Introduction
After several days of system descriptions and basic testing, we reach the most anticipated portion of this month’s System Builder Marathon: the overclocking competition. All three of our new builds are purposely designed to offer the best overclocking performance for the dollar, which is almost certain to provide the biggest gains to the slowest processor. Yet excessive cooling provides a glimmer of hope for our most expensive system, and that’s where we’re starting this month.
Before we move on to individual system details, here’s a look at the one constant for all systems: the benchmark set.
Row 0 - Cell 0 | 3D-Games |
Crysis | Version: 1.1 |
Row 2 - Cell 0 | Video Quality 1: High Details No Anti-Aliasing |
Row 3 - Cell 0 | Video Quality 2: Very High Details, 4x Anti-Aliasing |
Row 4 - Cell 0 | Benchmark: Benchmark_CPU.bat |
Prey | Version: 1.3 |
Row 6 - Cell 0 | Video Quality 1: Default (No AA, 8x AF) |
Row 7 - Cell 0 | Video Quality 2: High Quality, 4x AA |
Row 8 - Cell 0 | Benchmark: THG-Demo |
Supreme | Version: 3.220 |
Commander | Video Quality 1: Default |
Row 11 - Cell 0 | Video Quality 2: High Fidelity, High Shadow, 4x AA |
Row 12 - Cell 0 | Benchmark: Real 60 Game |
Unreal | Version: Retail |
Tournament 3 | Texture Detail: 5 |
Row 15 - Cell 0 | World Detail: 5 |
Row 16 - Cell 0 | Field of View: 100 |
Row 17 - Cell 0 | Benchmark: Botmatch (WAR-Torlan, 12 bots, 1 Minute) |
Warhammer | Version: 1.6 |
Mark of Chaos | Video Quality:Default (Highest Settings) |
Row 20 - Cell 0 | Demo: THG Timedemo (1 Minute) |
Row 21 - Cell 0 | Audio |
iTunes 7.2 | Version: 7.1.1.5 |
Row 23 - Cell 0 | Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min |
Row 24 - Cell 0 | High Quality (160kb/s) |
Lame MP3 | Version: 3.98 Beta 3 (05-22-2007) |
Row 26 - Cell 0 | Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min |
Row 27 - Cell 0 | wave to MP3 |
Row 28 - Cell 0 | 160kb/s |
Row 29 - Cell 0 | Video |
TMPEGEnc | Version: 4.2.10.211 |
4.0 Xpress | Import File: Terminator 2 SE DVD (5 Minutes) |
Row 32 - Cell 0 | Resolution: 720x576 (PAL) 16:9 |
Row 33 - Cell 0 | Audio: Dolby Digital, 48 kHz, 6-Channel, English |
Row 34 - Cell 0 | Advanced Acoustic Engine MP3 Encoder (160 kb/s) |
DivX 6.6 | Version: 6.6.1 |
Row 36 - Cell 0 | Profile: Home Theater Profile (720x576) |
Row 37 - Cell 0 | 1-pass, 780 kb/s |
Row 38 - Cell 0 | Encoding mode: Insane Quality |
Row 39 - Cell 0 | Enhanced multithreading |
XviD 1.1.2 | Version: 1.1.2 |
Row 41 - Cell 0 | Target quantizer: 1.00 (maximum quality) |
Row 42 - Cell 0 | Applications |
Adobe | Version: 10.0x20070321 |
Photoshop CS3 | Filtering 69 MB TIF Photo |
Row 45 - Cell 0 | Benchmark: Tom’s Guide-Benchmark V1.0.0.4 |
Autodesk | Version: 9.0 |
3D Studio Max | Rendering One Video Frame |
Row 48 - Cell 0 | Quality: HTDV 1920x1080 and 1280x720 |
Grisoft AVG | Version: 7.5.467 |
Anti-Virus | Virus Base: 269.6.1/776 |
Row 51 - Cell 0 | Benchmark: Scanning 3.82GB Application Folder |
Maxon | Version: 10.008 |
Cinema 4D | Resolution: 1280x1024 |
Row 54 - Cell 0 | Benchmark: Rose Drop, 8 bits (50 Frames) |
Rarlab Winrar | Version 3.70 BETA 8 |
Row 56 - Cell 0 | Compression = Best |
Row 57 - Cell 0 | Dictionary = 4096 kB |
Row 58 - Cell 0 | Uncompressed Folder Size: 642 MB |
Row 59 - Cell 0 | Synthetics |
SPECviewperf 9 | Version: 9.0.3 |
PCMark05 Pro | Version: 1.1.0 |
Row 62 - Cell 0 | System, CPU and Memory Tests |
Row 63 - Cell 0 | Windows Media Player 11.0.6000.6324 |
Row 64 - Cell 0 | Windows Media Encoder 9.00.00.2980 |
Futuremark | Version 1.10 |
3DMark 2006 | System Test Only |
SiSoftware | Version 2008.1.12.30 |
Sandra XII | CPU Test = CPU Arithmetic, Multimedia |
Row 69 - Cell 0 | Memory Test = Bandwidth Benchmark |
And now for the results!