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Corsair Weekly Review Round-Up — Force Series Galore Edition

By CORSAIR Technical Marketing, July 15, 2011

Hot Heaven, Force Series™ GT SSD Review in a SSD Round-Up— "For all out performance, the Corsair Force GT offers a good balance; its cost per GB is lower than the OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS drive despite offering similar performance." The SSD Review, Force Series™ 3 SSD Review — "Considering that the Corsair Force Series 3 120GB SSD is a top performer, we did a bit of background on the value and found it to be the lowest price new generation ‘SandForce Driven SATA 3 SSD available at the time of print for $194.99. Given the performance and price of the Force 3, it is certainly deserving of our Editors Choice Award!" /corsairmedia/sys_master/productcontent/blog_corsair-weekly-review-round-up-force-series-galore-edition-Content-3.pngTweakTown, Force Series™ 3 SSD Review — "So much emphasis is placed on big numbers that look good on spread sheets and specification charts while so little placed on what really counts. The Corsair Force 3 is all about giving you the feel of instant action when double clicking and giving it at a price point that's affordable." /corsairmedia/sys_master/productcontent/blog_corsair-weekly-review-round-up-force-series-galore-edition-Content-4.pngHardware Heaven, Hydro Series™ H80 CPU Cooler Review — "In terms of current performance the H80 scores well, outperforming a high quality air cooler in every test and also beating the Antec 920 by a degree or two throughout. On the whole it also tends to run a touch quieter at idle and full load." /corsairmedia/sys_master/productcontent/blog_corsair-weekly-review-round-up-force-series-galore-edition-Content-5.pngKit Guru, Obsidian Series® Mid-Tower Case Review in a SSD Round-Up — "Even though the Obsidian 650D is essentially a smaller version of the top-end 800D case, we think it is a very impressive case in its own right. It offers everything we look for in a case at this price point. We can't think of a case that we've reviewed that has a better internal design than the Obsidian 650D, except perhaps the Graphite 600T which is virtually identical inside. All of the cable routing holes are exactly where they need to be and are filled with high quality rubber grommets that aren't going to fall out after poking a cable through." Hardware Canucks, Special Edition White Graphite Series™ 600T Mid-Tower Case Video Review:
MacBook Pro Memory Upgrade

By CORSAIR Technical Marketing, July 14, 2011

This blog is going to show you how easy it is to upgrade your Apple® MacBook® Pro to 8GB of memory. The total time to upgrade your MacBook’s memory is under 10 minutes. I used a MacBook Pro 17-inch mid-2010 model, and upgraded it from its current 4GB kit to a Corsair 8GB Mac Memory kit. To upgrade your MacBook's memory you will need a Phillips #00 screwdriver as the screws are very tiny. Start off by unplugging your MacBook Pro from the power source and anything else it may be connected to. Then place it upside down on a surface that will not scratch the lid of the laptop. Now carefully remove the ten Phillips head screws circled in red. It is important that you keep track of where each screw goes, as there are three different lengths of screws. Below you can see I laid out each screw according to the hole that it belongs in. Once all the screws have been carefully removed you can now remove the bottom cover. The cover will come off fairly easily. You can use your finger nail to get under the cover and lift up in an even manner. You should not use a screw driver to pry the cover off as you will scratch or damage the laptop. Now that the cover is off you can set it aside. Before touching any of the internals of the laptop you should touch the metal exterior of the laptop to ground yourself. The area circled in red would be a good area to ground yourself. As you can see this MacBook has already been upgraded with a Corsair Force Series™ SSD however the memory has not been upgraded. The memory modules are located near the center of the laptop. To remove the first module, gently push the levers circled in red outwards. The memory module should then pop up at an angle. Gently grab the sides of the module (circled in red). You can now remove the module from the slot by pulling the module towards you. Do not try to lift the memory upwards as that may cause damage to the slot and the memory. Now that the first module has been taken out you can remove the second module following the same procedure. Note that the levers for the second module may be hard to see, as the first set of levers are directly above them. After both of the old modules are out of the machine, line the notch (circled in red below) in the new module up with the memory slot. To insert the new module you will need to slightly angle the module similar to when you released the levers. Once the module is inserted into the slot gently push down on the module to lock it in place. Finally repeat the same process to put the second module in the top memory slot. Now you can place the cover over the bottom of the MacBook and tighten all of the screws down. Finally check that all of the memory is being seen by going to “About this Mac”. If it looks like the image on the right below, congratulations! You have successfully upgraded your MacBook's memory.

