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AMD FM1 CPU has three positions. First is entry platform by APU 3D performance. After then, it’s X4 CPU without IGP to build low cost 4 cores platform with A55 or A75 chipset. Finally, it’s K skus which is unlock version. Unfortunately, even K skus or 32nm manufacturing, CPU is hard to reach 3.6GHz in acceptable voltage. Formerly, windwithme already shared several A75 with A8-3850 reviews which are more high-end combo in FM1. This review is entry A6-3500 and A55 chipset. If you are looking for AMD APU, you can use it as your reference. APU owns good 3D performance and moderate OC ability. If you need high-end 3D applications, you better to have external VGA card. For only using IGP and need better 3D performance users, PU structure can be your good options. This article is also post in my blog WIND3C, Welcome your comments.

DDR3 1800.2 CL8 10-7-27 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 10230 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 16301 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 11462 MB/s DDR3 clock compares to CPU default. The difference is DDR3 1866 and DDR3 1800. As CPU clock increasing, three DDR3 bandwidth benchmark all have 14~22% improvement. Even though APU DDR3 bandwidth is far behind his competitor, OC to increase DDR3 bandwidth is some help. Temperature(Room is 22˚C) Enter to OS Desktop - 28 CPU Full Speed - 58 LinX 0.6.4 Temperature in entering OS desktop is much lower and full speed is similar. Do hope AMD 32nm APU or AM3+ CPU can improve the temperature report accuracy. In full speed mode, you can feel the heat by touching the cooler. You need better cooling system for OC AMD APU. Power Consumption Enter to OS Desktop - 34W CPU Full Speed - 95W LinX 0.6.4 G620 OCCT Power Supply Test (CPU/GPU Full Speed) - 117W After OC, the power only increases 4W. In CPU or CPU/GPU full speed also increases 19 and 20W. This power consumption compares to A6-3500 performance is too high. I hope AMD can solve it by improving manufacturing. AMD Radeon HD6530D UMA Frame Buffer Size 1GB 3DMark Vantage => P3927 FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080 => 882 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1920 X 1080 => 53.93 FPS As CPU clock rising, Radeon HD6530D 3D also improves 24~27%. Even though it’ slower than A8-3850 Radeon HD6550D, the 3D performance is very impressive in IGP platform. This is key APU advantage.

OC Setup - M.I.T. tuning page CPU Frequency from 100 to 135 Memory Clock change to x6.66 GPU Set Up Related Page. As former review, adjusting GPU clock is not improving 3D performance much. In APU platform, you only can rise DDR3 clock to improve 3D performance. Advanced DDR3 Setup Page This time I set it as CL8 10-7-27 1T. CPU Related Items. You can set up IGX here. PC Health Status APU OC range is not as high as old platforms, however, the clock range is still wide enough. OC is relying on CPU and DDR3 quality to adjust clock and voltage. It takes to fine tune the best setup. OC Performance Test CPU 135 X 25 => 2835MHz(Turbo Core up to 3240MHz) DDR3 1800.2 CL8 10-7-27 1T Hyper PI 32M X 3 => 21m 51.782s CPUMARK 99 => 428 Nuclearus Multi Core => 1766 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 11.53/5533 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 153049 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 2.60 pts CPU(Single Core) => 0.90 pts PCMark Vantage => 6298 The comparison of A6-3500 OC from 100MHz to 135MHz. Referring to CPUMARK, Fritz Chess Benchmark and CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU performance benchmark, single threading improves 34~35%. 3-core full speed performance also enhances 33%. This is very well.

Power Consumption Enter to OS Desktop - 30W CPU Full Speed - 76W LinX 0.6.4 G620 OCCT Power Supply Test (CPU/GPU Full Speed) - 97W A6-3500 power consumption in entering to OS desktop is good, but full speed is a little higher in entry system. Built-in GPU is around 21W consumption. As good 3D performance, it’s still acceptable range. AMD Radeon HD6530D Default Mode 3DMark Vantage => P3091 FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080 => 709 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1280 X 720 => 78.42 FPS 3D performance is AMD APU advantage. Built-in 3D performance is higher level in APU. As three 3D software scores, A6-3500 3D performance is 2.4~2.5 times faster than Pentium G620. StreetFighter IV Benchmark, resolution 1920x1080, for UMA Frame Buffer Size comparing. 256MB => 44.10 FPS 512MB => 44.17 FPS 1GB => 45.10 FPS 256MB and 12MB UMA Frame Buffer Size have less difference. 1GB also only has 1 FPS more. Actually, you can treat it as error. Some users would like to see the difference. I add the DDR3 capacity test as reference. BIOS Boot Up Screen

IO 1 X PS2 KB/Mouse D-SUB/DVI/HDMI Output 1 X S/PDIF Optical output 6 X USB 2.0(Red) 1 X RJ-45 LAN 3 X Audio jacks Test Configuration CPU: AMD A6-3500 MB: GIGABYTE A55M-S2H DRAM: CORSAIR CMX8GX3M2A1600C9 VGA: AMD Radeon HD6530D HD: WD 7200rpm 640GB POWER: be quiet! STRAIGHT POWER GOLDEN 550W Cooler: AMD original cooler OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit SP1 Performance Test CPU 100.0 X 21 => 2100.1MHz(Turbo Core up to 2400MHz) DDR3 1866.8 CL8 10-7-27 1T GPU 600MHz Hyper PI 32M X 3 => 28m 41.814s CPUMARK 99 => 317 Nuclearus Multi Core => 1315 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 8.65/4150 Nuclearus Multi Core doesn’t support Multi Thread Speed. It should be having issue for AMD APU 3 Cores CPU only. CrystalMark 2004R3 => 108281 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 1.95 pts CPU(Single Core) => 0.67 pts PCMark Vantage => 5328 I will compare the performance with former Intel Pentium G620 and AMD A6-3500. G620 market price is lower than A6-3500 which is similar product position. As CINEBENCH R11.5, in single thread performance, G620 is 55% higher than A6-3500. G620 dual core full speed is 3% faster than A6-3500 triple core. Fritz Chess Benchmark multi-tasking performance, G620 is 6% higher than A6-3500. A6-3500 is enough for general use. This is why I mentioned AMD multi cores can compensate the CPU performance. DDR3 1866.8 CL8 10-7-27 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 8933 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 13677 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 9379 MB/s FM1 APU DDR3 can run 1866 as default and OC to higher range. The bandwidth is not improved much. AMD AM3+ Bulldozer CPU is only AMD platform which improves the DDR3 bandwidth. Temperature(Room is 22˚C) Enter to OS Desktop - 18 CPU Full Speed - 48 LinX 0.6.4 About AMD 32nm CPU temperature, the test value will be much lower than actual temperature. Left side AISA64, you can see it’s much lower than room temperature. As internet data showed the CPU info is not accurate. Even though GIGABYTE Touch BIOS software temperature is more accurate, it’s still lower than real temperature.

