TheOverclocker issue 38

ONWARDS WE GO! I

ssue 38 here and it’s right when Computex has ended. It’s been a busy few months and it looks as if 2016 is only going to get a lot more exciting going forward. Since AMD' did not be revealing their new 14nm based GPUs at Computex, we will hopefully see these along with the new AMD CPU platform later on in the year. In the meantime, we still have and Kabylake to look forward to from INTEL after the erm, perculiar shall we say Broadwell-E from INTEL. So far it looks good for the GTX 10XX, so we can only imagine what the rest of the family line up will bring to the table this year or early next year.

Regardless, we have plenty to be excited about as it’s been a very long time since we had so much hardware releasing in a single year. After a relatively dry spell, 2016 seems to be making up for the last four years or more combined and that’s always a good thing.

Of particular interest is what AMD might present with their Zen platform.

I’m of the mind that it need not be as fast as what INTEL has at the moment (I doubt that being behind for several generations or a decade can be made up with a single generation) but, if it’s sufficiently fast for gaming, then the overclocking community may take to it as well. My thinking here is that if AMD matches Ivy-Bridge levels of efficiency then we are certainly going to be looking at a fairly competitive platform even though it may be on the back foot. Truth be told; I secretly wish that it is a little better. It has nothing to do with whatever market dynamics it may lead to, but rather that we will just have another option, a viable option. Something that isn’t the case at present.

It’s been far too long since AMD was in the game from a competitive overclocking and certainly a gaming point of view. There simply isn’t any reason to purchase any of the products they have at present for enthusiasts and overclockers alike. Price wise there is always an argument to be made, but I’m of the mind

that you don’t go into PC gaming with the intention of saving costs as the PC is an inherently premium platform. You’d be better served by any one of the modern consoles if that is the intention.

With a competent platform featuring USB 3/3.1, DDR4 support and PCI-Express 3.0 (let’s not forget that only FM2+ support PCI-Express 3.0 on AMD’s side) and other chipset features, we will finally see something that reflects today’s market. More importantly though, if AMD’s previous clock speeds under LN2 are anything to go by, the new CPUs one hopes will overclock just as well. That alone will make for a fun platform with plenty possibilities for overclockers and gamers alike. Usually I’m pessimistic about AMD and I have every objective reason to be so given their misstep at every opportunity. There is hope however, if not in the promise of much needed performance improvements, at least in the newness factor and the chance to once again have something to say about AMD that isn’t all doom and gloom.

As stated earlier, we are post COMPUTEX and everything we saw there has already filled up the issue plan for TOC 39. Since the GTX 1080 has not been much anything for LN2, here's hoping some breakthrough is made and we get to see those 3GHz clocks that seemd so possible before. If not, we may be witnessing the Sandy-Bridge equivelant of GPUs, which was great for getting amateurs into overclocking, but not as effective at keeping them going forward when LN2 mattered again on successive platforms. Whatever happens, we will be there to cover it in the usual awkward detail and candor. Afterall that is why we stick around despite, sensiblity dictating we shouldn't.

Until next time, do take care and we will see you in Issue 39.

[ Neo Sibeko - Editor ]

Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 3

REGULARS

24

3 - Editor’s note 6 - Interview with Pierŕe “QuantumX” van Rhyn 12 - HWBOT OC League Tables

FEATURES 14 - The Little CPU That Could! CORE i3 OC 28 - Computex 2016 - In picture form 36 - HWBOT World Tour Cape Town - @ rAge Cape Town 2016! A PICTURE TOUR 40 - ONE on ONE with GIGABYTE’s Leon Chen

REVIEWS 20 - EK XLC PREDATOR 360 + FC 980 Ti Classy KPE 24 - ASUS B150I PRO GAMING/AURA

GAME TIME 44 - XCOM 2 48 - CORSAIR STRAFE RGB MX-Silent

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

50 - ASUS GX700 Gaming Notebook and Dock

Editor Neo Sibeko

54 - ROCCAT ALUMA in-ear headset 56 - GIGABYTE XM300 Gaming Mouse

Art Director Chris Savides

57 - OC-TV: The OC Show 48

Contributors Dane Remendes Jonathan Horne Pieter-Jan “Massman” Plaisier Timothée Pineau For editorial please contact: neo@theoverclocker.com

4 The OverClocker Issue 38 | 2016

QA

Pierŕe“QuantumX” van Rhyn Country Name and City: South Africa, Cape Town What language(s) do you speak in addition to English if any?

Afrikaans Your nickname QuantumX, does it mean anything and how did it come about?

When I was younger I was really interested in nuclear physics and one day QuantumX popped into my head and from then on it was the nickname I used at local LAN’s and eventually for all my online accounts.

When did you start overclocking and on what platform was it on?

I started overclocking when I won a 8800GTS 320MB Graphics card in a competition. I read reviews about the card before it shipped and in the reviews they tested the overclocking ability of the card which introduced me to it all. I had an AMD Sempron 3400+ which had a single core and only did 1.8GHz on an MSI K9N Neo motherboard (nForce 550 chipset). I soon realized the CPU was bottlenecking my GPU so I eventually overclocked it to around 2.4GHz. The CPU seemed to have more in it but unfortunately the motherboard didn’t have any voltage adjustment options in the BIOS. On which forum or forums do you spend the most time or share your overclocking results?

I spend a lot of time on a SouthAfrican forum called Carbonite, and then I also joined the Overclock.net not too long ago How many live overclocking events 6 The OverClocker Issue 38 | 2016

have you attended if any and if not, which ones would you like to take part in?

The only one was recently at the HWBot World Tour in Cape Town .

Do you overclock competitively or do you perhaps enjoy pushing hardware and/or setting your own goals?

I’m more the type of overclocker that enjoys pushing each piece of hardware to the max, but I do check the rankings beforehand so I definitely have a competitive side too.

Who has been your most inspiring overclocker since you started?

In the beginning I didn’t really know any of the overclockers since I was just doing my own thing but later on when I got to know Vivi, he taught me a lot and he is always approachable.

Most overclockers have a “golden time” or period in which they believe overclocking was at its best. Do you have such a time period and if so, when was it or do you prefer the present climate of competitive overclocking?

I would say Socket 775 was a great time for overclocking, as you could literally overclock any CPU you could get your hands on. People didn’t need to overclock to compete in rankings or to beat anyone else, you could just take what you have and overclock it for free performance or extra FPS in your favourite game. To me that was always the most rewarding type of overclocking.

Who do you usually have overclocking sessions with if anyone and how often are you having these LN2 or Dry ice sessions?

Vivi and I have sessions from time

to time and DrWeez has also been around in those sessions a couple of times. We only get to do it once every few months unfortunately.

If you could only pick a single brand of components to buy hardware from, which brand would that be and why is that?

I would say Asus is a brand that makes very good components allround. Their motherboards and GPU’s are top class, all their other products are good and they look the part too.

What is your favourite platform and which is your least favourite?

My favourite would be Socket 1150 as it’s the platform I have the

most experience on with extreme cooling. I can’t think of one that would be my least favourite as every platform has its own challenges, but if I have to choose one I would say Socket 2011 since it’s very expensive and to me that doesn’t help make overclocking beginner-friendly Of all the hardware you’ve ever owned, what is your favourite of all time? (This isn’t limited to just motherboards or graphics cards, but CPUs, memory, storage etc.)

I personally enjoyed my i7-2600K Sandy Bridge a lot since I was only using conventional cooling and could get pretty close to the guys using extreme cooling. I was able to run 3DMark06 at just over 5.4GHz

if the ambient temperature was low enough. Equal to the i7-2600K would be the very good bin Pentium G3258 I have, it’s probably one of the top 3 non-ES G3258’s in the world.

I had one even better but it died unfortunately.

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

I’m a bit divided on this one. 3D Benchmarks are very rewarding since you can see the actual FPS increase as you overclock the system. With 2D benchmarks the results are very abstract and the units of measurement aren’t always

Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 7

related to everyday computer usage.

But then on the other hand the 2D benchmarks, especially the ones that scale with tuning your RAM, are just as rewarding when you finally get it right. Due to the effect that the CPU’s have on the 3D benchmarks I prefer doing CPU benchmarks when overclocking competitively. For example, you can’t beat a system with an i7-5960X with your i5 system in 3DMark Firestrike, but when doing CPU benchmarks you don’t compete against the i7-5960X when you have an i5.

benchmarks like 3DMark01 and Aquamark were good back in the day, but lately I don’t think they are relevant anymore.

With that said, what are the best and worst benchmark of all time for you?

3DMark06 and Cinebench are my favourites. The older 3D

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

I will always cherish the moment when I got my first Global First

8 The OverClocker Issue 38 | 2016

Do you do any kind of binning for your overclocking or are you more concerned with extracting the best out of what you have regardless of your particular sample quality?

With each generation of hardware, I tell myself I’ll bin this time but never get so far due to financial reasons, so I just end up doing the best with what I have.

Place for dual core CPU’s with the Pentium G3258 in HwBot Prime benchmark.

With plenty of hardware and at least two CPU platforms coming out this year, what hardware are you most looking forward to?

The nVidia Pascal GPU’s is the main thing that I’m looking forward to.

Other than overclocking, what other interests do you have which occupy as much time if not more?

Nothing else really, I don’t have much free time on my hands due to work.

Outside of overclocking do you do any serious gaming or modding and if so, what do you play the most or if case modding, what are you currently working on?

I spend quite a lot of time gaming, mostly DotA and Battlefield. I also recently started to play with custom watercooling and enjoy building PC’s in general.

What are your four favourite games of all time in no particular order?

Gran Turismo 2, GTA San Andreas, Need for Speed Underground 2, Borderlands (the first one).

If you could change one single thing 10 The OverClocker Issue 38 | 2016

in overclocking what would it be?

