t-break: Tech @ Its Fastest » Gaming Systems

OCZ RevoDrive 3 120GB SSD Review

Taimoor Hafeez — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:04:03 +0000

While PC enthusiasts go gaga over the latest consumer grade SATA III SSDs, when it comes to bleeding edge performance there is another type of SSD that is in a different league all together. PCIe drives reign supreme when it comes to SSD performance, as they are not limited by the bandwidth capacity of SATA III (6Gbps). Today I’ll be looking at the OCZ RevoDrive 3 PCIe 120GB SSD.

Given the price and form factor of the RevoDrive 3, it’s clear that this is an enterprise level SSD. Still, there are many enthusiasts and professionals working on high-end machines that will find the RevoDrive 3 right up their alley.

The basic anatomy of the RevoDrive 3 isn’t so far off from a regular SSD, but some tweaks give it the beastly performance OCZ claims it to have. First off there’s the SAS 6Gbps to PCIe 2.0 x4 bridge that provides full 2Gbps bandwidth compared to 750Mbps through SATA III.

The SAS chipset is said to be from Marvell with custom drivers, allowing TRIM support, SMART data readouts and firmware update through the SSD Toolbox. OCZ calls it the SuperScale storage accelerator with the new Virtualized Controller Architecture 2.0 (VCA 2.0). This basically allows the processor to send real-time I/O commands simultaneously to the two SandForce 2281 controllers.

Furthermore, the sixteen 8GB NAND chips would have given a total of 128GB of storage, but actual usable space is limited to 111GB (rated is 120GB). The extra space allows for better garbage collection, which coupled with the VCA 2.0 allows OCZ to claim that data integrity is near 100%. Time will tell if this claim holds true, though.

Before we move onto the benchmarks, let’s take a look at the packaging. Coming in a rather large box, the RevoDrive 3 comes in a rather solid box. Packed inside the safe cushions is the RevoDrive 3 itself, with the drivers CD as well.

Installation is simply plugging the RevoDrive 3 into any PCIe 2.0 or 3.0 slot you have on your motherboard, and downloading the drivers directly from OCZ. Without the drivers Windows 7 won’t recognize the drive, nor will it be bootable if you’re planning to install Windows 7 on it.

ASUS Rampage IV Gene Review

Taimoor Hafeez — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:30:21 +0000

As soon as Intel launched the new Sandy Bridge-E processors, you knew ASUS would bring out the big guns for the X79 platform. And sure enough, both the Rampage IV Formula and Rampage IV Extreme were one of the best performing motherboards we have tested.

Of course, not everyone wants to have a massive tower for their gaming rig, but for the power hungry user who wants high-end performance in a small package, ASUS has the Rampage IV Gene mATX motherboard.

Looking at the features list and the basic layout, the Rampage IV Gene looks like a cut down version of the Rampage IV Formula. Included with the Rampage IV Gene are similar accessories as well.

First off we have the ROG sticker and the door hanger, followed by the instruction manuals and drivers and utilities CD. A very handy sticker chart is also available for you to label all your cables inside the case. Then there are six SATA cables, one ROG Connect cable, an SLI bridge, and a set of Q-connectors. And bringing it home is the rear I/O panel cover.

AMD A8-3870K Black Edition Review

Taimoor Hafeez — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:53:16 +0000

Late last year I reviewed the AMD A8-3850 APU, which the first high-end Llano based offering from AMD, giving desktop users a taste of how successfully integrated graphics can work with a quad-core processor. And while the performance in multi-threaded applications was decent, as were the onboard graphics, the chip still felt somewhat lacking compared to the direct competition, which is the Intel Core i3-2100.

So today I’ll be looking at the new flagship APU from AMD, the Llano A8-3870K. Apart from having a 100MHz increase over the A8-3850, the ace up the A8-3870K is the fact that it has unlocked core multiplier. Of course, given that the Llano APUs aren’t being targeted towards the hardcore gamer, you won’t find high-end motherboards geared towards overclocking. As such, currently overclocking the A8-3870K is only possible on those motherboards who have an updated BIOS which supports switching the multiplier.

Outside of the unlocked multiplier, the A8-3870K has the same HD 6550D GPU with 400 Radeon cores running at 600MHz speed as the A8-3850. Now one of the coolest things about the Llano APUs is that they are targeted mostly towards HTPC users and the extremely budget conscious gamer who doesn’t want to play Battlefield 3 at Ultra high settings. As such, if the built-in HD 6550D GPU isn’t enough, you can pair it with an AMD Radeon HD 6670 graphics card for asymmetrical CrossFire where both the Llano APU’s integrated HD 6550D and the discrete HD 6670 work in tandem.

AMD roadmap for HD 7000 series graphics cards leaked

Taimoor Hafeez — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:18:48 +0000

With the launch of the new AMD HD 7950 graphics card, a lot of information has come out from various sources. Bright Side of News reported a leaked document from one of AMD’s partners that listed the roadmap for the release of the rest of the HD7000 series graphics cards.

