The $750 Computing Challenge: Germany Versus USA

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USA Versus Germany Comparison Table, Test Setup

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Components USA Germany
CPU Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.16 GHz dual-core, 6 MB L2 cache, FSB1333) Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.4 GHz quad-core, 2x 4 MB L2 cache, FSB1066)
CPU Cooler Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro EKL Alpenföhn Groß Clockner
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L (P45 Chipset) Asus P5QL-SE (P43 Chipset)
RAM G.Skill PI Black 2x 2 GB DDR2-800 Kingston ValueRAM 2x 2 GB DDR2-800 KVR800D2N5K2/4G
Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar Green 1 TB WD10EADS, 32 MB Cache, SATA/300, 5,400 RPM Western Digital Caviar Blue 320 GB WD3200AAKS, 16 MB Cache, SATA/300, 7,200 RPM
Graphics Sapphire 100245L Radeon HD 4850 512 MB Sapphire Radeon HD 4870, 1 GB
Sound / Network integrated on motherboard integrated on motherboard
Case Antec Three Hundred PNL-Tech Rasurbo BC-05
Power Supply Antec EarthWatts EA 380 380 W PNL-Tech ATX 64BIT 460WP 460 W
Optical Drive Lite-On 20X DVD±R SATA Model iHAS120-04 Samsung SH-S223F SATA
Total Cost < $730 (570 Euros) ~600 Euros ($775)

Please keep in mind that the exchange rate between Euros and dollars keeps changing. Also, the prices for Europe include a 19% VAT, while prices for North America typically exclude sales tax, which may differ from state to state.

The US team spent a larger part of its budget on the motherboard, the hard drive, the memory, and the case and power supply, while the German team focused on purchasing maximum performance by getting a quad core processor and a faster graphics card model. Let’s look at the results!

Benchmark Setup

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3D Games Benchmarks and Settings
Benchmarks Details
Crysis Version: 1.2.1, Video Mode: 1680x1050, Overall Quality: low, Demo: CPU-Benchmark2 + Tom's Hardware Tool
Unreal Tournament 3 Version: 1.2, Video Mode: 1680x1050, Sound and DirectX10, Video Quality: Texture Details: 1, Level Details: 1, Demo: vCTF-CONTAINMENT_fly, Time: 12/60
World In Conflict Version: 1.0.0.9, Video Mode: 1680x1050 and 800x600, Video Quality: low details, Demo: Game-Benchmark
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Audio Benchmarks and Settings
Benchmarks Details
Lame MP3 Version 3.98, Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min, wave to mp3 conversion, 160 Kbps
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Video Benchmarks and Settings
Benchmarks Details
Mainconcept Reference 1.5.1 Reference H.264 Plugin Pro 1.5.1 Version: 1.5.1, 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 kbps), Codec: H.264, Mode: PAL (25 FPS), Profile: Tom's Hardware Settings for Qct-Core
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Application Benchmarks and settings
Benchmarks Details
WinRAR 3.8 Version 3.80 BETA 4 WinZIP Commandline Version 2.3 Compression = Best Dictionary = 4096 KB Benchmark: THG-Workload
Autodesk 3D Studio Max 9 Version: 9.0 Rendering a Dragon picture rendering HTDV 1920x1080
Adobe photoshop CS 3 Version: 10.0x20070321, Filtering from a 69 MB TIF-Photo, Benchmark: Tomshardware-Benchmark V1.0.0.4, Programmed by Tomshardware using Delphi 2007, Filters: Crosshatch, Glass, Sumi-e, Accented Edges, Angled, Strokes, Sprayed Strokes
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Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings
Benchmarks Details
3DMark Vantage Version: 1.02, Options: Performance, Graphics Test 1, Graphics Test 2, CPU Test 1, CPU Test 2
PCMark Vantage Version: 1.00, PCMark Benchmark, Score: Memory, TV and Movies, Gaming, Music, Communications, Productivity, HDD, Windows Media Player 10.00.00.3646

We used Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 for all tests.

Clock Speeds

Both the US and German teams decided to run the benchmarks at stock speeds and overclocked, to show the potential of their systems:

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Clock Speeds US: Core 2 Duo E8500 Germany: Core 2 Quad Q6600
Stock Speed 3.16 GHz (FSB1333) 2.40 GHz (FSB1066)
Overclocked to 3.95 GHz (FSB1664) 3.05 GHz (FSB1352)