I was able to get it to 3.5GHz at all standard voltages. That a 30% improvement over the 2.66GHz stock speed.  The RAM is slightly overclocked to 1403MHz.

I've run Prime95 on it for hours with no problems.  It's completely stable. 

We're writing the first lesson in the series and it's coming along nicely. 

My next overclocking attempt will be to get it to run stably at 3.7GHz by raising a few of the voltages.  It did try 3.6 and 3.7GHz at the stock voltages, but the system rebooted after running Prime95 for a few minutes.  

Here's a few reviews.

Guru3D 5970 Review

Bit-tech 5970 Review

Techspot 5970 Review

No news on an actual release date, but it is sure to be by the end of the year.

Cleaning your Computer Inside and Out

We were about to start working on the Core i7 overclocking videos and noticed our Core i7 system was covered in dust inside and out.  Several questions have been asked about cleaning a computer over the years so it was the perfect time to make a video on the subject.  This video will be online only and will not appear on a DVD.  The same goes for the overclocking videos we will be making over the next few months.  Maybe if we get a bunch of new videos together we can make a DVD of them but plan on getting them online only for the near future.

With the cleaning video done we are now hard at work on the Core i7 overclocking videos.  They should be available by the end of the month.

I'm taking the wife and kids up to my parents house in Belton.  We will be eating turkey, honey ham, mashed potatoes, green bean bake, sweet corn, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, and home made bread.  Michelle and I were up until 3AM last night baking the bread.  We made two loafs and one is almost gone.  I saved the prettier one for taking to Grandmas.  It's got a great crust so Grandpa will love it.

Hopefully I can manage to watch some football today, though I doubt I will have the time.

I hope you all have a great day. Gobble Gobble.

Michael Cooper

The site was moved from 32bit to 64 bit hardware and seems to be running a little faster.  Does anyone else think the site loads faster or is it just me?

Tom's Hardware has a roundup of 7 sub $200 x58 motherboards.  This is $100 less than most higher end x58 boards.  If you're on a tight budget you might want to take a look at this.  By giving up a few features, you don't care about anyway, you could save some cash.

Tom's Hardware x58 motherboard round up

Guru3d.com has a great write up on the 5770, ATI's new low to mid-range video cards.

Radeon HD 5770 Review at Guru3d.com

The 5770 has similar specs to the previous generations high end card, the 4890.  The one down fall of the 5770 is it's 128 memory interface.  The 4890 has a 256 bit memory interface. The 128 bit memory interface makes the cards performance closer to a 4850 from the last generation. 

On the up side the 5770 supports the new DirectX 11 for Vista and Windows 7.  Page 4 of Guru3d's review has more info about DirectX 11.

The 5770 at around $160 is a solid choice for casual gamers.

It's been awhile, but it looks as if Microsoft has released an OS they can be proud of.  If you are still running XP I would say upgrade, as long as you have enough memory.  A minimum of 2GB for Windows 7 to run well, more RAM is better. If you're running Vista, absolutely upgrade.

The next consideration is which version to get.  Home Premium, Pro or Ultimate and 32bit or 64bit?

I would go with Home Premium.  You should take a look at the side by side comparisons of the flavors to see if Pro or Ultimate have something you absolutely need, but Home Premium is very feature rich.

On the 32bit vs 64bit front I would recommend 64bit for everyone with a 64bit capable processor (CPUs made in the last 3 years).  There are some remaining driver and program incompatibilities, but most have been fixed.  Go through your list of the hardware you run and make sure there are 64 bit drivers available for your components from the manufacturer.  Microsoft has a Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor that you can run that will tell you if there are any potential driver and software incompatibilities.

Buy the Full OEM Version of Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit at Newegg.com $109.99

This is the OEM version which means you won't receive any official, phone, chat or email support from Microsoft.  If you think you need the support, you can get the Retail Box full version here for $199.99, or if you have Windows Vista you can get the Retail Box upgrade version here for $119.99.

Since you're reading this you have either already built your own PC, or are about to build a computer, so you probably don't need support from Microsoft.

With the Core i5 CPUs and motherboards now on the market I thought I would link to two reviews of the most popular boards.  Both cost around $200.

Asus P7P55D EVO P55 motherboard review at Overclock3d.net

EVGA P55 FTW SLI motherboard review at Firingsquad.com

The motherboards have very similar features and specs.  The main difference is the EVGA board supports SLI and the Asus board supports both SLI and Crossfire.  

The most impressive thing I read in the two reviews is that the guys at Overclock.net were able to get a Core i5 2.66GHz CPU to overclock all the way up to 4.2GHz.  That is crazy!  It's a 4 core CPU, overclocked to that speed and it's only $200.  At that speed it might not be rock solid stable, but if you backed the overclock off to 4GHz to make it run stably it would still be incredibly fast for the money.

Last week I posted a notice about ATI's latest graphics cards, the 5850 and 5870.  These cards are selling out everywhere.  Newegg.com doesn't have any in stock as of this writing.  Here's some other places to buy that currently, as of this writing do have some cards.  The availability will continue to fluctuate, but with this list you should be able to find the card you want when you decide to buy.

http://search.zipzoomfly.com/search.aspx?Key=5850

http://search.zipzoomfly.com/search.aspx?Key=5870

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?keywords=5850&searchbtn.x=0&searchbtn.y=0

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?keywords=5870&searchbtn.x=0&searchbtn.y=0

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/deepsearch_v3.asp?scriteria=5850&ALL=y&TP=

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/deepsearch_v3.asp?scriteria=5870&ALL=y&TP=

http://www.pricewatch.com/search?q=5850&start=0&cn=Video+Cards

http://www.pricewatch.com/search?q=5870&start=0&cn=Video+Cards