The slide itself is pretty self explanatory with the release schedule. After the HD 79xx series, the first thing we’ll see are the budget oriented, sub-$100 HD77xx cards in mid-February. Following that will be the mainstream, sub-$200 HD 78xx cards out in March, presumably along the same time as the Nvidia 600 series cards. So by the time Nvidia launches their new cards, AMD will have already released most of their line-up.

Of course, that’s not where the Graphics Core Next architecture release ends, as the dual-GPU HD 7990 comes out in early Q2 of this year, most likely in April.

AMD HD 7950 Review

Taimoor Hafeez — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 04:00:50 +0000

Often times AMD and Nvidia release their flagship GPUs with the launch of a new series of graphics card, but it’s the one under the newly crowned king that people most look forward to, the price/performance champion of the people. And in between all the festivities, we usually tend to overlook the middle sibling, the one who sits smack in the middle of the mid-range champion and the performance king. Today marks the launch of one such card, the AMD HD 7950.

The AMD HD 7950 is basically a cut down version of the HD 7970 released a month back. Clocked slightly lower than the 7970 and 256 lesser Stream units, the HD 7950 is made from the same wafer, with 384-bit bandwidth and 4.3 billion transistors and GCN architecture on a 28nm process. Our test units were all 3GB variants, although there will be 1.5GB HD 7950s coming out later, potentially costing $50 to $60 less than the 3GB versions.

Going by those specs and price, AMD has put the HD 7950 squarely against the current Nvidia champ, the GTX 580. And given that the 3GB price of the HD 7950 matches 1.5GB GTX 580s, expect a price drop very soon on the GTX 580.

So let’s take a look at our test cards today, both of which have custom cooling solutions and are factory overclocked to boot.

ASUS HD 7970 Review

Taimoor Hafeez — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:31:16 +0000

As the whole PC community was partying last December when the AMD HD 7970s were out for review, our invitation was misplaced as the test unit AMD was supposed to send us didn’t come through until two weeks back. As such, I decided to wait for a retail HD 7970 to review the card. Finally ASUS came through with their standard HD 7970, and today I’ll be looking at stock and CrossFire HD 7970 performance.

For those of you who still don’t know the hoopla surrounding the AMD HD 7970, here’s a quick primer on the new Radeon architecture. First of all, it’s the first graphics card to use a 28nm GPU core, the smaller size bringing with it lesser heat dissipation and lower power consumption. Secondly the HD 7970 uses AMD’s new Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture which is a multi-purpose computation processor designed to handle various applications (not just games) of today and tomorrow.

The HD 7970 is the first implementation of the GCN architecture with double the L2 cache over previous generation VLIW4 architecture. This allows for a massive 2TBps bandwidth capacity across the core of the HD 7970.

The rest of the technical specs can be seen on the chart below:

Now let’s talk about the ASUS HD 7970 that I’ll be reviewing.

The packaging is standard fare for ASUS, nothing overly flashy on the box. Inside we have a manual, driver CD which comes with the ASUS GPU Tweak utility, a HDMI to DVI and a mini-DP to DVI cable. Furthermore we have a 6-pin power cable along with a CrossFireX bridge.

Seagate Momentus XT 750GB Review

Taimoor Hafeez — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:29:53 +0000

The Seagate Momentus XT hybrid hard drives are one of those special drives that many people desire, but haven’t had much experience with. They’re like VelociRaptors, just the name sounds cool enough to want one. But it’s the promise of high performance for relatively low cost that attracts everyone. In the case of the Momentus XT, the low costs are relative to Solid State Drives, which are still prohibitively expensive for many.

So today I’ll be looking at the second generation Momentus XT hybrid drive that promises more capacity, more performance and better reliability than the first generation drives. Unfortunately this performance and capacity increase also comes at a cost of $100 (AED 370) extra.

As you can see, the NAND Flash that’s used to cache frequently used data has doubled to 8GB from the original Momentus XT. The obvious benefit here is that larger capacity for cache means that more of your programs will be running at maximum capacity (of near SSD speeds) most of the time.

Despite the size increase, though, it seems that the Momentus XT still won’t be able to achieve its maximum potential. The reason is that Seagate doesn’t allow any data to be written on the 8GB NAND while in use; only read. Essentially that means that read heavy applications, such as iTunes or any video game will see a lot of benefit as data is mostly read. For those who’ll be working on heavy editing applications, such as Photoshop or Sony Vegas, will still be bound by the write speeds of a 7200rpm drive, albeit at SATA III speeds.

I guess if both real-time read and write access was given to the NAND Flash, perhaps a bigger size would be needed. So these limitations seem more in line with keeping the costs down, rather than technical issues. That said, Seagate has mentioned that they will be releasing a firmware upgrade for these 2^nd generation Momentus XT drives that will, in fact, allow data to be written to the 8GB NAND. So far we haven’t had anything, so this review looks at performance you’ll be getting from units straight of the packaging.

One of the key features of the Momentus XT is the ‘Adaptive Memory Technology’ that’s basically a self-learning algorithm that notice your most used programs and stores their data on the cache. So every time you run those programs again, they will be loaded as quickly as an SSD since the data is being read directly from the 8GB NAND Flash.

