2011 OCC Christmas Contest

As another year is coming to an end, the OCC 2011 Christmas Contest is beginning. This year there are 20 sponsors and the grand prize is an Intel i7-965 Extreme rig. The full list of prizes can be found at the forum thread. All forums members with over 20 posts and whose accounts are over 30 days old are allowed to enter for the grand prize for the rest of the prizes you just have to have a membership. Check the forum thread for how to enter! The winners will be selected Christmas Eve after 6 PM PST.

What are you waiting for? Check out that thread and enter already! Good luck everyone.

OCC XFX Contest - October 14-21

Overclockers Club is holding an XFX sponsored contest to give away two power supplies; a 750W and 850W. To enter just click the link to the XFX Contest forum thread, and post what system you would put the PSU in, if you won. There is only one entry per person and is only open to residents of North America (sorry to our international friends). The contest has already started and will end next Friday, October 21 at roughly 6PM pacific time.

Good luck everyone.

Sign Up for the OCC Newsletter

For those of you that are new to the site, be sure to sign up to receive the OCC Newsletter. It is easy to sign up and will give you a heads up when something really important is happening. It will keep you up to date on any contests we might have coming up, as well as tell you about some of the more interesting news that has been posted.

Neoseeker Opens PC Games Store

Don't you hate it when you drag yourself into a brick-and-mortar games store, only to find the PC games section has been relegated to a couple of bins in the back? Well, fret no more as the Neoseeker PC Games Store has opened its virtual doors for business. You'll find plenty to choose from the extensive game catalog that includes hundreds of titles including the latest releases, special deals and enough selection to satisfy any type of gamer from the casual to hard-core FPS enthusiast. You can check out a few examples below and then head on over to the store for more!

Featured Titles

• Crysis 2
  
• Dragon Age II
  
• Rift
  

Special Deals

• Alpha Protocol
  
• Batman Arkham Asylum GOTY Edition
  
• Dead Space 2
  

OCC Unveils New Tier-Based Donation System

Overclockers Club is a forum for and by members. The vitality and growth that makes OCC so special is due to the participation of our members through time donated by staff members and members' participation in the forums. Another way you can help OCC grow and get better is through member donations. In the past, members who donated got a few extra perquisites, one of which is a red star next to your name in the forums.

Well, the power of the red star just got a lot stronger as OCC is proud to announce a new tiered donation system. There are now five tiers, with each tier offering more benefits. Our Tier 1 donors will receive:

•     A Red Star beside your member name in the forums
•     Increased member file space and storage space (2,000 message limit and 60MB storage)
•     Can edit own topic title and description
•     Can remove "Edited By" text from own posts
•     3MB Per Image upload limit in gallery
•     60MB photo gallery space
•     No daily transfer/bandwidth restriction in the photo gallery
•     Unlimited number of albums in the photo gallery
•     Ability to upload video to the photo gallery

Like they say on TV — "That's not all!" We're also offering $30, $40, $50 and $60 tiers that can earn you more space, access to private contests and special beta invites, discounts on OCC clothing, special hardware sales, and more!

You can check out the donation link and if you have questions or comments you can head over to the forums and discuss it here. So check it out and take a moment to consider helping your OCC reach the next level!

Two Video Card Winners at OCC

Congrats goes to OCC forum members Dr. Bowtie and IVIYTH0S for each winning AMD 5970s! Well done guys. We will have another contest starting soon, so stay tuned for that.

Another Awesome Contest but Ya Gotta Be Fast

OCC currently has a power supply giveaway contest underway through February 25th courtesy of our friends at XFX. However, Bosco is never satisfied it seems as he's decided to personally sponsor another contest on Sunday, February 27th beginning around 6 PM Pacific time.

Bosco's playing this close to his vest, but we do know there will two 40GB solid state drives up for grabs. Now, we all know how much faster SSDs can be versus conventional drives, so you're going to have to be fast to have any chance at all in this one, so why don't we call it the Ya Gotta Be Fast Contest? Sounds as good as anything else, so head over to the forum thread here and we'll see you sometime after 6 PM Pacific next Sunday evening. Good Luck!

Happy New Year

One Year Anniversary Of The Passing Of Verran

One year ago today we lost OCC staff member Verran to his battle with Cancer.