AMD launched new APU structure, FM1 platform in July 2011. 6 months passed, there are only A75 and A55 chipsets support FM1 platform. However, FM1 CPU is getting more and more. Mainly it’s for mid to low market. The C/P is quite well. FM1 has X4/6 series as 4 Cores or K series for OC market. The main strength for FM1 platform is 3D performance of APU structure. How to pick higher built-in 3D graphic and CPU performance is key subject for selecting APU. Even though it’s an entry level product, the balance between built-in 3D graphic and CPU performance is important. Finally, I decide to buy AMD A6-3500, triple cores, and AMD HD6530D. I didn’t buy most entry A4-3300, because it’s only dual cores and HD6410Dis lower spec. As using A6-3500, more CPU cores can compensate the performance and the 3D performance is higher. Inside Box Product manual, sticker, cooler, and AMD A6-3500. FM1 CPU pins are complete different with AM3+. A55 chipset has no USB3.0 and SATA3 comparing to A75. For normal users or word process machine, A55 is enough. If you have more budget, you also can consider A75. This review I use GIGABYTE A55M-S2H, the form factor is Micro ATX. All solid caps for entry MB is regular components now. Also, it has GIGABYTE exclusive Super4 technology. Recently, it launched 4 years warrant which is conversed operation as 3C products is reducing their warranty. Lower-Left Corner 2 X PCI-E X16, first is X16 and second is X4. It supports AMD Dual Graphics. 1 X PCI-E X1 1 X PCI Realtek ALC889 Audio chip supports 7.1 channels and High Definition Audio. Realtek RTL8111E LAN chip and black connector is TPM module slot. Lower-Right Corner 6 X Blue SATA, provided by A55. It’s SATA2 and supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10 and JBOD. There are two front USB 2.0 in left and right is DualBIOS. Upper-Right Corner 2 X DIMM DDR3 support 1066/1333/1600/1866/2400(OC). DDR3 max capacity is 32GB. Next is 24-PIN power connector. Upper-Left Corner AMD CPU Socket FM1. It’s compatible with AM2/AM3 cooler. CPU uses 4+1 phases PWM. Upper left is 4Pin power in.

DDR3 2128.4 Cl9 11-10-27 2T the XMP mode ADIA64 Memory Read - 21312 MB / s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 50 004 MB / s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 17276 MB / s MaXXMEM Reached multi-memory score - 32.39 GByte / sec Performance comparison of bandwidth with dual-channel LGA 1155 and four-channel LGA 2011 I found that Sandra Memory Bandwidth achieved two times the level of dual-channel bandwidth when compared with CrystalMark MaXXMEM reached multi-memory score is also about 50% higher compared with dual-channel Other software at DDR3 bandwidth and dual channel were similar or lower: in the future we may need software that can support four-channel technology Test of Three Clocks with Different Parameters to Compare Bandwidth Differences If Sandra Memory Bandwidth is used as a benchmark, DDR3 efficiency will increase 14% from 1600 to 1866 If DDR3 is boosted from 1866 1T to 2133 2T, performance increases by 9.2%: the above was done with DDR3 bandwidth under various clock changes Power Consumption Test The OS Desktop did not use any software and C1E power-saving technology was turned on - 80W OS Desktop did not use any software and the C1E power saving technology was turned off - 174W With LinX running, we allowed the CPU to reach full speed - 322W There was little difference in power consumption performance compared with several other X79s I’ve tried before What’s worth mentioning is that the X79R-AX’s overclocking performance was a bit lower with the C1E standby status enabled If you use overclocking for a long time, I would recommend that you enable the C1E function for better performance in terms of temperature and power consumption Temperature performance (room temperature about 21 degrees) System Standby - 24 to 31 Running LinX with CPU at full speed - 61 to 71 For cooling, we used the Intel RTS 2011LC modular cooling system This allowed the 3960X OC 4.6GHz desktop to achieve a quite low temperature in a standby environment In addition, at full speed, the maximum temperature reached only about 71 degrees, so overclocking settings and temperature conditions were more suitable for long-term use 3D test msi N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II 3DMark Vantage CPU SCORE => 89 479 FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080 = 4705 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1920 X-1080 special effects set to maximum => 158.79 FPS For the 3D performance of a single GTX560 Ti, the LGA 1155 or LGA 2011 currently still achieve the highest standards of a desktop For the same VGA combined with a different level CPU, the 3D performance will be different: the performance of the Sandy Bridge-E architecture is quite good In addition, the X79R-AX can support technology up to the same four VGA CrossFireX or SLI boards For users who need a higher level of 3D performance, based on their needs, they can install the number of VGA boards necessary to obtain higher performance Also with room temperature at about 21 degrees and the 3960X OC overclocking at 4.6GHz, we used temperature measurement tools to check the temperature of the MOSFET In standby with C1E enabled, the temperature was about 36.1 degrees, and with C1E disabled, it went up to about 53.9 degrees, and the highest CPU burn-in temperature is approximately 79.2 degrees Compared with several X79s that I’ve used, the temperature performance of the X79R-AX in standby was relatively higher At full speed, the temperature was a little lower than the other two X79s, and the average performance of these two models was above average If you encounter a MOSFET temperature above 80 degrees, I would recommend overclocking to strengthen the heat dissipation in the area of the MOSFET In this article, windwithme has shared temperature measurements in each X79 as reference ECS X79R-AX Strengths 1. The overseas price is about US$310, equivalent to about NT$9175, a better value than a mid-range X79 2. Equipped with the SAS specification’s SATA design, up to 12 internal SATA devices may be installed 3. A rarely seen transmission design for wireless LAN and Bluetooth dongle communications 4. Qooltech IV cooling modules use a serial configuration of MOSFET chipsets for better heat dissipation 5. The high-end X79 has a 4-Way AMD CrossFireX/nVIDIA SLI configuration 6. Use of 14 MOS drivers for power supply, PCI-E, Gen3, CPU/DDR3 installed 15μ gold contacts Weaknesses 1. DDR3 is only available in 4DIMM packaging 2. When overclocking the CPU, the UEFI interface needs to be enhanced for stability 3. Market visibility and after sales service channels have room for improvement Performance ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 85/100 Materials ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 90/100 Specifications ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 91/100 Appearance ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ 79/100 Cost ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ 83/100 The visibility of ECS in the Taiwan market is not so good, but ECS brand motherboards are continuing to improve The X79R-A is better in terms of components and specifications than some other similarly priced X79s, and it even approaches some high-end X79 specifications In recent years in its high-end product lines, ECS has made visible progress and innovation, which is worthy of recognition With an 8DIMM design, the X79R-A can reach specifications of a very comprehensive standard Performance after overclocking was also good with DDR3 bandwidth from 1600 to 2133 above average The price of the X79R-AX was similar to or slightly higher than other motherboard makers’ entry-level X79s However, the overall specifications of the components were close to high-end standards in the X79 market, with a good cost to performance ratio among high-end X79 platforms ECS will be fairly competitive with a future 8DIMM version and in addition to improved hardware, better market channels This article is also post in my blog WIND3C, Any comments are welcome.

