THIS IS
2013!
T
his, our final issue of 2013, comes just
over a month after Issue 26. Now I
know why we don’t do this monthly, it
is taxing in more way than one can imagine.
Alas I’m here again writing the last Ed’s
note for the year. Tired, excited for 2014 and
looking forward to the New Year.
One of the things you will have noticed
about this issue is that it’s on an entirely
new platform. Those that have been with us
for a while will find some familiarity with
it. We decided to move to this new platform
for several reasons which, not only include
speed, portability but by and large this
makes for a better read and it’s one that
we hope you’ll enjoy. The magazine is still
available on the older system but this is the
one of the future and if you compare the two
you’ll easily see why.
So what’s there to say about 2013? Well,
it’s been a ride alright. So many things
have happened in the OC world. From
controversy, wins to sheer fail. It’s all been
there. What kind of year would be it though if
there wasn’t come controversy surrounding
HWBOT? It’s always at the center of it, but
for good reason I’d imagine. Regardless
of how you feel about the database, its
employees or the community’s reliance on
it, it is a venture that is necessary and it has
by numbers seen more participation now
than in the last two to three years. So that
has to count for something.
Hardware wise, it’s been what I expected,
a new mainstream performance segment
platform in the form of Z87 but what
really got me excited was Ivy-Bridge E. I
couldn’t have imagined that this platform
would produce such incredible scores.
Interestingly enough, this chipset has also
produced what is in my humble opinion the
best motherboard I’ve ever come across.
Yes that’s the one on the cover and I’d not
have it any other way. Mind you we’ve had
some stunners this year, not limited to but
including GIGABYTE’s Z87X-OC and the
ASUS MAXIMUS VI Extreme. I’d think that
if you ever needed any motherboards in
your arsenal you need at least two of these,
possibly all of them.
Graphics card wise, well this epic battle
between NVIDIA and AMD has brought us
fantastic graphics cards and even better
yet, prices. The pricing has been highly
contested largely because of AMD’s doing.
I’m appreciative of this and hope to see
this happen going into 2014. It’s also good
to see the 780 Ti come out with all guns
blazing. It is certainly doing the job even
though if you looked right now you’d find
a few R9 290X cards at the top of most
HWBOT lists. I do suspect that many of
us are waiting for the KPC Edition cards
along with the Lightning and perhaps
the HOF card from GALAXY. These are
the three we will be watching out for and
who knows. ASUS may pull a rabbit out of
a hat and provide the community with a
blistering 780 Ti of their own. If not we’ll
settle for an epic 290X instead. Whatever
you prefer, this has been a good year for
graphics cards and it’s likely to get better
going into 2014.
I had thought to say something about
memory vendors here at the end as there
was so much to write about, but in the
end I figured it’s best to say nothing at all.
This industry should hopefully pick up for
them and as a result for us the end users.
There haven’t been any must have sets of
memory and the pricing has been anything
but sensible for the high end 2933MHz+ kits.
Here’s to 2014 being better on both fronts.
In closing, I’d like to thank all the readers
for their support. We are a little light this
issue, but hey we’ll be back with even more
content in Issue 28. Until then, do enjoy the
rest of your 2013 and we will see you all on
the flip side.
[ Neo Sibeko - Editor ]
Issue 27 | 2013 The OverClocker 3