Corsair Weekly Review Round-Up — Shorter and Sweeter Edition

By CORSAIR Technical Marketing, July 8, 2011

/corsairmedia/sys_master/productcontent/blog_corsair-weekly-review-round-up-shorter-and-sweeter-edition-Content-1.pngHardware Heaven, Force Series™ GT SSD Review — Overall 10 out of 10 score — "Speaking of speed, the Force GT continues to score well in that regard. Throughout the review it was able to outperform a higher capacity Intel model based on the latest Marvell controller." LanOC, Gaming Audio Series™ SP2500 Speakers Review — 10 out of 10, and an "Editor's Choice" award — "My experience with the SP2500 was amazing. High’s, mid's and low's were all equally impressive. My only complaint from a gamers perspective was the lack of a 5.1 option for better directionality, but even for a 2.1 system in-game performance was wonderful." /corsairmedia/sys_master/productcontent/blog_corsair-weekly-review-round-up-shorter-and-sweeter-edition-Content-3.png.pagespeed.ic.W26J2SNReM.pngTweakTown, Builder Series™ CX430 V2 PSU Review — "Sometimes it is refreshing to sit back and take a look at non-enthusiast grade hardware. It is simplistic, does exactly what it is meant to do, and is cheap. The CX430V2 is does just that and nothing more. It provides plenty of power, within specifications, for low end systems. It does it without a ton of cables getting in the way or extra connectors that you'll never use. Best of all, it does it at a great price."
ASUS Republic of Gamers Formula X Overclocking Event

By CORSAIR Technical Marketing, July 7, 2011

This past weekend ASUS® held the ASUS Republic of Gamers Formula X event at Fry’s Electronics in Sunnyvale, CA. They invited 20 of the top overclockers from the United States, to overclock live in the parking lot. ASUS provided 2300 liters of liquid nitrogen, and tons of hardware to break world records with! This event was unlike most overclocking events, because it was a freestyle event. The overclockers were able to run any benchmark they wanted. That’s a lot of liquid nitrogen!! Extreme overclocker Gautam Bhatnagar decided to go for the 3DMark05 world record. To take the world record he used 4 ATI Radeon™ HD 5870 graphics cards on an ASUS Rampage III Extreme Black Edition. For the processor he used an Intel® Core™ i7-990X Processor Extreme Edition overclocked on liquid nitrogen to 6.68GHz. He ended up with 3DMark05 score of 60991 3DMarks. More information on his result can be found here. Gautam and several other overclockers anxiously waiting for the score Not to be outdone by close friend and team mate Gautam, overclocker Brian Yuhas decided to bring out some older hardware. He set a new world record for fastest processor. He took his Celeron 356 and overclocked it to 8213.3MHz! He edged out the previous world record holder by 3.3MHz. More about his score can be seen here. Here you can see Brian’s 8.2GHz machine being powered by a Corsair Professional Series™ Gold AX1200 PSU. Charles “Fugger” Wirth the owner of popular overclocking site XtremeSystems was overclocking his Intel 2600K’s integrated GPU. He was able to overclock it to 2000MHz in order to take the highest score for integrated GPU in the Aquamark 3 benchmark. He used a set of Dominator® GT memory modules which gave him the needed performance boost to take first place. To see more on his score click here. Fugger overclocking the Sandy Bridge integrated graphics Along with the overclockers the sponsors of the event had booths setup to show off their products. Corsair was showing off the Graphite Series™ 600T mid-tower case, AX1200 PSU, Hydro Series™ H100 CPU Cooler, and Dominator DDR3 Memory. Below Jason was showing of the features of the Special Edition White Graphite Series 600T. The weekend was a blast for everybody involved! Tons of Fry’s customers checked out the overclocking action and the sponsor booths. In terms of overclocking it was a very successful event with two World Records broken and a total of fifteen top 10 scores. Thanks to Brian at ASUS and the rest of the ASUS crew for putting on this very fun, exciting and successful event. For more pictures and overclocking results from the event check out the ASUS ROG Forums here. Now retired overclocker Brian “Chew*” McLachlan overclocking an AMD setup with dual AX1200’s and dual Force Series™ SSDs.

