sure that your overclocking session ends prematurely. What you’ll need to do is take it slow and steady. Lower the temperatures in a steady manner and in that way, you’ll Issue 36 | 2015 The OverClocker 21

not only save on LN2, but make sure your card lasts for as many sessions as possible.

In the testing performed, it was interesting to note that this GPU, will above all others consume LN2 at a ridiculous rate. It is not uncommon to find - depending on the benchmark and settings - that you’re constantly pouring LN2 in an attempt to keep the GPU temperatures stable enough to complete a benchmark. This is particularly true of those long and intensive benchmarks such as 3DMark FireStrike Ultra and perhaps HWBOT Unigine Heaven Xtreme, if only because of just how long the benchmark is.

Our particular GPU and combination of hardware led us to a maximum GPU clock of 1932MHz. A mighty fine cock speed, even though it is a good 200MHz lower than what we have seen other KPE cards achieve. There could be a number of reasons for this, but it could be the GPU container, the thermal interface material, the quality of the 22 The OverClocker Issue 36 | 2015

mounting or familiarity with the GPU. This is where the difference is going to be mostly, because it is not unrealistic to expect this very sample to reach 2050MHz, under more capable hands and with better equipment. What was made evident with this review is that even the more amateurish overclocker can reach competitive clock speeds, with the 980Ti KEP. The limitation is not the hardware but rather the rest of the gear used and the overclocker.

Unlike with other graphics cards, the minimum clock speed attainable regardless of all these secondary factors is quite high. In fact, it is unlikely that there’s a single GTX 980 Ti KPE card that will not reach at the very least 1900MHz. something that can’t be said for all 980 Ti cards.

Most importantly, once you’ve managed to reach these clock speeds and beyond, you may still use this graphics card for gaming and in a regular high end computing environment. You need not make any permanent changes to the card

at all and it is as well adapted inside a computer case as it is operating at 2GHz+ at the most extreme temperatures. This is in essence what you are paying for as the end user. The card will scale according to the environment and that is by far the most impressive aspect of the K|NGP|N edition card, it just works.

EQUAL ACCESS

There was a time when, EVGA was selling the EVBOT GPU tuning tool.

This tool is obviously not for sale any more, but as you may expect, it works with all the EVGA classified and KPE cards to date. With this tool you can set all kinds of voltages and behaviour. It’s an essential tool for LN2 overclocking. However what does one do without the tool? Well, you may use the software via the classified tool or even better yet use a Raspberry Pi, to configure the card just as you would with the EVBOT. The instructions on how to do with are again available at kingpincooling.

courtesy of TiN of course. If you don’t have a Raspberry Pi, you may resort to other means as well. So there is more than one way to configure the card's behaviour, more ways than any other GPU on the market provides. This is all public information and made available for all who may have bought the card or are looking to invest in one. It is in stark contrast to the MSI GTX 980 Ti Lightning which is unusable without the MSI AfterBurner extreme application. The problem with this application is that it is only available via special channels and requests.

Thus, if you buy the card on a store shelf, it is literally no different from the other GTX 980 Ti cards on the market and its limits are near identical. For the EVGA card you’ll have none of that nonsense, your card is truly yours to do with as you please and those world records and top scores used to promote the graphics card are well within your reach as well. It is also in contrast to the GALAX cards which at any

given point have several different revisions where retail cards are not capable of reaching any of the frequencies used to market them. It is in light of this that EVGA has easily the best GTX 980 Ti for competitive overclocking. Perhaps the models from ASUS are the closest in competition as they, up to date seem to be free from all the previously mentioned caveats. That is something we will have to confirm for ourselves, but as it stands there simply isn’t any other card on the market that is as ready as this one for competitive overclocking with liquid nitrogen.

CONCLUSION

If you couldn’t tell already, this is by far the most impressive overclocking card we have ever come across.

Time and time again we looked for better alternatives, but we could not find them. We then searched for equivalents and they were not there. Is this a perfect card, no it isn’t. There simply isn’t such a thing

in existence, but it is the best that money can buy and it is precisely why the price is more than justified. As capable as the GTX 980 Ti KPE is in a gaming context, it is really wasted in that environment as more than half of the engineering effort is directly concerned with LN2 overclocking. Be it you’ll use it for LN2 or not, you’ll be happy to know that your card really can achieve these stratospheric clock speeds when called upon.

Once you’ve bought this card, there’s pretty much nothing else you need other than a liquid nitrogen container and liquid nitrogen. There isn’t any other card that can claim this.