This year was rather tough for me not having him around. Meeting his family and speaking at his memorial was a great honour for me that I will never ever forget. Keeping Ryan's memory alive is what gave me the courage to speak at his memorial which is something I might not have been able to do otherwise.

The memory of Verran/Ryan has kept my drive going for OCC over the past year, OCC and myself will continue to honour my friend who is very much missed by everyone. I really miss you buddy.

Tribute Thread

OCC Christmas Contest 2010 Has Begun

It's that time of year again, time when most boys and girls straighten up their acts for Santa. Quite frankly, we here at OCC don't care whether you've been naughty or nice, we're going to give away presents anyway. A lot of them as a matter of fact. That's just the kind of Santas we are. The list of prizes is long and it's still growing but we can tell you that there will be two complete AMD computer systems up for grabs:

• Dual core or Quad CPU's (supplied by Bosco)
• Gigabyte 880GMA-UD2H Motherboard (supplied by Gigabyte)
• 4GB of Mushkin Radioactive Memory (supplied by Mushkin)
• Radeon HD 6850 XXX Edition Video Card (supplied by XFX)
• 40GB SSD (supplied by Mushkin)
• Seagate 640GB Momentus (supplied by Seagate)
• Cooler Master HAF-X Case (supplied by Cooler Master)
• V6GT CPU Cooler (supplied by Cooler Master)
• LG DVDRW (supplied by Bosco)
• 800 Watt PSU (supplied by Mushkin)
• Inferno Gaming Mouse (supplied by Cooler Master)

There are many more prizes, too numerous to mention here, but you can find out more details in the OCC Christmas Contest 2010 forum thread. The contest is open to all OCC forum members worldwide and you have to follow a few simple steps to enter:

First, you must be a member of the forums.

Second, send an email to contest@overclockersclub.com. In that email you must do the following:

1. List your OCC forum name
2. List your name, address, postal code and phone number. (This is for shipping if you win.)
3. List your full system specifications
4. Tell us who your favorite manufacturer for computer hardware is and why.
5. Tell us your least favorite manufacturer is and why.

For items 4) and 5) you don't have to write a long paragraph, just a sentence or two unless you want to write more.

You can check out the current list of prizes and complete contest details in the OCC Christmas Contest 2010 forum thread. The contest begins December 1st and will end on the evening of December 24th. Good Luck!

Computer Ed Holiday Giveaway 2010

Computer Ed is a radio show about computing that airs once a week on WJPF radio hosted by Edward Crisler, aka Computer Ed. The show is presented on Sunday afternoons at 1:00 PM CST. Now, not all of our readers can tune in to AM 1340 to listen to the show, but you can pick up a live stream from the Internet.

As an added inducement, Computer Ed has put together some great prizes for its listeners. To participate in the contest, all you have to do is listen for the “Code Word” of the week during the show which will be followed by a response word. To enter, simply email the response word, along with your name and city and state to computeredradio@gmail.com.

More details on the contest can be found on the Computer Ed blog, so check it out and remember to Listen Live on WJPF on Sundays at 1:00 PM CST.

Labor Day Giveaway!

If you're interested in a chance to participate in the Final Fantasy 14 beta, now is your chance! Over the next two days a name will randomly be drawn from names on the IRC Channel. All you need to do is be a member of OCC from August 1st, be in IRC, and check your forum PMs to win! What will happen is a name will be randomly drawn from the channel, matched up with a member name on the forums and a PM will be sent to the winner. The winner will have 1 hour to respond to that PM in order to claim his/her prize. If the winner does not respond with in the hour, another name will be chosen at random. Don't miss out on your opportunity to enjoy the company of your fellow forum members along with a chance to win a key to participate in the FF14 beta. Check out the IRC forum thread for more information on connecting to IRC.

Happy Labor Day and look forward to seeing you in IRC!

Overclockers Club Announces Mushkin 3DMark06 Contest

In case you missed out on our recent contest featuring a MSI Big Bang XPower motherboard as the main prize, Overclockers Club has announced yet another contest courtesy of our friends at Mushkin. Now, the goal is pretty easy - score as high as you can using the Futuremark 3DMark06 benchmark. You can only post once in the scoring thread, but you can edit that post as many times as necessary before the end of the contest.