With the Smart Fan page, the user can adjust the mode of the fan speed to the reach the desired balance between cooling and quiet The above is for the ECS X79 UEFI interface with all of the options turned on If you want to overclock the CPU FSB and DDR3, it is recommended that you set the CPU VSA Voltage to between 1.000 and 1.200V It is easier to set the CPU overclocking multiplier: all you need to do is find a voltage that allows the CPU cooling system to operate stably Basically there are only three voltages that need to be set, these overclocking factors are the same as with other X79s The above photo shows the CPU/DDR3 set for 4.6GHz/2133, and is provided as reference to users with the same platform Test platform CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X Motherboard: ECS X79R-AX DRAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT CMT16GX3M4X2133C9 VGA: msi N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II Storage: CORSAIR Performance Pro Series 128GB POWER: Thermaltake, Toughpower Grand 1200W Cooler: Intel RTS 2011LC OS: Windows 7 Ultimate, 64bit Overclocking CPU 99.8 X 46 => 4590.8MHz full speed 1.356V Enabled C1E and turned off Turbo Boost DDR3 2128.4 Cl9 11-10-27 2T XMP mode 1.524V Hyper PI 32M X 12 => 12m 25.822s CPUMARK 99 => 702 x264, FHD Benchmark => 36.1 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 50.88/24424 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 450212 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 13.40 pts CPU (Single Core) => 1.86 pts The FRYRENDER Running Time => 2m 54s PCMark Vantage => 24951 The cooling device is the Intel RTS 2011LC, and we switched to a single 12cm high-speed fan that performed well while overclocking at 4.6GHz At full speed, the CPU voltage falls to 1.356V, and it passed several software tests and other burn-in software For single-threaded performance we used the old CPUMARK software or CINEBENCH R11.5, both of which provided data of considerable accuracy The above-mentioned benchmarks support 6C12T multithreading, and the 3960X currently provides nearly the highest performance data on desktop platforms For overclocking similar CPUs, we recommend the use of appropriate voltage and clock adjustments in accordance with the class of cooling device and the CPU on hand DRAM Test DDR3 1596.6 CL6 7-7-24 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 20083 MB / s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 40 134 MB / s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 16374 MB / s MaXXMEM Reached multi-memory score - 27.56 GByte / sec DDR3 1862.8 CL8 9-9-27 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 20329 MB / s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 45 782 MB / s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 16723 MB / s MaXXMEM Reached multi-memory score - 30.70 GByte / sec

Qooltech IV cooling device, which displays an orange pattern when the temperature rises to a certain range Back of motherboard has MOS driver components X79 heat sink, which will also display a special color when the temperature reaches a certain level The MOSFETs and chipsets all use Qooltech IV cooling modules, which together with the heatpipe design can effectively balance the temperature on both sides Photo of UEFI, providing choice of 10 different languages M.I.B X- Can set clock parameters or voltage settings for CPU and DRAM Voltage Levels CPU VCORE Voltage -300 to +700 mV CPU VSA Voltage -300 to +600 mV CPU VTT Voltage -200 to +500 mV PCH Voltage -200 to +300 mV DRAM Voltage -300 to +500 mV Page with information on CPU and related technology If you want to fix the CPU clock to avoid being beat by energy-saving technology, you should select the following two options Turn off Power Technology and Enhanced Halt (C1E) Page on advanced CPU options This can be used to independently set the multiplier for each CPU Core, and here all the CPU multipliers are set to 46 Page on DDR3 settings Turn on XMP technology, allowing the DDR3 clock to increase to 2133 Detailed parameters are Cl9 11-10-27 2T PC Health Status

Three Intel CPUs with the Sandy Bridge-E architecture have appeared on the market at different prices At the end of last year, two CPUs, the i7-3930K 6C12T Core and the 3960X, were released at the same time with the X79 chipset More recently, the Core i7-3820 was launched as the third CPU, mainly due to differences in the architecture and price of the 4C8T This appeared to give the entry-level LGA 2011 series a chance to compete with the high-end LGA 1155 series in the marketplace Based on the cost of these two high-performance platforms, they fall within purchasing range of high-end PC consumers The X79 chipset can be used with the LGA 2011 platform, and the environment is crowded with many brands of motherboards In terms of options and prices, this has indirectly given greater flexibility to the X79, a development that is more beneficial to consumers Now, we will share our findings on the X79-based X79R-AX that was released by ECS, a product positioned as part of the Black Series ECS has launched two models in the X79 space, the X79R-AX and the X79R-AX Deluxe There should be some netizens who together with me will feel the X79R-AX Deluxe is the more high-end version, yet in fact, the X79R-AX is the higher level version A glance shows that the X79R-AX uses black as the main color with white and gray as style accents The dimensions meet the 305mm x 244mm ATX form factor, allowing the choice of a wide range of cases The X79 is part of the Intel Extreme platform, and the price is a few levels higher than the mid-range to high-end Z68 chipset, but the specifications are almost all higher level Included Accessories English user manual, a quick start installation manual, an IO shield, an optical disk with driver software, a USB 3.0 front panel and a mobile connect wireless An SATA cable that connects to external eSATA devices, a protective plastic cover for the IO interface, SLI bridge Lower Left of Motherboard 4 X PCI-E X16, supporting up to 4-Way AMD CrossFireX/nVIDIA SLI technology Bandwidths of X16 + X8 + X16 + X8 2 X PCI-E X1 Dual LAN chip, the Realtek RTL8111E The audio chip is the Realtek ALC892, with 8 channels supporting HD Audio technology Bottom Right of Motherboard The X79R-AX allows the addition of quite a few SATA expansion ports, from right to left as follows Two gray SATA ports supported by the X79 chipset with SATA3 specifications Four white SATA ports supported by the X79 chipset with SATA2 specifications The above can be paired to set up RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10, depending on the highest performance SATA device that has been installed Four gray SATA ports enabled by the ASM1601 chip with the SATA3 SAS specification, supporting RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10 Two gray SATA ports enabled by the ASM1601 chip with SATA3 specifications, supporting AHCI (Simultaneously pressed) the Power/Reset/clr CMOS button and troubleshooting LED lights, to the far left in the front is the black USB 3.0 expansion port Top Right of Motherboard 24PIN power input, and below, six crossed round terminals allowing users to directly measure the voltage of the hardware with a multimeter Top of Motherboard The CPU uses 14 MOS drivers for the power supply combined with a very tactile thermal module that helps the MOSFET dissipate heat To the right and left are four DDR3 DIMMs supporting 1600/1866/2133/2400/2500 of memory with maximum capacity of 64GB DDR3 exceeding 2400 meets the OC specification, supporting the latest four-channel technology IO One Clear CMOS button One PS/2 keyboard/mouse port Six USB 2.0 ports (Red/Black) Two eSATA3/USB 2.0 ports (red) One Wireless LAN dongle One Bluetooth dongle Four USB 3.0 ports (blue) Two RJ-45 Ethernet ports Six audio jacks

