We’re comparing today’s build to our September 2010 Hand-Picked Build, which was the follow-up to September’s original $2000 PC.
| Test Hardware Configurations | ||
|---|---|---|
| Current $2000 PC | Previous $2000 PC | |
| Motherboard (Overclock) | Gigabyte X58A-UD3R Intel X58 Express, ICH10R O/C to 189 MHz BCLK | Gigabyte X58A-UD3R Intel X58 Express, ICH10R O/C to 188 MHz BCLK |
| Processor (Overclock) | Intel Core i7-950 3.06 GHz, Four Physical Cores O/C to to 4.35 GHz, 1.40 V | Intel Core i7-970 3.2 GHz, Six Physical Cores O/C to to 4.0 GHz, 1.30 V |
| Memory (Overclock) | 6 GB Mushkin DDR3-1333 CAS 9-9-9-24, U/C at 1.60 V to DDR3-1133 CL 7-6-7-18 | 6 GB Mushkin DDR3-1333 CAS 9-9-9-24, O/C at 1.60 V to DDR3-1400, CL 8-8-8-24 |
| Graphics (Overclock) | 2 x EVGA GeForce GTX-470 607 MHz GPU, GDDR5-3348 O/C to 702 MHz, GDDR5-3404 | 2 x EVGA GeForce GTX-460 763 MHz GPU, GDDR5-3800 O/C to 845 MHz, GDDR5-4200 |
| Hard Drive | 2 x A-Data S599 SSD, Striped 64 GB x 2 (128 GB Combined) MLC, SATA 3Gb/s | Samsung F3 HD103SJ 1 TB, 7200 RPM 32 MB Cache, SATA 3Gb/s |
| Optical | Lite-On iHBS112 Blu-ray Drive, 12x BD-R, 16x DVD±R | Lite-On iHAS124, 24x DVD±R, 48x CD-R |
| Case | SilverStone Fortress FT02B | Antec Three Hundred Illusion |
| Power | SilverStone ST85F-P 850 W 850 W, 80 PLUS Silver | Seasonic SS-850HT 850 W, 80 PLUS Silver |
| CPU Cooler | Prolimatech Megahalems Rev.B, Delta AFC1212D-PWM Fan | Scythe Mugen 2 Rev. B (SCMG-2100) |
| Software | ||
| OS | Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 | |
| Graphics | Nvidia Forceware 260.99 | Nvidia Forceware 258.96 |
| Chipset | Intel INF 9.1.2.1007 | Intel INF 9.1.2.1007 |
We haven’t added any new benchmarks to address hard drive performance and program startup times, but have instead added a chart that shows the measured performance from several of PCMark’s individual hard drive tests. PCMark measures how long it takes to retrieve a group of files, including seek time and transfer time. Rather than report completion time, it divides the combined file size by completion time and reports the result in MB/s.
| 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, 8x 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 GB) to .mp4, High Profile |
| TMPGEnc 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 15.7 MB 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 334 MB Folder of ZIP/RAR compressed files |
| WinRAR 3.90 | Version x64 3.90, Dictionary = 4,096 KB, Benchmark: THG-Workload (334 MB) |
| 7-Zip | Version 4.65: Format=Zip, Compression=Ultra, Method=Deflate, Dictionary Size=32 KB, Word Size=128, Threads=8 Benchmark: THG-Workload (334 MB) |
| 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 |
Summary
- Luxurious Performance?
- Storage
- Motherboard And Graphics
- CPU And Memory
- CPU Cooling and Case
- Power And Optical Drive
- Hardware Installation
- Overclocking
- Test Settings
- Benchmark Results: 3DMark And PCMark
- Bechmark Results: SiSoftware Sandra
- Benchmark Results: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Benchmark Results: Crysis
- Benchmark Results: DiRT 2
- Benchmark Results: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call Of Pripyat
- Benchmark Results: Audio And Video Encoding
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Energy, Efficiency, And Heat
- Value Conclusion
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