From where we stand this is by far the most impressive competitive overclocking card that has ever existed. In today’s market with everything that is available, this is by far the leading graphics card and without hesitation earns our highest accolades. This one is a must have, especially if you’re serious about your overclocking. [ The Overclocker ] Issue 36 | 2015 The OverClocker 23

ASUS MAXIMUS VIII Extreme RRP: $$499.99 | Website: www.asus.com

Test Machine • INTEL Core i7 6700K • CORSAIR Dominator Platinum DDR4 3200 C16 • EVGA GTX 980Ti K|NGP|N Edition • SAMSUNG PX941 512GB • CORSAIR AX1500i • Windows 10 x64 (007 BIOS)

C

oming into this review, one had already seen and experienced just how capable the ASUS Z170 range of motherboards had been to that point. As many of you remember, the day that Z170 was no longer veiled by non-disclosure agreements, ASUS announced no fewer than seven global top scores in overclocking. That, to put it simply was a showing that no other vendor at the time could match. In fact at present, the Maximus VIII series of motherboards still hold some global hardware top spots

24 The OverClocker Issue 36 | 2015

in overclocking. Those feats were mainly achieved with the cheaper Gene and Hero motherboards (and perhaps others as well which have not seen the light of day outside labs). These boards not only proved competent but “complete” in ways other motherboards were not.

Of course BIOS updates would see to it that things improved progressively, but for the most part it looked and still looks like the hardware is solid. Which of course is wonderful for overclockers and ASUS, but perhaps not so much for the Maximus VIII Extreme.

Do not misunderstand, this motherboard is as competent as any of the other motherboards in the series, perhaps even more so in many regards. However, the challenge is convincing would be buyers that spending nearly $500 is worth it over the $229 the Hero commands. It is more than double the price and thus far, overclocking looks to be

roughly the same or at best marginally better with the Extreme board. Is it a $250+ worth of difference? Well that oddly enough does not reside in the overclocking pedigree of the Maximus VIII Extreme, but in its gaming features.

In as much as this is an out and out overclocking motherboard, it also moonlights as one of the most feature packed gaming offerings on the market.

As always, the idea behind such a product (despite what vendors may say with similar products) is that once you’re done with overclocking your

CPU for competition, you may retire this to your gaming machine or the other way around if you so desire. It is a sensible strategy as well, because there’s not any one feature that is necessary for extreme overclocking that you will not find on the Maximus VIII Extreme. It is the ultimate

Z170 motherboard from ASUS and with such a deep lineup of motherboards that says a lot.

So what does this motherboard entail exactly?

Well in order to answer that in a meaningful way, it is best to note it’s similarities with the Maximus VIII Hero. Oddly enough, there isn’t any other

motherboard from any vendor that is directly comparable with this one for a number of reasons. Suffice to say, what you get with the Maximus VIII Extreme is the tried and tested Extreme Engine Digi+. What this includes is the familiar electronic components such as MicroFine alloy chokes, NexFET MOSFETs, 10K Black Metallic Capacitors etc. You have the same HDMI 1.4b and DisplayPort 1.2, Intel I219-V NIC, SupremeFX 2015 audio etc. You can easily check the specifications for yourself on the official website. So for the most part these boards match each other, feature for feature.

Where they do differ though is in the number of USB 3.1 ports that they support.

Given that this is courtesy of a “3rd party” chip. There is some cost associated with supporting four such ports.

Issue 36 | 2015 The OverClocker 25

The Extreme board supports 3x Type A ports and a single Type-C port. How useful this is remains to be seen as one would imagine an additional Type-C port would serve a better purpose. Alas, it is what it is and perhaps at some point there may be a converter that end users can buy to change one type to the other.

If you re-call, some X99 motherboards from ASUS featured an M.2 to U.2 converter. This time, instead of an add-in card, this U.2 port is built right on to the motherboard and you need not sacrifice your M.2 slots to use it. Obviously it uses PCI-Express lanes and as you can imagine you will lose some SATA port connectivity.

However, it should not interfere with the M.2 slot at all. Oddly enough, there’s only one such slot which is unlike all the other high end boards that seem to be competing for how many of these can be placed on a board. Again, this should not be an issue for

26 The OverClocker Issue 36 | 2015

most users, but those who are looking at setting up M.2 based RAID arrays, may need to seek out the DELUXE board rather.

Given that you receive a motherboard with more full length PCI-Express slots. You would be forgiven for thinking this has 4-way SLI support, but it does not. You may run 4-way CrossfireX of course, but SLI is a no because there is no switching chip that would allow all the cards in the system to operate at a minimum of x8 lanes. Again, not a big deal as if you really want to run 4-way SLI you should consider the X99 platform.

As with all high end Maximus motherboards, ASUS has included the ROG Panel. This is largely unchanged from what you’re familiar with and if you have one already, you can use it on this board, at worst only needing a firmware update to support the MAXIMUS VIII Extreme. Previously I covered what this panel does in the Rampage V Extreme review

so I’ll not repeat it again, suffice to say that this panel is probably worth $100 by itself given all that it allows you to do. The addition of the OC panel does go a long way into justifying the price premium over the Hero board.