Corsair Force Series 3 SSD RAID 0 Performance Results

By CORSAIR Technical Marketing, July 6, 2011

What could possibly be better than a Corsair Force Series™ 3 SSD? How about two of them in a RAID 0 stripe! We recently published some benchmark results using a single Corsair Force Series™ 3 SSD When used with a capable SATA 3 6Gb/s controller, the results were nothing short of awesome with just a single Force Series 120GB drive: Force Series 3 — 120GB ATTO Result Force Series 3 120GB — PCMark® Vantage HD Suite Score Being the performance junkie that I am, I could not help but wonder how two of these monsters would perform in a RAID 0. So, I attached two of them to the SATA 6Gb/s headers on the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme Z, Z68 chipset based motherboard I am using for an upcoming project. This is just a small example of the performance I was able to extract from this combination: Force Series 3 120GB x2 in RAID 0 — ATTO Result Force Series 3 120GB x 2 in RAID 0 — PCMark Vantage HD Suite Score RAID 0 is a great option for those desiring even more performance than a single drive can provide. Stay tuned for more Corsair Force Series SSD action to come. We're just getting warmed up here.
Corsair Weekly Review Round-Up — Back and Better Than Ever Edition

By CORSAIR Technical Marketing, July 1, 2011

/corsairmedia/sys_master/productcontent/blog_corsair-weekly-review-round-up-back-and-better-than-ever-edition-Content-1.png.pngVR Zone, Professional Series™ HX1050 PSU Review — "The HX1050 displayed very high and also exceptionally stable electrical efficiency, peaking at 91.4% under nominal load and sustaining it at over 90% across most of the unit’s load range. This power supply could easily earn an 80Plus Gold certification, which leads us to believe that Corsair purposely avoided it to keep it from giving their AX series any internal competition." Legit Reviews, Professional Series HX1050 PSU Review — "Corsair's HX1050 addresses the users that can not afford the high price of the mighty AX1200 or simply don't need 1200W of power. The successor of the legendary HX1000W uses a completely different platform, which grants it almost Gold efficiency levels and ultra low ripple on all rails." /corsairmedia/sys_master/productcontent/blog_corsair-weekly-review-round-up-back-and-better-than-ever-edition-Content-3.pngKitGuru, Builder Series™ CX430 V2 PSU Review — "Not everyone can afford, or needs a 80 Plus Gold Certified 1000W power supply, and if you are in the market for a general, low cost power supply for a media center, office machine or entry level gaming rig then this should certainly be top of your shortlist. We are still quite shocked how good the test results are. This unit will last a long time, and Corsair clearly have the same feeling as they are confident in offering an extended three year warranty." LanOC, Special Edition White Graphite Series ™ 600T Mid-Tower Case Review — "Corsair hit a grand slam with their 800D, showing the entire market that there is still room for improvement in the case industry. With their first mid tower case they have taken those same features and packed them into a smaller chassis. This time to keep the price reasonable they used a lot more plastic. This would normally be a downside for most, but I think they did a great job with the design. The white color really makes this a looker." Techgage, Gaming Audio Series™ HS1 Review — " If you have a dedicated audio card, but don't want to bust the bank on premium headphones, these are an excellent choice. If you have an integrated audio card such as a Realtek HD solution, then go with the USB based HS1. In either case, Corsair's headsets are a fine choice and easily worth our Editor's Choice." blog_corsair-weekly-review-round-up-back-and-better-than-ever-edition-Content-8.php?image=10996Guru3D, Force Series™ 3 SSD Review — "The Force 3 series SSD is again a product that will offer tremendous performance for hopefully an acceptable amount of money. Comparing apples to apples, the Agility 3 and Force 3 are neck on neck with each other. Overall IOPS performance is where they rock alright." Hexus, Force Series™ 3 SSD Review Review — "Corsair's 120GB Force Series 3 is one of the quickest SSDs available for under £170. Armed with a cutting-edge SandForce SF-2281 processor, it delivers excellent real-world performance when hooked up to a SATA 6Gbps interface, while keeping pricing in line with its previous-generation predecessor, the Force F120."

