News

Merry Xmas & a Happy New Year!

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 13:13:41 -0800

Merry Xmas & our wishes for a happy, healthy and successful in every aspect New Year!!!
Have fun and take care, remember partying is nice, but our safety is #1, if you drink, do not drive.

Have fun ladies & gentlemen, see you again in a few weeks with more hardware reviews & articles!

Brand new article: PC's Gaming Performance: What really matters...

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:58:57 -0800

Hello everybody,
We're happy to announce to you that we have a brand new article online for you to read today!

In this article we're focusing on what gives us ( and what does not ) higher performance in our favorite computer games.
We test various CPUs and graphics cards at various frequencies, quantities, overclock various components, try a few sound cards, and go through various scenarios and "myths" originating from various computer & gaming forums ( such as the "HyperThreading myth" and the 16x-16x SLI performance against 8x-8x slot SLI performance ).
We test if we get any higher FPS by overclocking our RAM, our Core i7 980X & Core i5-2600K CPUs, overclocking the PCI-Express BUS, overclocking the BCLK, and many more.

If you're a gamer, you REALLY NEED to read this article.

So, grab a cup of coffee or your favorite energy drink ( oh yes, you're going to need a lot of energy, you're looking at a 23 page reading :-p ) and read the article now!

AMD FX-8150 "Bulldozer" Processor Preview

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 17:47:54 -0700

Hello everybody!
Long time, no "see".

How are you doing ? Hope all is well over there.

We're finally back, and planning to remain active again, outputting a bunch of reviews, guides & articles each month.

Let's start November ( OMG, the winter's coming, nooooo! ) with a preview of the newest flagship processor of AMD's Bulldozer series, the FX-8150!
In this preview we'll take a look at the specifications of the new processor and its performance in various tasks on Ubuntu 11.10 x64 Linux.
We might release another preview covering some basic applications & benchmarks on Windows 7 before we release the full review ( 100's of benchmarks, lots of pages, architecture analysis, feature & future looks, etc etc ).

Apart from the text, charts and comments, you'll also be able to view 2 videos we took using the AMD FX-8150 processor, a video that was taken during our measurements, and an extreme overclocking video in which we insulate the motherboard, overclock the processor using liquid nitrogen ( LN2 ) and run various benchmarks like 3D Mark Vantage, SuperPi, wPrime, etc etc.

So, go ahead, check out our preview of the AMD FX-8150 CPU now!

FutureMark's PC Mark 7 release date

Mon, 09 May 2011 16:57:25 -0700

FutureMark Corp. the famous benchmarking software house informed us a few hours ago about the final release date of their new installment in the general PC performance evaluation benchmarks, PC Mark 7!
PC Mark 7 will be released this Thursday, May 12th and will more than likely become the PC Markers' new favorite benchmark ( think PC Mark05 ).

As you can guess from its name, it will only run under Windows 7.
The free edition will be more than enough for the average & pro benchmarker, as you'll be able to run the standard benchmark ( System Test Suite ) suite as many times as you wish, and store all your results on FutureMark's new ORB ( Online Result Browser ).
If you want to use the results saving feature, you'll have to buy the advanced version though.

Get ready to bench guys 'n' girls!!!

Forum issues fixed, database wiped, registrations open again

Sat, 09 Oct 2010 13:27:00 -0700

A few months ago I was notified by a reader that our forum had an issue causing an error whenever somebody tried to register.
Wise people say "Better late than never", right ?
Yesterday I wiped the forum's database and started re-installing & configuring our forums, introducing a few new interesting sections & new forum organization as well.

I'm still making changes, adding sections, getting ready to change the forum scheme & layout, add more features and add-ons, but you may register safely as of now.

Visit the new BenchZone & BenchBot forums now!

R.I.P. Cyril :-(

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 23:56:00 -0700

We just learned that a dear friend of ours, Cyril Pelupessy, who was a technical PR officer at MSI Europe passed away 2 days ago suffering from pneumonia for 1 month.
He was a great man, a hard working person and a great friend.

Thank you very much for the good times in Amsterdam Cyril.

We'll miss you man.

R.I.P.

MSI Win a GeForce GTX 480 contest results

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:05:00 -0700

The results, 3 lucky winners!

Ladies & gentlemen, the time has come!

We can announce the lucky winners today.