As we are primarily concerned with the overclocking aspect of the board. It is safe to state that the EXTREME does everything the GENE and HERO board can at the very least. In this particular review, it proved difficult to truly push the CPU to the limit, not because of the motherboard, but because after several failed attempts at de-lidding the CPUs (this was prior to der8auer’s De-Lid Die mate) it became uneconomical to invest further into this endeavor. Suffice to say, with the IHS kept as is from the retail chip. The Maximus VIII Extreme dialed in a healthy 5.6 ~ 5.7GHz. Perhaps higher numbers were possible, but without de-lidding the CPU,

there’s really no way to find out.

Overclocking Skylake on any motherboard is a rather complicated affair. This is particularly true when you’re attempting to combine high memory frequency, tight timings and a high CPU and NB clock. To dial in the exact settings is not only advisable, but mandatory. With just one setting outside of the optimal zone you’re likely to end up with a system that is unstable in any benchmark. Given that there are significantly more settings on this platform than on previous ones, having a guide is vital to reaching the right frequencies. Fortunately, there does exist a guide

by ROG employee, coolice and it covers most of what you need to know to get started.

For the most part you’ll want to dial in the right voltages, but since all CPUs differ in behavior, it is up to you to find out what works for your CPU and which voltages do not. It is imperative that you

understand the relationships between the various voltages and make use of them as exposed in the UEFI. The Maximus VIII Extreme supposedly has profiles as well, which you can use to facilitate overclocking under LN2. Unfortunately for some reason I just couldn’t find those with this BIOS anywhere.

Not much of an issue as one had to simply resort to the guide, which again had all the relevant information for LN2 overclocking. This is just about as comprehensive a motherboard and guide as you’re likely going to find or need. If there’s any limitation regarding performance or clock speeds, it is unlikely to be a result of the motherboard, but rather your CPU, memory or user error. The Maximus VIII Extreme much like the others in the range is as good a motherboard as you can buy for the platform for overclocking. ASUS had

already made a near complete board with the HERO and GENE, thus, the Extreme motherboard is difficult to recommend purely on its overclocking merits. That does not in any way mean it is a disappointment though.

It merely joins the rest of the family at being the most comprehensive and most impressive Z170 series of overclocking motherboards at present. From a pure value perspective, the Extreme motherboard may cost a little more than it should in light of the MAXIMUS VIII Hero and the Gene. If you combine the overclocking pedigree, with the “gaming” orientated features though, it makes sense. One suspects that ASUS was/is aware of this conundrum hence the introduction of the MAXIMUS VIII Extreme/Assembly which may serve to further set the boards in the lineup apart.

Overall, this is a solid offering delivering in just about every area possible for a motherboard. Striking the right balance between a full on overclocking motherboard and a gaming one isn’t easy, but given all the options on the market. ASUS is the only vendor to manage this feat with the Maximus VIII Extreme. [ The Overclocker ]

Summary This motherboard at some point was reselling for $600. At that price it was a difficult purchase to justify, but now at $500 it makes a compelling case for itself. It isn’t cheap by any argument but for all that it offers, it is a near unbeatable motherboard. One that is as well suited for extreme overclocking as it is for gaming.

Would you buy it?

Yes

Issue 36 | 2015 The OverClocker 27

CORSAIR Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200 RRP: $162.99 | Website: www.corsair.com

Test Machine • INTEL Core i7 6700K • ASUS MAXIMUS VIII Hero • EVGA GTX 980Ti K|NGP|N Edition • SAMSUNG PX941 512GB • CORSAIR AX1500i • Windows 10 x64/ Windows 7SP1 x64 (0508 BIOS)

T

wo things that will always remain true about memory are that, you can never have enough of it and you always need it to be as fast as possible. DDR4, should see us well into the future and at the current prices, it’s never been more attractive.

For just $163, CORSAIR is not only offering four sticks of memory, but it’s 3200MHz at that. Not a frequency that will impress you in today’s market, but remember that at some point 3200MHz DDR4 was retailing for well over $1400 for an 8GB kit. In

28 The OverClocker Issue 36 | 2015

light of this, one always has to appreciate just how far memory prices have fallen along with increased operating frequencies.

This set for all intents and purposes, is a run of the mill "gaming set" of memory.

I remain unsure of what that means as compared to overclocking memory, but suffice to say the real value here is how far this memory kit will go. As with all memory kits, a large part of it has everything to do with your chosen CPU and motherboard.

Given the hardware used for this LPX kit still managed to impress, delivering performance well beyond its specification.

Default frequency performance is largely not worth discussing. There are few if any situations where any gaming experience is improved by using high speed memory as opposed to a 2400MHz set for instance.

This is particularly true when using a discreet GPU. There’s

no measurable difference that will lend itself to a better or smoother gaming experience in any context. To appreciate the difference one would have to compare 1,333MHz memory against 3,200MHz. Only with such a large discrepancy in operating frequencies would there be a somewhat meaningful difference in game performance etc. So do not look to this memory to improve your gaming performance. It will do no such thing.