Dell launches Alienware X51 desktop

Taimoor Hafeez — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 07:48:17 +0000

While Dell’s Alienware series is known worldwide for providing bleeding edge hardware in some of the most exquisite designs on laptops and desktops, they are also known for being very expensive. Of course, with competition these prices come down, but as the years roll by, new products also enter the global arena for hot gaming hardware. Last night, and after many days of teasing, Dell finally unveiled the Alienware X51 gaming desktop.

Looks like what the next Xbox should be.

The X51 is to Alienware’s flagship desktop, the Aurora, as the M11x is to the M18x laptop. It’s designed to be small and affordable, while packing in enough hardware to provide a decent gaming experience.

Measuring just 13.5 x 12.5 x 3.7 inches, the X51 weighs a mere 5.5kgs. Obviously the small form factor means the hardware inside doesn’t exactly have a lot of room for beefy components, but what’s inside is pretty impressive nonetheless. Thing is, the X51 comes with a 240 watts PSU, so you’re not going to get a lot of options for powerful graphics cards, but even the option GTX 555, which is just a handicapped GTX 560 is pretty decent for 1080p gaming at medium to high settings on all modern games.

Dell claims that the X51 will be completely user-upgradeable if people want to tinker around with it. Starting price for the system is $699, which is the same as the M11x laptop. Given how the other Alienware products are handled here, expect the X51 to come here in the next 4 to 5 months, starting around AED 3k.
Alienware X51 Product Specifications:

Intel Core i3 Dual Core (standard) and Intel Core i5 and i7 Quad Core Processor Options

Intel H61 Express Chipset Architecture

Mini-ITX Motherboard

Powerful NVIDIA Graphics Card Options

1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GT 545 (Standard)

1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 555

Configure with up to 8GB of DDR3 Memory (4GB Standard); 2x 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM Slots

Fast 7,200RPM 1TB Hard Drive

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium

Slot-Loading Dual Layer DVD Burner (Standard) or optional Blu-ray Disc Reader

Internal High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio with Waves MAXX Audio Software

Integrated 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet NIC and Integrated 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Wireless LAN (standard)

USB 2.0 (6x); USB 3.0 (2x); Microphone In; Headphone/Speaker Out; HDMI 1.4 Output; RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet; Front, Rear and Center Speaker Ports; SPDIF Digital Output (TOSLINK); SPDIF Digital Output (Coax)

Alienware 240 Watt Power Supply (Standard) or optional 330 Watt Power Supply

Dual-orientation tower system dimensions: h: 13.5” (343mm) x w: 3.74” (95mm) x d: 12.52” (318mm)

Starting Weight: 12.1 lbs. (5.49 Kg.)

MSI Big Bang XPower II Review

Taimoor Hafeez — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:29:16 +0000

The original MSI Big Bang Marshal made quite a stir at the Tbreak office last year, and now with the new XPower II version, history is set to repeat itself.

Carrying the Big Bang moniker, the new XPower II motherboard is quite obviously an ATX sized monstrosity, but the packaging seems deceptively mid-sized. The glossy gold and black color scheme looks really nice, without looking overly flashy. It somehow reminds me of the design aesthetics of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Given that a lot of attention has been paid to the design of the XPower II, the case has a flap which allows you to get a glimpse of the motherboard itself. All around it are lists of features that make the XPower II such a special board.

Opening up, you’ll notice a ton of manuals, cables and accessories. First off there are two quick start and installation guides. Then there’s an overclocking guide along with a ‘Certificate of Quality and Stability’. There is another overclocking record sheet, perhaps on this motherboard itself, which shows the highest overclocking results achieved by MSI’s own engineers. I believe this sheet was just given along with the review samples.

Moving along, we have a front bracket which has two USB 3.0 ports and a back panel eSATA bracket. Then there are eight SATA cables, three SLI cables for a 4-way SLI setup and a CrossFireX cable. Finally, there are the V-Check point connectors for reading voltage of various components.

Gigabyte GA-X79-UD7 Review

Taimoor Hafeez — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:32:50 +0000

When last I looked at one of Gigabyte’s high-end motherboards, it was found wanting. It was good, but for the price it wasn’t as great as some of its closest competitors. Today I’ll be looking at the G1.Assassin 2’s distant cousin, the GA-X79-UD7. This is Gigabyte’s mainstream entry on the higher-end scale for the latest Sandy Bridge-E platform.

Looking at the packaging, it seems that Gigabyte decided to go with some very subtle. The whole package is just white, with shades of grey. On the back are the features and a picture of the motherboard itself, wherein you’ll see the black and orange color scheme.

Opening it up we notice a host of accessories. First of there are 4X SATA cables, a 4-way, 3-way and 2-way SLI bridges along with a CrossFireX bridge. There’s a USB 3.0 3.5”bracket with 2 ports to be hooked up upfront or at the back.

Apart from the I/O panel, there’s a Bluetooth + WiFi adapter with two antennae. Closing off we have the eSATA bracket. All of these combined with a 3 or 4-way SLI could result in a completely jam packed rear panel of your desktop casing.