Test System And Benchmarks
We compare our new build to the $1,500 Core i7 system we put together for our last SBM in March of 2010. That system had the benefit of two Radeon HD 5850 cards in CrossFire, in addition to the Core i7-920 CPU.
With $500 chopped off of our budget, we're not fooling ourselves into thinking we'll achieve the same performance. However, we do think that there's a good chance our overclocked performance will be in the same league as the stock performance that the $1,500 Core i7 system achieved.
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| $1,000 Enthusiast PC Test Settings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | Standard Speed | Overclocked |
| Motherboard | MSI 790X-G45 Socket AM3 Chipset: AMD 790X | Unchanged |
| Processor | Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition 2.8 GHz 3Cores, 6MB L3 Cache (OEM) | 3.424 GHz at 1.5V,16x multiplier, 214 MHz Base Clock |
| Memory | Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3-1333 Dual-Channel Desktop Memory Kit, CAS 9-9-9-24-1T | DDR3-1426, CAS 9-9-9-24-1T |
| Graphics | 2 x Radeon HD 5830 (CrossFireX) 1GB GDDR5-4000 Per CardRadeon HD 5830 GPU at 800 MHz | GDDR5-4400 820 MHz GPU |
| Hard Drives | WD Caviar Blue 320GB 320GB, 7,200 RPM, 8MB Cache SATA 3.0 Gb/s | Unchanged |
| Optical | Lite-On iHas12424x DVD+R, 8x DVD+RW, 48x CD ROM | Unchanged |
| Case | Antec Three Hundred | Unchanged |
| Power | Corsair CMPSU-650HX 650W ATX12V, EPS12V , 80-Plus Certified | Unchanged |
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| $1,500 Enthusiast PC (From Previous SBM) Test Settings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | Standard Speed | Overclocked |
| Motherboard | ASRock X58 Extreme LGA-1366 Chipset: Intel X58 Express | Unchanged |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-920 2.66 GHz 4 Cores, 8MB L3 Cache | 3.9 GHz, 195 MHz Reference Clock |
| Memory | Crucial 6GB (3x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3-1333 533 MHz (1,066 MHz DDR), CAS 7-7-7-59 | DDR3-1560, CAS 8-8-8-18 |
| Graphics | 2 x Radeon HD 5850 (CrossFireX) 1GB GDDR5-4000 Per Card Radeon HD 5850 GPU at 725 MHz | GDDR5-4500 775 MHz GPU |
| Hard Drives | Western Digital Caviar Black 750GB 7,200 RPM, 32MB Cache SATA 3.0 Gb/s | Unchanged |
| Optical | Samsung SH-S2232C22x DVD+R, 8x DVD+RW, 16x DVD ROM, 48x CD ROM | Unchanged |
| Case | Cooler Master CM 690 | Unchanged |
| Power | Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V, EPS12V, 80-Plus Certified | Unchanged |
And now for the benchmarks:
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| 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 |
| DiRT 2 | In-game benchmarkTest Set 1: High Quality Preset, No AATest Set 2: Ultra Quality Preset, 8x AA |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | Campaign, Act III, Second Sun (45 sec. FRAPS)Test Set 1: Highest Settings, No AATest Set 2: Highest Settings, 4x AA |
| S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:Call of Pripyat | S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call Of Pripyat benchmark versionTest Set 1: High Preset, DX11 EFDL, No AATest Set 2: Ultra Preset, DX11 EFDL, 4x MSAA |
| World in Conflict | Patch 1009, DirectX 10, timedemo Test 1: Very High Details, No AA / No AF Test 2: Very High Details 4x AA / 16x AF |
| Audio/Video Encoding | |
| iTunes | Version: 9.0.2.25 x64Audio CD ("Terminator II" SE), 53 minDefault format AAC |
| Handbrake 0.9.4 | Version 0.9.4, convert first .vob filefrom "The Last Samurai" (1.0GB) to .mp4 High Profile |
| TMPGEnc 4.0 Express | Version: 4.7.3.292Import File: "Terminator 2" SE DVD (5 Minutes)Resolution: 720x576 (PAL) 16:9 |
| DivX 6.9.1 | Encoding mode: Insane QualityEnhanced multithreading enabled using SSE4Quarter-pixel search |
| XviD 1.2.2 | Display encoding status = off |
| MainConcept Reference 1.6.1 | MPEG2 to MPEG2 (H.264), MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG2) Audio: MPEG2 (44.1 KHz, 2 Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s) Mode: PAL (25 FPS) |
| Productivity | |
| Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64-bit) | Version: 11.0 x64, Filter 15.7MB TIF ImageRadial Blur, Shape Blur, Median, Polar Coordinates |
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2010 | Version: 11.0 x64, Rendering Dragon Image at 1920x1080 (HDTV) |
| Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus 9.0 | Version: 9.0.663, Virus base: 270.14.1/2407Benchmark: Scan 334MB Folder of ZIP/RAR compressed files |
| WinRAR 3.90 | Version x64 3.90, Dictionary = 4,096KB, Benchmark: THG-Workload (334MB) |
| 7-Zip | Version 4.65: Format=Zip, Compression=Ultra, Method=Deflate, Dictionary Size=32KB, Word Size=128, Threads=8Benchmark: THG-Workload (334MB) |
| Synthetic Benchmarks | |
| 3DMark Vantage | Version: 1.01, GPU and CPU scores |
| PCMark Vantage | Version: 1.0.1.0 x64, System, Productivity, Hard Disk Drive benchmarks |
| SiSoftware Sandra 2010 | Version 2010.1.16.11, CPU Test = CPU Arithmetic / MultiMedia, Memory Test = Bandwidth Benchmark |
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