It will however and most importantly, allow you to have plenty of fun overclocking and competing in the synthetic benchmarks. Even if you’re measuring performance in an application not used on

HWBOT, there’s still plenty of tuning opportunity with this LPX kit. For instance, the highest frequency that could be stabilized with this kit was 3,866MHz and that was with a relatively immature BIOS on the Maximus VIII motherboard. By now, more proficient motherboards or perhaps later BIOS revisions would potentially see higher frequencies or better timings.

As usual, the sweet spot for performance is at the 3,600MHz mark. At this frequency, the timings could be kept relatively tight, in conjunction with a low/safe operating voltage and no risk to the DIMMs at all. By safe, you’ll still be operating

the memory past the rated 1.35V but we have it on good authority that even 1.45, perhaps even 1.5V would be fine for this kit (This is all IC dependent, a later revision could use different IC’s which would invalidate this statement about safety) for 24/7 use in whatever context.

Fortunately 3,600MHz can come about with voltages as little as 1.4V as measured. Do keep in mind that the BIOS is unlikely to report the actual voltage under load, thus it’s important to measure this using a DMM where possible.

If you do not have one, assume the reported reading is lower than the true voltage. That aside, 3,600MHz offers the

best bang for buck, managing to not only maintain the reference timings but improve them still with some tuning.

As a result of how the motherboard and IMC tune the memory during training, tWCL remains fairly tight at 3,600MHz (13). This is contrast to higher multipliers, where tWCL is sometimes as high as 18, robbing you of performance. In fact you’re likely to get worse performance with such settings than you would at 3,200MHz. Care must be taken when tuning any set of memory and particularly on the Z170 chipset, where some settings do not have the expected effect on Issue 36 | 2015 The OverClocker 29

performance. As usual, track any changes that happen in the secondary and tertiary timings and try to keep them as they were when the memory was running with the 3,200MHz X.M.P loaded.

For those who like to tinker even more, you may extract ever increasing performance by fine tuning the advanced DRAM timings and matching them to the capabilities of your IMC and the motherboard. It is an extremely time consuming exercise, but certainly one that will yield tangible gains in particular workloads.

Especially when encoding

30 The OverClocker Issue 36 | 2015

or transcoding large video files or rendering. The small gains are compounded the larger the work load. As such, you could shave tens of minutes eventually. If not for those purposes, it’s always fun watch the performance increase in synthetic benchmarks as you tune the memory timings (we do need a new memory performance benchmark btw, as MaxxMem is no longer as reliable as it used to be).

If for some reason you factor in aesthetics for your memory purchase, then you may or may not take well

to the rather simple design on this kit. It is obviously not a Dominator kit and as such features a far more simplistic heatsink assembly.

Still, it does the job and with the Vengeance Airflow units, makes for an attractive kit. It isn’t perhaps so much what this cooling solution will do for your memory, but rather how it will help keep the PWM area of your motherboard cooler than it otherwise would be.

Not a big deal if you’re not pushing hard as modern motherboards have more than adequate cooling. However,

“Vengeance Airflow units, makes for an attractive assembly.” if this lowers any component operating temperature, it is welcomed and at the very least doesn’t hurt performance at all.

At the current price, it’s not the most affordable 16GB kit on the market, but it does carry the CORSAIR branding, you have limited lifetime warranty and the overclocking headroom is mighty impressive. This is not the kit to run 3000MHz C10 cooled via LN2, you’ll have to look to CORSAIR’s other kits for that. Suffice to say the Vengeance LPX 3200 modules are more than enough for the vast majority of users and even competitive overclockers.

At this juncture, one should not be expecting any less from DDR4 especially from CORSAIR. The kit is exactly what you’d expect, with the kit offering overclocking headroom in excess of 500MHz, punching above its station. If you’re in need or a high speed kit and are driven by several more factors than just price, then this is a good place to start. There may be cheaper kits on the market from competing vendors, but they may not be as appealing and certainly do not offer the vengeance airflow cooling.

Between the limited lifetime warranty, overclocking

headroom and cooling solution. The Vengeance LPX kit delivers on its promise and more. There really is nothing to dislike about this kit and as such it deserves our praise and recommendation. [ The Overclocker ]

Summary For a kit rated at 3200MHz kit, CORSAIR has managed to ship a set that is more than capable of 3,600MHz, especially when using only two DIMMs. On the X99 platform it will reach speeds above 3,400MHz and as such it is adapt at both platforms. For the set’s real potential however, you should look to the Z170 chipset where you may see frequencies as high as 3866MHz when overclocking.

Whatever you may decide to do, make sure to overclock the kit as it will at the very least leave you impressed with scalability.

Would you buy it?

Of course, there’s no reason not to.

Issue 36 | 2015 The OverClocker 31

GIGABYTE Z170XGaming G1 RRP: $499.99 | Website: www.gigabyte.com

Test Machine • INTEL Core i7 6700K • CORSAIR Dominator Platinum •DDR4 3200 C16 • EVGA GTX 980Ti K|NGP|N Edition • SAMSUNG PX941 512GB • CORSAIR AX1500i • Windows 10 x64 (F5a BIOS)

H

ere it is, GIGABYTE’s premium Z170 gaming motherboard.