Unlock all CPU’s so that not only K-edition CPU’s can be overclocked.

Your general sentiments about overclocking regarding its future for you personally. Is it something you’ll be into for as long as is feasible or are you thinking perhaps there’s a time when you may have other commitments which may not necessarily allow you to be active in overclocking?

I will definitely continue overclocking as long as I can, although it will be challenging with work and family taking up so much time.

Finally, is there anything you’d like to say to everyone reading this?

I would like to say to everyone that doesn’t have so much experience with competitive overclocking that you should compete against yourself first. Do your best with what you have and try to find and learn new ways to improve your efficiency. Compare your scores to everybody else who is running the same frequency, then one day when you get a good bin CPU or GPU you will have the skill and knowledge to push it up alongside the top guys.

 

2016 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 854 pts

499 pts

Dancop

456 pts

Splave

Xtreme_Addict

HWBOT Road To Pro Dancop

Toolius

Steponz

Johan45

marc0053

nexus35

Rasparthe

Strong Island

HWBOT OC Leagues The current leaders starting from Elite going to Rookie are Dancop, Rauf, Keika, George.kokovinis, Wernersen, UFDisciple.

Elite

Extreme

Apprentice

Enthusiast

Novice

Rookie

1

Dancop

Rauf

Keika

George.kokovinis

Wernersen

UFDisciple

2

Xtreme_Addict

Bullshooter

ProKoN

Vadimua

TAGG

I_AssassinArka_I

3

Splave

BarboneNet

Electron libre

Raules09

Mus1mus

Antome

4

Der8auer

Strong Island

QuickFast

Andressergio

Spooky

NFree

5

Alex@ro

Ikki

MAXKING

Nvidiaforever2

Lochekey

Juv4uk

(standings as of June 13, 2016)

Competition Results The Second quarter of 2016 was definitely among the most exciting we’ve seen this far. With always more online and offline competitions to choose from, having a strategy for the season is mandatory!

- GIGABYTE GIGABYTE Z170 March OC Madness - Ambient

GIGABYTE Z170 March OC Madness - Extreme

1 nvidiaforever2

68 pts

1 Keira

66 pts

2 nightway

49 pts

2 Darkvenom

50 pts

3 Fact11

47 pts

3 Strunkenbold

41 pts

- MSI -

- G.SKILL -

MSI MOA 2016 Europe - Predict the Score

G.SKILL OC World Cup Qualifier

1 Lucky_n00b

22 pts

1 Hazzan

110 pts

2 Bullshooter

21 pts

2 Splave

104 pts

3 topdog

19 pts

3 Alex@ro

103 pts

G.SKILL OC World Cup Live Qualifier

G.SKIL OC World Cup Live Final

1 Splave

44 pts

1 Splave

5 pts

2 Lucky_n00b

32 pts

2 Dancop

4 pts

3 Dancop

32 pts

- HWBOT Series Rookie Rumble #28

nowcontrol

123 pts

Rookie Rumble AMD #25

Razwar

141 pts

Rookie Rumble #29

nowcontrol

130 pts

Rookie Rumble AMD #26

Razwar

132 pts

Rookie Rumble #30

Creapure

114 pts

Rookie Rumble AMD #27

mirzet1976

136 pts

Rookie Rumble #31

antome

150 pts

Rookie Rumble AMD #28

mirzet1976

132 pts

Novice Nimble #8

overclock.net

241 pts

OSiBS Season 2 Round 3

HwBox Hellas O/C Team

43 pts

OSiBS Season 2 Round 4

TechSweden.or g

43 pts

OSiBS Season 2 Round 5

TechSweden.or g

36 pts

OSiBS Season 2 Bonus Round

HwBox Hellas O/C Team

25 pts

- HWBOT World Tour 2016 HWS16 XOC South America

pxhx

4 pts

HWS16 XOC South Africa

DrWeez

3 pts

HWS16 AOC South America

rafael

4 pts

HWS16 AOC South Africa

UFDisciple

4 pts

HWS16 XOC Europe - MSI

Bullshooter

6 pts

HWS16 XOC North America

marc0053

4 pts

HWS16 AOC Europe - MSI

Estep

4 pts

HWS16 AOC North America

matchai

4 pts

HWS16 XOC Asia

Xtreme Addict

4 pts

HWS16 AOC Asia

Lantzeyin

4 pts

(standings as of June 13, 2016)

THE LITTLE CPU THAT COULD!

CORE i3 OC Last issue, we delved into the topic of affordable overclocking and all the related players that may benefit from such a SKU, be it INTEL or AMD for that matter.

It is all good and well talking or writing about it given the situation we are currently faced with. The pressing question however is - what can one do right now to get into overclocking if the funds just aren’t there for the high end products which we often take for granted?

Well, Non-K SKU overclocking which came to light roughly 7 months ago may be the answer to that very question.

With just a tiny budget of around $299 you can get into some relatively interesting overclocking scenarios at the amateur/rookie level.

You can go about this any number ways, but the most direct way to get into this is of course a cheap Z170 motherboard and Core i3-6300/6320 CPU. Naturally it would be better if we could do this with an H170 chipset board, but H170, does not support external clock generators and as such is out of the question.

Since the vast majority of the amateur overclockers are by and large those still very active and involved in gaming, it stands to reason that given all the constraints involved, the hardware must meet all criteria, over and above tuning ability and performance. Primarily it must also be viable within this context.

This is exactly where it gets interesting. As professional and elite overclockers have shown over several months, the ASUS MAXIMUS VIII IMPACT and perhaps even better than ASRock Z170M OC Formula are the motherboards to choose from when dealing with Non-K SKU overclocking. The simple truth is that at such a price, they are out of reach for most. As such, your options are going to be the $120 to $150 boards that virtually every vendor has, assuming you don't have one that is. Of course this is 14 The OverClocker Issue 38 | 2016

not a sanctioned exercise

by INTEL and one that is not only unsupported but discouraged by INTEL and its partners (at least in the official sense). We can all appreciate that, but overclocking was never about doing what is sanctioned with our computers. That was never the point and it’s actually been a long time since overclocking spoke true to its roots. When it was simply a matter of extracting additional performance from your chosen hardware, when financial resources just weren’t there to buy the most capable components. If you only have $300 to your name for this endeavour, you would think overclocking and taking part in the HWBOT competitions and others is not feasible. Well, that is not necessarily true.

Had it not been the lack of any overclocking capability on the H chipset boards, there are several feature rich H170 alternatives that are better featured than the entry level Z170 alternatives you are likely to find at this price point. Again this just isn’t possible so budget Z170 is the only viable option. This means

that if you’re the ill-defined “gamer” that supposedly seeks a Killer Ethernet controller and some form of superior audio solution, you’re just out of luck this time. You’re not losing much though as those LAN controllers rarely if ever make a difference and most audio is respectable on motherboards of late.

While we are talking about that, given that we can get a fairly robust board for $150, it does beg the question as to why we don’t get some real innovation at the $400 level when $150 options have largely the same features. That however is a separate and inconsequential debate for what we are concerned with. What we want to know is what can one do armed with a meagre budget and a desire to build an overclocking capable system that moonlights as a gaming rig as well.

To that end, one should seek out the GIGABYTE Z170XP-SLI, UD3, ASRock Z170 Gaming K4, Asus Z170-A or any similar motherboard in that range. You can find a list of supporting boards here at Overclocking.Guide.

Breaking the Rules!

What you may know already is that this Non-K SKU overclocking was "supposedly" blocked

by INTEL. It was only a matter of time and it took just a couple of months for it to come to a grinding halt. That said, there’s absolutely nothing preventing you from partaking in this exercise still, as all overclocking support remains present in previous BIOS versions. In MSI's case they have released updated BIOS files with other fixes and support.

For other vendor boards sadly, you

will want to avoid updating to any of the new BIOS revisions that came after around or around the middle of February 2016.

Since this isn’t an overclocking tutorial, the assumption is you’re well versed with your way around the BIOS and even if you’re not, you’ll eventually figure it out. It’s simply a matter of selecting the right Base clock and memory multiplier in combination with the necessary voltages. Tweaking the system and finding out the best settings for your particular CPU and memory combination is the fun part and as such it will not be detailed herein. Again if you need that information and more, head over to Overclocking.Guide where you’ll get additional information about all things overclocking related.

Before undertaking any of this however you'll want to find out roughly how much more performance can be had from overclocking this CPU. The results may surprise you.

Worth mentioning is that, the Core i3-6300 and the 6320 are memory bandwidth starved. In fact, if you’ve looked at the graphs, just increasing the memory frequency yields massive gains in performance - more so than raising the clock speed. This isn’t just in the synthetic tests, but it is made evident in the game benchmarks as well. As such you’ll want to look at extracting the best frequency possible from your memory kit. We found that memory timings, while crucial as always, are of secondary importance when balanced against raw frequency (obviously this must be kept within reason as 19-35-3550-2T is no good). Samsung D/E-die based memory can be had for a relatively low sum these days with kits retailing for as little as $60 and sometimes less for a dual channel 8GiB kit. In this particular editorial we made use of the G.Skill Trident Z 3,466MHz 8GiB kit which happens to be a paltry $59 (At least at the time of publication). Armed with this kit, we found a good balance between frequency and timings, eventually settling at a modest 14-17-17-30-1T setting at a comfortable 1.45V. This is more than a safe voltage and it should pose no threat to your memory’s longevity. Of course if you’re not comfortable with that, you Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 15

may use the default timings of 1618-18-35-2T at 1.35V but be advised that you’ll not be maximizing the performance at all.

As always, actual overclocking will depend on the CPU sample, and your distance may vary. We used two different i3-6300 samples; one was capable of speeds as high as 4.7GHz while the other one was hardly stable at 4.3GHz. There’s no guarantee you’ll get any specific clock speed, but whatever it is you get, it's a lot more than you would otherwise have.

