ORIGIN PC starts off 2012 with three major announcements. The award-winning GENESIS desktop has been overclocked to a record 5.7GHz with the exclusive new ORIGIN PC Phase Change cooling system. The Phase Change cooling system will be available in late Q1. ORIGIN PC launches free U.S. based lifetime 24/7 technical support on all desktops and laptops starting today. The award winning EON17-S and EON15-S laptops both receive an upgrade with the new exclusive ORIGIN PC design.

If you thought the overclocking and benchmark feats we reported on a few days ago here and here were impressive, wait until you see what four cards can do. Overclocking champion Shamino over at Kingpin Cooling has set four 3DMark and one Unigene benchmark record:

Leading global motherboard and graphics card maker MSI today announces the release of the N560GTX-448 Twin Frozr III Power Edition/OC and N560GTX-448 Twin Frozr III Power Edition graphics cards. The two graphics cards feature the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti chipset with 448 CUDA cores and 1280MB of 320-bit GDDR5 high-speed graphics memory. The N560GTX-448 Twin Frozr III Power Edition graphics card supports MSI's exclusive Triple Overvoltage and 6+1 Phase PWM design. The greatly improved overclocking potential and stability increases overclocking performance by up to 29%.

The acclaimed Twin Frozr III system is used for cooling and features not only twin 8cm Propeller Blade fans for 20% more air flow but also 8mm SuperPipe technology. Fan noise of just 30dB at full load provides gamers with the quietest user experience, while MSI Military Class II components are used to guarantee the highest quality and stability. For gamers seeking overclocking potential, cooling and stability, the N560GTX-448 Twin Frozr III Power Edition graphics card offers the perfect choice.

Leading international mainboard and graphics card manufacturer MSI today announces the official release of its X79A-GD65 (8D), X79A-GD65, X79A-GD45, and X79MA-GD45 mainboards. The new mainboards are based on Intel's latest X79 chipset and uses the LGA 2011 socket supporting the 2nd generation Core i7 processors. The X79A-GD65 (8D) features with 8 memory DIMMs, supports 16GB DDR3 memory modules, bringing maximum capacity up to a staggering 128GB! For superior quality and stability, MSI X79 series mainboards adopts Military Class III components. With DrMOS II - the next generation of DrMOS with improved double thermal protection - the lifetime of components is maximized, even in warmer environments or when the machine is heavily overclocked.

MSI X79 series mainboards also feature the latest PCI Express Gen 3 bus and MSI's proprietary Click BIOS II for maximum performance and user convenience. When taking into account all of the other advanced technologies supported such as 3-Way NVIDIA SLI and 4-way AMD CrossFireX multi-GPU processing technology, THX TruStudio PRO sound, Multi-BIOS II, Control Center II, and Super Charger, MSI X79-series mainboards are simply the best choice for enthusiasts!

Intel have finally confirmed that they will be including water cooling as an enthusiast solution for their upcoming Core i7-3000 series Sandy Bridge-E processors due for release on November 14 - a first for Intel and something for AMD to match. They have gone with Asetek due to their high quality products and good reputation, which will be branded with the distinctive Intel blue logos. The 12cm radiator fan will actually be illuminated in Intel Blue, giving a classy look to the kit. On top of that, they will actually sell the kit separately, so no one need feel left out. The E-series chips are already significantly faster than the current Sandy Bridge offerings, but water cooling will be able to stretch that lead even further and should make for some exciting overclocking achievements. Perhaps 6GHz or more 24/7 reliable operation is within reach? No prices as yet.

Well, this is good news for PC enthusiasts. PC overclocking has become a competitive sport in recent years with various brands hosting the competitions and others also chipping in with sponsorship money. This year's event was the fourth annual MSI Master Overclocking Arena competition held in Taipei, Taiwan, with sponsorship money coming from the likes of Intel and Kingston among others. Basic competition info: sixteen teams worldwide; benchmarks used were Super PI 32M, 3DMark 11 and surprisingly, the ancient 3DMark 2001SE but it's not clear why such an old benchmark is being used; the components used are given to contestants based on a lottery system, the team picking a number corresponding to either a CPU or a complete rig. This prevents contestants from having an unfair advantage by bringing in their own heavily modified kit to press home an advantage. Imagine how much more potent a modded motherboard with beefed up voltage regulators could be? Turned out that the favourites, previous winners Romania, won the competition. The prize money was only $3000, which is paltry compared to mainstream sports, but remember that this overclocking "sport" is still very new and is very niche in nature, so isn't so unreasonable when viewed in that light. Head on over to VR-Zone for more competition details and photos.