Decked out in a brilliant white and red, this should be the end all, be all motherboard for the platform as far as gaming is concerned. “Gaming” is a vague term these days as it applies to just about everything under the sun supposedly, but if we narrow it down to the context which motherboard vendors use the term. It simply means a motherboard with some kind of “gamer” friendly aesthetic, a high definition audio solution and a high end LAN controller.

We aren’t in the habit of perpetuating the lie, so one is quiet aware of the fact that any motherboard, that lacks all of the above is well and truly capable of forming the basis of a gaming machine.

GIGABYTE’s own overclocking series and ultra-durable motherboards are testament

32 The OverClocker Issue 36 | 2015

to this.

Having said that, what the G1 offers is more than just the ability to plug various components into it when building your ultimate gaming machine. This motherboard is best looked at as a long term investment for those who do not always upgrade their machines with every chipset, but rather wait a good three to four years. As such, the $500 USD price tag is somewhat justified, especially given that you are receiving cutting edge technology at present. There isn’t anything that one could bolt unto the Z170 chipset that has not been included and as such this board is a direct representation of where GIGABYTE is in terms of R&D, innovation and mobility in this forever changing market.

First, I’d like to start with the positive of which there is plenty of in the G1 Gaming.

Again, it is decked out in all relevant and possible features you can think of and there isn’t another motherboard on the market that can claim to objectively have more features on the motherboard (none overclocking related) than this one. For instance, it supports 4-way SLI and of course CrossFire X. This isn’t the typical dual GPU dual card solution as touted by many motherboard that claim to have "quad-SLI" support. No, this is via the familiar PLX 8747 switching chip that allows the 16 PCI-Express lanes to effectively serve four graphics cards.

Naturally this has a slight performance hit and it is unwise to use such a solution

for competitive overclocking.

This, motherboard however isn’t for that as it is strictly for gaming and in that context, there’s no discernible performance penalty in games. Since this is a high end motherboard, it is not unrealistic to think that there may be users who may purchase up to four graphics cards for use with the Gaming G1 so this switching chip does

warrant its presence and associated cost implication.

More about PCI-Express, the Gaming G1 has metal reenforcements on either side of the slots which supposedly prevent any damage that may arise due to installing heavy and/or large graphics card.

Moreover, this re-enforcement ensures that upon removal of any graphics card, there’s reduced risk of damaging the slot. How often that happens is anybody’s guess, but it is a feature that is there and at the very least works well

aesthetically.

Moving on to more substantive features, you’ll find that there are two M.2 connectors, each supporting M.2 drives of up to 80mm in length. Both of these will have at their disposal the full 32Gbps as offered by a PCIExpress 3.0 x4 solution. These are naturally wired to the PCH which has copious amounts of PCI-E segments as per Z170 standard. Not only can you use these drives simultaneously, they may be used in a RAID configuration as well offering insanely high throughput figures and performance for storage. Then finally as purely a tick-box feature we have

SATA-Express support for at least three hard drives. As I’ve stated in previous reviews, I’ve yet to see a SATA-Express SSD and having spoken to some storage vendors. It doesn’t look as if this standard will go anywhere at all.

That aside, you may connect up to 10 SATA 6Gbps drives to the motherboard, which in total should be more than enough for any usage scenario. When it comes to storage connectivity, the G1 has you covered. For those looking at the 2.5” INTEL 750 drive for instance. GIGABYTE includes an adapter which will turn either one of your M.2 ports into a U.2 (SFF-8639) Issue 36 | 2015 The OverClocker 33

compliant connector. There’s really not much you can’t connect on this motherboard, which again will be of great benefit for those who not only need large volumes of storage but need it to be fast as well.

Do keep in mind though that, when making use of the front panel USB 3.1 box, you will lose at least one SATAExpress connector.

Next is my favorite part which is the audio solution.

Since the very first “gaming” branded motherboard from GIGABYTE with the Creative Labs/EMU CA20K2 controllers. GIGABYTE has always been the front-runner for on board audio, being the first to introduce upgradable op-amps on their premium motherboards along with a host of other technologies.

This tradition is continued with the Gaming G1. This time, GIGABYTE has gone a step further and not only does this motherboard feature upgradable op-amps, but

34 The OverClocker Issue 36 | 2015

there are three of them. One for the left, one for the right channel and a separate one for the front-audio connector.

It may be a little excessive to have two separate ones for each channel, but again it doesn’t hurt. WIMA audio caps join the foray as we’ve seen on several high end competing motherboards as well.

GIGABYTE, with the Gaming G1 promotes the 120dB+ audio signal clarity as more than just a claim with an apparent Creative Labs certification.

