Overclocking -- Engadget

overclocking posts

MSI takes the pain, fun out of overclocking with OC Genie

by Darren Murph posted Jul 19th 2009 at 8:34AM

If you thought MSI's obsession with motherboard implants was over after it unveiled Winki to a nearly nonexistent amount of fanfare, think again. The company has just taken the wraps off its latest mobo addition, the OC Genie. In essence, this is the one-touch overclock button that laptop owners have long enjoyed, but for desktops. Right now, the OC Genie is custom built for the company's own P55 motherboard, though it insists that all sorts of mainboards will be supported in due time. If you're curious about the details, you'll have to remain that way for now; all we're told is that activating the module automatically pushes your system to a safe brink within a second, giving even the newbies in attendance the ability to squeeze more from their current rig. In related news, MSI also added yet another model to its growing Classic laptop series, the 17.3-inch CX700, which gets powered by a Core 2 Duo processor, ATI's Mobility Radeon HD4330 GPU and 4GB of RAM.

[Via HotHardware]

AMD Phenom II TWKR Black Edition CPU up for auction, sure to fetch a bundle

by Darren Murph posted Jul 15th 2009 at 11:50AM

Remember that AMD Phenom II X4 TWKR processor that we saw overclocked and reviewed just over a fortnight ago? Don't you recall reading and wondering why you were even wasting your time given the scarcity of said chip? It took awhile, but it seems the justification you've been searching for has finally arrived. AMD only manufactured a smattering of these chips in order for select media outlets to showcase the company's potential, and somehow one has found its way onto eBay. Best of all, 100 percent of the proceeds will benefit a charity (Family Eldercare), so you can feel good about spending way, way too much on a slab of silicon. Tap the read link if you care to drive the price up even further (and you know you do).

[Thanks, Alex]

Video: AMD's Phenom II X4 TWKR CPU for extreme overclocking lunatics

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Jun 30th 2009 at 3:14PM

AMD has recently cooked up a little something they like to call the Phenom II X4 TWKR Black Edition, a hand-picked, limited edition processor that is designed to be overclocked "to the extreme." Currently labeled "Not for Sale," with no serial numbers and only one hundred of these bad boys in existence, just a few lucky folks have got their hands on one, so we've dug up some reviews (and previews) so you can see what the fuss is all about. According to the company, one of these guys could be pushed by 100MHz with air cooling, which doubles to about 200MHz with "extreme cooling." As far as impressions go, the reviewer at Neoseeker quickly decided that the units aren't meant to be overclocked on air only, and that dry ice isn't much better. Hot Hardware says pretty much the same thing. Though they weren't able to test with liquid nitrogen or liquid helium (the only way to get real speed) they did put a Koolance LN2 pot (and about 20lbs of dry ice) to the test for 4.73GHz. For best results, according to Tom's Hardware Guide, bench the processor at -190°C or cooler. But for the real overclocking experience you simply must check out the video of the "world renowned overclockers" K|ngp|n, chew*, and Gomeler as they run the gamut of "extreme overclocking techniques" after the break.

Read - AMD Phenom II TWKR Edition CPU Preview
Read - AMD's Phenom II X4 TWKR: We Give It The LN2 Treatment
Read - AMD Phenom II 42 TWKR Black Edition Processor
Read - AMD Phenom II TWKR Black Edition Processor

Continue reading Video: AMD's Phenom II X4 TWKR CPU for extreme overclocking lunatics

Liquid helium trumps liquid nitrogen at AMD's Phenom II overclocking love-in

by Tim Stevens posted May 28th 2009 at 10:38AM

Remember late last year, when AMD poured out the liquid nitrogen to boost its new Phenom II X4 to a ridiculous 5GHZ? The company's factory overclockers apparently had a lot of leftover LN2, so they invited a crew of others to come over and splash some around on a set of new Phenom II X4 955 Black processors. After burning through a ridiculous 80 gallons of the stuff they rolled out the even colder liquid helium, which led to a maximum benchmark of 6.89GHz -- more than twice the quad-core processor's 3.2GHz rated speed. In these tough economic times it's good to see that one company at least is still willing to take things to great excesses at the expense of Earth's natural resources.