THINGS TO KNOW

As you can see from the graphs, the performance gains to be had from this overclocking are massive. Just increasing the memory clock speed yields sizeable gains in itself, and when paired with the CPU overclocking results in further gains to the system performance.

Be mindful however that while the graphs show memory speeds north of 3000MHz, the truth is that some hardware will not function correctly with such high memory speeds. We found this to be the case with several PCI-Express based storage cards which at memory frequencies above ~2,700MHz would stop functioning. This was not the case with a regular SATA and M.2 drive but it does indicate that there may be some hidden caveats to 16 The OverClocker Issue 38 | 2016

overclocking these CPUs in addition to the well documented ones.

Depending on the final CPU frequency though, performance can go up tremendously and in many instances may turn borderline playable frame rates to well above the comfortable range. Of course there are situations where you will prefer to have a real high frequency multi core CPU (especially where multi-tasking is concerned), but as far as budget gaming and overclocking is concerned you’re unlikely to find better value than what is offered with these relatively affordable Core i3 CPUs. We can only hope that an officially overclockable Core i3 SKU becomes available in future, but until then this remains one of the only ways in which you can have some fun within a reasonable budget. Applicable to both gamers and overclockers, this may be one of the most important developments in overclocking in years.

ANALYSIS OF CAVEATS

If you’re not already aware of it, there are some things you need to look out for when attempting this overclocking. Some are not as obvious as you may imagine so be sure to compare the pros and cons for this before embarking on your overclocking.

• You will not be able to use any of

the C-state power saving features that you normally can, so your instant resume from sleep etc. may not be available • Your system or more specifically your CPU and all related power planes are operating at full load constantly (frequency and voltage).

• Some graphics cards have their PCI-Express links at PCIE 3.0 x16 This means that power consumption for the entire system is increased (at least in comparison to its normal operating conditions). You will also notice that your idle GPU temperature may be higher than normal. Don’t be surprised to see idle temperatures in the 50’C+ range.

• Some PCI-Express based storage solutions will not operate should you choose to use memory frequencies above 2,666MHz. • CPU package temperature will be higher than normal and do not be surprised to see CPU load temperatures as high as 75’C even with an AIO liquid cooler. Obviously this is dependent on operating voltage and CPU sample quality, but be prepared for higher than normal temperatures.

• You will lose the ability to use

your integrated GPU and all dependant features including QuickSync. • AVX (Advanced Vector Extensions) are disabled, so if you have any software that takes specific advantage of this instruction set extension, chances are performance will suffer tremendously.

As you can tell, these are not minor issues when put together and for those who are power conscious (which we should all be actually) this may not be an ideal way to run your system for everyday usage. Fortunately, we do have BIOS profiles in all decent motherboards and you may use one profile for gaming and overclocking, and another one for regular media and work, in which case you’re not always dealing with these short comings.

TEST PLATFORM

Our test platform for benchmarks comprised of a Core i3-6300, 8GiB G.Skill Trident Z DDR4-3,466MHz RAM and an EVGA GeForce GTX 780Ti K|NGP|IN Edition running at its stock GPU and memory speeds of 1,072MHz and 7,000MHz respectively, while the operating system used was Windows 10. For the comparison we ran the i3-6300 at its default frequency with memory at 2133MHZ. We

then changed the DRAM frequency to 3,400MHz, then followed that with the CPU at 4.6GHz and DRAM frequency at 3,200MHz. Finally, a 4.7GHz CPU clock was used with a 3,473MHz DRAM frequency.

BENCHMARK RESULTS

As shown in the graphs, the Core i3 has a lot of untapped performance potential. F1 2015 was a prime example of how bandwidthstarved the CPU is, gaining 23% performance by merely increasing the memory frequency to 3,400MHz. In this instance the gain from increasing the DRAM frequency was larger than that recorded by increasing the core frequency to 4.7GHz. On the other end of the spectrum, Total War: Attila's massive number of units in the game move the bottleneck squarely to the CPU and gains of over 42% were seen by increasing the frequency to 4.7GHz. Dragon Age: Inquisition and GTA V were somewhere in between, showing similar gains where the CPU speed or memory speed had somewhat similar benefits.

3DMark 11, despite its age and its largely synthetic nature, remains a relevant indication of a system's gaming performance.

It showed sizeable gains with a bump in memory speed and even larger gains with the processor

overclocked. Overall, we were able to get an extra 15% out of 3DMark.

Looking at the multi-threaded CPU benchmarks, 3D Particle Movement saw a gain of 10% with the increased memory frequency and a massive 25% with the CPU overclocked as well. CineBench R15 tells a similar tale. With just the memory frequency increased it offered a performance increase of just under 3%, but with the CPU running at 4.7GHz that was extended well over 26%. wPrime 1024M showed absolutely no gain from increasing the memory speed at all, but a 19% gain from increasing the CPU frequency. This puts it in approximately the same territory as a stock Core i5-6600K. SuperPi 32M showed an improvement of almost 5% from a memory overclock alone, which jumped to an improvement of almost 22% when operating at 4.7GHz. It is worth noting that in single-threaded tests and benchmarks, it would keep up with more expensive and higher core count CPUs such as the Core i5-6600 or Core i5-6600K.

TAKING IT UP A NOTCH

The results we've shown have all been air cooled and at settings safe for 24/7 use for this particular CPU, but that isn't where things end by any measure. The massive Bclk headroom available on Skylake

Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 17

means that these CPUs overclock like a dream under extreme cooling even with their locked multipliers.

LN2 evaporators, liquid nitrogen, dry ice and insulation will obviously be the order of the day along with dose of bravery and a sip of good luck. While the costs involved may add up fairly quickly, they are more than outweighed by the costs of

18 The OverClocker Issue 38 | 2016

binning a higher SKU and the i36300 (6320 even better) is a good contender as an entry to extreme overclocking. For these results we turned to the i3-6300 leader boards over at HWBOT. We'll take a look at CineBench R15 first, where American overclocker l0ud_sil3nc3 achieved 716 points using a Core i3 6300 @ 6,300MHz

with a Bclk of 165MHz. To give some perspective, that score is better than what can be expected from a stock Core i7-4770K. While it may be a generation older, it is still a processor with double the core, thread and L3 cache offered by the little i3-6300. This feat was performed using the ASRock Z170M OC Formula motherboard and 16GiB

Splave's Core i3 6300 LN2 rig.

Click pic to read his interview

“ FOR THE ENTHUSIAST ENTERING INTO EXTREME OVERCLOCKING IT PROVIDES A GOOD STARTING POINT AT AN AFFORDABLE PRICE.�

G.Skill Trident Z DDR4 memory running at 3,754MHz with timings of CL11-11-11-28.

Next we'll take a look at SuperPi 32M. The veteran overclocker Splave, well known for SuperPi 32M, his favourite benchmark.

It should therefore come as no surprise that he would be the one to take the record with a time of 297.34 seconds. He did this with his i3-6300 at 6,195MHz with a Blck of 163MHz, powered by the ASRock Z170M OC Formula and 8GiB Kingston HyperX DDR4 memory at 3,695MHz CL12-18-18-28. This is only around 30 seconds away from the overall SuperPi 32M world record which may be a significant difference, but is extremely impressive for an entry level Core i3 processor.

Lastly we'll look at wPrime 1024M where Greek overclocker and GIGABYTE OC-Lab resident sofos1990 has things nicely

wrapped up with a score of 196.81 seconds. He did this running his i3-6300 at 6,346MHz with a Bclk of 167MHz on a GIGABYTE Z170XSOC Force LN2-CF motherboard (the natural choice for a GIGABYTE OC-Lab overclocker) with 16GiB of unknown RAM at 2,673MHz 12-14-14-28. The low memory speed is due to wPrime not scaling very well with memory speed as confirmed by our results where increasing the DRAM had little to no effect on the score.

The i3-6300 shows itself to have enough headroom for fun in the 6GHz range. Of course this is not guaranteed and will come down to your specific CPU sample, motherboard, cooling and skill level, but there is plenty of fun to be had in the process. If you're chasing hardware class records it is also significantly cheaper to bin the Core i3s than i5s or i7s.

CONCLUSION

In closing, the Core i3-6300 and 6320 offer great value for money for a budget gaming computer, and even more so once you have the memory up to speed and the CPU overclocked to the mid-to-high 4GHz range. The increases of up to 40% mean that you could turn the detail up a notch while maintaining a smooth and playable frame-rate. Of course you will have to weigh up the pros and cons listed above to see if it is the right choice for you, as if you're doing media editing with an AVX-aware application you'll probably be better off with the CPU at its stock speed or a slightly faster SKU. For the enthusiast entering into extreme overclocking, it provides a good starting point at an affordable price.

We can only imagine how much better this would all be if indeed we had an unlocked Core i3 SKU. [ The OverClocker] Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 19

EK-XLC PREDATOR 360 & FC 980 Ti Classy KPE RRP: (Kits): $239.99 | MSRP (FCBlock): GPU Block): $162.99 $162.99 | Website: | Website: www.ekwb.com www.asus.com MSRPMSRP (Kit): $239.99 | MSRP (FC GPU

Test Machine • INTEL Core i7 5960X • CORSAIR DOMINATOR Platinum DDR4 3400 • GIGABYTE X99 Champion • EVGA GTX 980Ti K|NGP|N Edition • CORSAIR AX1500i

C

ooling for DIY computers has never been more important than it is today. Even with the smaller node GPUs and CPUs, enthusiasts and amateur overclockers are always seeking that extra performance in whatever they do, from gaming to of course overclocking. There is no such thing as enough cooling or performance within these circles.

