Überclok Ion: Midrange Overclocking, with a Warranty
by Matt Campbell on February 12, 2008 4:10 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Power
We measure power consumption using a Kill-A-Watt device at the wall outlet. Idle indicates a measurement taken in Windows with no applications running. Max indicates the maximum power draw with the system fully loaded (running Prime95 Blend, Cinebench x-CPU render, and 3DMark06 simultaneously).
Clearly, the 650W power supply still has a large amount of overhead. Estimating at 80% efficiency, at full load the Ion is still only using around 200W. This is good news for both stability and expansion.
Noise
We measure noise with a sound level meter, in this case at a distance of 24". In the Ion, all of the case fans are manually set to Low by switches inside the case. The Tuniq's CPU fan can be individually controlled by a knob on the back panel. Speeds range from 1200 RPM at the "Low" or 0% setting up to 2100 RPM from ~45% - 100%. The owner's binder recommends setting this at just under halfway (45%); however, since the fan maxes out at 2100 RPM at this point, anywhere from halfway to maximum is the same.
These noise levels are quite low, the advantage of having 120mm case fans. With the CPU fan at 1200 RPM, the system is very quiet.
Temperature
As this system uses an NVIDIA motherboard, nTune can read information not only from the GPU, but also from the CPU and case temperature as well. For the maximum CPU temperature, we ran Prime95 and the UT3 Shangri-La benchmark continuously for 1 hour prior to measurement, and the ambient temperature was approximately 20C. However, the maximum GPU temp recorded during this interval (69C) was lower than that observed during the Crysis GPU benchmark, which is a more grueling test for the GPU.
Even overclocked and running at the lowest possible fan setting, the CPU never climbs above 50 degrees. This shows plenty of headroom for a processor upgrade in the future, which is no surprise considering the use of the Tuniq 120.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
38 Comments
View All Comments
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.