Dual GPU tuning, MSI D.O.T.s the cards

MASTER SCRIBBLERS at Fudzilla have produced a piece on MSI’s factory-overclocked Radeon 3870X2. MSI has been very crafty and replaced the ATI Overdrive with their own flavour of overclocking tool, inside the Catalyst Control Center. Overclocking a factory OC’d card doesn’t really happen, as you probably have guessed. The HD 3870X2 does kick the Green Goblin’s top performers in mostly everything – ‘cept Crysis @ High detail levels. Sanjin thinks there’s a lot of room for improvement in those there drivers. Look at the benchies here.

Gigabyte is getting into air-conditioning, oh, sorry... CPU cooling, with their G-Power2 Pro Cooler. XSReviews has the skinny on this. The beautifully designed piece has a chrome finish and takes up massive real-estate inside your PC. XS did an out-of-case review so you don’t really get a real feel for the size of the beast from their photos... but believe us, it’s BIG. XS don’t have the price but they don’t think it’s too expensive. They went ahead and gave it a pretty good score. Read about it here.

Intel is getting more and more serious with enthusiasts. The XMP (Extreme Memory Profile) is a feature set for DDR3 memory targeted at enthusiasts. And OCZ is all about enthusiasts, so they sent over a couple of gigs of OCZ DDR3-1600 Titanium – Intel XMP Edition. As usual with OCZ, reviewers have a blast overclocking the bajeezus out of them (and it works) – taking the all the way up to DDR-1800. Although still priced like if it were made of pure gold, Rob has no problem with that.

LCD’s are in a state of constant renewal, and Samsung’s latest just happened to land on the desk of Jarred at Anandtech. The 245T is – as the name implies – a 24-inch LCD, based on a S-PVA panel. Ironically the technology outshines the finished product itself, leading Jarred to recommend anything based on this panel as much as Samsung’s own. S-PVA is da shiznit.

Guru3D has the power, yes, they certainly do. 650W of Bequiet! Dark Power Pro. These PSU’s come rated at a whopping 88% efficiency – they even have a nice little summary explaining the economics of power supplies and how much you pay for inefficient units. Fully modular with support for SLI and almost absolutely silent says Hilbert. The price is right too: €130. Advance to GO here.

Upside down in the Antipodes, the Aussies at OZ Hardware are testing WD’s Scorpio 320GB SATA-II 2.5-inch hard drive. It’s a massive affair for a 2.5-incher, as you can imagine, but being the biggest isn’t necessarily being the best. They managed to face it off with Seagate’s Momentus 7200rpm units and the previous generation Scorpios. The increased density seems to give the Scorpio a substantial advantage over the competition right now. Read their why’s over here.

Techspot has an interesting generation conflict going on, Wolfdale vs. Conroe, so you can add the numbers up and find out exactly how much you’re gaining if you’re upgrading to Wolfdale? Since Wolfdales are supposed to replace Conroes in the same price range, Techspot thinks it’s all good for the consumer, but the empty shelves are likely to keep E8000 prices up for a bit more than you’d wish. Read your money saving article here. µ