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Formerly, most ITX platform spec is always using NoteBook CPU and SO-DIMM. These components raise the system cost and the MB price is also much higher than ATX MB. In the past 3 years, HTPC market started to ramp. ITX products are easier to find now. In the past, AMD ITX platform is easy to find due to its high 3D performance IGP. Since Intel LGA 1156 IGP performance caught up AMD and Sandy Bridge is 3~5 times faster 3D performance. Many MB makers launched H67 or H61 ITX MB and the price is much lower. Mostly, the price is only a little higher than same level ATX or M-ATX boards. It can help HTPC buyers to lower their budget. So far, H61 is the lowest chipset for LGA 1155 platform. This segment competition is also very high, so the C/P is very well. For CPU, Intel naming rule is the same. Pentium and Celeron series is also in Sandy Bridge dual core CPU line. This time, I use Intel Pentium G620T, the price is little higher than G620. The internet shows 7USD higher. The “T” means low heat version. The clock and voltage is lower. It’s a pity that Taiwan doesn’t phase in this CPU. You can use G620 instead of G620T with same setup. Right is Intel bundled cooler and you can see the difference in following picture. Intel Pentium Processor G620T, clock is 2.2GHz. Physical 2 Cores don’t Hyper-Threading and maximum is 2 threads, called 2C/2T. It’s 32nm, 35W max TDP, and 3MB L3 Cache. It’s LGA 1155 entry 2 Cores CPU. Original Cooler Comparison Left side is Intel 2 Cores CPU version. Celeron, Pentium or Core i3 use this model. Right side is G620T one. You can see it’s thinner and smaller. It’s easier to install in compact case. MB is GIGABYTE new H61N-USB3. It’s Mini-ITX and size is 17 X 17 cm. Even though the price is higher than M-ATX H61 USB3 MB, it’s still very parity ITX MB comparing to the past. CPU PWM is 4+1 phases. As H61 cannot adjust multiplier, this is enough for Core i7. 2 X DIMM DDR3 slots support 16GB. It built in SATA2. IO 1 X S/PDIF fiber and coaxial output. 1 X D-SUB / DVI / HDMI 4 X USB 2.0(Black) 2 X USB 3.0(Blue) 1 X RJ-45 LAN 1 X eSATA(Yellow) H61N-USB3 PWM. GIGABYTE always stress for components as you can see here. This is security TPM slot. H61 chipset heat sink is big and good texture.

IOMETER 2008 4KB Test - 100% Write / 100% Seupential Total I/Os per Second 66899.10 AMD A75 SATA3 performance is a little lower than Intel Z68 mostly. Comparing to formerly AMD chipset performance, A75 has been improved. The gap with Intel chipset is smaller. AMD structure has no SSD accelerating mode. If you would like to use SSD, I recommend capacity is from 90 to 120GB. Drive C, system drive, can use SSD and the data drive can use cheap 2TB HDD to build the ideal system. Third platform is NoteBook, acer TimelineX 3830TG. It’s Intel 2nd generation Core i and chipset is Intel HM65. The first time I saw 3830TG was Computex. I am impressed by its appearance. Main tone is blue and the cover is aluminum. The thickness is under1 inch. It built in individual graphic and long duration battery. The design is similar to business style. The CPU and 3D performance is mid-end above. It’s a kind of balance model. 3830TG price is also very parity. The weakness is 1.87Kg, a little bit heavy. However, it doesn’t impact the C/P value of this NB. CORSAIR Force Series GT 120GB install at SATA3 as system drive. HD Tune Pro 4.60 Benchmark Read - Average 458.5 MB/s Access Time 0.178ms ATTO DISK Benchmark over 512k test, the max Read is 550.3 Mb/s and Write is 510.0 MB/s. File Benchmark over 2048k test, the Read can achieve almost 500 MB/s. CrystalDiskMark <All 0x00, 0Fill> Read - 472.3 MB/s Write - 459.8 MB/s <All 0xFF, 1Fill> Read - 478.9 MB/s Write - 450.2 MB/s AS SSD Benchmark - 423 Seq Read - 478.14 MB/s Write - 118.33 MB/s 4K-64Thrd Read - 107.38 MB/s Write - 121.99 MB/s Set Force GT as OS drive, you can see the performance drop a little, but it’s acceptable. 4K performance is much lower than PC. I hope 3830TG can improve it by updating BIOS. NB SSD performance normally is lower than PC. However, Intel chipset still has the standard level for transferring performance. BootRacer Time to Logon 9 seconds Time to Desktop 16 seconds Maybe some readers think it’s just benchmark. They cannot feel the real performance. I change 3830TG drive to TOSHIBA MK6461GSY 640GB 7200rpm and test the booting time. BootRacer Time to Logon 19 seconds Time to Desktop 42 seconds TOSHIBA 7200rpm 640GB HDD is 42 seconds and CORSAIR Force GT SSD 120GB is only 16 seconds. OS are both Windows7 64bit SP1 with same drivers and software. Force GT speed is 2.63 times faster. SSD is really helpful for NoteBook system performance. Formerly, NoteBook hardware spec is always much lower than PC. Using SSD can improve system performance which you can feel since system bootup, shutdown and execute files. In 2011, SATA3 spec becomes more popular and it improves SSD performance indirectly. Formerly, entry 32GB SSD price can get 64GB now. User also can have bigger capacity. 64GB mid-end SSD market now goes for 128GB due to the price drop. SSD capacity and price cannot be comparing with HDD. However, they are looking for different applications. By the other hand, 128GB in PC platform can be drive C, system drive and replace HDD in NteBook. This year, SSD price drop make user have higher capacity and the applications are wider. For SATA3 SSD, there are several types of controllers. However, many SATA3 SSD Write speed is only 200~300 MB/s. CORSAIR Force GT uses SandForce SF-2281 controller chip, the max Write can achieve over 500 MB/s. For 4K performance, it’s almost the best solution in current SSD structure. It’s a very good controller in SATA3 SSD. Force GT appearance is eye-catching and good texture. The capacity has 60~480GB for users to choose. Plus CORSAIR has good reputation in after service and firmware update, you must put this model in your new SSD wish list. Above Force GT benchmark is for your reference. This article is also post in my blog WIND3C , Welcome your comments.