Quite fittingly as the first and only motherboard ever built with such certification. With this audio solution you’ll find a Burr-Brown DAC as well, all centered on the familiar Sound Core3D processor as found on the latest Sound Blaster audio cards. What all this translates into is once again is the most pleasing audio solution on the market, easily delivering superior audio to all other motherboards available. In

this regard GIGABYTE remains peerless and for those who are particular about their audio experience, there’s nothing short of a dedicated audio card that will be able to match what the Gaming G1 has on offer.

Lastly, we get to the networking features. As stated time and time again, the Killer Ethernet controllers, while great rarely offer anything that you can’t achieve with say the INTEL I219V controller.

Again, they all make identical claims and more importantly these have been the same claims since pretty much the inception of dedicated “LAN controller” cards for gamers.

As configured on the G1 Gaming, there are two such controllers and ports, which can be teamed for increased bandwidth. Add the Killer Wireless-AC 1535 controller to the mix and you have what is termed Killer DoubleShot-X3 Pro. Again, it is all distilled into low latency gaming and plenty of network bandwidth

between your router and the computer. This kind of solution is obviously superior to just single port E2200 solution as used on other motherboards, but it is a cosmetic difference for the most part. What you need to know is that, it is fast, but will not in any way help your online gaming experience if you have a poor ADSL connection for instance. Still, it’s a nice to have feature.

Next for the big features is the support for USB 3.1 Type-A and Type-C. These offer full 10Gbps speeds and of course are said to be the future of connectivity especially for the reversible Type-C connector. GIGABYTE makes use of the INTEL Alpine Ridge controller on the motherboard, but a more traditional ASMEDIA implementation on the USB 3.1 front panel bay. So you actually have four USB 3.1 ports to use in total which is impressive given that most motherboards are limited to just two.

Examining the onboard connectivity or advances GIGABYTE has made since the last generation. We find that GIGABYTE has finally seen the light and featured seven fan headers on the board. This has always been a frustration with GIGABYTE boards typically limited to five. It sounds as if it’s enough, but with high end cases featuring additional fans and with some aftermarket GPU coolers, these would be quickly

consumed. The addition of just two more fan headers is much welcomed. This goes for the G-connector as well, which is a small plastic block that allows you to conveniently plug in your power, reset, H.D.D LED, and Power LED headers into it. You then plug this block into the motherboard. A small convenience and yes it works exactly like the Q-Connector from ASUS (they are not compatible though).

Lastly we must talk about the BIOS. For all the progress and strides GIGABYTE makes. The BIOS just doesn’t seem to be making the same progress.

Across the overclocking and gaming range of products it’s identical and still has many legacy issues that for some reason till this day remain.

Navigating the interface can be very slow sometimes with what seems to be some lag in scrolling options and simple tab switching. It still lacks any form of meaningful description in many options and remains plagued by an under utilized profile saving system. These and several design issues ensure that in the top three motherboard vendors, GIGABYTE has the least usable BIOS/UEFI interface that is not only dated but restrictive in many ways, betraying what I would say is the quintessential gaming motherboard for this generation. It is only through the overwhelming positives offered by every other aspect of this motherboard that one

is able to overlook these UEFI/BIOS shortcomings.

Overall, this is by far one of the most, if not the most pure bred gaming motherboard for the Z170 series. It justifies its price via the bucket list of features and it looks the part as well. Barring the BIOS, the Z170X Gaming G1 is as perfect a gaming motherboard as you’re ever going to need. [ The Overclocker ]

Summary This motherboard is the premium Z170 motherboard GIGABYTE and as such commands a staggering $500USD price. For that you get every possible feature and function that is available on the Z170 chipset and platform.

If you’re building that killer gaming rig that you have saved up for, then this is the motherboard for you. With all the extras provided, it will be hard if not impossible to find another gaming motherboard on the market that is as well spec’d.

Would you buy it?

For that ultimata Dream machine, yes we would.

Issue 36 | 2015 The OverClocker 35

Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide RRP: $29.99 | Website: http://www.vermintide.com/

D

uring your first few hours with Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide, it’s difficult to shake the feeling you’ve been here before. It’s glaringly obvious that the development team at Fatshark has drawn loads of inspiration from Valve’s Left 4 Dead series, and the two games are functionally similar in many ways. That feeling of familiarity doesn’t dissipate much as you delve further into the first-person action of Fatshark’s game – but thankfully Vermintide has enough unique features that it stands out as a distinctly appealing experience.

In the game, you and up to three chums join forces to battle your way through 13 levels set in and 36 The OverClocker Issue 36 | 2015

around the Warhammer Fantasy town of Ubersreik. The town’s come under siege by an overwhelming Skaven threat (the Skaven being a race of humanoid rat people), and naturally this grim situation calls for some thrilling heroics. That’s where you come in.

There are five characters from which to choose, each offering their own distinct way of dealing with the Skaven scourge. The game’s combat mechanics are heavily skewed towards beefy melee skirmishes, but all of the characters also carry a ranged weapon of some sort. There’s a Dwarf Ranger, a Waywatcher, an Empire Soldier and a Witch Hunter.

