ASUS Republic of Gamers

Dear Esther, It’s Great Being A PC Gamer

Suds McSoapdish — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:37:30 +0000

Yes, just thought I’d share that with Esther. Who’s Esther? Well, she seems to be the love interest of the protagonist we find in new indie release Dear Esther. I say seems because there’s nothing really that clear about this game, including its very definition as a game. It’s like an interesting cross between the old Myst titles, Amnesia: Dark Descent, the coastal sections of Half-Life 2, and those dark levels from PS3 game Flower. Having said that, Dear Esther is right now a very firm PC exclusive, and looks destined to stay that way. [caption id="attachment_8258" align="aligncenter" width="595" caption="Come to the island where the grass literally FEELS downtrodden!"][/caption] Basically nothing happens in Dear Esther, it’s all just one big walkabout in some of the most gorgeous environs you’ve ever seen on a PC. There are no real controls except for directional keys, you just walk, and can somewhat zoom the view for a slightly closer look at things. And that’s it. There are no bad guys, no cover mechanics, nothing. Just walking and listening to incredible voice overs done by Nigel Carrington. These present deliciously surreal and confounding exposition, and I loved every line. [caption id="attachment_8259" align="aligncenter" width="595" caption="Just another sunset at the Isle of Depressed Man"][/caption] Dear Esther takes place on a very bleak island, probably somewhere off the coast of Wales or Scotland. The narrator (and there may be more than one, actually, cause sometimes the guy doesn’t quite sound like himself) comes up with very detailed but wacky stories involving apparently random characters, and these snippets may vary depending on how you trek across the landscape. Arriving at certain points triggers specific lines, and by the end of the experience you won’t really know much more about this world than you did before even installing the game. However, if this makes it sound like I’m being cynical, think again. Dear Esther is simply mesmerizing. [caption id="attachment_8260" align="aligncenter" width="595" caption="What will really bake your noodle is wondering who left all these candles"][/caption] First of all, the storytelling and language are beyond rich, even if they don’t always make the most sense. Actually, they never really make any sense. Then you have the graphics, which are incredible. Granted this is a largely static world with almost nothing to render save for scenery, but you’d be forgiven for thinking the aged Source engine just went DX11 on you. For something that started as a low-tech demo five years ago Dear Esther sure looks amazing. [caption id="attachment_8261" align="aligncenter" width="595" caption="So beautiful. Now think of this scene with a HOLO sighted SCAR in the middle"][/caption] It’s also proof positive that you don’t need fancy decision moments or morality trees to get a jaded gamer to shed a small tear. As Dear Esther wrapped up, I was weepy, and not because there was no XP to gain. The ending sequence is spectacular in its bizarre simplicity, with proceedings definitely helped along by the remarkable soundtrack, done by Jessica Curry. [caption id="attachment_8262" align="aligncenter" width="595" caption="There are clues as to the "real" meaning of the story all over the place"][/caption] If you like your gaming Skyrim-long then this may be a tad disappointing. My Steam clock showed me at 86 minutes played when I finished Dear Esther, so it’s essentially like one level in a big AAA release. But it’s worth every second and every penny of the $10 admission. [caption id="attachment_8263" align="aligncenter" width="595" caption="I personally know people who will pay good money to have this beauty on their wall"][/caption] Developers thechineseroom and ex-DICE member Robert Briscoe have done good, big time, and have been rewarded, seeing as news came in that Dear Esther moved 16,000 copies and became technically profitable within six hours of going on sale. [caption id="attachment_8264" align="aligncenter" width="595" caption="Best caves in a game ever"][/caption] Get your copy on Steam now! Meanwhile, I shall resume my bout of emotionally-charged, tender and introspective gaming by playing The Darkness II. That is all. And of course thanks to Steam for the awesome screenshot feature!

Another Extreme Build: Maximus IV Extreme, GeForce GTX 580 SLI & Oodles of Watercooling

Colonelsoh — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Hello! A couple of days back we featured an exceptionally beastly watercooled QuadFire HD 7970 Rampage IV Extreme PC and now we are back on the look out for any awesome watercooling set-up using ROG products... and we found another one! Hiding well within VR-Zone project logs forum, we found this sexy looking watercooling set up running off Maximus IV Extreme, GeForce GTX580 SLI and an Intel Core i7 2600K @ 4.6Ghz. After much preparation, VR-Zone member K-Dash decided to transform his humble air cooled rig into this: This is seriously one sexy looking rig! But before embarking on his first ever watercooling set-up, he drafted out not one but four blue print sketches for this project. One of the blue prints: Want more? Just head on over to the whole thread at VR-Zone to check out his full complete log.

