3DMark loves the 3-way SLI graphics setup of our newer-and-cheaper system, but its lead goes away at higher details.
PCMark’s system and productivity test scale almost directly with CPU operating frequency, showing no gains for the new features of our $2,500 PC’s Core i7 processor. Our new system’s RAID 5 array also lags behind the former build’s RAID 0, but users should appreciate its redundancy.
Sandra’s CPU tests show big performance gains for our $2,500 PC’s new processors, especially in the math test.
A combination of on-die memory controller and triple-channel memory configuration provides our new system with the expected memory bandwidth advantages.
Summary
- Upgrading To First Class…On The Cheap
- CPU, CPU Cooler, And RAM
- Motherboard, Graphics, And Hard Drives
- Case, Power, And Optical Drive
- Accessories And Assembly
- Overclocking
- Test Settings
- Benchmark Results: First-Person Shooters
- Benchmark Results: Real-Time Strategy
- Benchmark Results: Audio/Video Encoding
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Benchmark Results: Synthetics
- Power Consumption
- Conclusion
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