Just like the original Mach 2 there is a software control center for the unit, E.C.T. ships their version with the unit, you can also download it here.




When you have the money to buy a €699 CPU then shelling out a bit more for the ideal cooling solution won’t be too exaggerated (hell, you are already paying the price of a complete budget system, just for the CPU). What better way is there to stress test your overclocked system then to run some games on it?

In our last 3ghz Athlon overclocking endeavor we used an Athlon FX-53 which also comes clock at 2.4Ghz by default. We paired it up with an ATI X800XT Platinum, but in the end it turned out that the 3ghz A64 was too powerful for the video card and the whole system was GPU limited.



This time around we have access to a wonderful new technology called SLI (or Crossfire for the ATI fans out there). So in go the nVidia 6800GT’s and let’s see if they cope with 3000+Mhz of A64 power!

The tests at 2400 and 3120Mhz are done with nVidia’s 71.89 driver. The Core of the 6800GT’s was set to 385Mhz, the memory to 1060Mhz. All settings were kept to default, no BIOS tweaks, no OS tweaks, and all “stock” runs… software wise.

The “max overclock” setting is obtained after spending a few afternoons finding the best BIOS settings and memory tweaks, let’s hope it pays off.

We begin with the well known Futuremark 3DMark series:





Comparison links for the highest scores “Maximum Overclock”: 3DMark2001SE / 3DMark03 / 3DMark05

Some Aquamark action next


Online Comparison link

And finally we did manage to sneek in an actual game benchmark ;-) -> FarCry




Conclusive thoughts

As you can see from the results obtained, the ECT Mach II GT is the most powerful retail cooling solution available for your CPU. The only time that 4000+ saw higher clock speeds was under Dry Ice which does not last very long.

With the ECT GT you can keep on gaming at blindly fast speeds, removing the CPU as a possible bottleneck of your system. Do remember that to enjoy the best gaming experience out there you need to invest heavily into your graphic card(s).

There is only one word with sums up the entire unit and that’s: COOL

If you want to give the GT a spin and looking for a place to buy, read on:

Living in Western Europe?

OC-Shop
Xtreme Computer Systems

Living in other parts of the world?

ECT’s Reseller list



This article was not possible without the help of some great sponsors and friends

KLavs from

Provided: The Mach II GT

Cindy from

Provided: G.Skill DDR600 Memory

and

Mafalda from

Provided: Antec TruePower 2.0 550 watt

And now the all important verdict of my daughter Emma:

On the scale of: retarded - normal - special - insane – mad

What was her vote?



MAD it is !

Thank you dear

Questions/Comments: forum thread