Overlord Tempest X270OC mini-review

dr.stevil

dr.stevil

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Sep 26, 2008
Messages
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So I ordered the display last week and just received it yesterday. I was really excited to finally have a 27" 1440p IPS display but I was also nervous as A.) Overlord isn't exactly an established name and B.) Since it's up to the user to 'overclock', it might be a frustrating experience since with overclocking, things are often hit or miss.

Upon opening the box, I was extremely impressed with the care that went in to packaging it. The box is nice and the foam inserts kept everything in place and protected. The stand is also pretty impressive.. it's very sturdy compared to my 22" Viewsonic 120Hz. Reminds me of Dells stands... does tilt, swivel and height. It might also turn 90* but haven't tried.

Anyway, after assembly of the stand and plugging everything in, the display came to life right away. It took me less than 2 mins to patch the driver and add the custom refresh rates. Unfortunately, the highest I was also to achieve was 110Hz but I'm happy with that. The display is bright and has gorgeous colors.. it has very very slight backlight bleed but only visible on a completely black screen. In contrast to my Viewsonic TN, it's a non-issue. I couldn't find any dead or stuck pixels and didn't have any of the coil whine that I've read about others having.

All in all, for an enthusiast, I couldn't recommend this display more. It's amazing how much better everything looks going from a 1680X1050 TN display. Just make sure you have a GPU that can push it.
 
Now I got the search engine to work. Anyone else know anything about these monitors, this company, etc.? Any other owners? :)



How you feeling about it these days, dr. stevil?
 
I did a search on [H] and came across this thread. Just recently, I read this review on Tom's Hardware about the Overlord Tempest X270OC, 27" 120 Hz IPS Gaming Monitor.

I wonder if the version changed because dr.stevil reviewed it last Sept., but Overlord is now accepting pre-orders for late July delivery.

Any other thoughts about this monitor for 27" 1440p gaming, such as in comparison to the $300-something 27" 144-p LCDs from Korea/Ebay? :confused:
 
Didn't even see QBZ's question... sorry about that (little late on my part lol)

Anyway, I love the display. The colors and contrast are excellent and it overclocks well. The stand is also great.... a huge upgrade from my old 120hz viewsonic. I have absolutely no regrets other than I don't get a chance to use it as much as I'd like. It easily overclocks to 110Hz, but will get strange artifacting once in a while (and a high pitched coil whine when it's displaying a lot of white on screen), so I normally keep it at 100Hz. I didn't exactly do any tweaking to the refresh rate settings either so it may be capable of more.

I've heard nothing but good things about the Korean 120hz displays, however I chose Overlord because they're a US company so in the event I needed warranty service/repair, I didn't want to deal with the hassle of shipping internationally.
 
I have one of their monitors from when the company first started. Its the non-oc, multi input version. Been running strong for 2+ years.
 
Does anyone know what has changed with the current pre-order version (reviewed @ TH that I linked to) vs. what' was sold in 2013? :confused:
 
beowulf7 said:
Does anyone know what has changed with the current pre-order version (reviewed @ TH that I linked to) vs. what' was sold in 2013? :confused:
Click to expand...

Compared to the first generation from late 2012, I know that the panel sub-type has been changed. But more significantly, the housing has received a big upgrade. Latest versions should have a better stand and tilt, and (unlike my first generation Tempest) can pivot to Portrait mode. Other than that, shouldn't ben too different.

If in doubt...email Overlord directly?
 
The real question for me is, does it use PWM? If no, it's a potential buy. If yes, its an absolute dealbreaker. I can't find this information on the Overlord Tempest X270OC anywhere.
 
Black Octagon said:
Compared to the first generation from late 2012, I know that the panel sub-type has been changed. But more significantly, the housing has received a big upgrade. Latest versions should have a better stand and tilt, and (unlike my first generation Tempest) can pivot to Portrait mode. Other than that, shouldn't ben too different.