It is safe to say that as a whole, the DIY industry has exhausted traditional air

20 The OverClocker Issue 38 | 2016

cooling mechanisms and we are firmly in the age of AIO coolers and of course custom loops. By far these are the preferred cooling methods and systems by enthusiast the world over. With that said, few names are as prolific as EKWB and with products such as the EK-XLC Predator 360 (Predator from here on), it is easy to understand why this praise is more than warranted.

We find ourselves at a time where there are not only numerous competitors in the AIO market, but so many of them offering near identical units. This of course makes picking one easy enough, but it also means that few ever stand out. There are perhaps less than a handful of noteworthy units, but for the most part the rest are just mediocre by the numbers offerings that in no way, shape or form advance the AIO market.

This is perhaps the single largest departure point for the Predator and its other stable mates. Instead of making endless promises about how liquid cooling will bring down your CPU operating temperatures and by extension allowing for higher overclocking headroom. The Predator sells itself primarily as an AIO which has custom loop expandability and similar performance minus the complexity. How this is achieved is essentially via tubing that features CPC links.

If you’re not aware, these CPC links allow the free flow of coolant when two corresponding links are attached and of course seize the flow when disconnected.

Simple enough, but a life saver because it means when expanding the loop, you need not drain the system. Not only making it significantly

more convenient but allowing you to avoid the arduous and time consuming task usually associated with this exercise.

With these quick connect CPC links, one simply de-couples these links and goes about performing whatever maintenance or upgrades required to the loop.

The CPC connectors aren’t the only selling point of the kit, in fact that is only part of the story which on its own would not make for as compelling a product. It is how this small piece fits in with the rest of the kit and other EKWB products where the true ingenuity is.

Well known and celebrated for their high performance blocks, radiators, pumps and all other cooling components.

The Predator takes those bits and pieces and puts them together in an AIO kit, but without requiring any advanced technical knowhow

from the end user. Despite its straight forward and simple setup, it allows you acces to many of the expansion capabilities that custom loops offer. For instance, should so wish, you may use a different CPU block than the one provided. It uses standard angled adapters and fittings to connect to the tubing and as such, should there be a better block in future or perhaps you wish to use this kit for GPU cooling exclusively. You may do so by simply purchasing the appropriate block. The CPC connectors mentioned earlier facilitate such endeavors for GPU blocks such as the one tested with this unit. Even without them, the Predator would still be one of the few truly expandable AIO kits on the market. It is rare if not unheard of, that such a simple AIO kit allows one to add an additional radiator, reservoir or both to the system over

and above any blocks. The integrated 6W pump provides plenty of power and is able to drive many addtional expansions. As expected, it's a higher quality pump than almost all other AIO unit offerings on the market.

We then get to the full coverage water block as provided to us by EKWB. The block in question was for the GPU that graced our cover in Issue 36, the EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti K|NGP|N Edition graphics card. EKWB provided the FC 980 Ti Classy KPE that was pre-filled and also featured these quick disconnect links. Adding the GPU to the loop once the block was installed literally took seconds as shown in the video.

It really is that simple and the performance is of course remarkable which is precisely what we focused on in this review.

Before we get there however Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 21

it is worth noting that, how EKWB presents its products is something which other AIO vendors could learn from. Clear and well written instructions, packaging that is simple but robust and a pre-assembled unit that needs minimal work to install. Three fans are already attached to the radiator and the wiring work is nothing short of spectacular. From presentation right through to installation and performance, the entire experience is exceptional. A rare encounter in this market cluttered with so many near identical and in comparison sub-standard offerings. All components were packed neatly in place and the wiring was in a

22 The OverClocker Issue 38 | 2016

word "perfect". Even without a manual, installing the unit for cooling your INTEL CPU is easy enough if you’ve ever used an EKWB loop in recent times.

If installed on the LGA 2011 systems, installation is even easier and takes mere minutes to complete, just like some of the best AIO kits available today. If you’re wondering why special mention is made to INTEL CPUs, that's because EKWB states that the Predator is designed exclusively for INTEL CPUs and of course features only mounting kits for LGA 2011/v3 and LGA 115X CPUs. For those on the AMD platform, fear not however as you simply need to buy the correct fittings for

the EK-Supremacy-MX AMD and use that CPU block instead of the one that ships with the unit. Since the Predator can be refilled with ease, having to purge the system of the coolant is not an issue, while you change to the appropriate CPU block for your system.

We finally get to the performance of the Predator.

Using only the shipped fans, the CPU temperatures were by and large similar to what we had recorded with the high end X360. Of course under load the Predator didn’t perform as well, but remember that this was with a high end GPU in the loop as well. What is of the utmost importance is realizing that for CPUs such as the 5960X,

this level of cooling is more than enough and the maximum overclock is not going to increase further with any form of liquid cooling. Be it you use a custom loop or another high end AIO kit. There is a temperature difference under load of course, but what you should realize is that the maximum overlock for our particular CPU which was 4.5GHz, remained exactly the same. What did improve though is the GPU performance as shown in the graphs.

What you should know is unlike with the standard all copper cooler that ships with this graphics card. The FC block for this GPU keeps the GPU clock constant at 1430MHz regardless of the benchmark, game or stress test. With the standard cooler, as brilliant as it is, GPU clocks dip to 1417MHz in many instances and when playing the most taxing games with all options enabled, this 1417MHz may sometimes dip to 1406MHz and perhaps less as shown by Furmark. This happens with the fan speed set at 50% and even at 100% sometimes. The latter setting being unbearable and not a practical way to

operate the GPU for 24/7 use even though it does maintain a higher boost clock which is at its lowest 1406MHz. In contrast, when using the FC block and the Predator, the boost clock never fluctuates at all, constantly at the optimum clock of 1430MHz. This same behaviour is exhibited when overclocked as well, where the GPU clock remained at 1550MHz with a maximum load temperature of 44’C. Simply astonishing performance compared to the factory shipped cooler where the test would eventually crash.

Where it didn’t crash, it resulted in a lowered GPU clock throughout every test. In a material way, the FC block and Predator AIO have allowed the test system to reach new levels of performance previously unattainable. As stated earlier, these days AIO kits do not improve CPU performance, but GPUs such as this one still benefit tremendously from efficient cooling. With a selling price set at $240 USD, it is significantly cheaper than putting together a custom loops, while providing a much better cooling solution than any other AIO on the market. It really is a bargain like no other

Be it you have one of the more common AIOs already or are looking for a premium unit.

The Predator is where you should start. The EK-XLC Predator 360 is by far the best option for performance cooling at anywhere near this price range.

[ TheOverclocker ]

Summary EKWB has brought premium cooling performance and expandability to the AIO market. With exceptional build quality and presentation, the Predator 360 has placed itself at the forefront of these kits, delivering leading performance and peerless expansion possibilities at an incredible price. For all intents and purposes, the Predator 360 has set the benchmark for all other AIO kits. By far the most compelling AIO kit money can buy today.

Would you buy it?

Definitely

Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 23

ASUS B150I PRO GAMING/AURA RRP: $124.99 | Website: www.asus.com

Test Machine • INTEL Core i3 6300 • Crucial DDR4 2133 C12 • EVGA GTX 780Ti K|NGP|N Edition • SAMSUNG PX941 512GB • CORSAIR AX1500i • Windows 10 x64

I

t seems just about every vendor these days has a B chipset board which for some reason or another is positioned as an alternative for PC gamers, particularly those on a budget. The theory here being that, you can outfit the board with a series of third party chips which will add some of the features most gamers need.

We can appreciate the logic given that the B150 chipset alone is a whole $19 cheaper than its Z170 stablemate. At this price point where every dollar counts, $19 is

24 The OverClocker Issue 38 | 2016

plenty of money and as such it does make some fiscal sense to opt for this chipset instead.

ASUS has done just this with the B150I Pro Gaming/ AURA. This is the non-WiFi model which solely relies on the capable INTEL I219V LAN controller which is enhanced via ASUS’s own GamFirst IV beta software. As you’d expect this manages network traffic setting priorities appropriately for the system.

Audio is via the SupremeFX solution which is in part a combination of the Realtek ALC1150 codec, paired once again with Nichicon audio capacitors and a headphone amp for high impedance headphones. The audio portion of the board also has the SupremeFX Lighting. An Important feature given that the main draw for this board is the Aura RGB lighting which is positioned towards the case modders among us.

Worth mentioning as well is

Sonic Radar II which is a softgware layer that can help your gaming audio experience apprently.

Even within the cramped space, ASUS has managed to add support for M.2 2280 length drives. You will have to install said drive on the underside of the board however, so be sure that your chosen enclosure has enough clearance between the two surfaces. As previously mentiond, there is no Wi-fi support, but you get five USB 3.0 ports - three of which are located at the rear of the board

and two via a header. One of these USB 3.0 ports on the rear IO is of the newer Type-C format, so even though you’ll not have USB3.1 performance, you may still use Type-C devices.

When examining the UEFI, you’ll find that it is the familiar ASUS ROG inspired interface.

It’s intuitive, detailed and has all relevant features for the board. Of course the AI tweaking section is barren, since there’s virtually nothing one can tweak. You may customize DRAM timings however, so despite being limited to DDR4 2133MHz, you Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 25

can still squeeze out a bit of additional performance via memory tuning. Since the only available frequency is 2133MHz at most, you should be able to tighten most memory down to C12 with no stability issues.

The highlight feature for the Aurua is the “Aura” LED lighting system which can be customized not only by color, but via Led behavior. You can select a variety of options, from a strobe effect to a rainbow pattern. How useful this is will again will depend on what it is you’re expecting to get from the board.

Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 26

For a basic motherboard it is a somewhat commendable addition, but one that is unlikely to be the deciding factor versus other competing products, especially since RGB LEDs are on literally every single component and peripheral these days.