Given the same ambient temperature (21 Celsius) and the same 3960X OC 4.75GHz overclocking setting, I measured the MOSFET temperature with a temperature measurement tool. The highest temperature is 43.1 Celsius during system standby, and 70.1 Celsius when the machine is running at maximum speed. Among the several X79s I have used, the TPower X79 records the lowest temperature during system standby and at full speed. It is 8~15 Celsius lower than other X79s. Possibly because of the heat pipe design, the temperature performance of MOSFET is outstanding whether on system standby or at full speed. If the temperature is too high, I suggest strengthening the MOSFET radiation when overclocking. Windwithme will measure the temperature of the hardware in this part for every article about X79, for reference. BIOSTAR TPower X79 ADVANTAGES 1. The overseas price is about US$230 (about NT$6800), which is quite affordable considering the choices for the advanced X79s. 2. The material is 2OZ combined with 8 layers of PCB, and the material specification of other hardware is better than many low-level X79s. 3. The new BIOS could increase the robust DDR3 up to 2400 stably. 4. The radiation system connects the MOSFET and chipset in series so as to lower the temperature more efficiently. 5. For the IO interfaces, it has 6 USB 3.0 interfaces. Including the interface on the front side, it has 7 USB 3.0 interfaces for expansion. 6. Audio chip supports THX technology. The metal cover enables it to have a smooth surface. DISADVANTAGES 1. The CPU voltage vibrates greatly, which is 1.440V during system standby and 1.416V at full speed. 2. It requires higher CPU voltage for overclocking to 4.8GHz or higher. 3. BIOSTAR has no current distribution channel in Taiwan. Performance ratio ★★★★★★★★★☆ 88/100 Material ratio ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 83/100 Specification ratio ★★★★★★★★★☆ 90/100 Appearance ratio ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 73/100 Cost/Performance ratio ★★★★★★★★★☆ 89/100 Stars are used to give a mark for each criterion, with each star representing 10 points. Ten stars represent a full score. However, the result seems inaccurate, so I calculated the score for each indicator. Scores were rounded to the nearest whole number in order to obtain more accurate scores. All these are my opinions after using the advanced X79 on the current market, which are hopefully an easy-to-understand reference. The photo is taken under the sunlight. The bright light and the golden glow contribute to a higher color contrast. It took me some effort in taking these photos. Thus, I feel outdoor photography is not as easy as it seems… Considering its affordable price, the BIOSTAR TPower X79 is worth it in terms of the specifications and the material. It almost equals the medium-level X79 which is sold at a price of more than US$300. In the whole X79 market, the C/P value is pretty high. If BIOSTAR could release the advanced X79 of 8DIMM DDR3 and 4Way SLI specification in the future, it could strengthen the X79 product line under its own brand and gain higher competitiveness. Together with the i7-3820 released lately, the BIOSTAR TPower X79 could provide another new option for the consumers whose budget is only for the high-level 4Cores Finally, I posted a Microsoft Excel file which indicates the overclocking performance data of several X79s which I shared recently. I hope it will help you in making comparisons if necessary. windwithme For X79 OC Data This article is also post in my blog WIND3C, Any comments are welcome.

DDR3 Test ADIA64 Memory Read - 21616 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 52918 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 18074 MB/s As for the bandwidth, among the various software I have used, SiSoftware Sandra and CrystalMark could reach the four-channel bandwidth. The obtained bandwidth (MB/s) is nearly twice that of the LGA 1155, which is really a breakthrough for X79 in terms of DDR3 performance. The TPower X79 could also reach a stable DDR3 2400 level, resulting in a good performance for the DDR3 overclocking range. Power consumption test No software running on the desktop and with the C1E power-saving technology enabled – 96W No software running on the desktop and with the C1E power-saving technology disabled –165W Running LinX and the CPU at full speed – 351W Regarding the power consumption test, it turns out that there is not much difference between X79 and other brands. It can perform well during system standby and overclocking to 4.75G. If you want to save power, you must enable the C1E function. The power consumption at full speed is quite high, which is also caused by the 6C12T overclocking to high frequency. Temperature performance (Ambient temperature is about 21 Celsius) System standby - 25~37 Running LinX and the CPU at full speed –58~64 Above is the temperature performance after 3960X overclocking. The heat sink used is the CORSAIR Hydro Series H80 all-in-one water cooling device. The temperature maintenance is quite good during system standby, and it is lower than the i7-2600K when at full speed. The metal cover of the water cooling device is not hot, and the temperature of the LGA 2011 CPU might be lower than the advanced LGA 1155 CPU. The Sandy Bridge-E CPU may be larger in size, hence the contact area for the heat sink is also larger and the heat conduction is much faster. 3D test msi N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II 3DMark Vantage CPU SCORE => 92320 FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080 => 4723 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1920 X 1080 with the best special effects enabled => 158.13 FPS According to my usage experience, the 3D performance of the CPU mainly depends on the processing performance of the CPU structure. The 3D performance of the Sandy Bridge-E structure is quite satisfactory. However, it will achieve better performance on the 3D software supporting multiple cores. For example, the CPU SCORE of 3DMark Vantage is higher than 90,000, which is the best among the desktop applications.

Test Platform CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X MB: BIOSTAR TPOWER X79 DRAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT CMT16GX3M4X2133C9 VGA: msi N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II Storage: CORSAIR Performance Pro Series 128GB POWER: Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1200W Cooler: CORSAIR Hydro Series H80 OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit BIOSTAR overclocking software TOVERCLOCKER The CPU and memory states could be displayed; the frequency could also be slightly adjusted. The voltage settings could be adjusted in the OS as well It provides three automatic overclocking modes, namely, V6, V12 and AUTO. I used the THX software interface when using the msi Gaming Notebook, which is practical in terms of audio performance. I selected the options of SMART VOLUME and DIALOG PLUS. It could optimize the sound field, but the specifications under medium-frequency will be lowered. I suggest using it under the audiovisual environment. Overclocking test CPU 128.4 X 37 => 4750MHz 1.416V at full speed Turn off C1E and Turbo Boost DDR3 2396.6 CL11 11-12-27 2T 1.625V Hyper PI 32M X 12 => 11m 52.578s CPUMARK 99 => 728 x264 FHD Benchmark => 37.9 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 53.00/25437 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 449076 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 13.85 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.92 pts PCMark Vantage => 25545 When the 3960X is overclocked to 4.75G, the voltage is 1.416V at full speed. I will share its performance under the stable working conditions. As an Extreme platform, the CPU could achieve the highest performance for desktop use whether under single-thread execution or multi-thread execution. If you want to do overclocking frequently, I suggest you do it under a good radiation environment, and keep the voltage lower than 1.45v.

