System Builder Marathon, Q4 2012: $2,000 Performance PC

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Benchmark And System Configurations

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Test Hardware Configurations
Row 0 - Cell 0	Q4 2012 $2,000 PC	Q3 2012 $2,000 PC
Processor (Overclock)	Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50 GHz, Four Physical Cores O/C to 4.40 GHz, 1.26 V	Intel Core i7-3930K 3.20 GHz, Six Physical Cores O/C to 4.60 GHz, 1.32 V
Graphics (Overclock)	2 x MSI R7970-2PMD3GD5/OC: 1010 MHz GPU, GDDR5-5500 O/C to 1125 MHz GDDR5-6300	EVGA 02G-P4-2670-KR: 980 MHz GPU, GDDR5-6008 O/C to 1301 MHz GDDR5-7048
Memory (Overclock)	8 GB G.Skill DDR3-1600 CAS 8-8-8-24, O/C at 1.60 V to DDR3-2133 CL 10-11-10-24	16 GB G.Skill DDR3-1600 CAS 8-8-8-24, O/C at 1.60 V to DDR3-2133 CL 10-11-10-24
Motherboard (Overclock)	Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H: LGA 1155, Intel Z77 Express Stock 100 MHz BCLK	ASRock X79 Extreme4: LGA 2011, Intel X79 Express Stock 100 MHz BCLK
Optical	Asus BW-12B1ST 16x BD-R	Asus BW-12B1ST 16x BD-R
Case	Cooler Master Storm Enforcer	NZXT Phantom 410
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo	Scythe Mugen 3 Rev. B SCMG-3100
Hard Drive	Mushkin Chronos Deluxe DX 240 GB, SATA 6Gb/s SSD	Mushkin Chronos Deluxe DX 240 GB, SATA 6Gb/s SSD
Power	Corsair HX750: 750 W, ATX12V V2.3 80 PLUS Gold	Seasonic SS-850HT: 850 W, ATX12V, 80 PLUS Silver
Software
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Graphics	Catalyst 12.10	Nvidia GeForce 301.42
Chipset	Intel INF 9.3.0.1020	Intel INF 9.2.3.1020

Our System Builder Marathon is moving to a new set of benchmarks, but I decided to give the old suite one last shot to simplify the comparison between this build and its predecessor. The current build’s data for new benchmarks will appear in our Day 4 value comparison.

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Benchmark Configuration
3D Games
Battlefield 3	Campaign Mode, "Going Hunting" 90-Seconds Fraps Test Set 1: Medium Quality Defaults (No AA, 4x AF) Test Set 2: Ultra Quality Defaults (4x AA, 16x AF)
DiRT 3	V1.01, Run with -benchmark example_benchmark.xml Test Set 1: High Quality Preset, No AA Test Set 2: Ultra Quality Preset, 8x AA
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim	Update 1.5.26, Celedon Aethirborn Level 6, 25 Seconds Fraps Test Set 1: DX11, High Details No AA, 8x AF, FXAA enabled Test Set 2: DX11, Ultra Details, 8x AA, 16x AF, FXAA enabled
StarCraft II	V1.5.1, "Tom's Hardware Guide V2" custom map, 60s Fraps Test Set 1: High Details, High Quality Test Set 2: Ultra Details, Extreme Quality
Audio/Video Encoding
iTunes	Version 10.4.1.10 x64: Audio CD (Terminator II SE), 53 minutes, default AAC format
Lame MP3	Version 3.98.3: Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min, convert WAV to MP3 audio format, Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kb/s)
HandBrake CLI	Version 0.95: "Big Buck Bunny" (720x480, 23.972 FPS) 5 Minutes, Audio: Dolby Digital, 48 000 Hz, Six-Channel, English, to Video: AVC Audio: AC3 Audio2: AAC (High Profile)
MainConcept Reference	Version: 2.2.0.5440: MPEG-2 to H.264, MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG-2), Audio: MPEG-2 (44.1 kHz, Two-Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s), Codec: H.264 Pro, Mode: PAL 50i (25 FPS), Profile: H.264 BD HDMV
Productivity
Adobe Photoshop CS5	Version 12.1 x64: Filter 15.7 MB TIF Image: Radial Blur, Shape Blur, Median, Polar Coordinates
Autodesk 3ds Max 2012	Version 14.0 x64: Space Flyby Mentalray, 248 Frames, 1440x1080
WinZip	Version 15.5 Pro: THG-Workload (650 MB) to ZIP, command line switches "-a -ez -p -r"
WinRAR	Version 4.1: THG-Workload (650 MB) to RAR, command line switches "winrar a -r -m3"
7-Zip	Version 9.22: THG-Workload (650 MB) to .7z, command line switches "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=5"
ABBYY FineReader	Version 10.0.102.82: Read PDF save to Doc, Source: Political Economy (J. Broadhurst 1842) 111 Pages
Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings
3DMark 11	Version: 1.0.1.0, Benchmark Only
PCMark 7	Version: 1.0.4 x64, System, Productivity, Hard Disk Drive benchmarks
SiSoftware Sandra 2011	Version 2011.10.17.80, CPU Test = CPU Arithmetic / MultiMedia, Memory Test = Bandwidth Benchmark