The Z77H2-AX Motherboard from ECS has gold accents all over the place, comes with a clean design and the offered hardware bundle should be enough for most users; regarding the software which ships with it, most is in trial version mode and we would have preferred to see more which could have added value to the product like THX TruStudio Pro. The UEFI interface can be used with ease, except the RAM section, which is more difficult to use compared to the one found on ASRock motherboards. read more

On the 5th of May, Tones joined forces with ASUS again, and invited the Madshrimps crew to assist the fourth edition of Overclock Academy. This time no trip into the dark woods of Netherlands, but a return to the roots of the first two Academy editions. Keep it small, cozy and limit the amount of invites to a minimum. Thus maximizing the teaching process and maybe doubling the fun. This event had to be rapidly organized. Aim was to keep it as close as possible to the launch date of Intel's Ivy Bridge processors (29th of April). Time to head off to Heist on the Hill (free English translation of Heist op den Berg) for another day overclocking fun. read more

On the 2nd of May, Madshrimps was invited to attend a small event where Kingston wanted to show their HyperX product line. Due to the fact an overclocking demo was announced, made us very eager to go. Kingston's own Jean Baptiste aka Marmott, renown amongst the memory overclockers, was there to provide the present press and invitees a demonstration of his knowledge and skills. Time to hit the road, pack the camera and our filled LN2 dewar. read more

The Multi-View + Sound Adapter from HIS is a device suited for the USB 3.0 bus, meant to connect an additional monitor to our system, on the HDMI interface; the product does not need extra power and functions with the help of the DisplayLink technology. The manufacturer also mentions that we can connect up to 6 displays to a single system, each with its own adapter. read more

Even though main focus is lately on Ivy Bridge, let's not forget about Intel's High End range based on the X79 chipset. One of the main drawbacks of Socket 2011 is the total platform cost. Besides the quad core i7-3820, the hexacores versions cost a pretty penny. On top of that, most of the X79 mainstream boards are far from cheap. Prices of 250 euros and more are pretty common. Luckily for us Gigabyte and ASRock have got 'let's call them a more" budget friendly motherboard in their X79 lineup. Gigabyte's type numbering has always been kept pretty simple. Today's UD3 board is the entry board for their limited socket 2011 series. Limited, because Gigabyte only has got 3 boards… read more