This part uses three ASM 1042s, and provides 6 USB 3.0 interfaces for the user. From the large MOSFET radiation module, we can see a special design, leaving a larger space for radiation. The radiation module of X79 chipset is mainly in silver black. With the hairline crack on the appearance, its texture is quite good.. It is linked with the MOSFET radiation module by a heat pipe, so that the hardware temperature could be balanced effectively. BIOS adopts a UEFI interface and comes in plain color. BIOSTAR prioritized the practical application of the unit. Page for CPU information and related technologies O.N.E calibration page The default value of the 3960X is adjusted from 100MHz to 125MHz, and the Hlst Clock is also slightly adjusted so as to achieve the frequency of 128.3MHz The frequency multiplication of the CPU Ratio is adjusted to 37 and then the CPU C1E is turned off. Four CPU VCore Modes, namely, SPEC Volgate/Auto/Offset Mode/Fixed Mode CPU VCore Offset -0.200~+0.520V CPU VCore Fixed 1.000~1.520V There are four types of CPU VCore Modes, SPEC Volgate/Auto/Offset Mode/Fixed Mode CPU VCore Offset -0.200~+0.520V CPU VCore Fixed 1.000~1.520V DDR3 parameter and frequency settings Memory Multiplier is set at 18.67. By increasing the external frequency of the CPU, it will be close to DDR3 2400. The upper side is the detailed DDR3 parameter setting options The lower side is the voltage specification of the other parts. Except for CPU voltage, there are two other voltage options as follows. DRAM Voltage 1.150~2.075V Vcc SA 0.880V~1.820V PC Health Status The CPU temperature detected here is higher than the temperature felt from the air from the heat sink or that detected by the software installed in the OS. There are two methods of overclocking for the LGA 2011 structure. One is directly adjusting the CPU frequency multiplication and the DDR3 frequency, so that the CPU could reach 4.5~4.8GHz or higher. Moreover, the DDR3 could also be adjusted as 1600/1866 or 2133/2400 according to its power. The other method is more complicated. Overclocking is achieved by increasing the CPU frequency multiplication or testing the maximum limit of the DDR3 2400, which is helpful to those who pursue DDR3 limits. For either method, if you are in the environment of DDR3 2133 or higher or you are using the increased external frequency of the CPU, I suggest setting the Vcc SA voltage as 1.000~1.200V according to the CPU’s power so as to increase the stability.

It’s been more than three months since Intel Sandy Bridge-E was released last November. There are three types of CPUs, two 6C12T types, and the affordable 4C8T i7-3820 released lately. There are a lot of MB brands of Intel X79 chipset on the market. Among the various MB brands in the market, the X79 is considered as the newest state-of-the-art product. This time Windwithme is going to share the details about the overclocking experience of the X79 for the fourth time. The X79 is manufactured by BIOSTAR and it boasts of high-performance overclocking features and an affordable price. The currently released X79 belongs to the TPower series, and is classified as the technologically advanced product line of BIOSTAR. First, let’s have a look at the BIOSTAR TPower X79. It has 8 layers of PCB boards, and its whole body adopts black as the base color and red as the auxiliary color. White is used for the expanded slots. Based on the common ATX spec, it is 30.5cm X 24.4cm (W X L). In spite of its fair price, its material and specification can almost be considered as medium-level. Accessories Included: Product manual, IO board, SATA wires and CrossFire / SLI network bridge The lower left section of the motherboard 3 X PCI-E 2.0 X16 supports 3-Way AMD CrossFireX/nVIDIA SLI technology at most, and the bandwidth is X16 + X16 + X8 2 X PCI-E X1 2 X PCI Network chip: Realtek RTL8111E Audio chip Realtek ALC892 supports 8-channel Blu-ray Audio and THX TruStudio Pro technology at most The lower right section of the motherboard 3 X red SATA2 and 2 X white SATA3 connectors are provided by the X79 chipset; it supports RAID 0，RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10. The maximum performance depends on the installed SATA equipment. 2 X white SATA connectors are provided by the ASM1601 chipset, with the SATA3 specification and AHCI support. The blue section on the left includes the front USB 3.0 slot, power, reset buttons, and a simple built-in Debug LED The upper right section of the motherboard It has a 24-PIN power input and a second 8-PIN power input. The DDR3 adopts a two-phase power supply design. The CPU power supply design has 9 phases in total, namely, 6 VCORE phases, 1 VSA phase and 2 VCCIO phases. 4 X DIMM DDR3 slots support 800/1066/1333/1600/1866/2000(OC), and the highest DDR3 capacity supported is 32GB. It supports 4 channels and Extreme Memory Profile technology, and the upper left is the first 8-PIN power input. IO 1 X PS2 Keyboard 2 X USB 2.0(Black) 1 X S/PDIF Out 6 X USB 3.0(Blue) 1 X eSATA2(Red) 1 X RJ-45 Network hole 6 X Audio holes The upper side of the audio chip has a metal cover, where the BIOSTAR Logo is printed and which displays a red light when powered on.

Enable C1E power saving technology. BIOS set CPU voltage to -0.240V which is only 0.888V for standby and full speed. Enter to OS Desktop - 22W Running LinX to full speed CPU - 34W After lower CPU voltage to 0.888V, the standby voltage is close to C1E default 0.86V. The key is CPU full speed drops to 34W which is 20% lower. CPU temperature also goes lower. As this setup, you have to make sure your CPU can run stable. Video Playback Original Blue-Ray Video, Inception. The copyright belongs to publish company. I use software PowerDVD 10. During playing video, CPU utilization ratio is 22~35% CPU utilization ratio is around 22~35%. For 1920 X 1080 HD video, it can play smoothly. G530 built-in Intel HD Graphics CPU utilization ratio is not as low as HD 2000 or HD 3000, however, Intel entry platform is capable for HD video playback now. In the market, there is G540, but I prefer to use G620 to compare with. The performance and spec difference are bigger. It can be your next step option. It’s just one year. Intel entry PC cost drops almost 30%. It’s all due to Pentium and Celeron Sandy Bridge CPU appears. Also H61 MB competition, DDR3 and DVD-ROM price dropping, it makes users can have more powerful system in lower budget. If you change the HDD to 500G, plus DVD-ROM and Case, the cost is around 353USD. In this guide, I would like to have both performance and quality, so some components are more high end/ If you have budget concern, you can use DDR3 1333 4GB and none APFC 350W PSU. The cost will drop to 300USD. It will be the more entry Intel PC. It takes me around one week to finish this test. There are many brands in the market. You can adjust the spec by your requirement, budget and favorite brands. One day, if the 3D performance is not enough, you can just add an external VGA card to enhance it. 2012 is 12th anniversary of windwithme. I started this as passion and keep it till now. I will be always a neutral editor. I hope my review can be the complete guide to all users. It’s holiday season for building new PC. I hope this review is valuable for your reference. If I get time, I will share AMD entry PC. Wish all best to you. This article is also in my blog WIND3C, Any comments are welcome.