Here is what you have to do in order for your score to count:

Run 3DMark06 at default settings:
1. You must submit your score to 3DMark for it to be valid and post your validation link.
2. You must show a CPU-Z and GPU-Z screen shot along with your 3DMark score.
3. You must show the date and your forum user name in your screenshot as well.
4. List your system specs in your post below or above your screen shot or include it in your screenshot.

Here is how the prize break down is going to work:

Grand Prize - 2 X Mushkin 40GB SSD's. (These are under NDA but all I can tell you is they are very fast.)
2nd Prize - A set of Mushkin 6GB Ridgebacks or a 4GB set of Ridgebacks for AMD or P55 depending on the winning platform.
3rd Prize - Mushkin 800 Watt PSU - (Under NDA)
4th Prize - Mushkin 32GB USB flash drive
5th Prize - Mushkin 8GB USB flash drive

Winning scores will be broken down into ranks as follows, with the winners in each rank eligible for the corresponding prize:
Rank 1-3 - Grand Prize
Rank 4-6 - Second Prize
Rank 7-10 - Third Prize
Rank 11-15 - Fourth Prize
Rank 16-20 - Fifth Prize

That means the top 20 scores posted will be eligible for a prize. The contest is currently under way and ends on September 12th at 9pm Pacific time. Any questions or comments can be posted in the contest thread here. For scores only, post in the scoring thread. Good luck everyone!

Adobe Air Coming to Android in Fourth Quarter 2010

Adobe Air has been on the PC for a while now, but what about on the mobile scene? Well Adobe will answer that (perhaps unasked) question in the fourth quarter of this year when it releases Adobe Air for the Android platform. TalkAndroid is covering the Adobe / Android conference in San Francisco and they snapped a photo of a slide that shows Adobe's timeline for Air that includes releasing it on the Android OS.

Our Top News Stories For The Week

In case you missed them, here is a roundup of our top ten most popular stories from the past week.

• Apple Plugs iOS PDF Security Hole
• AMD Phenom II X6 1075T BE Shows Up Online
• Motorola Droid 2 is Finally Official
• Black Ops Prestige Edition to Include RC-XD Remote Control Car
• 250GB Xbox Kinect Bundle Sighted
• Pacman + Android - Apple = One awesome tshirt
• AMD Phenom II X4 970 in September, Possibly Two Versions?
• ASUS to Develop AMD Fusion Mini-ITX Board
• Duke Nukem Forever to Finally See the Light of Day?
• Evercool Launches Battle Hero Laptop Cooler

If you come across an interesting story you feel our news team should know about, you can always send the OCC News Team a tip. Who knows, it might get you a job.

Enjoy OverclockersClub.com? You can follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

OCC Teams with MSI for Motherboard Giveaway Contest

The good folks at MSI are giving the members of OCC a chance to win a Big Bang XPower motherboard. They are also offering up twenty game codes for Metro 2033. You can read all about the Big Bang XPower board in the OCC review to get an idea of what an incredible board this is.

Entering the contest is simple: just take a picture of your current motherboard and post it in the MSI Contest Thread and state what model board it is. Then tell us what you like about the MSI Big Bang XPower board. That's three simple things. Pretty easy, huh?

The contest runs from now until the evening of August 15th so get your entries in by posting in the MSI Contest thread. Good Luck!

The contest is now over. Congrations to OCC forum wevsspot for winning the MSI Big Bang XPower board and also to the twenty winners of  the Metro 2033 game codes. OCC would also like to thank MSI for sponsoring this contest!

Our Top News Stories For The Week

Been too busy playing StarCraft II to keep up with the news on OCC? Don't worry, we have got you covered with our round up of the most popular stories from the past week. When you are done reading the news, be sure to check out our newest contest sponsored by Micro-Star International.

• Palit GeForce GTX 460 Sonic 2GB Graphics Card Announced
• Latest Playstation 3 Firmware Bricks Consoles Under Certain Conditions?
• Apple Ready to Plug Security Hole that Allowed for Web-based iPhone Jailbreak
• BlackBerry Torch 9800 Announced, Launching August 12th on AT&T
• ASUS Announces the Rampage III Formula Motherboard
• Corsair Launches Hydro Series H70 Cooler
• Batman: Arkham City Announced
• NVIDIA to Cut GTX 400 Prices?
• XFX to Release Two Single Slot HD 5770s
• Thermaltake Releases Toughpower Ultra Slim Power Adapter

That's it for the top news for the past week. If you come across an interesting story you feel our news team should know about, you can always send the OCC News Team a tip. Who knows, it might get you a job.

