Introduction
Here's a list of the System Builder Marathon (SBM) articles in this five day series.
- Day 1: The Low-Cost PC
- Day 2: The Mid-Cost PC
- Day 3: The High-Cost PC
- Day 4: All Three SBM PCs Overclocked
- Day 5: Summary - The Price/Performance Winner
It's time for the highly anticipated overclocking segment of our System Builder Marathon, where each builder puts his overclocking credentials on the line in order to prove the extra value of his component choices. Some of this week's configurations were a little more controversial than those of previous marathons, but will daring to be different pay off?
Before we go into the overclocking results of each system, here's a quick look at the benchmarks we've selected.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
| Benchmarks and Settings | |
|---|---|
| 3D-Games | |
| Crysis | Version: 1.1Video Quality 1: High Details No Anti-AliasingVideo Quality 2: Very High Details, 4x Anti-AliasingBenchmark: Benchmark_CPU.bat |
| Prey | Version: 1.3Video Quality 1: Default (No AA, 8x AF)Video Quality 2: High Quality, 4x AABenchmark: THG-Demo |
| Supreme Commander | Version: 3.220Video Quality 1: DefaultVideo Quality 2: High Fidelity, High Shadow, 4x AABenchmark: Real 60 Game |
| Unreal Tournament 3 | Version: RetailTexture Detail: 5World Detail: 5Field of View: 100Benchmark: Botmatch (WAR-Torlan, 12 bots, 1 Minute) |
| Warhammer Mark of Chaos | Version: 1.6Video Quality:Default (Highest Settings)Demo: THG Timedemo (1 Minute) |
| Audio | |
| iTunes 7.2 | Version: 7.1.1.5Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 minHigh Quality (160kb/s) |
| Lame MP3 | Version: 3.98 Beta 3 (05-22-2007)Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 minwave to MP3160kb/s |
| Video | |
| TMPEGEnc 4.0 Xpress | Version: 4.2.10.211Import File: Terminator 2 SE DVD (5 Minutes)Resolution: 720x576 (PAL) 16:9Audio: Dolby Digital, 48000 Hz, 6-Channel, EnglishAdvanced Acoustic Engine MP3 Encoder (160kb/s) |
| DivX 6.6 | Version: 6.6.1Profile: Home Theater Profile (720 x 576)1-pass, 780 kb/sEncoding mode: Insane QualityEnhanced multithreading |
| XviD 1.1.2 | Version: 1.1.2Target quantizer: 1.00 (maximum quality) |
| Applications | |
| Adobe Photoshop CS3 | Version: 10.0x20070321Filtering 69 MB TIF PhotoBenchmark: Tom's Guide-Benchmark V1.0.0.4 |
| Autodesk 3D Studio Max | Version: 9.0Rendering One Video FrameQuality: HTDV 1920x1080 & 1280x720 |
| Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus | Version: 7.5.467Virus Base: 269.6.1/776Benchmark: Scanning 3.82 GB Application Folder |
| Maxon Cinema 4D | Version: 10.008Resolution: 1280 x 1024Benchmark: Rose Drop, 8-bits (50 Frames) |
| Rarlab Winrar | Version 3.70 BETA 8Compression = BestDictionary = 4096 kBUncompressed Folder Size: 642 MB |
| Synthetics | |
| SPECviewperf 9 | Version: 9.0.3 |
| PCMark05 Pro | Version: 1.1.0System, CPU and Memory TestsWindows Media Player 11.0.6000.6324Windows Media Encoder 9.00.00.2980 |
| Futuremark 3DMark 2006 | Version 1.10System Test Only |
| SiSoftware Sandra XII | Version 2007.5.11.40CPU Test = CPU Arithmetic, MultimediaMemory Test = Bandwidth Benchmark |
