04/29/99  by John Bogush

www.genxtechcomp.com

Gen-X Tech, LLC
3115 West Sixth Suite C120, Lawrence, KS 66049
Phone: 785 830-0808 Fax: 785 830-0800
Email: computers@genxtechcomp.com

  Ya, I know what it's like.  You keep hearing about those magical computers that people are assembling themselves at home that are running unbelievable speeds and the cost is dirt cheap.     Buying a 300MHz processor for less than a $100 and running it at 450MHz, 464MHz and for a lucky few even 504MHz.  You get interested so you start checking out online sites and then you find out about the Newsgroup called  alt.comp.hardware.overclocking     so you pay it a visit as well.  You have asked all the questions and decide you have got enough information and so you make out your shopping list and order your very own OC special.

  A few days go by and then Mr. UPS comes by for a little visit and drops off all those little parts that are gonna make your OC scream machine.  You call in sick to work the next day because you just cant wait to get started.  You spend a few hours putting that new motherboard, shiny Celeron 300a processor, and all the other odds and ends together and you are ready to power that bad boy up.  Things look good at the POST and you decide to start at the default 300MHz just to make sure everything is OK before you push for the big 450MHz.  No hardware conflicts and all is well.  With no reason to wait any longer you reboot and enter the BIOS to make those changes that are gonna set you on your way to OC bliss.  You save your BIOS changes, reboot and keep your fingers crossed.     450MHz at the POST but then lock-up city even before the OS can load.    You go through all your settings, try more voltage, buy different memory, but nothing will help.   Your dreams are shot to hell and you are stuck with non-overclockable processor.   It happens, I'll bet you wish you would have known about pre-tested processors and thats were this review starts...

  I'm all for the thrill of trying out a non-tested processor but sometimes when your resources are limited you have to make things count the first time.  It is gonna cost you a little more but in the long run this just might be the way to go for the non-risk takers.  You want a fast computer but you are not into the thrill of the OC chance game that processors can give you when you want to push the limits.  In steps Gen-X Tech with guaranteed 450MHz and even 504MHz overclockable systems.  I got my hands on a hot little guaranteed 504MHz barebones setup that was begging to be put through it's paces.     Talk about a sweet setup, this baby comes with a nice roomy full tower case, ABIT BM6 mobo, PPGA Celeron 300 processor, Samsung G8 memory, and a whole bunch of extra case fans including the useful little Gamma 28 blower unit to keep your video card comfortable.   Oh ya, did I mention the awesome new socket 370 heatsink and fan from Global called the CPM25603-12 that Gen-X Tech threw in with it?  I got all the right hardware but you just never know what that processor is gonna do until you fire things up so I quickly added a Viper 550 video card, Western Digital HD, Sound Blaster Live sound card and a floppy drive and got things rolling.

  The combo POSTed 504MHz right out of the gate so I entered the BIOS just to see how Gen-X Tech left the settings.  All was what I expected and the voltage was set at 2.1 volts.  I went ahead and exited the BIOS and rebooted.  Windows 98 loaded with no problems so I decided to stretch this thing's legs a bit and run Prime95 while I went out and grabbed some lunch.  A few hours later (I had company at lunch) I returned to find the system still going at it with no problems noted.  I decided to loop a Half-Life demo through the night and pick up where I left off the next morning.  7:00 in the morning and after 16 hours of demanding 3D gaming the Gen-X Tech system is as happy as could be with the demo file still flying by.  Now after all that I can pretty much rest assured that this system is all that Gen-X Tech advertised.

  Gen-X Tech knows their OC stuff and they provide those little finishing touches that polish a great system.  I already mentioned the full tower case but let me give you a little more detail about those extra cooling fans Gen-X Tech provides.  Complimenting the power supply's exhaust fan is a 4 inch fan mounted on the rear of the case at the top to help exhaust all that heat those components are pumping out.  You have to have fresh cool air to replace the exhausted hot air so Gen-X Tech also throws in two additional 4 inch cooling fans pumping cool air into the case.  One of them is mounted on the rear of the case blowing directly onto the processor location and it's heatsink/fan combo.  The second 4 inch intake fan is mounted in the standard location at the lower front of the case.  The icing on the cake as far as cooling goes is the wonderful little Gamma 28 blower unit that Gen-X Tech provides for use with those hot 3D video cards we all like so much.  I have grown fond of having a little Gamma 28 blowing a high velocity stream of air across my video card's chipset heatsink in all my systems and it was a surprise to find one included in the Gen-X Tech 504MHz barebones system.

  Another little surprise was the Global CPM25603-12 heatsink and fan.  Although this unit is a little hard to come by right now since it is so new it is definitely worth the effort as far as PPGA cooling goes.     It has a much more substantial heatsink then the socket 7 coolers we have been trying to get by with on the PPGA Celerons and a great big 60mm fan.  The fan is even more powerful then the 60mm fans on the Global VEK12 PII cooler.  Though I did not do any formal temperature testing I can say that the heatsink never felt noticeably warm even when running high cpu utilizing applications.  Just to double check the effectiveness of the CPM25603-12 I disconnected all the case fans and ran the system a few hours trying to get it to stumble but I had no luck, It just kept humming along cool and stable.

  I was a little curious about what this system was really capable of so since I cant leave "well enough" alone I tried a few little changes.  First off I went ahead and bumped the core voltage back down to the default 2.0 volts just how far it would go at 504MHz at the default setting.  It booted and ran fine at the default voltage so thats where it stayed when running 504MHz from then on.  That is one heck of a trick in it's own right there.  Next I wanted to see if I could wring anymore out of this thing so I upped the fsb to 115MHz and it POSTed 522MHz but stumbled loading Windows 98.  2.1 volts is all it needed and again I could not get the system to fault with even the 115MHz fsb setting.  Keep in mind that although the system displayed 522MHz at the POST, the 115MHz fsb setting really gives a 515MHz system speed which was confirmed with CPUID as seen below.

  A little SiSoft Sandra CPU benchmark results for you benchmark freaks.

  No matter what voltage I tried or other settings including adjusting the L2 latency I could not get anything with any fsb setting higher then 115MHz.  That is not a complaint but I just wanted to let you know I tried.

  Now if you asked me if I have a few criticisms of the system I would have to say although not really criticisms I do have a few suggestions that could help make a great system even better.  That great big full tower case comes with a 250 watt power supply.  These days although rarely necessary I think some folks would like to see 300 watts just because it makes them feel better knowing it is there if they need it.  The Global heatsink was already mounted to the processor and I noticed it had a little more thermal compound then I would have used myself.  I prefer a thin layer which would not cause it to squeeze out the sides as was the case in this system.  Though I doubt it causes any performance concerns I just like to be a bit neater.  The last little nit-pick I can come up with is that the Gamma 28 blower came mounted in the case with nylon zip ties.  This made it a little difficult to properly position it so as to direct it's output onto the video card.     This was easily remedied by removing the zip ties and mounting the Gamma 28 a bit closer to the video card with 3M double sided foam tape to the case.   Like I said, not really criticisms.

CONCLUSION:

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Copyright © 1999 by John Bogush