AMD's Bulldozer 8.4 GHz+ OC Achievement: Cooled to Near-Absolute Zero

TechPowerUp recently brought you news on AMDs fantastic overclocking achievement with their new processors. Now we can tell you how it was done: cherry-picking the chips and slapping on some water cooling isn't quite enough. AMDs new processors can operate at much lower temperatures without displaying the "cold bug" - where it just gives up and goes home - and performance scales very well at super-low temperatures. The problem is that the cold affects lots of things such as timing, but more importantly, power circuits, which stop switching and just fry everything in sight - surely one to avoid. AMD senior manager of social media, Simon Solotko explains in detail how it was all done, using both liquid helium and liquid nitrogen to make the poor processor really cold. The new processor had these great qualities, according to Solotko:

It was able to take a lot of voltage, extremely low temperatures, extremely high frequencies," he said. "It was very durable under extreme overclocking. So that was awesome. So it worked well, it scaled well, it responded to cold well - all the right variables.

This overclock is an impressive feat and it will be interesting to see if Intel can match it.

"Empty Overclocking" is a term we just made up, to describe unreal overclocking headroom that does not translate into any performance improvements, with AMD's A8-3850 APU. This chip can be set to run at base clock multiplier value above 29x on some motherboards, that will increase clock speed being reported to you, but that "increased" clock speed will not translate to any performance improvements at all.

This means that the multiplier is ineffective in driving the clock above its maximum default value. So the next time you see screenshots screaming something like "6.00 GHz" on air with the base clock at its default 100 MHz, don't be fooled, trust only those overclocking feats in which the multiplier is set at the maximum default (29.0x) or lesser, and in which the overclocker has increased the base clock among other things.Update: It seems like AMD is aware of the issue, and forewarned reviewers about it. Apparently a glitch in the BIOS code allows the users to "set" higher multiplier values than the chip can respond to, even as the chip doesn't run at those values. Utilities like CPU-Z read those BIOS-set values and display the effective clock speed, even as the actual clock speed doesn't budge. AMD recommends only the base clock increase method for overclocking. As always, AMD warned that overclocked chips are not covered by product warranties. Perhaps future BIOS updates by motherboard vendors will fix this bug.

Apacer, one of the world's leading brands of memory modules, today announced an expansion of its ARES overclocking memory series with high capacity and clock rate: DDR3-2133 8GB (4GBx2) dual channel memory kit,which is engineered for the latest Intel P67 and Z68 Sandy Bridge platforms. With a combination of high clock rate, huge capacity and low latency of CL9, ARES series is a perfect solution for extreme PC enthusiasts and gamers who want to optimize performance on the new platforms.

The newly-unveiled ARES DDR3-2133 8GB dual channel memory kit provides the highspeed and capacityon the Intel P67 and Z68 Sandy Bridge platforms and is backwards compatible with existing the P55 platform. It runs at CL9-11-9-27 with 1.65 voltage, using advancedprocess 256Mb x 8chips, which are screened and tested withthe advanced test fixture and programs under diversified parameters of voltage and time sequences.

Continuing the success of its popular ROG MATRIX Series graphics cards, ASUS today launches the ROG MATRIX GTX 580 Series. Based on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 GPU, the ROG MATRIX GTX 580 Series combines a dual-fan DirectCU II thermal design and 19-phase Super Alloy Power components with instant hardware overclocking tools; TweakIt, ProbeIt and an innovative Safe Mode button. Together, with the new GPU Tweak software overclocking utility, both gamers and overclockers can now gain an undeniable performance advantage over the competition.

MSI, the world-renowned graphics card and motherboard manufacturer, officially releases the latest R6790-2PM2D1GD5 graphics card based on AMD's next-generation Barts GPU core utilizing the 40 nm manufacturing process and 1GB GDDR5 memory. The R6790-2PM2D1GD5 is equipped with MSI's exclusive Afterburner overclocking software that supports GPU over-voltage, offering up to 25% more overclocking potential!