ASUS introduces ROG OC Station for all your on-the-fly overclocking needs

by Ross Miller posted May 23rd 2009 at 8:22AM

ASUS is doing what it can to bump up its gaming cred a few notches with its Republic of Gamers (ROG) OC Station. The bay-mounted overclock assistant lets you tweak parameters on the fly, even in the middle of a game, without ever having to dive into the BIOS. It's got a 3-inch LCD display, too, for keeping an eye on things or, apparently, showing your pictures in a slideshow. All this power comes at a cost, and not just financially: you're gonna have to give up two 5.25-inch bays to install this bad boy. It also looks like it only works with ROG motherboards, which is gonna limit the market even further. If you are, however, an anxious and willing member of that demographic, we hate to say you're gonna have to wait an undisclosed time before you can pick one up for an undisclosed number of Benjamins.

[Via Engadget Spanish]

Corsair DDR3 memory clocked at 2533MHz, women swoon 'round the world

by Joseph L. Flatley posted May 21st 2009 at 12:23PM

Corsair -- the swashbucklin' favorite of privateers in need of RAM and SSDs -- has just announced that its Dominator GT DDR3 memory has been overclocked at a pretty astonishing 2533MHz. As you'd expect from a company made of braggarts and rogues, its claiming the world record for itself -- unless, of course, one of you other memory manufacturers feels like taking this bad boy on. Kingston, we're looking at you. Hit that read link for all the salacious details.

AMD's Phenom II pushed to 6.5GHz, 3DMark record demolished

by Darren Murph posted Jan 26th 2009 at 5:10AM

Ha, and you thought a 3DMark06 score of 5,086 was intense when AMD's Phenom II was overclocked to a blistering 3.85GHz. Just after CES, a team of hardcore speed freaks with access to liquid nitrogen and liquid helium created an environment for OC'ing one of AMD's latest Phenom II X4 chips in -232 degrees Celsius weather. Once the silicon was appropriately chilled, they proceeded to push the clock speed to a staggering 6.5GHz, which proved nimble enough to deliver a patently absurd 45,474 3DMark05 score. The best part? The adoring public was there to bear witness, and every nail-biting second of it is hosted up in the video just past the break.

[Via Digg]

Continue reading AMD's Phenom II pushed to 6.5GHz, 3DMark record demolished

Project Monolith case mod takes water cooling to unbelievable extremes

by Darren Murph posted Jan 11th 2009 at 7:23AM

It's not often that pictures truly are worth a thousand words, but this is one of those rare exceptions. We won't even bother explaining what kind of hardware is packed within Project Monolith, but it's clear that its creator is at least partially off his rocker -- not that said condition is a bad one. Hit the read link for loads more images, but don't expect it to get any easier to comprehend.

Overclocking guide shows what Intel's Core i7 is / isn't capable of

by Darren Murph posted Dec 30th 2008 at 1:35AM

Oh sure, we've seen just how far Intel's most potent Core i7 chip can be pushed under the most extreme conditions, but honestly, how's that helping you? In short, it's not. To that end, HotHardware has whipped up a useful, easy-to-digest guide on overclocking the Core i7 920, complete with benchmarks, recommendations and tips for dealing with excess heat without hooking up a liquid nitrogen tank. Interested to see how to crank a stock 920 to a level that outpaces the pricey 3.2GHz Core i7 Extreme Edition? The read link, friends -- hit it.

AMD Phenom II processor bought, benchmarked, coveted

by Tim Stevens posted Dec 23rd 2008 at 9:40AM

AMD, a company not exactly known for meeting its own deadlines, seemed to be trying to avoid news of painful delays for the Phenom II by simply not letting anyone say when the thing would be available. Now the chip is apparently in the hands of one lucky gamer at the HardOCP forums, Table21, who was kind enough to run it through its paces. The Phenom II 940 running at 3GHz scored a 4,091 on 3DMark06 and, once OC'd up to 3.85GHz, delivered a score of 5,086. It's rather too early to draw any conclusions from these numbers, and we don't know what he paid for the thing, but that performance does fall well behind Intel's Core i7 Extreme that was similarly benchmarked last month, scoring 6,608 at the same clock speed. That's quite a gap -- but nothing a little liquid nitrogen won't fix.