FINAL FANTASY XIV 1280 X 720 => 350 Monster Hunter Frontier => 1312 Improved 3D performance and HD video playback are key features for LGA 1155 platform. You can see the obvious progress. G530 and G620 both use Intel HD Graphics, but G530 3D performance is 22~30% lower. This is the key difference of these two CPUs. Intel HD Graphics OC to 1200MHz StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1280 X 720 => 28.63 FPS FINAL FANTASY XIV 1280 X 720 => 408 Monster Hunter Frontier => 1538 Pulling high GPU clock 20%, the 3D performance improves 15~17%. It’s better than nothing. If you need higher 3D performance, you better to choose G620 or G840. If you are playing 3D games, you better to have individual graphics card. Temperature (Room Temp. is around 19 degree C) Enter to OS Desktop - 26 Running LinX to full speed CPU - 33 ADIA64 temp is not so accurate. Sometimes, standby and full speed are similar. Changing to GIGABYTE Touch BIOS software, it’s more accurate. G530 standby and full speed only 7 degree C difference. Even using hand to touch CPU surface, the heat is low. G530 and LGA 1156 dual core CPU are both 32nm, but the temp still keeps improving. Power Consumption Enable C1E power saving technology. CPU standby 0.86V, full speed 1.08V Enter to OS Desktop - 22W Running LinX to full speed CPU - 42W OCCT Power Supply test (CPU/GPU Full Speed) - 53W G530 3D performance is far behind G620. However, the power consumption is better. Standby is only 22W and CPU/GPU full speed is only 53W. Power saving capability is Desktop No.1 so far.

Test Configuration CPU: Intel Celeron G530 MB: GIGABYTE H61M-S2PV DRAM: CORSAIR CMX8GX3M2A1600C9 VGA: Intel HD Graphics HD: TOSHIBA 2.5吋 750GB POWER: SEED V12 400W Cooler: Intel original cooler Default Performance Test CPU 99.8MHz X 24 => 2394.4MHz DDR3 1064.2 CL5 6-5-18 1T 1.500V Hyper PI 32M X 2 => 14m 29.420s CPUMARK 99 => 369 G530 2.4GHz/L3 2MB in single thread performance is lower than G620 2.6GHz/L3 3MB around 8%. Nuclearus Multi Core => 8315 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 7.33/3518 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 108836 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 1.83 pts CPU(Single Core) => 0.95 pts G620 single core in CINEBENCH R11.5 is 9.5% higher than G530. Single thread is 9.8% higher. You can see these two CPU L3 cache don’t impact performance much. It’s caused by G620 frequency is 200MHz higher than G530. PCMark Vantage => 5270 Windows Experience Index - CPU 6.3 x264 FHD Benchmark => 5.4 G530 is enough for normal application. Single thread is Sandy Bridge strength. Dual core CPU performance with this price is very high C/P in desktop market. If you would like to convert file, graphics editing or 3D game, you can choose higher frequency or more cores Intel CPU to enhance the performance. DRAM Test DDR3 1064.2 CL5 6-5-18 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 12960 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 13675 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 13700 MB/s Former LGA 1155 CPU built-in GPU caused lower DDR3 bandwidth. Sandy Bridge has improved this issue. DDR3 returns to original performance. DDR3 performance is another LGA 1155 platform strength. 3D Performance Intel HD Graphics default is 1000MHz StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1280 X 720 => 24.81 FPS

Power Supply I use SEED V12 400W. V12 and L12 series are SEED new mainstream product line. This price is around 53USD. V12 is 80Plus Cooper Certificate. It’s more power saving than L12. APFC structure with special design shell looks very good quality. If all cables are wrapped by black plastic, it will be even better. V12 provides two USB chargers. It’s very convenient for mobile devices power charging. If your budget is limited, you can useL12 400W, the price is lower. I think MTBF is also important, so I prefer to use better Power Supply. Due to Thailand serious flood last year, HDD price went up a lot. Recently, the price is lower. However, it’s still much higher than original price. Many users use 2.5” USB HDD to replace as the price is stable. This is also a way to save money. I use TOSHIBA 2.5” 750GB to test. Many users have higher confidence performance of Intel brand. The combination above is not absolute. You also can go for lower spec. one if your performance requirement is not high. Of course, if you have higher requirement, you can choose higher spec. Base on your requirement, budget and favorite brands to pick up own combination is the most fun in DIY PC. BIOS Screen Main BIOS Tuning Menu, called M.I.T. CPU ratio can lower. G530 DDR3 options are 800 and 1066MHz. Integrated Graphics clock can be higher to increase IGP 3D performance. DRAM Features Advanced setup, I set it as CL5 6-5-18 1T to enhance bandwidth. I also tried other entry DDR3 1333, but cannot run well in above CL. Voltage Page Dynamic Vcore(DVID) -0.320~ +0.640V Graphics DVID -0.200~+4.80V DRAM Voltage 1.100~2.400V I set GPU shared memory to 480MB+2MB. PC Health Status G530 C/P value is quite good for non-OC users. For higher performance requirement, you can change by your demand. H61M-S2PV can be OC to enhance GPU performance and lower CPU voltage to save power. BIOS is still not UEFI, but traditional interface is faster and more stable.

