AMD goes overclocking

ALTHOUGH OVERCLOCKING isn't that big in the States (at least not compared to Euroland and Asia), AMD hosted an overclocking event with some well known players - K|ngp|n for one - at its Austin, Texas facilities. Hot Hardware was on hand to take a few snaps of the outcome. Three hundred litres of LN2 were harmed in the making of that 6.89GHz clock.

Gigabyte has come up with a new AM3 motherboard that also supports AM2 processors – instead of the usual opposite. With the MA790GP-UD4H 790GX-based mobo you won’t break any records, but the idea is getting a cheap deal.

Guru of 3D reviewed a Smooth Creations Far Cry 2-themed rig. Smooth Creations builds these really cool rigs with high end components and some airbrushing magic. This is no exception.

Tom’s Hardware is showing how you can build a SFF rig for under $600. Nothing exceptional there, except possibly the sizable overclock it had. 3.6GHz squeezed out of an E5200 processor…

Anand is looking into flash video performance under Atom, backed up by Ion chippery. None too snappy, the processor and mGPU struggle with the most videos…

All-in-one PCs are all the rage again thanks to the Atom processor. Shrinking components to laptop levels and attaching them to LCDs seem to do the trick for the Averatec 18.4 All-in-one PC. It’s cheap enough too… Techspot has it.

Thrusted Reviews has a look at the Toshiba Regza 42RV635D LCD TV. It’s full HD and has a good price tag to it – and if you’re a geek you can plug in your PC, DVR box, PS3 and Xbox 360 all at the same time…

Small Net Builder tests the QNAP TS-809 Pro, the biggest in the TS series NAS devices capable of hosting 8 drives driven by a Core 2 Duo system. It’s powerful and brutally fast, but that comes at a cost… a very painful $1,700.

Silent PC Review tested the Coolermaster Sileo 500 case. This sound-proofed design isn’t totally proofed, but it gets the job done. The HDD vibration dampening system doesn’t do a very good job, but if you consider it’s a fairly cheap case, then you’ll look at it differently.

PC Perps plugged in a CompuLab fit-PC2, Menlow-based device. It isn’t a nettop or anything of the sort, as the Menlow system is far smaller (smaller than a standard CD’s diameter!). A fully equipped one with XP SP3 will run under $400.

Driver Heaven has a USB pen drive shoot out: OCZ vs. Super Talent. OCZ dominates the benchmarks, but the ST Luxio and Godfather have a different sort of appeal…

Techware Labs tests the world’s largest desktop drive, the WD Caviar Green 2TB drive. It isn’t a performance drive, but rather a competent storage drive with a lower overall power consumption.

Madshrimps shows off how a couple of Belgian overclockers managed to take a Celeron 352 over 8.1GHz. You’re likely never to do this at home, so see the pros in action.

PC Games Hardware reviewed Cryostasis under seven mid-range and high-end graphics cards. Very nice graphics effects aided by PhysX: melting ice, flowing water, electric sparks...

Hardware Logic is testing Gigabyte’s GM-M8000 Ghost mouse. It’s a gamer’s tool, with four weights to add a bit of balance, as well as programmable macros. Not unlike other, actually. µ