Formerly, AMD chipset IO performance is always lower than Intel. The SATA transfer rate is also lower. A75 is parity product which native support SATA3 and USB3.0. It’s APU advantage so far. I hope the native SATA3 chipset can enhance AMD platform transfer performance. Test Configuration CPU: AMD A8-3850 MB: GIGABYTE A75M-S2V DRAM: CORSAIR CMZ8GX3M2A1866C9R VGA: AMD Radeon HD6550D HD: CORSAIR Force Series GT 120GB / Intel 510 SERIES 120GB POWER: Thermaltake TR2 450W Cooler: Thermaltake BigTyp 14Pro OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit CORSAIR Force Series GT 120GB install at blue SATA3. Non-OS driver is without any data. HD Tune Pro 4.61 Benchmark Read - Average 509.8 MB/s Access Time 0.127ms Write - Average 400.9 MB/s Access Time 0.181ms Random Access Extra tests Sequential middle Read - 413.582 MB/s Write - 411.701 MB/s Random seek 4KB 29152 IOPS File Benchmark over 2048k test, the Read is over 500 MB/s. ATTO DISK Benchmark over 512k test, the max Read is 546.5 Mb/s and Write is 505.2 MB/s ADIA64 Read Test Suite - Linear Read(Middle) 527.9 MB/s SSD Benchmark TOTAL 3926.22 CrystalDiskMark Seq Read - 515.9 MB/s Write - 136.6 MB/s <All 0xFF, 1Fill> Read - 511.2 MB/s Write - 494.3 MB/s <All 0x00, 0Fill> Read - 510.0 MB/s Write - 495.1 MB/s ADIA64 Linear Read Average 500.1 MB/s AS SSD Benchmark - 462 Seq Read - 505.29 MB/s Write - 78.69 MB/s 4K-64Thrd Read - 118.10 MB/s Write - 96.63 MB/s AS SSD Benchmark 4K-64Thrd Read - 30232 iops Write - 24738 iops

CORSAIR Force Series GT 120GB install at SATA3. Non-OS driver is without any data. HD Tune Pro 4.61 Benchmark Read - Average 519.6 MB/s Access Time 0.113ms Write - Average 337.2 MB/s Access Time 0.183ms Random Access Extra tests Sequential middle Read - 413.582 MB/s Write - 421.780 MB/s Random seek 4KB 34451 IOPS File Benchmark over 1024k test, the Read is over500 MB/s. ATTO DISK Benchmark over 32k test, the max Read is 560.5 Mb/s and Write is 500.0 MB/s. ADIA64 Read Test Suite - Linear Read(Middle) 527.0 MB/s SSD Benchmark TOTAL 4310.19 CrystalDiskMark Seq Read - 513.6 MB/s Write - 145.6 MB/s <All 0xFF, 1Fill> Read - 533.2 MB/s Write - 488.3 MB/s <All 0x00, 0Fill> Read - 533.7 MB/s Write - 489.2 MB/s CrystalDiskMark default test is random. You can see the Write performance is lower. This is because of SandForce controller structure. The algorithm will be lower in this software default mode. On the left hand side, CrystalDiskMark change to sequence mode, the Write performance is close to official spec. ADIA64 Linear Read Average 522.7 MB/s AS SSD Benchmark - 491 Seq Read - 510.75 MB/s Write - 111.09 MB/s 4K-64Thrd Read - 106.48 MB/s Write - 116.18 MB/s AS SSD Benchmark in Seq Write is similar to CrystalDiskMark. However, this software doesn’t provide sequence mode to test. AS SSD Benchmark 4K-64Thrd Read - 27259 iops Write - 29741 iops In Compression-Benchmark, you can see the Read speed is very stable. Write curve is climbing from 150 MB/s to 470 MB/s. IOMETER 2008 4KB Test - 100% Write / 100% Seupential Total I/Os per Second 86253.69 4K Write in IOMETER 2008 test can achieve 86K IOPS which is higher than official spec 85K. 4K performance is key strength of SandForce controller. This transfer rate is the best in the current market. Force GT bundle Z68 platform almost can reach the highest speed except some software cannot unleash real SandForce Write performance. Even Z68 chipset, different MB have the performance gap. You have to beware of it. 2nd desktop PC test is GIGABYTE A75M-S2V. APU structure is AMD latest key product. A75 chipset provides 6 SATA3 and the scalability is better. I use same brand MB to avoid other factors to impact SSD performance besides chipset.