Entering 2012, following up is Chinese New Year. This year is most popular year of Chinese, Dragon Year. Looking back the market last year, DIY PC became smaller due to light users who just need internet surfing or use easy apps, moved to Notebook, tablet or Smart Phone. Even though, Desktp still has good performance, better audio/video, and upgradability. For office or students, it’s more suitable for word processing and Online Game. Desktop PC is still the highest C/P option for larger size monitor and making long time usage more comfortable. This is windwithme annual entry PC sharing. Last year, I shared AMD first. This year, I go for Intel first. Sandy Bridge CPU launched cheaper Pentium and Celeron series. H61 MB price is lower than H55 due to MB makers tough competition. LGA 1155 CPU plus MB can save much money. Maybe this is the price strength caused by smaller DIY market. CPU Processor Inte Celeron G530, just launched last Sep. 2.4GHz, 32nm, 2MB L3 cache, D2 Revision Physical 2 Cores without Hyper-Threading supports max 2 threading, called 2C/2T. Price is around 47USD. Contents Product manual, original cooler, Intel Celeron G530 CPU Even it’s Celeron naming, Sandy Bridge G530 performance is not bad. LGA 1155 Pentium L3 cache is 3MB. This is the main difference of Intel new generation CPU. MB Currently, Intel most popular integrated video output chipset is H61 for entry or Z68 for high end. There are many H61 models in the market. You can find plenty features and specs. I pick H61 mid-range GIGABYTE H61M-S2PV. It’s around 70USD. GIGABYTE H61M-S2PV main feature is Ultra Durable 4. Glass Fabric PCB technology, anti-surge ICs, Physical dual BIOS, ICs with up to 3 times the ESD resistance levels, 100% solid caps and Lower RDS(on) MOSFETs Even though there are lower price H61 models, I prefer to have PCI and DVI on board. DRAM DDR3 price is lower and lower. 2GBx2 is only for tight budget users. Windows7 64-bit is getting more popular, 4GBx2 becomes mainstream spec. I use CORSAIR xms3 4GBX2 dual channel version. 1600 version price is a little bit higher. CORSAIR is international well-known brand and its stability test procedure is very strict. The price is acceptable range. This model price is around 50USD. Celeron G530 with H61 only support DDR3 1066. It’s still slower than entry DDR3 1333. If you use higher frequency DDR3, you can enhance CL in 1066 to rise the bandwidth. For budget concern or no heatsink requirement, you can just pick entry DDR3 1333.

Last, under the same room temperature 21℃ and over-clocking of CPU OC 4.7GHz, the temperature of MOSFET is measured by temperature-measured software. The performance is pretty good compare to others X79- standby 44.7℃ and burning 83.6℃, which is contributed to heat sink since most of X79 motherboards will over 80℃ while over-clocking. I personally suggest emphasizing heat dissipation when over-clocking. The following product review of X79 will also measure the temperature of the hardware as reference. FOXCONN Quantum Force QUANTUMIAN1 Pros 1. Quantum Force possesses artistic exterior packing and high-end standard materials 2.Japanese 100% solid capacitor embedded POWER/RESET/CMOS Reset button and debug light. 3. Up to 4 X PCI-E X16 which effectively level up 3D performance. 4. Outstanding over-clocking performance which only requires 1.286V when 4.7GHzand DDR3 2400 5. Special OC Switch Button design to directly provide over-clocking request. 6. Dual gigabit LAN, 2xeSATA and PWM 14-phase Cons 1. To suggest add the selection of DRAMIT in BIOS 2. To install the current trend of motherboard market-UEFI BIOS 3. To improve the FOXCONN MB brand visibility and channel Performance ★★★★★★★★★☆ Material Usage ★★★★★★★★☆☆ Specification ★★★★★★★★☆☆ Appearance ★★★★★★★★★☆ Price/Quality ★★★★★★★★☆☆ It has been 3 years for Intel to update the previous high-end product line X58 chipset of LGA 1366. It is expected that the structure of LGA 2011 would be market for at least 2-3years which is longevity than Intel lower-end product line. However, theoretically, high-end chipset performs much better than others. Quad DDR3 and the bandwidth of Dual PCI-E X13 are the most featured strengths. Besides, CPU supports 6C12T which is lack from middle-end LGA1155. Though X79 belongs to high-end product line, it segmented by entry level, middle-end and high-end based on price. The price of FOXCONN QUANTUMIAN1 is around USD$275 which possesses the entry price of X79 but performs as same as middle-end X79, USD$330. It indirectly promotes the C/P of QUANTUMIAN1. QUANTUMIAN1 performs quiet outstanding. CPU 4.7GHz / DDR3 2400 could be achieved by stable voltage. Besides, it is a steal to have 4 X PCI-E X16 under this price. On top of that, the color and materials of motherboard meets the standard of high-end product line. It would be better if BIOS update could add UEFI interface and 1T selection in the near future. In recent years, the selectable motherboard brands become less and less. It would be great if FOXCONN could continuously roll-out more Quantum Force product line and to have more products to support more models. To populate more high-end and various FOXCONN product line would provide numerous benefits for hard-core users. This article is also post in my blog WIND3C, Any comments are welcome.

3D test msi N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II 3DMark Vantage CPU SCORE => 91380 FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080 => 4707 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1920 X 1080 => 305.85 FPS The scores of 3DMark Vantage on CPU SCORE is incredible high, it’s contributed by Intel 6C12T without question. Other 3D Game test software do not take many advantages on multiple cores, they would get higher scores based on CPU. Basically, it’s rarely for game to support up to CPU of 4 cores therefore the rendering ability of CPU structure is highly important. Power Consumption test There is no required software to open CIE power saving technology, 77W, under OS desktop. There is no required software to open CIE power saving technology, 177W, under OS desktop. To operate LinX to full speed CPU - 364W The power consumption of 3960X 6C12T CPU over-clocking 4.7GHz It is more to say that C1E is a outstanding power saving choice, which you can save around 100W when you open C1E technology under stand by mode. The power consumption when the CPU full speed is 364W which is no difference compared to the previous combination of X58 and 980X OC 4GHz. The above theory is as same as high-end VGA. The next high-end VGA generates much more performance but with no difference on power consumption compared to the previous same product level. It is proved that Sandy Bridge-E possess higher clock and more progress on power saving. Temperature (Room temperature is around 21℃ When system standby- 33~37 To operate LinX to full speed CPU - 61~66 One minute afte the end of LinX operation - 36~38 Core i7-3960X is the highest Intel CPU specification. It’s suggested to use much higher-end cooler under over-clocking. The temperature performance of both standby and full speed under OC4.7 GHz over-clocking is quiet excellent. In order to avoid the gap between the temperature-measured software and actual temperature, the heat pipe of water cooling is just warm but hot. Whether you are using CORSAIR Hydro Series H80 water cooling when test or CPU high-end cooler, when CPU is extreme over-clocking, it is the one and only way to pay attention to thermal.