Finally, we get to the performance section. As you’d expect, the Pro Gaming Aura will give you standard CPU performance, perhaps a little more if you so choose to tune your memory timings. Since it makes use of the B150I chipset, you should be aware

that PCI-Express connectivity is limited to x8 (PCI-Express 3.0), and there is no possible way of using higher DRAM frequencies than 2133MHz or overclocking your CPU in any way whatsoever. Even if you have a Core i7 6700K installed, the chipset and by extension the motherboard will not allow you to use multipliers higher than what the CPU ships at by default.

Given all that, it is unlikely that anyone would buy this motherboard and then pair it with a K SKU CPU. As such, we do lament the choice in chipset, but again

it is understandable for a motherboard that costs $125.

With that said, we would recommend readers of this publication in particular consider the ASUS Z170I PRO GAMING instead. Even if it means one has to sacrifice the Core i3 6320/6300 for a 6100 instead, it is worth it If only for the following reasons.

The Z170 chipset will allow you an upgrade path that is otherwise unavailable to you with the B150 chipset. That is, in future you’ll be able to take advantage of more powerful graphics cards (via the x16 PCI-Express support), higher speed memory (anything up to 3600MHz for instance), overclock your present Core i3 CPU (unofficial support but it is a worthwhile exercise – see this issue’s feature) and finally the ability to upgrade

to K SKUs and gain even more performance going forward.

All this will set you back $40 more but you can make up some of that difference by opting for the Core i3 6100 instead. With that said, you’ll end up with many of the same features as on the B150 PRO GAMING AURA, save for the lighting options. Instead, you gain significantly more performance headroom.

Should this level of performance be sufficient enough for you and you’ve little to no interest in anything contained within the last paragraph. You’ll find that there aren’t any better B150 based boards on the market than this one and its WiFi alternative. As far as B150 is concerned, this is the best money can buy.

Summary The B150I Gaming Aura is strictly for those on a shoe string budget but are wanting to get on the latest Core i3/i5 CPU powered platform. It packs a number features found on ASUS ROG boards in a small miniITX form factor. Perfect as a base for an HTPC that doubles as a casual gaming machine. At the going price, you aren’t likely to find a better alternative anywhere.

Would you buy it?

Would save for the ASUS Z170I PRO GAMING instead. If that wasn’t possible however, then this board would have to do.

[ TheOverclocker ] Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 27

A PHOTOGR APHIC JOURNEY

C

OMPUTEX just wrapped up a couple of weeks ago and we were there for the presentations and the hardware. This year saw easily the biggest and best overclocking event in the history of organised overclocking, and as fate would have it. It was not organised by any one vendor but a community body, HWBOT. In partnership with several vendors, we saw the largest gathering of overclockers to date with the single intention of overclocking and competing to their heart’s content. No bus tours, no reluctant duck dinners and such. Just a group of likeminded individuals from all over the world coming together to do what they love and spend a great time, effort and monetary investment into perusing. Truly the highlight of the entire show for TheOverclocker.

However, COMPUTEX would not be anything without the hardware and all kinds of components and products on show. INTEL launched the Boradwell-E 6000 series CPUs and of course the GTX 1080 was just about everywhere.

There was not much extreme* overclocking of either so not much worth getting excited about came from either piece of hardware, but suffice to say the results after Computex slowly started to trickle in.

Instead of bludgeoning you to death with walls of text as to what vendors had that was new, we’d rather present you with pictures instead. Nothing beats being at the actual event in person, but hopefully these give you some idea of what went down from some of our favourite vendors and events of the show.

28 The OverClocker Issue 38 | 2016

ASUS GX700 succesor, featuring dual Pascal GPUs and overclocking support, the GX800

Easily the most well made case mod on the show floor.

Ghost Rider has never looked this good.

Up top is the spiritual successor to the RIVBE, the Rampage V 10 Edition.

Sometimes the best looking boards have nothing but uniform colors and interesting heatsink design.

RGB Free!!

Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 29

BITSPOWER Bitspower was out in full force showing some current and upcoming full coverage GPU water blocks.

Yet another standout and sublime chassis mod, courtesy of Bitspower cooling.

Bitspower joining the AIO market as well. Bringing much needed variety 30 The OverClocker Issue 38 | 2016

CORSAIR

One of the most stunning memory kits ever. The performance looks promising as well. C14 3200!

MSI's GTX 1080 powered Sea Hawk with CORSAIR's Hydro cooler.

CORSAIR suit up on the 25th floor of the Grand Hyatt Hotel Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 31

G.SKILL Joy all around for Team MSI with a Global 1st place for HWBOT Prime.

The usual suspects, Steponz, elmor, der8aeur, Dancop, FredYama amd Hiwa at the G.SKill booth.

Team EVGA comprising of the one and only K|NGP|N and TiN (And no, he isn't the machine!).

Team GIGABYTE looking pretty in pink, benching up a storm. 6 Top scores by TeamAU and sofos1990

ASRock team at the G.SKill booth after destroying the DDR4 world record on the Z170M-OC Formula. If only it was for sale.

32 The OverClocker Issue 38 | 2016

GIGABYTE With that much green, this one has to be NVIDIA powered.

Another great mod at GIGABYTE's VIP suit.

GIGABYTE's new DESIGNARE X99 premium motherboard.

GIGABYTE Show girls at the TWTC booth. Orange and black works surprisingly well here indeed.

Aorus X3 limited edition

Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 33

KINGPIN COOLING

How much load do you think a container this size can handle?

Simple answer is plenty, especially with this cooling system.

It remains a nameless KIngpInCooling project but one that definintely works.

Nothing like it before so this is a first that will hopefully come to market.

34 The OverClocker Issue 38 | 2016

MISCELLANEOUS GALAX showing off their ever increasing product range. Decked out in that dreamy white finish.

ZOTAC and their Pascal based GPUs. There were plenty at the show that's for sure.

GEIL's Dragon RAM. Years before GALAX was making white PCB's GEIL was making this memory.

"All gold everything" In Win's latest PSU The Trinidad James edition.

If you like your arm slaves and gundams, then this is a PC you'd certainly want.

Not practical, but so beautuful.

Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 35

HWBOT

WORLD TOUR CAPE TOWN 2016!

AT RAGE CAPE TOWN 2016!

A

P I C T U R E

S

everal months ago in March.

HWBOT made its first ever stop in Africa, more importantly sunny South Africa, home to Elite overclockers, ViVi and DrWeez.

A new country, new continent at a new gaming show, HWBOT in partnership with MSI, SEASONIC, INTEL, G.Skill and NAG put together one of the best amateur overclocking workshops that have taken place in the country. Of course at the same time qualifiers were held for the more extreme overclockers where the eventual winner DrWeez, would earn the privilege of making his way to Germany for the final, later 36 The OverClocker Issue 38 | 2016

on in the year.

As much as the extreme part of the competition was important, the real show was for the Amateur tutoring and competition part of the event. Novices in the world of competitive overclocking were taught the ins and outs of INTEL’s XTU and given the opportunity to compete for supremacy via the included benchmark. With some intense competition throughout the weekend. The eventual winner in the amateur bracket was UFDisciple, who constantly delivered the best XTU score at every turn.

As is courtesy with these large

T O U R events, there were promotion prizes as well, sponsored, by the aforementioned companies. One lucky individual walked away with a 1KW Seasonic PSU, an MSI Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon Motherboard, a set of G.Skill 8GiB 3466MHZ Samsung Die memory and of course an HWBOT Thermal Flask as well in the giveaway.

Better than just telling you what happened however, it is best you experience it in pictures. A phenomenal showing for the first ever HWBOT even in AFRICA and certainly one that we hope to see again in future.

Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 37

38 The OverClocker Issue 38 | 2016

Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 39

ONE ON ONE WITH

LEON CHEN I

n April we got some time to ask GIGABYTE’s BDM Manager about what it was about the company that made it tick and his general outlook on the PC DIY market and the role that GIGABYTE has to play in it. The following is what he had to say.

GIGABYTE has a long history of making all sorts of motherboard, from server boards to the latest Z170 consumer based offerings. In all the products over the years, what is it exactly that you would say is the number one reason GIGABYTE has survived and continue to grow?

GIGABYTE is dedicated in providing very high quality and long lasting motherboards, that’s what Ultra Durable stands for that. We make sure to build not only a product with a feature set that allows end users to enjoy the latest technology at the time, but also make sure their board is built

to last and age age well too. Meaning that it can adapt to the newer tech coming out. GIGABYTE has a key advantage for this, it is the only motherboard manufacturer that has a factory in Taiwan, close to its HQ. More than anything this allow us to better control the quality of products.

If you could, tell us, what is the number one distinguishing feature of GIGABYTE’s motherboards and given all the alternatives available, why should end users continue to purchase GIGABYTE products?

The first that comes to mind is DualBIOS. GIGABYTE was the first in the industry to integrate a backup BIOS on the motherboard in case of there were any issues with the first one. The second BIOS was ready to keep you working. As for why end users should continue to purchase GIGABYTE

40 The OverClocker Issue 38 | 2016

products, it should be a number of reasons, not just one distinguishing feature. We are all consumers and know very well how important it is to be able to buy a product that is reliable, performs as advertised and is backed up by a trustworthy warranty and decent RMA experience.

This is another way in which GIGABYTE excels as in many countries the GIGABYTE warranty is a standard 3 years and the tech support is easy to get in touch with.

Games are a massive industry and gaming as a whole is not only on the rise across platforms, but on PCs as well. Since you have some experience in gaming products already, how do you as an individual and GIGABYTE as a whole if you can, see the future of PC gaming?

Gaming from 10 years ago is a whole different deal from gaming today.