If in doubt...email Overlord directly?
Click to expand...
I tried to call Overlord yesterday evening and today (916-635-1500). Both times I got their voice mail. So it seems like their hours are worse than banker hours! :eek:
 
beowulf7 said:
I tried to call Overlord yesterday evening and today (916-635-1500). Both times I got their voice mail. So it seems like their hours are worse than banker hours! :eek:
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I called them to cancel preorder pretty recently and got the man himself I think. Probably just busier than normal and out of the office. E-mail might get a fast response.
 
Bluesun311 said:
I called them to cancel preorder pretty recently and got the man himself I think. Probably just busier than normal and out of the office. E-mail might get a fast response.
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Did he ask why you canceled?

I just saw their office hours. Holy crap, just 9a-3p PT M-F! WTF, what kind of business runs just 30 hours/week (answering phones)? :confused:
 
linuxdude9 said:
The business is run by monitor enthusiasts and it's not their full-time work AFAIK.
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Hmm, that doesn't give me a warm and fuzzy if I have a warranty issue. I typically like decent hours so that I could call a company before after I go to work and not be restricted to while I'm at work.

Specs and price look good for this monitor (compared to the much pricier Asus one that's getting a lot of attention lately). But the crappy support hours and puny 1-year warranty give me apprehension, the same apprehension I get when considering a Korean/Ebay monitor. : \
 
beowulf7 said:
Did he ask why you canceled?
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Nope. Was super nice. The fact they even have their office hours posted seems like a good thing to me. I've talked to GreenSum personally, too and it wasn't toll-free and her hours are not written down anywhere. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a monitor from Overlord. Going fullon Korean is definitely much riskier. Scribby's going to make sure you get a working monitor no matter what. The Korean sellers will only support you if Paypal protection is still on your timecard. The moment the 30 days are up you are on your own pretty much.

Would I preorder something from GreenSum? Not on your life.
If my Catleap died right now I'd get an Overlord.

That said, I cancelled my order because Overlord was selling new monitors for more money before taking care of the preorders that had already been paid for. That seems kinda... ASIC-style.
 
Bluesun311 said:
Nope. Was super nice. The fact they even have their office hours posted seems like a good thing to me. I've talked to GreenSum personally, too and it wasn't toll-free and her hours are not written down anywhere. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a monitor from Overlord. Going fullon Korean is definitely much riskier. Scribby's going to make sure you get a working monitor no matter what. The Korean sellers will only support you if Paypal protection is still on your timecard. The moment the 30 days are up you are on your own pretty much.

Would I preorder something from GreenSum? Not on your life.
If my Catleap died right now I'd get an Overlord.

That said, I cancelled my order because Overlord was selling new monitors for more money before taking care of the preorders that had already been paid for. That seems kinda... ASIC-style.
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If there were no potential warranty issues, then I wouldn't mind the crappy hours. But we know pretty much any computer component or accessory is prone to breaking. Including monitors, so I'd feel more comfortable with extended hours. I'll have to consider the risk-reward of it. I know I can get an extended warranty (Square Trade) to alleviate my concerns a little. I haven't e-mailed them, so it's possible their e-mail support has better hours than their phone support.

I've heard the Ebay seller green-sum sucks, so I definitely wouldn't buy from him/her. Yeah, it's a little like playing the lottery with the Korean/Ebay sellers, despite their ~99% feedback rating.
 
I called them during their office hours. No live answer. I e-mailed them during their office hours as well (granted, about 5-10 min. before their quitting time.) No reply. I'm not getting a warm and fuzzy. Maybe I should "settle" for one of the MonoPrice monitors while their 12% sale is going on. : \
 
In case anyone is wondering, OLC's Sales e-mailed me back today (at 9:44 am PDT). I asked about the differences between the old and current version of this monitor. The reply said:
"Other than the housing, stand, base, power supply and panels themselves? We have made some changes to the PCBs as well."

So it seems like a lot has indeed change, presumably for the better, but I guess we'll never know.
 
I wonder when they will start shipping them out. They said that it would be shipping out this week but I have yet to receive mine nor receive a shipping notice. I'm pretty sure I was one of the first who pre-ordered back in May. I've definitely had thoughts of canceling and going with something different, but I've been waiting this long so what's another week... right?
 