First off, let's start with the correct answers:

1. What is nVIDIA Fermi ?

b. The next generation CUDA Architecture

2. What is MSI Afterburner ?

b. An overclock utility for VGA developed by MSI and rivatuner

3. How is the high-end VGA series of MSI called ?

c. Lightning

4.
Which one of the below names is not an MSI VGA cooler ?

b. Fridge

5. What is the thickness of the MSI Superpipe ?

d. 8mm

You can hold your breath now... here comes the lucky winners list:

Out of 17.568 participants the following 3 were the luckiest:

1. MSI GeForce GTX 480 goes to... Oscar Olsson from Sweden!

2. MSI GeForce GTX 480 goes to... Asger Hansen from Denmark!

3. MSI GeForce GTX 480 goes to... Dora Christodoulou from Greece!

Congratulations to the winners and thanks everybody for participating.

The official page of the contest will be updated later on today.

http://www.msi.eu/fermi

3D Mark11 - Footage & Information mini-article

Fri, 28 May 2010 10:22:23 -0700

A few days ago FutureMark, the developer of the well-known 3D Mark series benchmarks sent us an e-mail with footage & information regarding their upcoming DirectX 11 benchmark called "3D Mark11".
If you would like to see some screenshots, a 720p tech demo video and some information regarding their upcoming benchmark read our mini-article now!

Click here to read the 3D Mark11 tech preview article now!

Kingston HyperX DDR3-2000 6GB Triple Channel Kit Review published!

Thu, 27 May 2010 19:02:00 -0700

Hello everybody,

I'm very pleased to be able to announce that I have a new review for you guys ( and girls ) to read today!
I've been working on this one for quite a few days, but things got complicated due to various reasons and breaks ( personal stuff & some business trips ) and some delayed hardware arrivals ( everything's ok now and we'll be back with another review ASAP! ) resulting in a relatively big delay.
Anyway, I guess you're looking for the product I reviewed and present to you today, so here it comes:

It's a nice and relatively affordable 6GB DDR3 triple channel memory kit from Kingston, the HyperX DDR3-2000C9 kit ( part number: hmm.. hold on... ok! KHX2000C9AD3T1FK3/6GX ).
Its specifications might seem very conservative to you, 9-10-9-x at DDR3-2000 at 1.65V. How far can these DIMMs overclock ? Will they hit anything noteworthy ? DDR3-2000 at CAS 7 ? DDR3-2300 at relatively good timings and low voltage ?

Grab a cup of coffee or your favorite drink and read the review now!

Extreme Overclocking Event 2010 by Battlenet Pefkakia

Wed, 19 May 2010 01:09:06 -0700

The past Saturday me and my benching partner Chris "Crio" Christopoulos were invited to bench on the stage at an internet cafe in Athens called "BattleNet".
I had little to no time to prepare the hardware for the event ( mostly because most of the hardware arrived at my place at the very last second, thanks for the support though Intel, Gigabyte, Antec, A-data ) so I prepared just the motherboard/CPU ( eVGA X58 SLI Classified E760 and an Intel Core i7 980X E.S., Q4EG B1 Stepping ) and the GeForce GTX 480 graphics card for LN2 ( Liquid Nitrogen ) cooling.
Unfortunately the CPU wasn't what I'd call a decent chip, so we were kinda limited to 3D Mark03 ( which is mostly VGA dependent ) and a few attempts of completing 3D Mark06 & 3D Mark Vantage at 5.4GHz-ish.

I have to finish several reviews, so there won't be an "article" covering this event ( for the time being at least ), but we do have some photos from the event to show you

Click here to view our photo album on FaceBook

Also make sure you subscribe ( "like" ) to our FaceBook page here to find out what we're working on and any events/contests taking place or coming up shortly!

Stay tuned, there's a memory review coming up shortly!

Online & Local Overclocking Competitions article published

Wed, 05 May 2010 12:35:52 -0700

Hello folks,
Today we have a new overclocking-related article for you ( and the manufacturers, please read this one carefully ) to read.
We're going to discuss what happened in some overclocking contests that took place online & locally/globally the last few months, check their details, what went okay and what went terribly wrong.
And then we're going to give you guys in charge a few suggestions on how to better organize an overclocking event / competition.

Grab a cup of coffee or a refresher and read the article now!

Asus motherboard unlocks new AMD Quad-Cores to Six-Cores

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 15:47:00 -0700

A few days earlier my very sensitive ears received a weak signal from far away that the new Quad-Core processors from AMD can be unlocked to fully fledged Six-Cores.
Just a while ago a little birdie showed me two pictures with the well-known CPU-z utility showing an AMD Phenom II x4 960T processor with 6 cores/threads active on an Asus M4A89GTD-Pro/USB3 motherboard with the "Core Unlock" feature enabled & 4 cores/threads with the Core Unlock feature disabled.