The MSI R6790-2PM2D1GD5 is equipped with stereoscopic 3D capability and has the ability to output video to four displays from a single card via AMD's Eyefinity technology. The heatpipes directly contact the GPU head spreader, and coupled with 9cm PWM fans this exclusive thermal design provides 50% more cooling efficiency when compare to reference design. An All-Solid Capacitor design ensures a long lifespan and stability under extreme operating conditions.

ColorFire, the associate brand of Colorful that specializes in AMD Radeon-based graphics cards, today released a new Radeon HD 6870 card geared for extreme overclocking. Its design revolves around high-grade VRM, powerful cooling, and dual BIOS, each packing overclocked settings. The ColorFire Xstorm HD 6870 is a completely non-reference design card, the GPU is powered by a 5+1 phase VRM that uses POSCAP capacitors. The card uses two BIOS ROM chips that can be selected using a push-switch on the rear panel. The "normal" BIOS packs clock speeds of 940 MHz core and 1100 MHz (4.40 GHz effective) memory, while the "turbo" BIOS runs the card at 1050 MHz core, 1150 MHz (4.60 GHz effective) memory.

The card is cooled by a large custom-design cooler the company earlier used on an HD 6850 card with similar design. It uses a large heat pipe-fed heatsink that is cooled by a 110 mm fan. Other overclocker-friendly features include consolidated voltage measure points with cables; and hardware-based voltage adjustment using DIP switches on the card. It draws power from two 6-pint power connectors. Display outputs include two DVI, and one each of full-size HDMI 1.4a, and DisplayPort 1.2. Colorfire will first sell the card in Asia, and then in Europe.

In its 25th anniversary year, Antec, Inc., the global leader in high-performance computer components and accessories for the gaming, PC upgrade and Do-It-Yourself markets, today announced it has set two new world records on 3DMark06 and 3DMark03, using Antec's renowned High Current Pro series HCP-1200 power supply to simultaneously power four high-end intensive graphics cards with a power consumption up to 1700 watts.

The world record scores of 48,096 marks on 3DMark06 with four Radeon HD 5870 graphic cards in 4-way Crossfire, and a 3DMark03 score of 233,433 marks in 4-way SLI-configuration with GeForce GTX 580 cards were achieved by Nick Shih, current world-wide leading overclocker. Both scores represent the unrivaled overclocking capabilities of Antec's HCP-1200 PSU and how the unparalleled performance of Antec's HCP-1200 is engineered to satisfy the needs of PC enthusiasts and overclockers for high-performance, compatibility and stability.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co., Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards and other computing hardware solutions today announced the launch of the world's first motherboard designed from the ground up for extreme overclockers, the GIGABYTE GA-X58A-OC. Its overclocking specific performance design defines a whole new category of enthusiast focused motherboards that introduces never-seen-before tweaking and insulating features.

"The GIGABYTE X58A-OC introduces some really exciting and unique overclocking technologies like the PWM frequency switcher, a full range of onboard hardware OC buttons, onboard SATA power connectors for stable multiple graphics configurations, and DualBIOS switcher that up until now have just been ideas discussed in private OC forums and messages," commented HiCookie, GIGABYTE In-house Overclocking Expert. "Tweaking features aside, we have also adopted high current components such as POScaps and MPFC (Max Power Ferrite Core) Chokes that allow overclockers to bench more reliably and with more power so they are able to smash more world records. As an avid overclocker myself, having the freedom to help design a board specifically for overclockers has been a dream come true, and I really hope that overclockers enjoy benching on this board as much as we enjoyed making it!"

Globally-renowned graphics card and mainboard manufacturer MSI today officially unveils its N500 series of graphics card featuring the award-winning Twin Frozr II Thermal Design. The Twin Frozr II Thermal Design has garnered unanimous praise from professional media and end-users for providing the best balance between cooling performance and lowest sound levels. With the Twin Frozr II cooler, noise output is reduced by up to 8.4dB (when compared to the reference design). More importantly, operating temperatures are reduced by up to 20°C versus other cooling solutions. Thanks to MSI Afterburner, unsurpassed clock speeds can be achieved with the combined features of the excellent Twin Frozr II Thermal Design and MSI's N580GTX and N570GTX GPU.

