Featuring a sleek and chic brushed aluminum shell the Lian Li PC-65b is all anyone could wish for in a mid tower. With the ability to remove the motherboard and PSU in just a couple seconds. Lian Li is known for their elegant and classy cases, they are designed and built to carry on the motto: a purchase you'll never regret.
Unlike all other memory manufacturers who merely buy DDR-chips and solder them on PCBs of other manufacturers, Crucial builds their own memory chips and PCB. On the Tracer PC4000 you will also find unique leds for a good look. Although Crucial/Micron is not very known for overlocking RAM we will do an xtreme overclocking test with high voltages and try to determine if they are a good alternative to sticks with Samsung TCCDs or low latency modules like Winbond UTT BH-5/CH-5.
OCZ has released the PC4800 Elite Edition in reply to user's claims that their 4800 Platinum modules used Samsung TCC5 chips instead of TCCD. OCZ guarantees that only Samsung TCCD chips are used on the PC-4800 Platinum Elite, but at a higher cost. These modules are specified to run both 2-2-2-5 and 2.5-4-4-10 timings. At the CL2.5 setting up to a whopping DDR600.
OCZ has geared their DDR2 Value Pro towards "mainstream desktop users". We had the DDR2 PC2-4200 Value Pro modules on our testbench and were surprised by how far we could overclock this memory. Close to DDR2-750 at stock voltage is certainly not mainstream. Timings could also be tightened from 4-4-4-8 to 3-3-2-4. Great results, especially if you consider the price of $120 for a 2x512MB kit.
After the success of the old "BH-5" PC3500 LVL2, Mushkin tries to continue the success story with the new Redline XP4000. They select the best Winbond UTT CH-5 and use them on these modules to have a big clearance above the specifications. The modules offer 250 MHz with tightest timings of 2-2-2, but require active cooling. We test these sticks at up to 3.5V and see how far they go.
When it comes to ATI video cards, Sapphire is one of the top, if not the number one manufacturer. After their tremendous success with video cards, they are now entering the motherboard business.
Sapphire's PI-A9RX480 is based on the ATI RX480 chipset and is specifically developed to fit the needs of overclockers and enthusiasts. The BIOS shines when it comes to overclocking options. For example DDR Voltage can be selected up to 4.0 V.
Video card cooling specialists Arctic Cooling have listened to the user's reports and released the ATI Silencer 5 Revision 2. This VGA cooler, which is designed to fit on ATI's X800 and X850 PCI-Express was built with high-performance in mind, while keeping sound levels at an acceptable level. We test the cooler against an X850 Pro which already has a big fan, a copper base and cools memory as well.
The DFI LanParty series is legendary among overclockers. We haven't seen any other board offer that many overclocking features. For example, being able to your run your memory at voltages of more than 3.3V is pretty unique. A well thought out components layout and little on-board switches make overclockers happy.
Abit, one of the top manufacturers for enthusiast motherboards, has asked the Pro-Gamer Jonathan Fatal1ty Wendel for ideas on making a top-notch gaming board.
The Fatal1ty AA8XE is an awesome overclocking motherboard for Intel Pentium 4 LGA775, it offers loads of features geared towards the hardware enthusiast and gamers. We could overclock our P4 CPU by over 50% for a final clock of 4514 MHz @ 323 FSB.
Right now, DDR2 is only available to the Intel Platform. The biggest drawback people are complaining about, is that DDR2 is running at slower timings than traditional DDR. That is why OCZ, who have always been designing products with the enthusiast in mind, came up with a memory that can run at 667 MHz but at tighter timings than the standard JEDEC Spec. The maximum clock we could get out of the memory at 2.4V was DDR726 at Timings of 4-2-2-8.
ArctiClean is a non-toxic solvent which helps you clean your heatsinks to a new level. It is very easy to use and produces outstanding results. We even tasted it.
TwinMOS is returning the legendary Winbond BH-5 chips to the market. We could run these competetively priced modules at speeds of over DDR500.
Arctic Cooling is the first video card cooler manufacturer to use a heatsink base manufactured from copper. The ATI Silencer 4 just does awesome on all settings. If you are looking for a good cooler for your X800 you must definitely consider the ATI Silencer 4. Its cooling performance is excellent no matter what the fan speed is. Memory cooling works pretty well and gives you a bit more overclocking headroom.