Wendig0 said:
I wonder when they will start shipping them out. They said that it would be shipping out this week but I have yet to receive mine nor receive a shipping notice. I'm pretty sure I was one of the first who pre-ordered back in May. I've definitely had thoughts of canceling and going with something different, but I've been waiting this long so what's another week... right?
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It's worth waiting for, trust me. I got in on the December 2013 batch and I've been very impressed with mine. I just finished playing Tomb Raider on it and it was just beautiful on this monitor, a whole new experience from the 1080p Samsung 120Hz TN I started the game with. Just make sure to calibrate it (I just used one of the recommended pre-sets posted in the Overlord forums) & plug in Bluesun's timings in the CRU when you get it, his Catleap timings worked great on my Overlord :)

edit: I hope you have some updated hardware specs from those in your sig though Wendig0. Driving the high FPS on this beast requires a lot of GPU and CPU, though I suppose you know that.
 
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Wendig0 said:
I wonder when they will start shipping them out. They said that it would be shipping out this week but I have yet to receive mine nor receive a shipping notice. I'm pretty sure I was one of the first who pre-ordered back in May. I've definitely had thoughts of canceling and going with something different, but I've been waiting this long so what's another week... right?
Click to expand...

I don't have any inside knowledge but I think it will be this coming week. I am surprised you haven't received one yet. And I thought I waited a while. Indeed it should be well worth the wait.

Thanks Nuke. The timings are way more simple than CRU makes it seem when you first get into it. I just read ToastyX's explanations carefully and he pretty much says these exact timings somewhere. The only numbers that actually matter are the 2 totals (horizontal/vert). The other numbers might need to be adjusted slightly so that the total value becomes valid.
For the Catleap/overlord you should be able to use
horizontal 2704
Vertical 1444
That is the absolute tightest these pcbs can run afaik. The Qnix timings are typically somewhat different and seem to vary more.
 
When I e-mailed OLC, they said the monitors are stateside but waiting to clear Customs, who are doing a full container inspection and x-ray..
 
Cancel and get a pixel perfect Yamakasi for 330$ and a 3 year Squaretrade warranty. No point in paying more for the Overlord.
 
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beowulf7 said:
You mean this one?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Perfect-Pix...8170?pt=Computer_Monitors&hash=item19eff27aca

Too bad green-sum has a poor reputation from what I've read (despite his/her 99.6% feedback rating).
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I've bought 3 monitors from Korea and GreenSum's packing was by far the best. The monitor went through hell and the packaging looked... bent. Then when I got it home I realized it was double boxed. I'm still pissed I way "overpaid" for my Catleap but it is a really nice Qnix with a glossy coat, imo. They are very very similar. Color preset isn't exact but the whole "qnix is brighter" thing is a misnomer--it's luck of the draw and either way without some nasty backlight bleed or glow distorting the uniformity either one will be ~800-900:1 Contrast ratio. The Overlord has a nicer stand.
 
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beowulf7 said:
Too bad green-sum has a poor reputation from what I've read (despite his/her 99.6% feedback rating).
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Not really, and Paypal protection lasts for 45 days and you can buy a 3 year squaretrade warranty for 50$.
 
NukeDukem said:
I hope you have some updated hardware specs from those in your sig though Wendig0. Driving the high FPS on this beast requires a lot of GPU and CPU, though I suppose you know that.
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Yeah I haven't update my specs yet. My updated system is a 4970k with an r9 290x.


Bluesun311 said:
I don't have any inside knowledge but I think it will be this coming week. I am surprised you haven't received one yet. And I thought I waited a while. Indeed it should be well worth the wait.
Click to expand...

Overlord just updated their website and it seems like it will be shipping out next week. Too bad I won't be getting it this week but at least now they have a solid date for the may pre-orders.
 
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Eldest_One said:
My monitor is acting up so I was going to purchase this from E-Bay. But when i try to add Square Trade it does not show up in the cart with the monitor. Called E-Bay to find out whats going on as I will not purchase it without the Square Trade warranty.
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You don't even have to buy the warranty from square trade until the monitor arrives. You can definitely put one on the Catleap. I did.
 