Enjoy OverclockersClub.com? You can follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

Overclockers Club Brings You the Gift of Gab

OK, maybe it's not quite gab, but OCC does have a new chat room. It might be old technology but it's easy to use and it works!

All you need to know to get started is in the OCC Chat Room forum thread. There you'll find a link to the client and instructions on how to join. Already have your favorite IRC client software? There's also server and channel information in the thread as well.

Come join your fellow OCC members and chat about whatever's on your mind. Just please be courteous, respectful and remember the forum rules also apply to our chat room. So what are you waiting on? See you in the chat room!

Our Top News Stories For The Week

• ATI Releases Catalyst 10.7 Drivers
• GF104 Coming to the GTX 470?
• Mozilla Releases Major Security Update for Firefox 3.6
• NZXT Prices and Dates Crafted Full-tower Phantom Chassis
• Several New Products Released by Apple
• AMD Overtakes NVIDIA in Graphics Card Shipments
• Acer Launches Three New Monitors
• Thermaltake Massive23 LX Notebook Cooler Announced
• Dell Launches Inspiron M101z AMD-Powered Notebook
• GameStop Purchases Kongregate

That's it for the top news for the past week. If you come across an interesting story you feel our news team should know about, you can always send the OCC News Team a tip.

Enjoy OverclockersClub.com? You can follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

Our Top News Stories For The Week

What did the OCC community find to be the most popular stories this week? Apple, StarCraft II and new hardware from AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel top the list.

1. Forget the Verizon iPhone, Latest Rumors Suggest T-Mobile iPhone
2. Apple Begins Refunding Bumper Purchases, Free iPhone 4 Case Program
3. Motorola Droid 2 Will be Available Next Month
4. iMac and Mac Pro Refresh Rumored to Include USB 3.0 and Faster FireWire
5. Catch Up on the StarCraft Story
6. Intel Updates Processor Price List: Price Cuts and New Models
7. iTunes 9.2.1 Released for Mac and Windows
8. Samsung Ships 1TB Spinpoint MT2 2.5" Mobile Hard Drive
9. AMD Focuses on Gamers with 'AMD Gaming Evolved' But What is it Exactly?
10. NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 Rumored for Late-August Release

Remember, if you come across an interesting story or something else you feel is newsworthy you can always send the OCC News Team a tip.

Enjoy OverclockersClub.com? You can follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

New OCC Poll: Where Should We Focus on Space Exploration?

We have put people on the moon, landed robots on Mars, sent satellites past Pluto, and even taken pictures of distant galaxies. Even with these great feats there is so much about our own galaxy and even solar system that we don't know. Should the various space agencies be spending more and doing more to explore the final frontier? Where do you think humankind should focus our explorations? That is this weeks poll.

Kingston Digital Offering $16,000 in Cash Prizes in SSD Video Contest

Kingston Digital, Inc., the flash memory products affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, today announced it's hosting a How Can a Kingston SSDNow Drive Change Your Life? video contest. The event, open to U.S. residents only, is asking entrants to creatively demonstrate in video format how using a solid state drive can benefit and change your daily life. Creativity is the key here and a total of $16,000US will be awarded to the winners.

According to Kingston's SSD business manager, Ariel Perez:

"Kingston encourages people to create videos based on real-life daily use of an SSD or something out of their imagination, We’ve heard from customers who praise the durability of the drive as they take their laptop to remote places. Other people have told us the speed and overall system responsiveness from the performance boost of the SSD has made their older PC feel like new again. Whatever it may be, Kingston might take one of the winning ideas from our video contest and create an entire marketing campaign around it."

Judging will be based on creativity as well as the video’s concept and how it is brought to life on screen. Video entries should be posted to a video hosting site such as YouTube or Vimeo and the link can be submitted through the Kingston video contest site. First place gets $7,500 and second place $5,000 with a total of 13 winners being chosen. The contest begins July 19, 2010 and continues through September 20, 2010. Good luck everyone and get those creative juices flowing and show us what you've got.

Our Top News Stories For The Week

Our top story last week was the information concerning tech website Guru3D stealing copyrighted work from another tech site Benchmark Reviews. Thankfully, also topping out the list this week was the brilliant social media marketing campaign by Old Spice, maybe they can help clean up Guru3D's act. Intel had the most items this week as we discussed its quarterly profits and the Sandy Bridge chips.