We now see a gamer as

a multitasker, playing on online servers, streaming his games, listening to music, chatting with other players and perhaps watching others play, all of this at the same time. This modern gamer has created a new type of PC requirement. Not only do they need the hardware to run the game at high settings, they also need to perform all these other tasks without impacting their game. Gigabyte already offers a great package allowing gamers to be the multitasking users they are with top of the line networking solutions, multi graphics support, stable “overclockability” of the CPU and memory and more. The needs of gamers are always on the changing; VR becoming a major interest for example. In order to stay in tune with what the gamers demand and where the new games a heading, GIGABYTE is constantly listening to the

Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 41

community, we sponsor major gaming events like IEM, join game shows like PAX for example. This gives us the opportunity to meet face to face with the gamers and listen to what they need.

As the PC has slowly moves into the living room, it is not uncommon these days to find all sorts of PC’s used for games and media in this once exclusive room of the modern home. As far as GIGABYTE is concerned, are products such as the BRIX series of computers the way forward in this space or will you continue to focus on empowering end users by adding media centric features on your boards, or perhaps both?

Both solution have a strong future and one won’t replace either one.

When it comes to high-end gaming, the PC tower can simply hold more than a compact form factor can. A bigger PSU, more system memory, larger graphics card and more storage. So when it comes to having the best solution for the latest games, the tower PC is here to stay.

The BRIX on the other end is a very capable device when all is considered, even if it features a mobile version of the CPU. It can handle 4K playback of files, multiple displays, and discrete due to its size. This makes it a great solution as an HTPC, an office desktop computer or even as an embedded solution for digital signage. The BRIX will not replace the PC, nor should it, it’s a great solution on its own.

Is there some drive on GIGABYTE’s part on bringing some of the more premium gaming features as seen on the high end motherboards to the more affordable H and B chipset motherboards?

GIGABYTE has brought more and more premium gaming features that users see on the highend to our mainstream or value segment throughout the years. A good example of this would be our Audio Trace Path, Noise Guard Technology and gold plating which you can find this on boards such as our G1. Sniper B7 or our H170Gaming 3.

What is GIGABYTE’s understanding of PC gamers as a whole in terms of distinguishing between the competitive team based gamers and the more single player experience oriented gamer, given that they tend to spend differently on their PCs? Do you make such a distinction at all and if so, what have you found about each demographic that you didn’t expect?

Not all gamers are the same, we understand that. While your team players might be more focus on latency but not as much on graphics, your FPS will require a more immersive experience with high quality audio and very high-end graphics.

The latter is more likely to refresh their hardware more often than the former. What is important to us is to make sure that they will find a product that will cater to their needs once they are ready to upgrade.

VR is taking surely taking off and with that as well is 4K gaming and content. Is there a role for GIGABYTE to play in these market dynamics and if so, what are some of the key technologies that GIGABYTE is looking at which will help bring these kinds of computing experiences to the end user?

There are actually a lot of technologies that GIGABYTE has

42 The OverClocker Issue 38 | 2016

implemented on our 100 series boards that help build this ecosystem for next generation gaming. Some of these technologies are the PCIe Metal Shielding, HDMI 2.0, M.2 Support, and Thunderbolt 3.

The PCIe Metal Shielding helps to hold up heavier graphics cards as users move to higher end GPU’s. With HDMI 2.0 it has the capabilities to display 4K content at 60Hz giving users a smoother playback experience. With more and more game developers leveraging higher resolution graphics and UHD cinematics M.2 is essential to reducing load times and transferring data for gameplay. In the future Thunderbolt 3 can play will play a role in the world of VR where it is able to transfer data and operate external GPU’s, display UHD through its DP1.2 signal, equivalent to HDMI 2.0, and provide power, video, and data to the VR Headset.

Many times we have seen that there’s a

certain level of overlap between overclocking and enthusiast gamers, especially at the high end. Is there perhaps a motherboard or a series of motherboards that will in future, integrate some of the best features of the SOC series with the G1 boards in perhaps an ROG like manner?

I guess your question is will we merge SOC and G1? The answer for now is no. You see some of the features from each series cross over onto the other already. As the gaming series can benefit from overclocking features.

The SOC series however doesn’t need to be a high end gaming board. The SOC series is targeted at the overclockers who bench as a hobby or more competitively, therefore we can cut down on some of the features they don’t need such as high-end audio or a dual networking solutions. As for the G1 motherboard, we know that gamers want to get more performance out of their hardware and we have integrated many OC

features that let them push those limits. Onboard OC button, memory read points, debug LED, OC Peg, Turbo B-Clock, power delivery that’s ready for overclocking etc. As you can see, our G1 motherboard offers plenty of overclocking features.

A while ago we used to have GOOC and it had a massive and profound impact on the enthusiast and overclocking scene.

Do you think there would ever be similar competition for gaming instead in GIGABYTE’s future?

This is something we did already with GESL in north America, GTL in China and sponsorship of IEM or Intel LAN Fest for example.

Supporting the gamers and the overclockers alike is important and this is something that GIGABYTE is very active in. But instead of being one centralized effort, each region develops these with the local community. [ The OverClocker ]

Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 43

XCOM 2 GENRE: Turn-based strategy DEVELOPER: Firaxis Games PUBLISHER: 2K Games WEBSITE: https://xcom.com PRICE: $59.99

X

COM and I, we have history.

This series, which has been around for over 20 years and was originally known as X-Com, played a fundamental role in grooming me to become the avid player of video games that I am today. To be slightly more specific, I’ve got oddly vivid memories of playing X-Com: Terror from the Deep, which launched back in 1995 as the second entry in the franchise.

Said memories are equal parts joyful and painful, because playing a game as famously punishing as Terror from the Deep before you’ve even reached the age of 10 forces you to learn some very harsh lessons in virtual loss, very quickly.

My point is, XCOM has and will always be mighty significant to me. When Firaxis took hold of the series and released XCOM: Enemy Unknown in 2012, they nailed it.

44 The OverClocker Issue 38 | 2016

It’s not an exact replica of the games I’ve cherished for so long, but it didn’t need to be. Enemy Unknown is fantastic in its own right, and is impressively faithful to its ancestors. It modernised the franchise while still staying true to the fundamentals, and I hear that the Enemy Within expansion (which I never got the chance to play) is equally excellent. Now, a few years down the line, XCOM 2 is out and about, and – spoiler alert – it’s really, really, really good.

I’ve played it for dozens of hours now, and I still can’t get enough of XCOM 2. It feels every bit as fresh and overwhelmingly exciting as it did when I first launched it, and I can’t think of many other games that have managed to keep me as thoroughly enthralled as this one does. It’s in part due to my obsession with the franchise,

sure – but it’s mostly because it makes masterful use of its various mechanics and intricacies to generate a level of consistent tension that’s both bewildering and endlessly appealing.

First, let’s talk about the narrative’s premise. You’re once again in charge of the XCOM organisation, and your directive is to protect Earth from an alien invasion that threatens to eradicate all of humankind if left unchecked.

But! You lost the war with the invaders long ago. 20 years have passed since the governments of Earth surrendered our planet to the aliens. Propaganda is everywhere, with the occupying aliens preaching peaceful integration while plotting nefarious deeds from the shadows. You’re now on the run, but your mission is the same: save Earth from annihilation.

The narrative, while not exactly particularly meaningful in the grander scheme of things, is immediately interesting for placing you on the back foot. And most importantly, the game’s designers have used the story to fuel a number of clever changes and new additions to XCOM’s core mechanics.

XCOM is no longer a largely static, reactionary organisation, watching and waiting to respond to alien threats across the globe.

You’re now housed on the Avenger, a captured alien ship that serves as your mobile headquarters. With

I’ve played it for dozens of hours now, and I still can’t get enough of XCOM 2.

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the Avenger, not only are you able to stay on the move and avoid being detected by the aliens, but you can rapidly redeploy to anywhere on the planet your presence is required.

Managing the daily operations of the Avenger represents one half of the game. It’s where you employ scientists and engineers to research new technologies and manufacture new items, weapons and armour that’ll aid you in surviving skirmishes with the aliens. New facilities can be built on the ship, and doing so provides bonuses like increasing the size of your squads and unlocking new research options. You decide where and when to move the Avenger between the world’s continents, scanning for useful resources and making contact with the scattered human resistance forces. Every so often, missions appear – some tied to the story, some not. And it’s

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these missions that are the driving force of XCOM. Before every excursion, you select a squad of XCOM operatives to send into battle, outfitting them with any gear you think will better your chances on the ground. Missions play out in turn-based fashion, which some people may immediately balk at – but trust me when I say that XCOM 2 is far more immediately exciting and dramatically intense than your average turn-based game. It’s a game of balancing risk and reward. The success or failure of every action you take (save for movement) is dependent on a certain amount of luck. Every shot fired, every thrown grenade, every attempted hack of mechanical foes has an element of randomness associated with it in addition to taking into account factors like your positioning and the skill modifiers of the troop performing the action.

The trick is to ensure that you maximise your chances wherever possible – and this naturally breeds some extremely dramatic moments.

You’ll look on in terror when a shot that had a 92% chance to hit misses completely and your operatives suddenly find themselves in a dangerous situation that should’ve been easily avoided. You’ll cheer your troops on as a single sniper takes out three powerful foes charging to flank you.

In action, it’s nothing short of riveting. Every moment within every mission holds the potential to become a self-contained tale of nail-biting victories and sudden, crushing defeats. My favourite new mission mechanic in XCOM 2 is Concealment. At the start of most missions, all your operatives are concealed, hidden from enemy view unless they’re spotted or they do something noisy. During this

time you’re able to set up deadly ambushes wherein you can quickly pick off a few enemies before the real battle begins. It seems a simple addition, but Concealment is a significant weapon in your arsenal of potential tactics, and it fits into the guerrilla warfare theme of the narrative nicely. Another new feature is loot drops, which sees enemies sometimes dropping items that can be added to the Avenger’s armoury if you can reach them before they expire. It’s just another method via which the game creates a sense of urgency and harrowing momentum.