Win Stuff! ROG Nordic Facebook Competition

MarshallR — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 08:00:10 +0000

In addition to running top tier tournaments, ROG Nordic is also running a competition us regular folks can win at on its Facebook page: Win Tasty ASUS ROG Hardware – Another Facebook Competition We know how much everyone likes Facebook competitions and now ASUS ROG Tournament has its very own. To give you some really nice incentive this is what we have on the prize table:

1st ROG MATRIX GTX 580 (GeForce GTX 580) graphics card
2nd ROG Rampage IV Formula motherboard
3rd GeForce GTX 560 OC DirectCU II graphics card
4th ROG Vulcan ANC headset

To enter the competition simply like us and enter your e-mail address (so we can get in touch with you). Head on over to the competition at the following URL; http://www.facebook.com/rognordic

Max Payne 3 Trailer: Max Is Back

MarshallR — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:00:38 +0000

He's taken a few years off and now he's ended up in São Paulo. Max is back and despite lacking much of the Film Noir.. and hair, he's still bullet timing his way through buildings full of bad guys. Max Payne 3 is due later this year on PC, and this is one of the official trailers:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kZDpHGSTJI[/video]

Are you excited by a new twist of Payne? Let us know in the forums.

ROG Nordic StarCraft 2 Tournament At ASSEMBLY Winter 2012

MarshallR — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:22:33 +0000

ROG Nordic are at ASSEMBLY Winter 2012 from 24-25 February (this weekend!) hosting their usual StarCraft 2 Tournament, in association with Nvidia. With This event is a big one for StarCraft fans with top worldwide players attending, so if you can get there - do so early to get a good space! [video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDmyhCRlDEE[/video] The full details are over at Team Liquid, but here's a quick run-down of the events: "A reminder of the format: all group matches are best-of-3. Two players will advance from each group to the playoffs where matches are best-of-3 until the semi-finals which are best-of-5, and the final which is a best-of-7 match. Prize pool The 20 000 $ prize pool will be divided for the top four contestants:

10,000 $
6,000 $
3,000 $
1,000 $"

Give us or ROG Nordics a shout if you're going and remember to share your pic on our ROG Facebook page or ROG Gaming Forums.

Overclocking The Core i5 2500K With Maximus IV GENE-Z To An Easy 4.4GHz

Dagmar — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:50:38 +0000

Following our recent BIOS guide for the Maximus IV GENE-Z, here's exactly how you can reach an easy 4.4GHz with the popular Intel Core i5-2500K processor. This guide is applicable to other ASUS P67 and Z68 motherboards, including the Sabertooth P67, the Maximus IV Extreme and Extreme-Z as well.

Disclaimer

As this is a basic guide for new and novice overclockers, so there are some basic factors that we need to take into account before we begin any kind of overclocking. The most important one is to understand that by overclocking your CPU you are voiding its warranty, and therefore you overclock entirely at your own risk. The fact that Intel and ASUS manufacture products with the capacity to overclock is irrelevant as overclocking is an option that the end user undertakes at their own risk. Realistically though, under low-to-moderate voltage increases and with proper cooling should be just fine!

Hardware Check List

Successful overclocking requires more than just turning up the MHz. Firstly let us check you have right hardware to support it.

Unlocked Intel K Series

The K series of Intel processors includes the Core i5-2500K, i7-2600K and the i7-2700K; all of which have an unlocked multiplier that enables overclocking. Sandy Bridge differs from past Intel products in that the multiplier is now the main means of achieving higher overclocks, with limited gains to be had from increasing base clock. This makes overclocking simpler for new users. In this article we'll be focusing on the cheapest 4 core/4 thread, Core i5-2500K.

Motherboard

Since you're here at ROG I expect you already know ROG motherboards are specifically designed to handle overclocking, with upgraded components specifically for it.

Cooling

Make sure your cooling solution is up to the task. The stock Intel cooler will function just fine at the factory default settings as specified by Intel. That includes the turbo mode which is a built in feature of the Intel Sandy Bridge CPU. This basic guide is directed at the users who will have a suitable aftermarket cooler for the processor that is up to the task of keeping the cooler within safe temperature ranges at 4.4GHz and higher. It is important to constantly monitor your processors temperatures during the entire process of determining your stable overclock. Temperature should always be the defining limit to what your optimal overclock is. So don’t decide before you start what your overclock will be, yes have a target in mind, but be realistic you are not going to achieve a 5GHz overclock in a country with an ambient of 45’C using a cooler that is not much better than the standard Intel cooler. You will however be able to quite comfortable achieve 4GHz with the stock Intel cooler. [gallery include="8046,8047,8051" size="medium" link="file" template="file-gallery"]

Power Supply Unit

It is important to have a PSU that is of a suitable quality and rating. Most folks will spend money quite happily on a CPU, Graphic Card and Memory but skimp when it comes to paying for a PSU. Not all PSU’s are created equal. So do some research and when in doubt buy a reputable branded PSU product. It is worth the little extra in the long run.

Memory

Sandy Bridge used dual channel DDR3 ram. When ordering your ram ensure that the ram that you are thinking of purchasing is suitable for your motherboard. That being said most DDR3 ram kits that are sold currently will work just fine on the ASUS boards. There are of course exceptions to every rule.