The Lightning graphics card series from the world-leading graphics card and mainboard manufacturer, MSI, has been receiving unanimous recognition from power users and major media worldwide. The new member of the series, N480GTX Lightning, is tailored for extreme overclocking. By the world's first Power4 architecture to provide sufficient and stable power, the OC potential of the N480GTX Lightning has been significantly increased. With its incredible core clock - 1450MHz, N480GTX Lightning created the new world record of 3DMark Vantage at 39281. Without a doubt, the N480GTX Lightning is, by far, the top graphics card designed for Extreme Overclocking.

Furthermore, the N480GTX Lightning is equipped with a number of the latest MSI-exclusive features, including the Twin Frozr III thermal solution that maintains GPU temperature at 18°C lower than the reference thermal design; the GPU/Memory/PLL triple overvoltage functions by the Afterburner utility and the new-generation Military Class Components. In addition to showing MSI's demand for continuous improvement, these state-of-the-art features bring consumers more powerful OC features beyond their imagination.

MSI, the world's renowned graphics card and motherboard manufacturer, today officially launched the N450GTS Cyclone series of graphics cards, which are equipped with NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 GPU core. With MSI-exclusive Cyclone thermal design and a 9cm PWM fan, not only its airflow enhanced by 50%, but a whopping 17 °C temperature reduction can be achieved when compared the reference design. Using MSI's exclusive overclocking software, Afterburner, users can adjust the GPU voltage and increase the overclocking rate significantly. In addition, all-solid capacitor components are used in this series, which gives users high stability and a long product lifespan. Also supported is the NVIDIA PhysX & 3DVision technology, which offers gamers an all-new visual experience and makes this series of graphics cards from MSI the superior choice for serious gamers who want to get the most value out of their card.

Over the last week, the enthusiast community witnessed high drama as some world-renowned overclockers were disqualified from the MSI Lords of Overclocking online competition for engaging in malpractice. Futuremark noticed that some validation entries from top scoring candidates originated from the same setup, confirmed from consistency in Futuremark product key and PCI devices. Top three position-holders at the LoOC competition admitted to using scores generated by a third person, AndreYang. Hiwa, eXtremetweaker.de, KJ and Skinnee were named as disqualified candidates.

What happened next could come as a surprise to some. Major overclocking communities banned these individuals, some permanently, with enthusiast charts aggregator HWBOT handing out a 1 year ban to each of them (although HWBOT wasn't involved in that competition), and XtremeSystems.org issuing lifetime bans. Even as some question the motives behind Andre sharing scores with four people at the same time, the candidates deny that Andre had any intention to profit from it, other than just helping.

Extreme audio & video performance and intelligent overclocking are among the most critical demands of power users. Globally-renowned mainboard and graphics card manufacturer MSI have unveiled their all-new 890FXA-GD70 and AMD 800 series mainboards. Featuring ultimate stability, easy overclocking and extreme performance, these boards targets advanced users who demand ultimate performance and beyond with overclocking.

The 890FXA-GD70 features AMD's latest SB850 southbridge chipset support and server-grade, Military Class specifications for the ultimate performance platform. Also included is the OC Genie intelligent overclocking utility, designed by MSI especially for the AMD platform. With the Unlock CPU Core function, consumers can enjoy ultimate performance at a reasonable price by taking their tri-core processor and making it into a quad-core. The 890FXA-GD70 also fully supports the latest generation USB 3.0 & SATA 6Gb/s transfer technologies that boost high capacity file transfer speed and quality to future standards. In addition, the environmentally conscious and economical DrMOS design is also included (on select models only) making this mainboard a must buy for the enthusiast.

Gaming has evolved into a leading growth industry and dynamic motivator for the technology sector, as CeBIT 2010 further illustrates. It's a massively popular pastime drawing people, all united through thrilling entertainment. ASUS shares the passion, maintaining a tradition of ingenuity aimed at meeting the needs of gamers both with the hardcore Republic of Gamers brand (ROG) and powerful mainstream solutions. It seeks to innovate and introduce new exciting ways to enjoy gaming, believing it should be natural to take up rather than complicated.

