For the record, I’ve become a complete hardware geek.

It started out last December when I built my first gaming rig and it culminated last week with overclocking and liquid nitrogen.

Think you need a quad-core CPU for an extreme gaming PC with impressive 3DMark Vantage numbers and gaming performance?  See for yourself by watching the video of how I overclocked and hyper-cooled an SLI® gaming rig using two of our latest and greatest GPUs—GeForce® GTX 280—an nForce® 790i Ultra SLI motherboard, and a sub-$200 CPU. Since I don’t have solid copper coldplates and liquid nitrogen underneath my kitchen sink—and I’m sure you don’t either!—I made an ultra-fun trip to the NVIDIA® labs for the hard-to-come-by but necessary ingredients and safety gear.

Since I’m sure you’ll ask what was in the system, here are the need-to-know specs:

• 2× NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 graphics cards running in SLI
• nForce 790i Ultra SLI motherboard
• Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 CPU
• 4 GB SLI-ready Corsair DDR3 memory
• PC Power and Cooling TurboCool 1200W power supply
• Windows Vista 32-bit operating system

The standard clocks on a GeForce GTX 280 are 601 MHz core and 1,296 MHz shader, but I pushed them to 727 MHz and 1,458 MHz, respectively.  I also managed to get the GPUs cooled to a chilly -102.5 °C!

My results may not be as high as the Kingpin’s world-records, but they’re not too shabby!  Given that I had a lot of extra help and equipment, I will leave the record-breaking to the FutureMark Hall of Fame professionals.

Today, NVIDIA mourns the loss of our dear friend Joe “Vengeance” Rupe, robotmod extraordinaire and former NVIDIA Focus Group member.

Known throughout the gaming community as "Vengeance," Joe influenced gaming and 3D graphics by providing invaluable feedback to us and the gaming community about NVIDIA products and technology. While he shared his enthusiasm for our products in the sometimes hostile waters of "Rage3D," he did so in a way that endeared him to the community and earned him far more friends than adversaries.

We join the gaming community in extending our condolences to his family and loved ones during this sad time.

Services will take place at 5 p.m. Saturday at Johnson-Smith Funeral Home, 207 S. Main St., Baltimore, with Bishop Dan Janke officiating. A caring cremation will follow. Friends may call from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the funeral home.

You will be missed Vengy.

SLI Zone's resident blogger Steffee is missing in action. She was last seen playing Rock Band on the PS3. 

If you have information on her whereabouts, can help her pass "Creep" in expert mode, or just want to see her post on the SLI Blog, please contact us.

Refer-a-friend to Club SLI, and you'll be automatically entered into a raffle for this awesome SLI gaming rig from Cyberpower. The more members you refer, the more entries you'll receive. Log onto your Club SLI account for details. Promotion ends January 31, 2008, so act now!

On behalf of NVIDIA, I would like to welcome you to the official NVIDIA SLIZone blog.  This blog will provide you a window into the world of SLI™ at NVIDIA, and the people that help bring it to you.

Now in case you are wondering what SLI is, it’s NVIDIA’s technology which allows you to combine two combine two graphics cards on an NVIDIA nForce® motherboard to get faster 3D performance on hundreds of games and applications. We want this blog to be about what we are doing for our users, so I don’t want to go into lots of marketing about SLI; if you want more info on SLI, you can get it at: http://www.slizone.com/page/slizone_learn.html

This blog will cover lots of topics that we believe our SLI users care about, including:

• New SLI-Ready hardware
• Game of the month
• A day in the life of NVIDIA employee
• What does it take to be a professional gamer
• …and more

As a member of our NVIDIA community, we encourage you to leave comments on the blog, as well as let us know which things (events, stories, pics, etc) you want more.

- - Andrew, Sr. Product Manager, NVIDIA SLI.