Intel Atlanta LANFest Summer LAN 2011

By CORSAIR Technical Marketing, June 22, 2011

Over the past 2 years, Corsair has greatly expanded its line of gaming products. So, it's only natural that we'd start attending and sponsoring more gaming events. We recently attended the Intel® Atlanta LANFest Summer LAN 2011. The organizer put us up in the front of the room in the middle of the stage — thanks Kevin! This is what everyone saw when they came into the room. After enough hours of gaming in a darkened dungeonesque room fueled by energy drinks, the LANFest banner began to look like this. We recently had a great time at another LAN, searching out those people most in need of a headset upgrade. By participating in the Facebook portion of our event, these lucky winners walked away with Gaming Audio Series™ HS1USB and HS1A headsets. It was a great upgrade for all of them. Late in the evening on Saturday night, I decided to have a bit of fun. I announced some scavenger hunt ideas via our Facebook event page for this event. Among the scavenger hunt ideas I put out, I asked for a can of root beer. This enterprising gentleman brought me a nice cold one and walked away with one of our giveaways. Another item was an actual swiss army knife. This fellow below showed up with one and got an Air Series™ A70 CPU cooler for his efforts. However, during the presentation, someone yelled out to him that I was not a Corsair rep but that I was in fact a zombie. He went "Left for Dead" on me. Luckily for me, he came to his senses when he realized he'd won the A70 and that I was not interested in eating his brains. We had some great fun with the midnight madness portion of the show where the event staff drew ticket numbers from a container and gave away massive amounts of goodies. It was awesome giving fresh products away to people that appreciated them and were going to use them to get their game on. Here's another happy HS1 winner. These two fellows each won a Vengeance™ DDR3 memory kit and they seemed very happy about it. We also gave away a set of Gaming Audio Series™ SP2500 and SP2200 speakers during the midnight madness giveaways. The majority of that giant pile of Corsair goodness, shown in the first picture above, was for our Corsair Case Build Off. The LANFest staff perused their audience and found the two people they felt were most in needeof a case upgrade. Oddly enough, we managed to select two participants, both of whom had never built their own computer. So we decided to let each have a coach/assistant of their choosing to help them along. It was a very close race and our winner, Christina Hill, won by mere seconds. She got quite a pile of goodies to help fill up that lovely new Special Edition White Graphite Series™ 600T mid-tower case. As with any good LAN, someone's case must be destroyed. This case, displaced by a new 600T, was reduced to scrap metal within seconds of it being emptied. My thanks go out to Intel and the Atlanta LANFest crew for putting on a great event as usual. I've seen this event grow over the past five plus years, and it's been really fun to have been involved. And, their charity efforts make it that much better. So, grab up your machine, a monitor, a network cable, and your favorite source of caffiene and go have a blast at a LAN near you. Mebbe we'll show up there too!
Introducing the new Vengeance Low Profile DDR3 memory

By CORSAIR Technical Marketing, June 17, 2011

We recentlty announced our new Vengeance™ Low Profile DDR3 memory at Computex 2011 in Taipei. The new modules carry a look similar to the larger Vengeance DDR3 memory, but with a lower profile. Vengeance LP kits are available in several colors including Jet Black, Cerulean Blue, and a Special Edition Arctic White. The reduced height of 1.03” allows Vengeance LP memory to fit under even the largest CPU air coolers. Vengeance LP memory easily fits underneath the 120mm fan on the Air Series A70 CPU Cooler Just like the original Vengeance memory kits, Vengeance LP kits are rated at 1.5v. However, the Special Edition Arctic White Vengeance LP memory kit is rated at only 1.35v, making it even more attractive for overclocking. Vengeance LP DDR3 memory kits offer a solution to enthusiasts who want to use large air coolers but don’t want to sacrifice memory performance and overclockability while still being budget friendly.

