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.
| 3D-Games | |
| Crysis | Version: 1.1 |
| Video Quality 1: High Details No Anti-Aliasing | |
| Video Quality 2: Very High Details, 4x Anti-Aliasing | |
| Benchmark: Benchmark_CPU.bat | |
| Prey | Version: 1.3 |
| Video Quality 1: Default (No AA, 8x AF) | |
| Video Quality 2: High Quality, 4x AA | |
| Benchmark: THG-Demo | |
| Supreme | Version: 3.220 |
| Commander | Video Quality 1: Default |
| Video Quality 2: High Fidelity, High Shadow, 4x AA | |
| Benchmark: Real 60 Game | |
| Unreal | Version: Retail |
| Tournament 3 | Texture Detail: 5 |
| World Detail: 5 | |
| Field of View: 100 | |
| Benchmark: Botmatch (WAR-Torlan, 12 bots, 1 Minute) | |
| Warhammer | Version: 1.6 |
| Mark of Chaos | Video Quality:Default (Highest Settings) |
| Demo: THG Timedemo (1 Minute) | |
| Audio | |
| iTunes 7.2 | Version: 7.1.1.5 |
| Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min | |
| High Quality (160kb/s) | |
| Lame MP3 | Version: 3.98 Beta 3 (05-22-2007) |
| Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min | |
| wave to MP3 | |
| 160kb/s | |
| Video | |
| TMPEGEnc | Version: 4.2.10.211 |
| 4.0 Xpress | Import File: Terminator 2 SE DVD (5 Minutes) |
| Resolution: 720x576 (PAL) 16:9 | |
| Audio: Dolby Digital, 48 kHz, 6-Channel, English | |
| Advanced Acoustic Engine MP3 Encoder (160 kb/s) | |
| DivX 6.6 | Version: 6.6.1 |
| Profile: Home Theater Profile (720x576) | |
| 1-pass, 780 kb/s | |
| Encoding mode: Insane Quality | |
| Enhanced multithreading | |
| XviD 1.1.2 | Version: 1.1.2 |
| Target quantizer: 1.00 (maximum quality) | |
| Applications | |
| Adobe | Version: 10.0x20070321 |
| Photoshop CS3 | Filtering 69 MB TIF Photo |
| Benchmark: Tom’s Guide-Benchmark V1.0.0.4 | |
| Autodesk | Version: 9.0 |
| 3D Studio Max | Rendering One Video Frame |
| Quality: HTDV 1920x1080 and 1280x720 | |
| Grisoft AVG | Version: 7.5.467 |
| Anti-Virus | Virus Base: 269.6.1/776 |
| Benchmark: Scanning 3.82GB Application Folder | |
| Maxon | Version: 10.008 |
| Cinema 4D | Resolution: 1280x1024 |
| Benchmark: Rose Drop, 8 bits (50 Frames) | |
| Rarlab Winrar | Version 3.70 BETA 8 |
| Compression = Best | |
| Dictionary = 4096 kB | |
| Uncompressed Folder Size: 642 MB | |
| Synthetics | |
| SPECviewperf 9 | Version: 9.0.3 |
| PCMark05 Pro | Version: 1.1.0 |
| System, CPU and Memory Tests | |
| Windows Media Player 11.0.6000.6324 | |
| 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 |
| Memory Test = Bandwidth Benchmark |
And now for the results!