Basic Terms To Understand

BCLK – Base clock or Bus clock. They are both correct and the Sandy Bridge platform runs at 100Mhz default. Increasing the BCLK will increase the CPU frequency and the DDR3 ram frequency.

Multiplier – As Sandy Bridge is different from what has gone before, in that we use the multiplier of the processor to increase the frequency of the processor when the processor is unlocked. How it works is the multiplier is multiplied by the value of the BCLK to determine the CPU frequency. There for a multiple of 40 times the stock BCLK of 100MHz will result in a overclock of 4Ghz.

Dividers – the only dividers worth talking about on the Sandy Bridge platform are those for the ram. There are a number of options which will allow us to set the frequency of the ram independently of the processors frequency. These dividers range from a outcome of 1033Mhz right up to 2133MHz.

IMC - This stands for Integrated Memory Controller. The Sandy Bridge processor has the memory controller on die, in other words the IMC is incorporated in the processor. Vcore – On ASUS motherboards this is called CPU Voltage.

UEFI BIOS – Unified Extensible Firmware Interface Basic In/Out System. This is the place we will be doing most of our overclocking from. POST – Power-On Self Test, this is the automated checks going on right after you turn on your PC and before you boot into OS. Only here can you get into the UEFI BIOS.

ASUS Z9PE-D8 WS: Dual Socket LGA2011 With A Dash Of Overclocking

MarshallR — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 11:12:00 +0000

VR Zone has reported on the upcoming dual-socket LGA2011 workstation board, the Z9PE-D8 WS, as not just the usual high-end work-chomping beast with seven PCIe 16x slots and up to 32 thread processing, but the UEFI BIOS even sneaks in support for (non-ECC DIMM) memory overclocking and CPU multiplier adjustments up to 50x. That is, providing Intel launches an unlocked Xeon for overclockers to play with.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="595" caption="Image courtesy of VR-Zone"][/caption]

"There are a myriad of options. First, you can change the CPU multiplier all the way to beyond 50, if the CPU supports it - this one didn't, as expected, since all C-stepping Xeon E5 for now have locked multipliers.

Then, you can change the CPU, chipset, QPI, PCIe and memory voltages; force memory to run at higher speeds like 1866 and 2133MHz, and change primary and secondary memory latency timings, with over a dozen settings to control. The latter one worked very well, as I managed to push various kinds of memory well above their designated speeds, and get corresponding bandwidth increases. How does eight channels of memory at DDR3-1600 CL 6-6-6-16 sound, yet at CR1 command rate?"

For those who must have the most of everything, read the full report at VR-Zone.

Quad Damage: Exceptional Watercooled QuadFire HD 7970 Rampage IV Extreme PC

MarshallR — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:44:17 +0000

Buried in the depths of [H]ardForum we found this awesome build and felt compelled to share. HardForum member Eclypse built this beast containing, QuadFire HD 7970 3GB with EK waterblocks, Rampage IV Extreme with an Intel Core i7-3960X @ 5GHz and lots and lots of very neat BitsPower watercooling (it's worth seeing for that alone). Oh and not one but two Ultra X4 1600 watt PSUs!

Here's a taster below, but be sure to check out the whole thread over at [H]ardOCP.

Syndicate Game Trailer

MarshallR — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:23:56 +0000

Based on the original 90s game (somewhat) and if you enjoyed last year's Deus Ex, then Syndicate should right up your street. It's out next week on PC, so if you've finished Skyrim and need something to fill the gap before Mass Effect 3 arrives, have a look at the launch trailer below.

Set in 2069, Syndicate takes players into a dark world where corporations are vying for market dominance. With no government to question their intentions or actions, the three mega corporations -- Eurocorp, Cayman Global, and Aspari -- are at the forefront and Business is War.

Taking on the role of Miles Kilo, Eurocorp's latest prototype agent, gamers have the latest bio-chip technology implanted in their head. Through this technology, known as the DART 6 chip, gamers can dilate time, see through walls, and breach the digital world and your enemies by using a variety of upgradable hacking mechanics. Syndicate blends fast-paced action and innovative chip breach gameplay to deliver a unique and brutal sci-fi shooter experience.

Take part in this thrilling sci-fi shooter experience solo in Campaign mode or go online and join a group of 4 players in Co-op starting February 21st 2012 on X360, PS3, and PC. Download the featured Nero track at: http://on.fb.me/pbjl2F

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v_ZpfZBAiw[/video]

Mass Effect 3 Performance Test with ASUS Radeon HD 7970 DirectCU II

MarshallR — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:00:54 +0000

JJ in ASUS ROG North America has put together a video showing Mass Effect 3 performance, using the recently released multiplayer demo on a PC fitted with the latest ASUS Radeon HD 7970 Direct CU II, a Rampage IV Extreme with Core i7-3930K, Corsair DDR3 and CPU cooler and the as-yet-to-be-released VA 278Q, 2560x1440 QHD High Definition LCD panel.

Watch below to see the latest tech in action:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkhASCfkAf0[/video]