The fifth character – and my

personal favourite – is the Bright Wizard. Most of her damage is dealt at range via various fire-based attacks, and while she doesn’t expend ammo the way the other characters do, she’ll quite literally explode if you overuse her magical abilities. Playing as her requires a unique balancing act as you attempt to keep your damage output in tune with your health. She’s a blast to play (as are the other characters), and learning how to best utilise each character’s strengths is key to ensuring the success of your team, especially at the higher difficulty settings.

Mission objectives are fairly diverse, and while the levels follow a fixed path, the placement

of enemies and items within the levels are randomised with each playthrough. It keeps you on your toes, and the random elements help instill an endless feeling of tension as your team limps along with almost no health between them and still two-thirds of the level ahead of you, hoping for a bit of luck in the form of a stash of health kits or a bomb to earn you some reprieve if you get ambushed. The game’s pretty good at signposting incoming threats and areas of importance with audio cues, and part of the constant chatter between characters (which also acts as a way to further the game’s barely existent narrative) involves them calling out useful

items they’ve spotted. It adds to the flavour and atmosphere of things.

One of the key differences between L4D and Vermintide is the game’s loot system. You’ve got a player level, and as this level increases you’re rewarded with new gear with which to equip your characters. In addition, successfully completing a level allows you to roll a set of dice, and the outcome of this dice roll rewards you with weapons of varying rarity. These new weapons often afford new options during combat, each one bearing different stats and attack types. There’s a rudimentary crafting system which lets you combine and salvage unwanted weapons to create new

ones and to gain components with which to upgrade your favourite gear.

You can raise your chances of success during the dice rolls by collecting bonus dice and certain other items during the course of missions. Bagging better loot allows you and your team to tackle the incredibly challenging higher difficulty levels, and playing on higher difficulties will ultimately get you access to the best gear.

It’s a neat cycle of progression; all the loot stuff is smartly designed and encourages the replaying of levels, but it does have a nasty side effect in that it inspires a sort of merciless efficiency amongst players who’re only playing to get to the loot rewards at the end of a level, rather than for the simple pleasure of smacking giant rats in the face with a sword. When you’re playing with strangers, this means you’ll often be attacked for progressing at your own pace and drinking in the atmosphere.

As if the torch-wielding, toothy rat folk aren’t scary enough, you’ll suddenly have three upset humans hurling obscenities at you, which doesn’t do much to ease the pressure of an already stressful game. I’d recommend rounding up some like-minded friends to play Vermintide with if you’re like me and would prefer if your attempts at surviving the rat-pocalypse were semi-relaxed. Alternatively you Issue 36 | 2015 The OverClocker 37

could play with bots, but they’re not much help and the game tends to be significantly more difficult and frustrating when played with AI partners.

As far as the enemies go, many of the Skaven beasties are functionally identical to the zombies in L4D. The Skaven play their part well, leaping over obstacles and climbing walls in a frenzied attempt to reach you and your chums. In addition to the garden variety grunts, the Skaven threat is bolstered by boss characters who are very similar to the special infected from L4D. You’ll quickly spot Hunters, Tanks and Boomers in rat form, and just as in Valve’s game, these Mega Skaven have a nasty habit of throwing a deadly spanner in the works just when you think things are going swimmingly. As much as I like Vermintide’s Skaven, I do wish they’d been adjusted somehow

38 The OverClocker Issue 36 | 2015

to differentiate them from L4D’s undead in more than just appearance – but I’ve honestly no idea how the devs could’ve achieved that, so maybe it’s an unfair criticism to make. Nevertheless, they’re an entertaining enemy, and their character designs are wonderful.

Actually, the visual and audio design of the entire game is wonderful. Fatshark has used the Warhammer Fantasy licence to great effect, and this is easily one of the best-looking Warhammer games out there. It all looks and sounds as you’d expect it to, and the levels on offer vary from the cobbled streets and perilous rooftops of Ubersreik to its claustrophobic sewer tunnels and the open fields of the countryside beyond.

Vermintide does trip over its own feet in a few ways, chief among them being its always-online requirement. Even though there

are bots available if you’d rather not deal with people, there’s no actual offline mode of any sort. If your Internet dies or for whatever reason you’ve not got Internet access, you can’t even launch the game, which feels incredibly cheeky. It’s also currently quite buggy. I’ve not encountered anything game breaking, but there’s lots of minor irritations that mar the experience – things like characters getting caught on level geometry.

I’m really enjoying Vermintide.

I can see myself returning to it for months to come, even though there are far more recognisable AAA games on the horizon. Sure, it shares many similarities with Left 4 Dead, but honestly, with how effective L4D’s play mechanics are (tens of thousands of people still play it every day, according to Steam’s stats), I’m surprised it’s taken this long for someone to mimic Valve’s game. Vermintide

has its own addictive personality, it looks and feels great, and it’s just an awful lot of fun to play, particularly with friends. It’s a fantastic and often incredibly brutal cooperative experience, and I think you should give it a go. [ Dane Remendes ]

Would you buy it?