^ Are Yam. Catleap and QNIX pretty much the same panel?

Overlord told me all of the monitors that arrived at their facility this week are spoken for (and will be shipped to the preordered folks), but they expect another shipment next week.
 
Bluesun311 said:
You don't even have to buy the warranty from square trade until the monitor arrives. You can definitely put one on the Catleap. I did.
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Yep I bought the Monitor after talking to the E-Bay person who told me the same thing. I guess E-Bay is having problems with their software. So all I did was called Square Trade up he asked for the item number and that was it. So when the Monitor arrives I will just register it by serial number.
 
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To make it overly simple:

The Overlord and Catleap are basically the same and are Glossy (they make a matte but...).

The Qnix uses a panel that has slightly better PQ in general and is Matte.
 
Eldest_One said:
Here you go 2 year old thread.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1287910/are-the-crossovers-an-overall-better-monitor-than-the-catleaps
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Bluesun311 said:
To make it overly simple:

The Overlord and Catleap are basically the same and are Glossy (they make a matte but...).

The Qnix uses a panel that has slightly better PQ in general and is Matte.
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Thanks, that's what I figure. But the biggest question mark in all of these monitors is QC. How lucky do you feel? Also, the stand for all of them suck, from what I've read. (Granted, one can mod the stand - get after market).

I'll check OLC's website in a couple days to see if they've restocked this monitor.
 
I've had this monitor for a year and have followed the company when they first started offering their products. It all came out of another organization which pushed to get these monitors going and there were a few very talented folks changing drivers, etc.

Overlord is legit, they put their heart and soul into what they are doing and were the first to really drive 120Hz gaming in the US. They put up their own money to buy in batches and have done extensive testing. It's been pretty cool watching them try to make a go of it.

Regarding the monitor, nothing wrong with it, but after time my power brick is failing. Other than that its a solid monitor for the price and no stuck pixels.

I recommend it and if you are in the US, its good to support a US company trying to make this happen.
 
Has anyone received this monitor? They apparently started shipping out a few days ago. I can't find any reviews of the Version 2 of this monitor, other than the Tom's Hardware one I mentioned toward the beginning of this thread. I wish OLC used a different model # to make searching for it easier (V1 vs. V2).
 
Don't compare the overlords to Korean 1440p monitors. Overlord uses the same panel, but the work they put into the rest of the screen is fantastic, and it shows. Also they have excellent CS based here in the USA. Very happy with my tempest
 
Lack of Display port = dead..(pstt DVI is on the way out)
Lack of OSD.. I'm ok with..
however charging you excessively more for negligibly less than similar products.. now you know why US products can't compete on a global scale.
I believe, by all accounts these are merely LG panels.. hell strip out the useless speakers, give me DP and MAYBE would be worth looking at however with the ability to get (for example) the viewsonic V2770 at the same price and not so questionable marketing (Overlords claim of "up to 120hz" might very well be against some consumer protection laws) then again many of the same people jumping over these as gaming nirvana, seemed to have problems with AMD HD290 series "up to 1000mhz" but not here..
/rant off
 
The hate is strong within the FrameBuffer! I wish him well getting that Viewsonic V2770 to 120Hz. ;)
 
FrameBuffer said:
Lack of Display port = dead..(pstt DVI is on the way out)
Lack of OSD.. I'm ok with..
however charging you excessively more for negligibly less than similar products.. now you know why US products can't compete on a global scale.
I believe, by all accounts these are merely LG panels.. hell strip out the useless speakers, give me DP and MAYBE would be worth looking at however with the ability to get (for example) the viewsonic V2770 at the same price and not so questionable marketing (Overlords claim of "up to 120hz" might very well be against some consumer protection laws) then again many of the same people jumping over these as gaming nirvana, seemed to have problems with AMD HD290 series "up to 1000mhz" but not here..
/rant off
Click to expand...

What customer protection laws would that be? They don't guarantee 120 hz. If people can't read what they put out there who's fault is that?
 
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