Don't ask me for more details, I really, honestly do not know, that colorful birdie flew away in the blink of an eye.

Click on the thumbnail to view the full screenshot

Intel Core i3 540 Review published!

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:56:53 -0700

It's been a while since I last updated the site with new content, I bet most of you can't remember when I published my last review ( heck even I can't remember ).
But things have changed, and I will be updating the site with new & hot reviews from now on starting with this one.

Today I'm putting Intel's newest Dual-Core mainstream processor to the test, the very affordable Core i3 540 ( 133$ ) takes a seat on my Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD7 LGA1156 motherboard and the benchmarking & overclocking fun begins!
On the other side of the ring we have a tough opponent, the Intel Core i7 950 Quad-Core processor for the LGA1366 platform.
We compare the two CPU's at their stock clock frequencies, on a clock-per-clock basis ( handicapped the i7 950 by disabling 2 of its cores to match the Core i3 540's core & thread count ) and at their maximum stable overclock on air.
How will the Core i3 540 fare against the Core i7 950 ?

So, grab a cup of coffee or a beer and read the review now!

Win an MSI GeForce GTX 480!

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 12:27:45 -0700

I just got a message from MSI regarding a new contest organized by them.
MSI is giving away a GeForce GTX 480, and you can enter the competition by answering 5 simple questions!

So what are you waiting for ? Go to http://www.msi.eu/fermi/ and enter the contest now!

BenchZone back in action soon!

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:53:20 -0700

Yes, BenchZone will feature new interesting reviews, articles, and news soon.
Sorry for keeping you waiting.

TechReaction launch & contest!

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:00:00 -0700

Attention!

Now that I have your attention, listen up folks:

It's your time to react.
A good friend of mine, Alex a.k.a. EnJoY from XtremeSystems just launched his new website called TechReaction, a portal that hosts a numerous amount of highly skilled & "famous" people for their break-throughs and quality work on various sections of our everyday interaction with our favorite hobby, the PCs and overclocking.
What will you find on TechReaction ?
Hardware reviews, news, articles, guides and blogs ( of all kinds ) from overclockers, cooling specialists, system builders & administrators, gamers, such as Dino a.k.a. dinos22 from Team AU, Jody a.k.a. 3oh6 from 3oh6.com, Gautam a.k.a. Gautam from XtremeSystems, Ryan a.k.a. TheGoatEater from XtremeSystems, Bill a.k.a. BenchZowner from BenchZone.com, Simon a.k.a. 64NOMIS from AMD, Brian a.k.a. Chew* from XtremeSystems, RW Keeton a.k.a. CyberDruid from waterputer.com, Scott a.k.a. nikhsub1 the "crazy watercooling guy" from XtremeSystems, etc.
There's also a growing community in the forums waiting for your ideas, opinion and questions.

Last but not least, the folks at AMD provided some cool Phenom II processors for a site launch give-away, visit TechReaction now, meet with wonderful & friendly people, chat about your favorite hobby and get a chance to win one of those fabulous AMD Phenom II processors.

For more information about the AMD Phenom II give-away visit this page

Asus P5Q3 Deluxe Review now online

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 23:21:09 -0800

It's been a while since we released a new review.
We had some server issues, and some of us some personal/family issues to take care of, but now we're back in action and ready to rock ( hopefully at a 10 pages per day rate ).

Today we're going to show you a fully fledged review of Asus's top P45 Express Chipset offering, the P5Q3 Deluxe WiFi-AP@n.
Equipped with Intel's latest ( and last ) chipset for the LGA775 platform, DDR3 memory & CrossFire and CrossFire-X support and a pack of useful ( and some not so useful ) features and peripherals the Asus P5Q3 Deluxe seems to be a perfect solution for everyone's daily rig.

It comes at a reasonably good price, and will more than likely fulfill all your needs, it has 9 SATA II Ports ( 8 internal, 1 external [ e-SATA ] ), 4 PCI-Express 16x slots, 2 PCI Slots for your "legacy" expansion cards, a draft-n Wireless Adapter, Asus's latest 6-engine EPU ( Energy Processing Unit ) for better power saving, and a wide range ( and stable ) of voltages to satisfy your overclocking needs.

Grab a cup of coffee or your favorite drink and click here to read the review now!

CSX Diablo DDR3-2000 2GB Kit Review published

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:40:44 -0700

Are you looking forward to the launch of the new Intel Core i7 CPU series from Intel ?
Do you know that you'll have to use DDR3 memory for the LGA1366 platform ?
If you're looking for a decent DDR3 memory kit to use with your current system or with a new Core i7 system ?
If yes, then you should read the CSX Diablo DDR3-2000 2GB Memory Kit review now!