Here are the stories our members found most interesting: 

1. Guru3D Disgraced as it Steals Copyrighted Work from Benchmark Reviews
2. Upcoming Intel Sandy Bridge Chips to be Core i3/i5/i7 2000 Series
3. Intel Posts Best Quarterly Profits Ever
4. Consumer Reports Confirm iPhone 4 Antenna Issues
5. Bye-bye Blockbuster?
6. Video Games Make an Appearance in the Supreme Court
7. ASUS' Dual-Fermi GPU Card Pushes Limits of Sanity
8. Logitech Launches New 5.1 Speakers
9. Social Networking is Great for Marketing
10. Google Wants to Make App Creation Easier

About That Consumer Reports Article And The iPhone 4 Issues

Yesterday Consumer Reports stated that despite the iPhone 4 scoring higher than any other smart phone to date, they could not recommend the phone based on the current reception issues. The article appears to contradict Apple's own explanation of the iPhone 4's issues, or does it? In a new editorial, I take a closer look at the Consumer Reports' article as well as the hysteria surrounding the iPhone 4. You might just be surprised.

Palit Sponsors Fermi Giveaway

Palit is sponsoring a Fermi giveaway where members can qualify to win one of four video cards. Top prize consists of a Palit GTX480 graphics card. Palit is also giving away a GTX470 and a GTX465 along with a mystery prize and five complimentary prizes. The contest begins July 6 and runs through August 16th. So how do you enter? The process is simple and involves using your Facebook, Twitter or MySpace account and commenting on each site using the code phrase "I got game".  For specific instructions you can visit the Palit contest page for links to each site. The contest rules state you can only enter once for each social networking site for a total of three entries. Good luck!

Celebrate Your Independence from Poor Gaming Graphics

PowerColor is working with OCC to determine the "next big thing". We all know about Eyefinity and 3D TV’s, but what do you see as the next big thing in graphics or visuals? We want to hear your ideas and the best three will picked to receive one of three PowerColor video cards. The top idea qualifies for a Radeon HD 5850 video card. The next two ideas will qualify the members for a HD 5550 card. Just head on over to the forum thread here and post your ideas. The contest runs from 6/28 - 7/5.

UPDATE: PowerColor announced the winners of the contest:
1st Place - MrAlex
2nd Place - malmsteenisgod
3rd Place - l33t p1mp

Congratulations to our winners and a big thanks to PowerColor for sponsoring the contest!

OCC is Looking for a Few Good Guides

One of the best things about OCC is its membership and the vast base of knowledge represented among our members. If you feel you have expertise in a certain area and would like to share it with everyone, OCC is looking for a few good guides on computer-related subjects. If you'd like to contribute, send Bosco, our Editor In Chief, a PM or email with your idea. In order to submit a guide, you will need to send it in MS Word format with all the pictures full-sized. Make sure you label clearly where each picture belongs or bookmark them using smaller images. OCC staff will take care of the editing and formatting chores. In return, you'll receive credit for your work and become a published author. How cool is that? Bosco has also mentioned the possibility of having a few odds and ends lying about that could use a new home as a reward for those who contribute. You can head over to the forums to discuss this and ask questions in the New Guides thread here. This is a great opportunity to make a contribution to OCC and share your knowledge.

Follow Overclockers Club on Twitter - @OCCNews

Poll: Are You Getting The iPhone 4?

Last week during their WWDC event, Apple officially announced the iPhone 4. The fourth generation iPhone will become available for preorder tomorrow, and will be released on Thursday, June 24. With the release eminent, we decided that this week we would see who planned on getting the fourth-generation iPhone. Let us know your plans in the Official OCC Poll. Not getting an iPhone 4? Perhaps you are sticking with an older model iPhone, holding out for something else on the horizon, or just have a fondness for a device running Android, Windows Mobile, or some other OS. We'd like to know.

Intel Engineer's Son Goes Missing, OCC Readers Asked for Help

Intel has asked OCC to help get the word out about 7-year old Kyron Horman, a second grader who went missing at school last Friday. He was last seen by his stepmother heading towards his classroom only 150 feet away. Kyron is the son of an Intel employee and if you have any information on his whereabouts, please call the Multonomah County Sheriff's office at 503-261-2847.