THE BEST IN THE
FROZEN BIZ!
H
ere’s a new page for all you
good people. Ever wanted
to know what we think is
the absolute best in the business
for your overclocking rig(s)? Well
we’ve compiled a list which we will
update where appropriate. Things
such as displays, peripherals and
the like are not important here, but
just the basics. Your mainboard,
graphics adapter, memory, storage,
cooling solutions and power
supply. Now there are many other
options available but with just the
components below you should be
ready to bench very well and need
nothing else.
MOTHERBOARD
GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Family:
The Z87-OC was brilliant upon
introduction, never before has
$200 netted you so much in a
motherboard. The Z97X-SOC/Force
is even better, because it has even
more, but costs even less at $190
42 The OverClocker Issue 30 | 2014
USD, it’s mind boggling. Let’s not
forget the numerous records broken
on this motherboard in the last
month or so. As it stands, there just
isn’t a better Z97 motherboard on
the market.
ASUS Rampage IV Black Edition:
Has there ever been a finer or more
impressive motherboard? This is
an obvious one, a simple and easy
choice for us.
GRAPHICS
EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti Classified
K|NGP|N Edition: Yes that’s an
incredibly long name for a graphics
card, but we simply call it the KPC
card. Yes there are others which
can achieve similar clock speeds,
but many of them require things not
available for anyone and everyone to
use (special privileges and the like).
This one you buy it, slap a pot on it,
download the freely available tools
and Bob’s your uncle!
MEMORY
G.SKILL TridentX F3 2666 C11 KIT:
We would have liked to pick out a
particular kit, but the truth is those
fantastic C10 kits are gone (So if you
have them hold on to them) and thus
we are left with dozens of 11-13-1335 kits from several vendors. Pick
your poison and make the most out
of them.
STORAGE
OCZ Vector 150 SSD: It’s incredibly
fast; it’s reliable and is surprisingly
cheap. This one is pretty simple.
WD 4TB FZEX: Another easy
choice to make, if you want magnetic
storage. This is pretty much the
fastest drive you can buy barring the
Velociraptor and Hybrid drives.
COOLING
8ECC Fusion rev 3.1: Rarely
have we seen such, if ever more