[Via PC Perspective]

Intel's Core i7 Extreme Edition 965 overclocked to 5.5GHz

by Darren Murph posted Dec 3rd 2008 at 8:59AM

Right, so Intel's 3.73GHz Core i7 Extreme Edition 965 is fast enough for the vast majority of PC users across the globe, but not for Japanese overclocking enthusiast duck. Oh no -- duck decided to pair the chip up with ASUS' ROG Rampage II Extreme motherboard, which facilitates hardware-based OC'ing, in order to reach a top speed of 5510.09MHz. The point of the exercise? Just to say he could, not to mention set the bar for OC Team Italy to try and demolish.

Liquid nitrogen-cooled MSI Wind U100 overclocked to 2.3GHz

by Darren Murph posted Nov 25th 2008 at 7:59AM

When MSI rolled out its v1.09 BIOS, we're willing to wager it absolutely did not have anything like this in mind. The mad scientists in Team Australia are at it again, this time overclocking a netbook to the point (almost, anyway) of implosion. The unafraid members grabbed hold of a hopeless Wind U100 with 2GB of RAM, hooked up a little liquid nitrogen and proceeded to push the poor 1.6GHz Atom N270 CPU to an amazing 2.385GHz. No telling how quickly the whole thing was over, but still, this is pretty ridiculous, mate.

AMD overclocks the snot out of Phenom II processors

by Tim Stevens posted Nov 21st 2008 at 10:47AM

AMD overclocks the snot out of Phoenom II processors

No, you're not looking at some high-precision, multimeter-laden kegerator; the above is a picture from a recent AMD event in which things apparently got a little out of hand. The company started by talking up its upcoming Dragon platform (Phenom II X4, Radeon 4800 graphics, and 7-series chipset), took a few moments to discuss how its new 45nm chips will use 30-50 percent less power than their predecessors, and then threw all notions of sensibility out the window in an attempt to see just how fast the darned things could go. A Phenom II X4 managed 4GHz with air-cooling, 4.4GHz with a refrigerated setup, and finally a "stable" 5GHz on liquid nitrogen. That's mighty fast, but will the chips be quick enough to tackle Intel's mighty Core i7 when stripped of their fancy-pants cooling appendages? We'll see when they ship early next year.

[Image courtesy of Legit Reviews]

Palit's Radeon HD 4870 X2 has preposterous clock speeds, marketing hype

by Samuel Axon posted Nov 7th 2008 at 12:25AM

Hong Kong-based video card manufacturer Palit is excited about its Revolution 700 Deluxe video card -- so much so that we're a little frightened by the force of its enthusiasm. The ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 GPU is no slouch to begin with, but this iteration has cores overclocked to 750MHz and 2GB of GDDR5 memory at a face-melting 3.8GHz. As imposing as clock speeds are, they likely can't measure up to the epic hype from Palit. "All other cards beware," the press release boldly cries, "there is a new king in town and it only comes from Palit!" Tap the read link for the whole thing -- best enjoyed while listening to the Mortal Kombat theme song.

MSI Wind v1.09 BIOS update makes overclocking easy

by Darren Murph posted Oct 24th 2008 at 11:31AM

We've long since known that MSI was a fan of overclocking. After all, just about every last one of its gaming notebooks come with one-button OC'ing courtesy of the Turbo Drive Engine technology. Now, it seems that the company is giving the spoils once reserved for the Crysis crowd to those with netbooks, or more specifically, the Wind. The freshly released (and absolutely official) v1.09 BIOS update enables simple overclocking by mashing Fn+F10, giving users the ability to push things 8%, 15% or 24% beyond their normally specified limits. Electric Feel over at ElectricVagabond has found that the update provides up to a 30% boost in performance, which he claims is quite noticeable in processor-intensive apps like Photoshop. You know you're dying to give your Wind a little lift, so hit the via below for the step-by-step of getting this installed.