Ben Sun · 11-15-2009 · Category: Tech-planations

Test Setup and Software

Test System

• Core i5 750 running at 2.66GHz
• Core i5 750 Running in Turbo Boost Mode
• Kingston HyperX KHX1600C8D3K2/4GX 2x2GB DDR3 1600MHz memory running at 1333MHz
• 2 74GB WD Raptor SATA HDDs in RAID 0 Mode
• LG 16X DVD-RW
• Cooler Master 1000W PSU
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Starting off with the Core i5 750 CPU is the logical choice as is the mainstream CPU of the LGA-1156 lineup. The memory is the highest quality Kingston DDR3-1600MHz in dual channel mode. We have kept the WD Raptor 74GB HDDs as they are still fast though not as fast as the SSD drives on the market. The video card has also remained the same as the HD 4870 is still a relevant fast video card. The Cooler Master 620 CPU cooler cools off the Core i5 750 CPU well with 40C temperatures normal for this CPU and cooler. The LG 16X DVD-RW and Cooler Master 1000W PSU also are good fits as they do the job well in installing software and providing power to the system in general. Windows 7 is the latest Operating System from Microsoft and it was a good time to change the OS as Vista has been in use for years. The next question became which version of Windows 7 to use? With 4GB of DDR3 memory in the test system it was obvious that the Home Premium 64-bit Edition was the correct version of Windows 7 to use to test.

Tests

• Sisoft Sandra 2009 with SP4 Processor Arithmetic test
• X264 HD benchmark
• Sysmark 2007 Patch 1.06
• PCMark05/Vantage
• 3DMark Vantage
• wPrime
• SpecViewPerf
• CineBench 10

In putting together our new test system it was clear that using old versions of Sandra, wPrime, and the Futuremark benchmarks was not going to cut it. CPUBench was getting long in the teeth and was dropped for lack of 4 core CPU support. Crystalmark 2003 is about 6 years old now and was also dropped from the test bench along with PCMark05 and 3DMark06.

Tests

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Tests

3DMark Vantage is the latest 3DMark to come out from Futuremark so it was kept in the suite. Likewise PCMark Vantage was also kept in the benchmark test suite for the same reason. I felt we needed a CPU test and chose the CineBench benchmark as it is multi-processor aware and also has a built in OpenGL render test. Sisoft Sandra was updated in the test suite to 2009 with SP4 Edition as this was a good test of arithmetic. wPrime95 was replaced with wPrime 2000 which adds support for multi-threading. X264 is a video encoding benchmark and is useful for testing encoding.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Test Setup and Software
3. Performance - Sisoft Sandra 2009 with SP4 Processor Arithmetic
4. Performance - X264 HD benchmark
5. Performance - Sysmark 2007 Patch 1.06
6. Performance - PCMark Vantage
7. Performance - 3DMark Vantage
8. Performance - wPrime
9. Performance - SpecViewPerf
10. Performance - Specview 10-Turbo disabled
11. Performance - CineBench 10
12. Conclusion