Make sure to watch the video for all the clues.

Please make sure to submit all answers to the YouTube page no later than the 30th June 2010, the winner will be announced on the 1st July 2010, and prizes sent out that day to the lucky winner.

Check out BenchTec’s YouTube channel while you’re there as well! BenchTec UK

Good luck to all!

Note: Intel supplied me with the parts used in this video but is not running this competition.

James runs the board through a number of tests on air, cascade and even LN2. All your favourite benchmarks inside.

http://www.benchtec.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=5397

GV-N285-1GH-B

Ok today we are looking at the Gigabyte Nvidia GTX 285 1GB.

Let’s have a look at what you get in the box.

As you can see you get Farcry2, 2 dvi converters and also 2 Molex to 6pin pci-e converters.

Let’s have a closer look at the card.

Note that this card uses 2x 6 pin pcie connections. A single 55nm core doesn’t need 8 pin.

Ok now let’s have a look at a few results. I did the first tests with an Intel E7200 @ 4Ghz.

Here are the cards stock clocks.

Aquamark at stock.

3DMark03 at stock

Then I tested the max the core, memory and shadders would go to.

Core maxed out at 780mhz.

Memory at 1470Mhz.

Shadders at 1650Mhz.

Ok after finding where card maxes out at I thought I would see if the card would run at the clocks of the pre-overclocked cards which are available. At the time of writing this the fastest card available is at 720Mhz on the core 1620Mhz on the shadders and the memory at 1386Mhz.

As you can see it passed 3dmark 03 at the higher clocks. Now lets see if its stable and see what the temps are doing. I found 70% on the fan to be the highest before it was really loud. So used that setting for this test.

Passed 10 mins at full load.
As you can see there was a steady climb to around 80c then it leveled out.

If running this card in a cased system I would say those temps and clocks are really the max. That’s a £100 saving made though from overclocking the card up to the clocks of 720/1620/1386. A very impressive card. Benching results will be coming soon.

Many thanks to Gigabyte for the support

jabski

ODIN GT 800W

GE-S800A-D1

Specifications:

• Software controlled PSU, for maximum tweaks
• Active PFC, high efficiency power circuit design, 80+ certified
• 4-rail, 12V+ design, capable of supplying higher power output
• Over-voltage, over-current, under-voltage and short – circuit protection
• 14cm cooling fan, low noise silent design with fan curve control
• Reliable Japan-made capacitors
• Environment friendly, Complying with RoHS & WEEE regulations
• Smart Cable Management for good air convection
• Adjustable alarm settings

Packaging:

Gigabyte dont only make great motherboards and the god like i-RAM. They have a full range of PSU’s Available too. (full list).

Today were looking at the Odin GT 800w model. First lets see some pictures.

The box and opening it.

The Modular connectors and accessories (Note 8 pin pci-e).

The Power supply. Non modular connections are a 24-pin main power connector and a 8-pin +12V CPU power connector. Also another two 8 pin pci-e connectors.

Also note the system fan headers and thermometers.

Ok now some of you may be wondering why there is a cd bundles with a psu?

Well this ties in nicely with the fan headers and thermometers seen above. There is a cable which comes from the PSU and connects by USB (a pass through plate is included ). The PSU comes with a piece of software called ‘Power Tuner’.
Lets have a look at it. Once installed and the program is opened here is what you will see.

From top to bottom you have -                 

Power Usage
Voltage (click on each one to get a reading)
Current (click on each one to get a reading)
Fan Speed of the psu fan and any fan you have connected to the psu
and Temperature reading of the 4 thermal sensors (included)

At the bottom left of the main menu you have a can select
(M) Main menu
(C) Configuration menu
(A) Alarm menu

on the bottom right you can choose to have the blue LED in the psu on or off.

Also in the Voltage and Current section you have ‘all’ which open like so:

Lets take a look at the Configuration Menu.Here you have two options, Fan or Voltage.        

With the Fan settings only when on Performance was I able to hear the fan.

The Third option is Alarm. In this section you have five menus and can configure the Alarms.

There will be more testing to come but i thought i would run a quick test to see the ‘Power Tuner’ work. I used PCmark05 with a E7200 @4Ghz 1.394v , a ATI 4870×2 @ stock and a Seagate 500Gb Hdd. 

As you can see on the ‘Power Tuner’ the peak is 292w. As you may of thought this was when the gpu tests were running. I think the Power tuner is a welcome extra and will come in very helpful to users when trouble shooting. As we know the PSU is the heart of any system and an area not to be passed over. My conclusion so far is this is a very able power supply. In the coming weeks I will test it with a I7 system and also crossfire graphics and see what it can do, but for now I am very happy with this unit. Also I must mention again, that whilst testing I couldn’t hear the psu running. Only when I manually changed the fan setting to performance was I able to hear it. I look forward to using this power supply on future benching sessions.

Many thanks to Gigabyte for there continued support.