The new system has a respectable graphics hardware advantage, featuring two Radeon HD 6950 1 GB boards in CrossFire. However, we’ll have to see how bottlenecked they are by the FX-6100 CPU. The previous system has a fast Core i5-2500K CPU, but a less-capable GeForce GTX 460 1 GB SLI configuration.
OCZ Vertex Series 30 GB SATA II SSD 30 GB, SATA 3Gb/s
Unchanged
Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar Black 750 GB 750 GB, 7200 RPM, 32 MB cache SATA 3Gb/s
Unchanged
Optical
Sony Optiarc DVD Burner24x DVD Burner
Unchanged
Case
Raidmax Atlas-295WB
Unchanged
Power
Corsair CX600 V2 600 W ATX12V, EPS12V, 80 PLUS-Certified
Unchanged
And here's the list of benchmarks:
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Benchmark Configuration
3D Games
Crysis
Patch 1.2.1, DirectX 10, 64-bit executable, benchmark tool Test Set 1: High Quality, No AA Test Set 2: Very High Quality, No AA
Metro 2033
Full Game, Built-In Benchmark, "Frontline" Scene Test Set 1: DX11, High, AAA, 4x AF, No PhysX, No DoF Test Set 2: DX11, Very High, 4x AA, 16x AF, No PhysX, DoF On
Just Cause 2
In-game benchmark: Concrete JungleTest Set 1: Medium Details, No AA, 8x AFTest Set 2: Highest Details, 8x AA, 16x AF
F1 2010
V1.01, Run with -benchmark example_benchmark.xml Test Set 1: High Quality Preset, No AA Test Set 2: Ultra Quality Preset, 8x AA
Audio/Video Encoding
iTunes
Version 9.0.3.15 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)
Don Woligroski was a former senior hardware editor for Tom's Hardware. He has covered a wide range of PC hardware topics, including CPUs, GPUs, system building, and emerging technologies.