Test Settings
Swipe to scroll horizontally
| March 2010 System Builder Marathon Components | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | $550 PC | $1,000 PC | $2,000 PC |
| Motherboard (Overclock) | Asus M4A77TD Chipset: AMD 770/SB710O/C to 254 MHz Ref. Clk. | MSI 790X-G45 Chipset: AMD 790X/SB710 O/C to 214 MHz Ref. Clk. | Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Chipset: Intel X58 ExpressO/C to 195 MHz BCLK |
| Processor (Overclock) | AMD Athlon II X3 435 2.9 GHz Three Cores, 1.5MB L2 CacheO/C to 3.556 GHz at 1.488V | Phenom II X3 720 2.8 GHz Three Cores, 6MB L3 CacheO/C at X4 to 3.4 GHz, 1.5V | Intel Core i7-930 2.80 GHz Four Cores, 8MB L3 CacheO/C to 4.1 GHz at 1.44V |
| Memory (Overclock) | 2GB Crucial DDR3-1333 CL 9-9-9-24, O/C at 1.60V to DDR3-1355, CL 8-8-8-24 | 4GB Crucial DDR3-1333 CL 9-9-9-24, O/C at 1.50V to DDR3-1426, CL 9-9-9-24 | 6GB Crucial DDR3-1333 CL 9-9-9-24, O/C at 1.60V to DDR3-1560, CL 8-8-8-20 |
| Graphics (Overclock) | PowerColor Radeon HD 5770 800 MHz GPU, GDDR5-4800O/C to 910MHz, GDDR5-5640 | 2 x Gigabyte Radeon HD 5830 800 MHz GPU, GDDR5-4000O/C to 820 MHz, GDDR5-4400 | 2 x Gigabyte GeForce GTX 470 607MHz GPU, GDDR5-3482O/C to 643 MHz, GDDR5-3584 |
| Hard Drive | Samsung HD502HJ 500MB, SATA 3Gb/s 7,200 RPM, 16MB Cache | Western Digital WD3200AAJS 320GB, SATA 3Gb/s 7,200 RPM, 8MB Cache | Samsung HD103SJ 1TB, SATA 3Gb/s 7,200 RPM, 32MB Cache |
| Optical | Samsung SH-S223C 22x DVD±R, 48X CD-R | Lite-On iHAS124 24x DVD±R, 48X CD-R | LITE-ON iHES208-08 8x BD-ROM, 16X DVD±R |
| Case | Cooler Master Elite 330 | Antec Three Hundred | Antec Three Hundred Illusion |
| Power | CM RS-500-PCAR-A3 500W, Dual 12V at 18A | Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650W, Single 12V at 52A | SilverStone DA750 750W Modular, 80-Plus Silver |
| CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper TX3 | Cooler Master Hyper TX3 | Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.B with Scythe Slip Stream SY1225SL12LM-P fan |
| Software | |||
| OS | Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 | ||
| Graphics | AMD Catalyst 10.5 | Nvidia Forceware 197.75 | |
| Chipset | Intel INF 9.1.1.1020 |
Overclocking requires extensive stability tests, which in turn consume huge quantities of time. Yet, there are legitimate shortcuts that can reduce the number of settings tested. For example, we’ve seen processors based Intel’s 45 nm production technology deteriorate fairly quickly (months rather than years) when pushed slightly beyond 1.45V, so the $2,000 machine’s CPU overclock stopped short of 1.45V, even though the machine had enough cooling to support the higher voltage levels needed to achieve even better clock rates.
Similarly, we’ve tested enough of these particular Crucial modules to know that they consistently exceed DDR3-1960 at CAS 9 and reach DDR3-1600 at CAS 8. With that tidbit of information, limited test time is the only somewhat-acceptable excuse today’s builders can use for not pushing the above modules farther into performance realms.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
| Benchmark Configuration | |
|---|---|
| 3D Games | |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 | Campaign, Act III, Second Sun (45 sec. FRAPS) Test Set 1: Highest Settings, No AA Test Set 2: Highest Settings, 4x AA |
| 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 | Run with -benchmark example_benchmark.xml Test Set 1: High Quality Preset, No AA Test Set 2: Ultra Quality Preset, 8x AA |
| S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call Of Pripyat | Call Of Pripyat Benchmark version Test Set 1: High Preset, DX11 EFDL, No AA Test Set 2: Ultra Preset, DX11 EFDL, 4x MSAA |
| Audio/Video Encoding | |
| iTunes | Version:9.0.2.25 x64 Audio CD (Terminator II SE), 53 minutes Default format AAC |
| Handbrake 0.9.4 | Version 0.9.4, convert first .vob file from The Last Samurai (1.0GB) to .mp4, High Profile |
| TMPEGEnc 4.0 XPress | Version: 4.7.3.292 Import File: Terminator 2 SE DVD (5 Minutes) Resolution: 720x576 (PAL) 16:9 |
| DivX Codec 6.9.1 | Encoding mode: Insane Quality Enhanced multithreading enabled using SSE4 Quarter-pixel search |
| XviD 1.2.2 | Display encoding status = off |
| MainConcept Reference 1.6.1 | MPEG2 to MPEG2 (H.264), MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG2), Audio: MPEG2 (44.1 KHz, 2 Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s), Mode: PAL (25 FPS) |
| Productivity | |
| Adobe Photoshop CS4 | Version: 11.0 x64, Filter 15.7MB TIF Image Radial 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: 270.14.1/2407, Benchmark: Scan 334MB Folder of ZIP/RAR compressed files |
| WinRAR 3.90 | Version x64 3.90, Dictionary = 4,096 KB, Benchmark: THG-Workload (334MB) |
| 7-Zip | Version 4.65: Format=Zip, Compression=Ultra, Method=Deflate, Dictionary Size=32KB, Word Size=128, Threads=8 Benchmark: THG-Workload (334MB) |
| Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | |
| 3DMark Vantage | Version: 1.0.1, 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 |
TOPICS