NVIDIA today let loose of GeForce 196.34 beta driver suite. The beta release comes after the recently-released GeForce 196.21 WHQL drivers, and corrects a severe bug which prevents GPU overclocking. It retains the rest of the feature-set of its WHQL predecessor. Being a beta release, its use is unsupported by NVIDIA, though a WHQL-signed version can be expected soon.

The GeForce 196.34 beta driver suite provides system software for NVIDIA GeForce desktop and mobile graphics processors, NVIDIA ION platform, along with Graphics Plus components such as CUDA, PhysX, 3D Vision, etc.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 196.34 BETA

ASRock has updated the BIOS of its H55M Pro socket LGA1156 motherboard to include a "Turbo 100" feature. The feature is designed to run with the entry-level Pentium Dual-Core G6950 processor, which overclocks it from 2.80 GHz to 4.20 GHz, with a turbo ratio of 100%. This, the company claims, provides a significant graphics performance boost (tabled below). The new BIOS can be downloaded from ASRock Forums' Intel section.

The EVGA EVBot is a useful tool for tweakers and overclockers to maximize their system and have fun tweaking their EVGA products. With the ability to adjust on the fly voltages, clock frequencies and much more, the EVGA EVBot unleashes the full potential of your select EVGA motherboards or graphics cards! Optimistic Booster allows EVBot to take over and increase CPU frequency for a short amount of time. (ex. up 4MHz ever 4 seconds, down 3MHz every 3 seconds) This allows you to obtain the highest performance possible for a benchmark run. Simple and straight forward to use, and best of all, no drivers needed! Just plug and play.

AMD's dual-GPU flagship graphics accelerator, the Radeon HD 5970, is closer than you think it is. Slated for 18th Nov, it includes every feature that allows AMD to reclaim the performance leadership it yearned for since the beginning of this year. In a series of company slides sourced from XtremeSystems Forums, it is learned that this could be one of the first accelerators which AMD "openly" markets as having a "Massive Headroom" for overclocking. While the clock speeds on the HD 5970 are lower than those on the single-GPU HD 5870, AMD lifted limits on what the driver-level ATI Overdrive software can offer in terms of clock speeds. While the engine (core) and memory speeds are set at 720/1000 MHz, the unlocked ATI Overdrive lets users take the clock speeds all the way up to 1000/1500 MHz. That's 30% for the core, and a stellar 50% for the memory.

To back such speeds, AMD seems to have splurged heavily on top-notch components on the PCB. To begin with, the PCB holds two high-grade AMD Cypress GPUs, each with all its 1600 stream processors enabled. The GDDR5 memory, while clocked at 1000 MHz or 4 GT/s, is technically rated by its manufacturer to run at 1250 MHz or 5 GT/s. All systems are powered by high-grade digital PWM voltage regulators, with independent Volterra VRM controllers that allow real-time monitoring, and software voltage control. Barring the five-odd cylindrical solid-state capacitors, Japanese pure ceramic surface-mount capacitors are extensively made use of.

Apacer, one of the world's leading brands of memory modules, has announced its brand-new "Giant II DDR3 Overclocking Memory Module series" in response to the global trend of gaming economics, helping fervent gaming players build their ultra-speed gaming PC. Apacer's "Giant II DDR3 Overclocking Memory Module series" inherit the huge heatspreader design of the Giant Series and further adopt the unique "air-fall" vents for quick heat dissipation even at overclocking high temperature, maintaining great operation stability while the player can enjoy the sensational gaming experience.

Apacer's "Giant II DDR3 Overclocking Memory Module Series" selects the best-performing Elpida's 1Gbit, 128x8 particles suited for overclocking, which are screened in the triple channel test environment using the advanced test fixture and programs under diversified parameters of voltage and time sequences. Stricter than other brands' screening standards, the particles are further tested in the high temperature and high pressure environment for 72 hours to wash out unstable ones and ensure best overclocking performance and stability. The much-tested "Giant II DDR3 Overclocking Memory Module Series" has four models: DDR3-1600MHz, 1866MHz, 2000MHz, and DDR3-2133, the most stable and performing model in the market, with two capacity choices: 3GB (1GBx3) and 6GB(2GBx3), to meet the different requirements of professional players who demand ultra game performance.