As in every XCOM game, it’s your team of XCOM operatives who are the true stars of the show.

The emotional attachments you’ll form with them are very real, and you’ll feel genuine terror when your favourite trooper finds themselves in a perilous situation from which they may never escape – especially when you’re playing in Iron Man mode, which affords you only one save slot and auto-saves every turn, meaning that every decision you make is

crucial and potentially devastating.

Seeing key operatives wounded in combat is pure torture, knowing that they’ll be out of commission for the next few missions while they recover. Of course, the fear of seeing your veteran operatives injured or killed is also driven by the fact that your more experienced soldiers wield the most powerful, tide-turning abilities (there are numerous soldier classes, each with a unique pool of skills from which to choose), abilities that can decide whether or not a mission ends in victory or defeat. There’s a vast array of customisation options available to you as well, so you can spend as much time as your heart desires tweaking the looks and personalities of your XCOM chums.

I only really had one problem with XCOM 2 when it first launched, and that’s that it was a bit of a buggy mess. Thankfully, in the time since then Firaxis has released numerous updates which have squashed many of the technical issues present in the game. Other than that, I struggle to find fault with XCOM 2. It’s an outstanding

sequel to Enemy Unknown, held aloft by intelligent, thoughtful game design and an overpowering degree of tactical tension. It effortlessly weaves tales of impossible heroics and catastrophic tragedy, and if you’ve even a passing interest in games of this nature, I can’t recommend it enough. [ Dane Remendes ]

Would you buy it?

XCOM 2 is utterly brilliant. The tension it generates is exhilarating, and its various mechanics are smart and well executed. Simply put, it’s thoroughly captivating.

So yes, I’d buy it.

The Score

9.2/10 Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 47

GAMING GEAR AWARD

CORSAIR STRAFE RGB MX-Silent RRP: $149.99 | Website: www.corsair.com

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f there’s any peripheral that CORSAIR makes well, it would have to be their keyboards.

This isn’t to say they do not have competent mice and headsets, but were there to be a single product that I would choose to keep above others, it would be the keyboards.

I’ve seen the progress made from the early days of the original K90 right up to the recently release RAPID FIRE and LUX models. It’s been progress at a steady pace, building on what has worked and discarding what hasn’t.

Before I harp on about what makes this particular keyboard that attractive I must once again - as I always will where relevant - lament the absence of an additional USB port. Especially since these can be found on several premium alternatives present. Given that there are two cables in use, it only makes sense that at the very least, one be reserved for a USB 3.0 hub with two ports. That, in my opinion, would complete what is an already 48 The OverClocker Issue 38 | 2016

impressive keyboard. At $150, it isn’t cheap occupying the upper echelon of gaming keyboards. One can only hope that this is eventually added to at least one of their keyboards in future. This isn’t confined to the Strafe MX-Silent exclusively though, as it applies to every single CORSAIR keyboard.

Past that gripe, here is what the keyboard does well and how it manages to be, one of the most compelling offerings around.

This is especially true for individuals like me who spend plenty of time typing and gaming and need a single product that works well in both contexts. One cannot refute the superior tactile feel of mechanical keys for typing, but the noise has always been a major caveat to it all.

As such, these Cherry MX-Silent switches as used on the Strafe just may be my favorite switches to date.

It’s an absolute pleasure gaming and typing on this keyboard.

This is just as true within a gaming context as well. The actuation force required for this model tested was more than comfortable and the use of silent switches complements the entire experience.

Let it not go unsaid, but this keyboard despite its average packaging is as premium in feel as one can find from any vendor.

From the palm rest, the aluminum chassis, the hefty weight and deliberate keystrokes required. This is a quality item that justifies its price with just these virtues alone. With all the competitors in this space, few if any still exude the quality and finish that the CORSAIR GAMING keyboards do.

Aesthetically, it is functional with an endearing purpose built design. It is again complemented by the visual ques of quality and of course the RGB lighting which completes the look. You’ll find no angular lines or gaudy “gamer” pandering design

ques, synonymous with many of the smaller peripheral companies. It’s a simple design which refrains from being boring by any measure.

The RGB configuration options aren’t any different from what we’ve seen before and you can pretty much achieve any sort of lighting scheme you desire via the CUE suite.

This suite has come a long way and at present it is amongst the most detailed I’ve seen. The power, hidden behind sub and drop-down menus.

For simply recording macros and changing lighting schemes, it will be a straight forward exercise, however should you wish to delve deeper into either of these. The software allows you tremendous levels of control and you can easily spend hours should you so choose customizing the keyboard to your exact play style or general needs.

Should you own a compatible device, for instance the Headset,

or mouse, you may use the CUE link which will allow you to match the lighting scheme across all connected devices. There’s a myriad of lighting options at your disposal when using this mode. If you’re into that sort of thing, you’ll again spend plenty of time in the sub-menu tweaking to your heart’s content.

There aren’t any dedicated macro keys like the other strafe models.

You may re-assign any key to your particular macro and many keyboards on the market get around the absence of macros in this very manner. I’m undecided as to how I feel about this, as a part of me believes that all keyboard functions should be available for you to use at all, times. The reality however is that one rarely if ever, uses the entire keyboard in any title, save for perhaps flight simulators and such. Regardless of how you feel about the absence of dedicated

macro keys, there isn’t an action you can materially perform on such a keyboard that you cannot on this offering.

Included in the package are rubberized keycaps, two sets to be exact. These are supposedly to prevent your fingers from slipping when you’re playing. You naturally have to remove the regular ones to install these via the included tool. These feel great to use, but are far from ideal when typing, so you’d have to keep switching them out depending on what you’re doing. In the end Iresigned myself to the regular keys as I do not have a problem of slippery fingers while playing any FPS game. The added comfort of the rubberized keys is simple not enough to offset the task of constantly changing out the key caps. A great addition nonetheless and again, one that helps sell this keyboard as the premium gaming peripheral it is.

In closing, there’s little to dislike about the STRAFE RGB MX-Silent.

This is a great keyboard and those MX-Silent switches are a blessing.

The STRAFE is just a hair shy of being brilliant. At present however, I’m a convinced that there aren’t any competing keyboards that can offer this particular combination of build quality, aesthetics and functionality.

If one has to find a keyboard for this kind of money, the RGB MX-SILENT is the one. [ The OverClocker] Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 49

Hardware Award

ASUS GX700 Gaming Notebook and Dock RRP: $3,499 + | Website: www.asus.com

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es, one is fully aware that there’s a newer model of this notebook that was announced at COMPUTEX, however that model isn’t currently available on the market, whereas this one is. There are however, several similarities between the two such that the GX700 remains one of the most powerful gaming notebooks to ever hit the market.

As you’d expect with ASUS and their often lofty ambitions, the GX700 is a no holds barred notebook that goes out of its way to make an impression not only in performance, aesthetics and specs but in presentation.

Acting as a carrying case and an accessory for those who would know what the ROG branding means, the 50 The OverClocker Issue 38 | 2016

GX700 is presented presented in in aa surprisingly surprisingly rugged and rugged, andwell-constructed well-constructed suitcase that not only houses all the parts of the notebook, but secures it firmly and safely as well. It would take some doing to cause damage to the contents and even if you were to use the suitcase for something else entirely, it is well constructed and most likely a sizeable portion of the price. No surprises there however, as it's fitting with the rest of the notebook. When you buy the GX700 in its most kitted out spec; you’re looking at more than just what is inside the notebook but the entire premium experience and ASUS delivers that with the GX700.

Enough about that though, as what matters most to you is how it goes and if ASUS has achieved what

they set out to do which is to provide the world’s first water-cooled and overclockable notebook. As to why anybody would want such a thing, is beyond me, but then again it is much the same way in which there’s no rational reason why one should want a Veryron SuperSport, yet they do sell and there’s a market for such extreme pieces of engineering.

Ultimately this is what the GX700 is about, and eveything about it suggests as much.

Sporting the premium Core i7 6820HK, 64GB of DDR4 2400MHz memory and 512GiB of RAIDED SSD storage. It’s kitted out like any modern day high end gaming system. What will be of the most importance to you reading this however is that the GX700

makes use of the desktop GTX 980 and not the 980M which is less capable than the desktop 970 by some margin. As such, even though the difference between the regular or at least more commonly found GTX 980M may seem to be somewhat miniscule at face value.

In performance terms, the GPUs are miles apart and subsequently the GX700 extends its performance lead over the competition by a massive margin. In fact, many times it is capable of eclipsing the GTX 960M SLI powered notebooks while sporting lower TDP. Consider the overclocking aspect of the notebook as well and it should dawn on you

why this is no ordinary collection of parts slapped together. The key selling point of this notebook is performance and the ability to extend that further via liquid cooling courtesy of the docking station.

To that end, you can absolutely overclock this system especially via the pre-installed software which also has some safety features preventing you from setting unrecoverable settings to a degree.

The only time this software falls apart if you resort to overclocking via the Base clock, if you do so and the system fails to boot up afterwards. You may have a trying time attempting to recover from this

as the system may resort to an endless boot loop. Fortunately, this can be remedied by the curious or knowledgeable individual via a BIOS reset. ASUS may have dealt with this concern by the time you read this, but you should in general refrain from this kind of overclocking. Keep in mind as well that base clock tuning is not accessible through the ASUS utility, but rather via INTEL XTU. As such, it is not a shortcoming of ASUS, rather that there’s no protection mechanism against this in the eventuality that one does end up using XTU for overclocking.

The reality is, there's little to be gained in performance from doing this anyway, when you have the CPU multiplier to work with.

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Synthetic benchmarks increase, but for the most part it does not help game performance much.

