Hardware

One of the most important factors when undertaking a custom PC build is the design and functionality of the chassis itself.  It sets the tone for the build to come, and for some, even dictates specifically which components are needed to match the case. It is the centerpiece of any build, and more importantly, a part that you will always …

The memory market has seen a lot of fluctuation and change in the past year. RAM timings have gotten lower, performance has gotten better, and prices have submarined to a point where consumers can easily afford to fill their entire DIMM slots. Because of these market conditions, many memory manufacturers have slowed down their production, offerings, and some have even …

PACKAGE AND MEMORY OVERVIEW G.Skill has packaged the F3-14900CL9D-8GBXL in a standard plastic clam shell with cardboard insert which is a far cry from the dreaded blister pack. Clam shell cases are typically the norm and while some can be too loose to hold the stick in place, there was no such issue here. Everything came securely in place, and …

FEATURES AND SPECIFICATIONS Now that we have taken a closer look at the modules, lets dive into the internal specifications: Even though the official specifications are designed for Intels Sandy Bridge platform, they are also backwards-compatible with first-generation Core processors, as well as the AM3+ chipset, as illustrated by the proceeding CPU-Z and test results. NEXT: Testing Methodology and Overclocking INDEX Page 1: Introduction …

TESTING METHODOLOGY AND OVERCLOCKING I decided to use only two clock-speeds to test the modules, as the stock speed is already at a relatively high 1866MHz: In order to present an unbiased review, I decided to test the G.SKILL RipjawsX Series kit on both an AMD and Intel platform. The memory benchmarks and overclocking results are recorded from both architectures, …

MEMORY BENCHMARKS Finalwire AIDA64 Extreme Engineer Edition AIDA64 Extreme Edition is a streamlined Windows diagnostic and benchmarking software suite. AIDA64 Extreme provides a wide range of features to assist in overclocking, hardware error diagnosis, stress testing, and sensor monitoring. It has unique capabilities to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives. SiSoftware Sandra Professional Business Edition …

COMPUTATION AND PRODUCTIVITY BENCHMARKS *ONLY THE INTEL TEST-SYSTEM WAS USED FOR THESE TESTS 7-Zip 64-Bit Edition 7-Zip is an open source file archiver designed originally for Microsoft Windows. 7-Zip operates with the 7z archive format, and can read and write several other archive formats. The program can be used from a command line interface, graphical user interface, or Windows shell integration. Sorenson Squeeze 7.0 Sorenson Squeeze …

GAMING BENCHMARKS *ONLY THE INTEL TEST-SYSTEM WAS USED FOR THESE TESTS Battlefield: Bad Company 2 In Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the Bad Company crew again find themselves in the heart of the action, where they must use every weapon and vehicle at their disposal to survive. The action unfolds with unprecedented intensity, introducing a level of fervor to vehicular warfare …

Z68 CHIPSET-SPECIFIC BENCHMARKS *ONLY THE INTEL TEST-SYSTEM WAS USED FOR THESE TESTS LucidLogix Virtu In a nutshell, Virtu is software developed by LucidLogix that allows the use of a dedicated GPU and the CPU’s integrated GPU (as present on Sandy Bridge processors) simultaneously (much like AMD’s APU architecture). Seeing as how I do not have an AMD APU to work with …

OVERALL SYSTEM BENCHMARKS *ONLY ONLINE RESULTS ARE POSTED IN ORDER TO REDUCE CLUTTER Futuremark 3DMark 11 Professional Edition 3DMark 11 is the latest version of the worlds most popular benchmark for measuring the graphics performance of gaming PCs. Designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that …