I would! I’ve had a great time with Vermintide, and if you can rope in a few friends to play with you it’s even better.

The Score

8.2/10 Issue 36 | 2015 The OverClocker 39

AORUS THUNDER M7 RRP: $99.99 | Website: www.aorus.org

W

ith tens of gaming mice tested over the years.

One learns to expect certain things from them, from packaging to performance. With each year, the bar is set higher collectively and what would have passed for a premium gaming mouse in 2005, would hardly be adequate for gaming at all these days. 10 years ago it would have been hard to image just what could be improved with a mouse in a material sense, without considering esoteric input methods that still today exist only in science fiction writing.

The AORUS Thunder M7, is a mouse that reminded me just how far we have come since the advent of the gaming mouse more than a decade ago. AORUS may not be the most popular gaming brand, often overlooked in a market that has giants such as Logitech, Roccat,

40 The OverClocker Issue 36 | 2015

Corsair, Steel Series, Razor etc. However, if you look farther than the heavy hitters, you’ll find products such as the M7 which are nothing but impressive.

With the M7, it starts with the packaging. I have to admit that this is by far the most compelling mouse presentation and packaging I’ve come across. The carry case, feels amazing as it exudes a certain level of quality which one rarely finds in this market. It’s all black with an orange zipper, matching other AORUS products, such as the apparel and notebook carry bags. It’s truly impressive and goes a long way into justifying the $90 price tag. Where presentation is concerned AORUS scores a perfect ten. This level of detail is rarely seen in gaming peripherals and I should admit I was not expecting it from AORUS.

That aside you will want to know how the mouse performs in games as that’s what it is for.

The Thunder M7 is a game type specific mouse, we are talking MMO, MOBA and RTS games here. This isn’t just what the marketing materials state but in how the mouse functions, its design and button placement. Any attempt to use this for FPS games will prove frustrating at best as it does not lend itself well to those games. It is a precision tool and for the aforementioned game types proves to be an indispensable within your arsenal.

What strikes you immediately about the M7 are its proportions. It is a tall mouse so you’ll not have to worry about the base of your palm causing friction with the mouse mat. Secondly, it is relatively short and of medium girth. It’s a fairly compact design that claw grip users should find comfortable. It is probably more suitable to those with medium to smaller hands, if only because of its length at only 116mm. The buttons also tend to be smaller and as a result you can’t use the middle of your thumb to activate them.

You’ll need to lift your digits especially for the buttons on the left lateral face.

Not a major issue for MMOs, especially for the more experienced players.

AORUS stipulates that there’s a total of 16 programmable buttons on the mouse, however physically there are only 14 as mentioned previously.

One can never get used to the creative way in which vendors count buttons but, then again, bet it an actual 14 or 16, there’s more than enough for your needs.

This brings us to the software, which is essentially where the other half of the magic is. This is a comprehensive suit, but one that it simple to navigate. It has all the usual features such as macro recording and setting up profiles for each game for a maximum of five profiles. Each of these can be assigned a different colour, where activated the LED on the mouse changes to match the specific profile. As you’d expect you can set up the mouse sensitivity per profile, specifying the x and y-axis accordingly with each profile. It has all the bases covered in a light weight

package that is simple enough to use, but contains all the basic and advanced functionality you may need.

Overall this is an impressive mouse by any measure.

There are some missed opportunities though and these concern aesthetics oddly enough. The mouse has two front LEDs which resemble the headlights of a car. You’re unlikely to ever notice these when using the mouse, but in a dark room, where you want no other light apart from the monitor perhaps, you’ll find that these cannot be turned off. They are perpetually and do not change colour. They have an aesthetic purpose, but one that may not be ideal for all users. Instead of brightness adjustment I would have preferred them to have an on/off function instead as they certainly don’t light up to match the profile selected.

During gaming sessions, you’ll find the two primary mouse buttons very responsive with great feedback for all clicks thanks to the use of Omron switches. Through the use of of customizable sensitivity and polling rate options, one can be very precise in movement. I would have preferred the DPI buttons larger and closer to the scroll well as they are near impossible to use without lifting your entire hand of the mouse. That could perhaps be a result of the size of my hands, but I would imagine this would hold true for most users.

For a mouse with no weight management system, it is centre balanced tipping the scales at 110g. The compact design seems to place all that weight in the middle of your palm somewhat negating the need for this weight management one finds on other gaming units. In closing, the M7 is a solid mouse that should help AORUS make more in-roads into the high end arena where it will face of directly against the market leaders. It is unequivocally a step in the right direction for AORUS and I can imagine that their next iteration will be even better. For $90 this is more than a fair deal and if you’re a right handed claw grip user, this is a mouse you should consider for your next upgrade. [ The Overclocker ] Issue 36 | 2015 The OverClocker 41