Click here to read the CSX Diablo DDR3-2000 2GB Kit review.

Asus Striker II Extreme Review published!

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:18:00 -0700

BenchZone proudly presents to you the Asus Striker II Extreme review.
The Asus Striker II Extreme is Asus's newest R.O.G. series motherboard utilizing nVIDIA's latest nFORCE chipset, the nFORCE 790i Ultra SLI.
The nFORCE 790i Ultra SLI chipset features DDR3 memory support, 2-way, 3-way and Quad-SLI for Intel's LGA775 platform.
The Striker II Extreme features a fully fledged BIOS with a enormous amount of settings, very good DDR3 memory overclocking capabilities, decent FSB overclocking capabilities and very good performance ( clock per clock ).
Like every "Republic Of Gamers" motherboard comes with lots of "goodies", a external LCD Poster monitor to troubleshoot your system if you're having problems POSTing, a illuminated I/O Shield, a led lit R.O.G. logo on the NorthBridge heatsink, the Fusion Block System / NorthBridge WaterBlock, a EPU for "optimized" power regulation & saving, quick power on / reset / clear CMOS buttons on board.

As usual, we performed several tests and checked out every feature of the new board, and also set up 2 systems to compare this motherboard with the Asus P5K3 Deluxe motherboard, and the Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4 motherboard.

Grab a cup of coffee or your favorite drink and read the review now!

Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4 Review!

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:46:12 -0700

A bit late ( or not ) to the party or not, the Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4 is a decent budget LGA775 motherboard that deserves your attention if you're looking for a stable, user-friendly, and easily overclockable motherboard to play along with your new Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad processor.

We tested it in both stock & overclocked conditions and compared it with the brand new Asus Striker II Extreme 790i Ultra SLI motherboard, and our trusty Asus P5K3 Deluxe.

Go ahead, and read the review now

3D Mark Vantage Review

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:31:32 -0700

BenchZone proudly presents to you the review/article about 3D Mark Vantage, FutureMark's newest addition to the 3D Mark Series benchmarks.

The new installment features several new tests and for the first time, their brand new engine, with native DirectX 10 support. To be precise it's a DirectX 10 only benchmark, so you need a DirectX 10 compliant graphics card to run it, and of course Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system.

We tested various graphics cards, and different processors to see what we could score in FutureMark's new "toy" ( for the overclockers & gamers ).

We also take it a step further and explored ( tested ) how the benchmark's scores change by adding more CPU Cores to our system or overclocking our CPU.

We've everything you could ask for inside, videos, screenshots, lots of scores, comparisons for gamers & extreme overclockers. RAM Timings influence tests, CPU Core Count tests and more!

So, go ahead and read the review now!

3D Mark Vantage - Review online soon, Video Available Now!

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:12:14 -0700

The embargo for FutureMark's new 3D Mark Series benchmark, 3D Mark Vantage has just ended.
We are currently finishing the review, which shall be online in 1 hour.

Before you get to read the review, feel free to watch a Benchmarking Run Video here

3D Mark Vantage Release Date

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 10:27:15 -0700

Yesterday FutureMark has published some information regarding their latest installment of the 3D Mark Series, the soon to be released "3D Mark Vantage".
There's a count-down at FutureMark's website for the public release date/time for 3D Mark Vantage, and the day & time of release is April 28th at 16:00 EET ( Finnish time ) [ 6AM PCT ].

We're currently running several tests with various configurations and 3D Mark Vantage, and we should have a article/review of 3D Mark Vantage right on time with it's release.

Stay tuned!

GT200 in mid-June (?)

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 02:55:11 -0700

I've just got some newer information regarding the release date of GT200 based cards.
It seems that nVIDIA is going to release the GT200 high end part in mid-June.

That's not 100% confirmed folks, but that's how things look right now.
I will try to get a confirmation on this from a second source in the industry.

Forthcoming Reviews

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:28:19 -0700

Do you want an insight regarding the reviews that we're working on ?
Well, here's what we have for you for this month:

- Asus Striker II Extreme - nVIDIA nFORCE 790i Ultra SLI motherboard
- Gigabyte EP35-DS4 - Intel P35 Express motherboard
- nVIDIA GeForce 9800GTX 512MB - a single nVIDIA G92 core based graphics card

We may publish some other reviews & articles as well. But that depends on the arrival dates of the rest parts, and our available time ( you know, motherboard reviews take a lot of time ;) )