FAQ — Mounting Your Hydro Series H50/H70 to Socket 1155

By CORSAIR Technical Marketing, June 13, 2011

Installing your Hydro Series™ H50/H70 on socket 1155/1156 motherboards is a quick and simple process. Both the H50 and H70 come with a set of quick start guides which provide instructions on how to install them onto compatible motherboards. I will be answering frequently asked questions, also providing helpful tips with the installation of our cooler‘s on Intel® LGA1155 socket motherboards. Why did my Hydro Series H50/H70 not come with Intel LGA 1155 Quick Start Guide? For Intel LGA 1155, you will want to refer to the Intel LGA 1156 quick start guide — socket 1155 had not been launched when the H50 documention was developed. Place the required parts next to the quick start guide to insure you have no missing parts and follow the instructions on connecting each part. You can also refer to the “How to install Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H50 CPU cooler” video for some extra installation tips for both the Hydro Series H50 and H70. Why does my backplate not have 1155 marked on it? Because socket 1155 uses the same quick start guide as socket 1156 and is physically compatible with socket 1156, we will also be using the same mounting points on the backplate. Plug in the metal inserts (part H on the quick start guide) to the correct holes (1156) on the backplate, to make sure it will fit correctly with the mounting holes on the motherboard. Shouldn’t all four mounting holes on my motherboard align with the back plate? When installing the backplate behind the motherboard, slightly tilt the backplate to one side (see image below). Don't be alarmed by the fact that the bracket is not exactly square with the CPU — this is the correct installation. Once the back bracket is in place, connect the retention ring on the front of the motherboard using part I from the quick start guide. If my backplate covers resisters, will this cause issues with my motherboard? Depending on the motherboard, it might cover some resistors, but will not cause any problems or harm your motherboard (see image below). Once connected, refer to the Hydro Series H50/H70 quick start guide, which will guide you on mounting the fan(s), pump and radiator (refer to the video link above for a more detailed breakdown). Don’t forget to plug in the pump and fans to the fan controller or motherboard fan connectors. I hope this answers some of your questions about Hydro Series H50 and H70 installation on Socket 1155 motherboards. If you have further questions, please contact Corsair Technical Support.
Intel Lanfest InfernaLAN

By CORSAIR Technical Marketing, June 10, 2011

This past weekend I went to Intel’s LANFest InfernaLAN in DuPont, Washington. At 385 people the InfernaLAN is the largest and is the oldest LANFest event. The LAN parties are put on by a group of PC gamers that work at Intel. Over the past several years they have continued to grow larger and add more events across the United States. One of the best things about the LANFest events is, all of the proceeds are matched by Intel and donated to charity. The events have helped to raise almost $400,000 for charity. Friday night was the first night and by 7PM more than 100 gamers were waiting in line to check in. By midnight almost all of the 385 seats were filled. One thing that I found very different about this LAN was the fact that it was very family oriented. Several parents had brought their kids along, to game right alongside of them. We gave away a several Gaming Audio Series™ HS1A gaming headsets and kits of Vengeance™ memory to members of our Facebook event. The next day around noon, everybody started to wake up and start gaming again. This guy was still passed out next to his Obsidian Series™ 650D mid-tower case.. Saturday was an event filled day with gaming tournaments, raffles, a system build off and lots of prizes. We even helped out one guy to overclock his system, as he was having issues with his settings. After dinner Intel held the raffle to giveaway a ton of prizes. The prizes we gave away included Gaming Audio Series SP2500 and SP2200 speakers, HS1 and HS1A headsets, Professional Series™ Gold AX850 and AX750 PSUs, and Vengeance™ DDR3 memory kits. Along with the raffle prizes we gave out more kits of Vengeance memory and HS1A headsets. We held a system build off where two attendees would tear down their current computer and rebuild them into the Graphite Series™ 600T Special Edition White mid-tower cases. In order to win they would need to get the computer into Windows, after transferring everything over. Both contestants got to keep the 600T White case but the winner would receive a Hydro Series™ H60, Vengeance CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9B DDR3 memory kit, and a HS1A gaming headset. Within the first 10 minutes the first contestant had a huge lead over the other contestant. Another 10 minutes later both contestants were neck and neck. After finishing connecting the front power switch and other connectors, Allen Richter was able to boot up into Windows first and take the victory. Congrats to Allen, enjoy the prizes! The InfernaLAN was one of the best LAN parties I have ever been to! The people were great and as I mentioned before it was a family friendly atmosphere. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you definitely will want to come to this event. Best of all, the proceeds get donated to charity. For more information on LANfest events click here.