Überclok Ion: Midrange Overclocking, with a Warranty
by Matt Campbell on February 12, 2008 4:10 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Build Quality
As advised, our first step before use is to remove the protective shipping foam that prevents the extremely large Tuniq Tower from moving during shipping.
So far, so good. Here are some shots of the interior and exterior.
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For those who haven't seen the Antec Nine Hundred before, it has two 120mm fans in the front, one 120mm fan in the rear, and an enormous 200mm fan that draws air out the top. It even has an additional 120mm mounting location on the windowed side panel. We took a shot of the top fan with some items placed for scale - it really is large. Tastes will differ somewhat on computer cases, but the Antec Nine Hundred is certainly a reasonable option and one we have personally used and recommended.
As seen in the interior shot, attention to cable routing is good, and all unused cables on the modular power supply are removed. The use of all Serial ATA components aids in the clean look, and the system had excellent airflow; system temperatures remained low throughout testing.
Setup and Startup
The Ion comes overclocked to 3.0 GHz out of the box. With the E4500 (2.2GHz stock, 11x multiplier), this means a 273 MHz front side bus (1091 quad-pumped).
They've turned up the core voltage close to the reasonable limit (1.5V), but with the Tuniq and ample airflow this is no problem, and as seen the CPU is sitting at about 33 degrees Celsius at idle.
And what do we find at first boot?
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A totally clean desktop - just My Computer and the Recycle Bin. This is a welcome change, compared to some prebuilt systems that are loaded with junk. How about background processes, another area typically bogged down?
There are just 27 processes (minus Task Manager itself), including iTunes and nTune. This is very good, and about as close to a "clean slate" as you can get. All of the programs listed in the owner's binder come preinstalled, along with typical Windows components. MSN could be removed, but this is a great example overall of giving a clean Windows desktop experience with only a few truly value-added programs. Perhaps the best sign of attention to detail, Überclok holds true to their claim in the binder - the system did indeed have the very latest beta Detonator drivers, 169.28.
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Matt Campbell - Tuesday, February 12, 2008 - link
Apologies if it was confusing, I probably could have worded it better. Suffice it to say that there's plenty of power left over :)7Enigma - Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - link
Not a problem. As I mentioned in my OP, the review was excellent. You guys are just victims of your own high standards, we have little to nit-pick other than wording and occasional typo's! :)HotdogIT - Tuesday, February 12, 2008 - link
If only you guys could take it one step farther, and do like HardOCP did back in the day... love to see you guys review the customer service. That'd be a hoot. A hoot and a half.Then again, it clearly didn't work out too well for Kyle and team...
Syran - Tuesday, February 12, 2008 - link
They used to do Customer Service stuff on AT back in the day on motherboard reviews, and some system builds too. Would definitely like to see that if I'm to think about recommending the possibility of this company to friends; so that I can avoid long-distance support.Uberclok - Tuesday, February 12, 2008 - link
On the subject of long-distance support, I can assure you that we won't ever out-source our phones overseas. We know how quickly an aggravating customer support experience can lose customers for us, so we will always make sure our phone reps:A. know what they're talking about, and
B. can be easily understood.
Also, we C. feed them well - a happy rep is a helpful rep.
- Thomas Glen
Uberclok
(877) 211-4235
crimson117 - Tuesday, February 12, 2008 - link
I think by "long distance support" he meant he could recommend you guys as system builders for his friends, rather than him building and supporting custom systems for his friends. Kind of like how system builders will often recommend Dell or someone else for simple systems, purely so they don't have to support it themselves.But it's nice to know you guys do feed your reps :) Otherwise they start eating each other, and you often lose your best ones to less technically inclined - but hungrier - reps.
CyberHawk - Tuesday, February 12, 2008 - link
What a backround O_oWhere could I get one like that?
caliche - Tuesday, February 12, 2008 - link
That's a wallpaper from the PC game Hellgate London.http://www.hellgatelondon.com/media/wallpaper">http://www.hellgatelondon.com/media/wallpaper
I have not played the game so I can't vouch for it, but it does have some very nice "Techno Gothic" style artwork.