Eric Garay

Even though nVidia released newly revised GTX 275 and 285 core revisions using the 55nm GPU process, there’s still some ‘cream of the crop’ GTX 260s floating around. I had the pleasure of testing one this last week that clocked in with the same frequencies and higher using the overclocking software.

As you can see, the ASUS ENGTX260 Matrix videocard is much nicer looking than any of the stock looking GTX 260s around. Its factory overclocked settings are part of the reason for the aftermarket cool has been used. Once the frequencies surpass the GTX 285’s, there’s no way an nVidia reference cooler can get the job done without some fanatical 50dB noise.

The bottom line is pretty simple though with this card. Install the card, drivers, software, and begin overclocking as you see fit. Put it this way, the memory frequencies could go higher, but the software levels off at a solid 2500 MHz!

Personally, I love a $200 videocard that can out clock the next card up especially if it looks great. About the only thing I might have changed about it is by adding a little LED or two to show off the aftermarket cooler. If you’re going to show off, it should be really shown off! Now, where did I put that LN2 GPU pot?

Koolance actually calls it an LN2 Liquid Nitrogen Evaporator. You may have seen it on their home page among some of the other product launch announcements. It comes on the heels of the recent GIGABYTE Overclocking Championship in LA last month where the participants use LN2 to super cool Quad core processors that are overclocked in hopes of setting some new world benchmark records. And if nothing else, you beat out everyone else who’s competing as well.

The pot is made from a copper core with nickle plating. Covering the copper this way keeps the pot looking good by avoiding oxidization (tarnished look) which is a common issue with the copper and brass pots around. The hope here is that having a copper core will still match or surpass performance. That’s going to be the important note since the home made “F1″ copper pot is the pinnacle of performance.

As with any pot, it actually sits on top of the CPU and is held down by a series of extra long screws. A nylon mounting bracket secures the pot from above while a back plate secures from the bottom of the motherboard. In an ideal installation, you’ll need to ‘water proof’ your motherboard from condensation build up on the outside of the pot as the LN2 evaporates. Koolance informed me that the water proofing supplies are already in the works and will arrive soon.

I’ll hopefully have one of these bad boys in my possession for some bench time soon. Since we all can’t afford a $300+ custom made F1 for some elite cooling, perhaps this will fill in that gap. I doubt it was intended to measure up to custom made pots, but it should cool well enough to promote some record setting attempts. When I get my hands on one, I’m sure it’ll be posted up on Futurelooks.com in greater detail.