Overclocking the GPU does yield some tangible gains, but we are dealing with the 1080P model here, which the GTX 980 is more than capable of handling. So you’re moving your frame rate from smooth and very playable to the other side of redundancy. The out the box shipping performance is staggering as is even when the notebook is running of the battery. It manages to produce some impressive numbers, ones that put it at the forefront of notebooks performance (barring those GTX

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980M SLI offerings). Obviously this does come with some drawbacks regarding battery life but this is the kind of machine that should ideally be plugged in and used as a portable desktop replacement rather than a gaming notebook in the truest sense. With that said, it still clocked in 143 minutes in PCMark8’s battery test compared to MSI GT80 TITAN SLI that managed 68minutes.

To ROG engineer's credit, they have managed the thermal characteristics well, as even under full load, neither the GPU or CPU throttle their performance as witnessed on other high end notebooks. The numbers are

consistent and reliable with a fair degree of fan noise, but not enough to disturb your game play.

This is actually where I believe the GX700 shines. Even with the dock unattached, it delivers more than acceptable game performance especially with the 1080P model I used for testing. There's a 4K alternative which of course is likely to cost even more than this, but that supports NVIDIA’s G-sync technology. Even though no GTX 980 is 4K capable (desktop or otherwise) you’ll not suffer screen tearing and other performance anomalies courtesy of this frame synching technology. Be it you

need 4K on such a small display is a debate for another day, but right now it is a comforting that ASUS is aware of the performance issues one might be exposing themselves to with the 4K model without some sort of performance levelling technology.

There’s about a ton more feature on this notebook which I’ve not mentioned but rest assured that it’s precisely what the product page is for and you may view that by clicking the link in the review title or here.

Do keep in mind, for those who prefer to travel light, the GX700 may pose some challenges as it is a big and weighty notebook. It isn’t one that will necessarily sit well in a back pack and even when it does, that’s a fair amount of weight to be

carrying with you even before the power brick and other accessories.

If you do want take this on the road without the suitcase, then you should look into a quality backpack with lumber support.

In closing, the GX700 and probably the GX800 as well, represent what is possible with a no holds barred approach to making the ultimate desktop replacement - portable computer. Not many vendors would attempt such a project, but ASUS ROG has done this and they have done a pretty fine job at it too.

Just out of sheer respect for the minerals it takes to bring something like this to market, the GX700 rightfully deserves its hardware award, I’m thoroughly impressed.

[ The OverClocker ]

Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 53

Test Machine Driver frequency response: 20Hz – 20KHz Impedance: 16 ohm Connector: 3,5mm Cord length: 3.94” Microphone Impedance: 1.6K ohm Microphone sensitivity: -40dB

ROCCAT ALUMA in-ear headset RRP: $38.32 | Website: www.roccat.org

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'm always excited to test out a new headset from a gaming peripheral vendor. After all this time, I’m unsure as to why these do not exist from every brand competitor as they allow for many more usage scenarios than traditional cans.

With that wide scope of usage however, there is also a downside in that such earphones open themselves up to comparisons from many reputable audio firms which have years if not decades of experience behind them that help with audio quality and signal clarity.

With that said, one always appreciates seeing an honest effort from a vendor and if anything, the ALUMA headset is an honest effort at a new market or perhaps a different type of gamer.

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What one instantly notices when examining the ALUMA is that ROCCAT has gone to some length making sure that the headset is presented well. From the outside in, some level of care must have been taken in order to justify the moderate price. After all, $40 may not be much for ear-phones to those used to paying anything from $100 to $500 or more, but for most people who use whatever is bundled with their smart phone or other electronic device, this is a somewhat hefty sum.

In what seems to be recognition of that fact, ROCCAT has bundled the ALUMA with plenty of accessories, including six pairs of ear tips. Of

course these come in different sizes including the set already on the ear phones. A nice addition that offers more options than the immediate competitors. Besides allowing you to find the best available match for your ears, should you lose a set or one is damage, you may easily replace them with the included tips.

Since the ALUMA is built for gaming on devices that integrate the microphone and stereo audio jack into one lead, you may be unable to use the ear phones on some desktops or notebooks. To that end, ROCCAT has included a splitter which allows you to connect to just about any device that a regular headset would. A small addition, but one that is appreciated and should not be taken for granted. Case in point was the old Hyper X Cloud II headset which did not feature such a splitter.

That isn’t all that is included though, one last thing you’ll find within is an adapter for the inflight entertainment audio jack on older airplanes.

All that aside, performance is what matters and here ROCCAT

has managed to produce a fairly okay set of ear phones. The largest issue with this headset for me is that the buds tend to fall out with relative ease regardless of what tip I use. There’s also a notable transfer of noise from the cable.

Just tapping the cable lightly transfers that to the drivers and it is easily audible. Those are the two largest detractors from what is an otherwise solid piece of kit.

Audio reproduction has no particular signature that one can assign to to it. it. It’s It’s neither neither bass bass heavy assign heavy nor does it lean towards the high end. The ALUMA sounds exactly as you’d expect from a mid to low end unit. A lot of this has to do with how the ear phones fit as on the rare times when you do get a solid and comfortable fit, the low frequencies sound a lot better. Mid-range can get a little muddy and the sound stage relatively narrow. These are typical properties of ear phones at the $25 to $35 mark which is ultimately where the ALUMA is. When compared to the Audio-Techinca ATH-CKS55 for example which costs $50, the ALUMA is unable to compete and nor should it. It is however possible to get closer to that sound quality, so there is some improvement to be made by ROCCAT before these become the go-to in-ear headphones for gamers and casual users alike. I do believe that audio quality in line with the often ignored but very capable CoolerMaster Resonar headset is possible, even at this price point or a little

higher (perhaps $50). The Resonar has lamentable build quality and presentation, but the signal reproduction is noteworthy.

If you, are not too fussy and use this headset strictly for your games and nothing more, you’ll find that they are more than capable and the issue of the buds falling out your ear is minimized to non-existent as you rarely move as much as you would when on the go. As a complete product, ROCCAT has done a fair job and it is a good place to begin (these are not significantly different from their other in-ear headset). In future, here’s hoping they will move forward addressing some of the concerns raised herein. To ROCCAT’s credit, it takes some convincing for a gaming peripheral vendor to step out of their comfort zone where they have a reputation of offering amongst the best if not the quintessential gaming peripherals.

That ROCCAT has taken this step is commendable and there’s certainly a market for these headsets. At a slightly lower price, minus some of the included parts, this would be a great value proposition. As it is however, I find myself still partial to the ROCCAT KAVE XTD Stereo headset. It may be for a different user, a much higher price and incomparable in every way to the ALUMA, but it was a defining headset for me from ROCCAT. The ALUMA is more than a fair product for the asking price, however I’d rather it cost a little more and delivered a better experience.

[ Iron-Synapse ]

Issue 38 | 2016 The OverClocker 55

SPECS Size: 130mm x 60mm x 43mm Weight: 101g Interface: USB.20 Buttons: 7 Sensor: Pixart 3988 Programmable: Yes

GIGABYTE XM300 Gaming Mouse

Value Award

RRP: $39.99 | Website: www.gigabyte.com

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n line with the Core i3 feature of this issue. I am looking at the lower end of PC gaming.

The GIGABYTE XM300 is one such mouse that can be had for as little at $40. Ideally for the same individual that would be looking at the Core i3 6300/6320 and other such components.

THE XM300’s direct competitor is probably the ASUS SICA which I looked at several issues ago or the Logitech G302 Daedalus Prime.

While both mice are slightly cheaper, the XM300 offers significantly more in terms of functionality against the SICA and build quality against the G302 Prime. The XM300 feels noticeably better than both competitor’s offerings.

The first thing about the XM300 is that, unlike the SICA, it's exlucsively designed for right handed users, so to all the lefties you’re out of luck so you best look at other mice from GIGABYTE. With that that said you, for the right handed individuals, this mouse will be a more comfortable option in comparison. Not only because of the ergonomics, but simply because it is larger than the SICA and allows for a variety of grips as well.

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For the $7 extra, what GIGABYTE provides you with are several more buttons, specifically for adjusting DPI on the fly and of course two side buttons. A pretty standard layout for the modern FPS game and it just may be what sways you towards this mouse rather than the SICA. Gaming with the XM300 is pretty good as it does not have any obvious weight bias. It has a relatively high centre of gravity at least when compared to the ROCCAT KOVA for instance, but that does not affect performance negatively at all. At roughly 100g it is on the light side and I’d have appreciated a little more weight, but it is workable and you’ll soon get used to it after 20 minutes or longer.

The rest of the mouse is a pretty standard affair making use of the familiar Omron switches for the two primary buttons. You are not able to switch these out as you would with the SICA, but I can’t imagine a meaningful percentage of users needing this functionality at all. As has become tradition with GIGABYTE mice, it comes with an alternate set of feet.

Trying these didn’t change the mouse

behaviour at all so they will likely go unused by most users.

The XM300 makes use on a Pixart 3988 sensor with a maximum resolution of 6400. Acceleration is up to 50g (Does anyone actually care about such figures?) and of course polling rate can be configured. So again, pretty standard stuff for gaming mice in this day and age.

When it comes to the software, GIGABYTE makes use of the Xtreme Macro Engine, which has all the basic functionality you’d expect for configuring the RGB lighting, the optical sensitivity and of course setting Macros. It isn’t overly complicated and is certainly one of the simpler interfaces of any mouse I’ve come across. Certainly a boon given just how convoluted some interfaces can be these days.

Overall, this is a solid offering for $40. When compared to its chief rivals, the XM300 is a better purchase in just about every respect. From the material quality, functionality and subsequent configuration options available. It is simply the better mouse of the lot. For $40 you’re not going to do much better than the XM300.

[ Iron-Synapse ]

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 3:

The key topics discussed in the last episodes are: • HWBOT World Tour • MSI MOA 2016 Europe • AMD Excavator X4 845 • ASUS OC Tour in India • 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.

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