Origin PC Tweaks The Chronos For Better Performance
Origin PC is more than a skilled system builder; it’s also great at branding. Beyond the case's logos, the CPU cooler, and an included black T-shirt, the company’s Nexus software is a logoed version of the Xfire gaming client.
The tweaks extend to Origin PC's work with Asus' motherboard firmware. Its overclockers increased the multiplier range of Intel’s 3.5 to 3.9 GHz Core i7-4770K to 4.2 through 4.7 GHz. Adaptive voltage mode makes its 1.325 V setting a maximum, where the actual voltage reported by CPU-Z under eight threads of AVX-optimized Prime95 pushed it to only 1.28 V.
It's important to us that the systems we review be representative of what our readers get as well. Originally, Origin PC's website showed a 4.4 GHz maximum overclock available to customers. Then it was 4.6 GHz (still 100 MHz under our review machine). We talked with company representatives, though, who let us know this was a typo and should have been 4.7 GHz all along. As of this writing, you should be able to configure a Chronos through Origin's online configurator that exactly matches the beast cranking away in our lab.
Origin PC also gets its logo on EVGA’s vaunted Precision X overclocking utility, which it uses to push those two GeForce GTX 780 Ti graphics cards to a 1026 MHz base clock rate, a 1078 MHz GPU Boost setting, and GDDR5-7400.
Origin PC doesn’t charge for graphics card overclocking, but does cover the cost of replacing parts if anything goes wrong. Its $269 free-shipping warranty extension to three years is starting to look more like a bargain.