Installable application software Too bad that there is no AEGIS PANEL software Over-clocking testing CPU 100 X 47 => 4700MHz 1.286V DDR3 2400 CL10 11-11-27 2T 1.55V Hyper PI 32M X 12 => 11m 39.521s CPUMARK 99 => 719 x264 FHD Benchmark => 37.6 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 52.36/25134 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 464186 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 13.74 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.90 pts PCMark Vantage => 28771 It only requires about 1.28V of 3960X OC 4.7GHz to steadily operated above testing software. Since the thread of Sandy Bridge-E3960X/3930K is up to 6C12T, above testing performance is higher than 50% compared to 2600K /2700K 4C8T under the same clocking, which is at the same time one of the featured highlight even though the price of CPU is higher than the market. DDR3 is using the United States CORSAIR high-end DOMINATOR-GT series, which the style# is CMT16GX3M4X2133C9 Clock is 2133、parameter is CL9 11-10-27 1.50V，capacity is 4 X 4GB Quad channel DDR3 chipset is another X79 primary featured new technology which first one ever supports DeskTop. It supports the latest 1.3 version at Extreme Memory Profile(XMP) automatically over-clocking. In other wards, you would not able to enable XMP if your DDR3 is not the latest XMP 1.3version. To enable XMP DDR3 2134.4 CL9 11-10-26 2T test ADIA64 Memory Read - 21702 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 50428 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 17733 MB/s Over- clocking DDR3 2400 CL10 11-11-27 2T 1.55V ADIA64 Memory Read - 22692 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 54348 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 18144 MB/s Both ADIA64 and MaXXMEM do not make any obvious effort under the structure of Duad channel; however the memory bandwidth of Sandra and above test CrystalMark is higher than two times than LGA 1155 platform. It seems the software technology of supporting quad channel will plays an critical role on performance gap of DDR3. CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT could steadily up to DD3 2400 under QUANTUMIAN1 default voltage. The performance of over-clocking is pretty amazing, which is partly contributed to the scope of over-clocking of DDR3 in X79 chipset.

BIOS Main FOXCONN hasn’t imported UEFI interface which is much more artistic and controlled by mouse compared to traditional BIOS. However, it takes time to power on and the frequency of crash shutdown is comparably high. Quantum BIOS CPU selection menu When over clocking, if you don’t CPU clock to be fluctuated downwards, you need to adjust the following selection. CPU C1E Enhanced Halt State closing To higher IA Core Current MAX and Power Limit 1/2 Value, the following example is to adjust to 2000 Power Technology is requested to be closed so that CPU clock won’t be fluctuated when over-clocking above 4.5GHz DDR3 parameter setting selection which provided various DRAM to slightly adjust parameter and steadily utilize it. The following setting is DDR3 2400 CL10 11-11-27 2T Voltage menu CPU PLL Voltage 1.80~2.43V CPU VAS Voltage Offset +10~+630mV CPU Core Voltage Offset +10~+630mV CPU VTT (Uncore) Voltage 1.005~2.011V Patsburg PCH Core Voltage 1.005~2.011V DRAM Voltage (VDIMM1 & VIDMM2) 1.005~2.307V DRAM Voltage (VDIMM3 & VIDMM4) 1.005~2.307V Hardware Monitor Above is the over-clocking of both raising CPU multiplier and DDR3 clock. The voltage of both CPU and DDR3 has to be paid attention and so as the optimal of DDR3 parameter. If you want to over-clock to above DDR3 2133, except for DDR3, CPU VAS Voltage Offset plays another critical role. Voltage+100mV has to be setup. Above is the over-clock setting by windwithme, which is the reference for x79 platform. Testing platform CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X MB: FOXCONN Quantum Force QUANTUMIAN-1 DRAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT CMT16GX3M4X2133C9 VGA: msi N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II HD: CORSAIR Performance Pro Series 128GB POWER: Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1200W Cooler: CORSAIR Hydro Series H80 OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit FOXCONN software setup menu Full screen and outer space background are shown up after power on.

Ever since Intel officially launch Sandy Bridge-E new platform in 2011 November, several motherboard companies successively roll out new motherboard based on X79 chipset to support Intel next generation high-end platform. Due to the continuous effort of self-own brand management made by FOXCONN, Quantum Force series still dominant high-end motherboard. FOXCONN X79 QUANTUMIAN1 still provides various choices for the market though the quantities of Quantum Force series are not as various as they are in the past time. Soon after the release of Intel X79 chipset, FOXCONN promptly roll out corresponding X79 motherboard. Quantum Force was naming in a special way which the Intel code won’t be shown on the models. This time, QUANTUMIAN1 which belongs to the series of Quantum Force still follows the high-end style both in material and design. The patterns shown on exterior packing of high-end product are always different which exhibits the great efforts on art design. The full picture of FOXCONN QUANTUMIAN1 Quantum Force is common to use black and red to create contrast visual sense. Currently, there are more and more motherboard brands adopt these two colors to match. It is known that the market segment of QUANTUMIAN1 X79 is positioned as high-end product line. Besides, the corresponding specification, design and featured over clocking function have also been highly highlighted. Accessories Product manual, easy guide, nVIDIA SLI 3Way bridge, CD and IO shield SATA connectors and cables both in red and yellow DC power cable SATA The lower left side of motherboard 4 X PCI-E 2.0 X16，supports 4Way CrossFireX / 3Way nVIDIA SLI Bandwidth X16+X8+X16+X8，PCI-E slot is using X16 1 X PCI-E X1 1 X PCI Dual Gigabyte Lan, Realtek 8111E and Intel 82975V Audio, Realtek ALC892, supports up to 7.1 channel and High Definition Audio The lower right side of motherboard 2 x red SATA3, provided by x79 chipset 4 x black SATA2, provided by x79 chipset Above could mix to establish RAID0, RAID1, RAID5 and RAID 10. The maximum performance could be determined by installed SATA 2 x red SATA3, provided by ASM1601 chipset Dual BIOS、1 X front panel header and 1 X USB 2.0 device slot The upper right side of motherboard The color of DDR3 DIMM slot is also red in order to be consistent to the other parts, from which we can see that FOXCONN pays a lot of attention on minor design as well. The upper black part is 24-PIN power input. The right black parts are front USB3.0 expansion slots. The upper side of motherboard LGA 2011 CPU adopt 14 phase digital PWM, heat sink on upper side of motherboard could heat dissipation for MOSFET Both left and right side, 4 X DIMM DDR3 which supports up to 32GB of system memory Quad channel DDR3 2400(oc*)/2133 (oc*)/1866(oc*)/1600/1333/1066, supports Extreme Memory Profile IO 1 X PS2 keyboard port 6 X USB 2.0(black) 1 X Clera CMOS button(black triangle) 1 X S/PDIF out port 2 X Gigabit LAN 2 X USB 3.0(blue) 2 X eSATA(orange) 6 ports audio jacks OC Switch Button In the OC mode, pressing the OC_SW2 button will increase the CPUclock by 1MHz per step, and the debug led code will increase 0.1 at the same time. The debug led code “0.1” means the CPU clock is101MHz. A row of sliver small round dot means PCB Voltage Sensor which users could directly measure voltage.