Solid-State Hard Drive has been launched for years and performance is satisfied with most users. In the past, it’s limited with SATA2 3Gb/s bandwidth, so the SSD performance hadn’t been improved for years. SSD max performance in the past few years was just over 200MB/s. During that time, there were many high end MBs supported SATA3, but the performance improvement was not much. SSD performance bottleneck started to change from Jan 2011, Intel Sandy Bridge native support SATA3. Although, AMD launched 990FX and A75 middle year also native support SATA3. It makes SSD own higher bandwidth. SATA3 supports 6Gb/s is 2 times faster than SATA2. Currently, SSD has SATA2 and SATA3. SATA3 read write performance is over 300MB/s. Windwithme previously share Intel 510 Series which support SATA3 450/220 MB/s SSD. This review is another SATA3 SSD. The performance is different with Intel 510 SSD. USA brand CORSAIR has variety product line which you can see its importance in SSD field. This is CORSAIR latest product line, Force Series GT which use SandForce controller. GT series packing is eye-catching red is different with Force Series black color. Content Left side is Force GT 120GB and right side is black 3.5” adaptor and screws. Product is 2.5” and capacity is 120GB. Official spec with ATTO Disk Benchmark is 555/515 MB/s. Random 4K max writing is 85000 IOPS. It’s almost SSD highest 4K spec. Besides the prominent black, the shell is matt metal surface texture. CORSAIR provides 3 years warranty and capacity has 60/90/120/180/240/480G. Users can choose SSD capacity by budget and demand. The back is black metal material. The hair-line surface design is really improving the texture. Lower-Right is SATA3 and power connector. The outlook is same as SATA1 and SATA2. You have to distinguish by packing or sticker. You can see other 2 silver laser stickers. It’s for warranty and internal hardware safety. I recommend you to keep it in origin. 3.5” adaptor is very useful. If you are using SSD in DeskTop PC, you can save money and time to find an extra one. Force GT uses SandForce latest SF-2281 controller which is very popular now. CORSAIR has used in Force GT since June. It’s very early to use this controller/ For Force GT internal structure, you can find in Google. I will not share here. Let’s start from desktop platform which uses GIGABYTE Z68X-UD3H-B3. It provides 2 native white SATA3. This MB C/P value is good in Z68 market. The price is a little lower than Z68 mainstream. It’s GIGABYTE new black design. It also includes most necessary spec. The chipset is Intel latest Z68. It bundles ISRT software to set HDD and SSD as RAID0 mode to make SSD as system accelerating cache. According to small capacity SSD users, this is very good features. If SSD capacity is over 60GB, you can set it as drive C is better. Test Configuration CPU: Intel Core i7-2700K MB: GIGABYTE Z68X-UD3H-B3 DRAM: CORSAIR CMZ8GX3M2A1866C9R VGA: Intel HD Graphics 3000 HD: CORSAIR Force Series GT 120GB / Intel 510 SERIES 120GB POWER: Thermaltake TR2 450W Cooler: Intel original cooler OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit

Idle mode – 3:54:30 Consider 9Cell battery supports this high performance notebook; it’s good on both idle and full loading battery life. If full speed could use over 2 hours will be better, but for high level gaming notebooks this is closer to mission impossible, especially it comes under 3.5kg. Use GT683R to make HD video playback, it could used around 3 hours; it’s enough for normally carry out usages. Consider on bigger size and higher performance notebook products, the battery life already better than old models, 32nm CPU is good on power saving, and MSI ECO engine is working fine. THX user interface Enable SMART VOLUME and DIALOG PLUS options This will make sound stage brighter, but middle frequency will reduce a little, recommend using for video playback. Below is my sound experience, this is more subjective, compare with most notebooks built in speakers. When turn on the maxima volume, the sound is really loud enough that you don’t have to worry about this point. High frequency – Will not present over frequency sound, sound detail is really good. Middle frequency – Crystal sound effect, better than double A brand notebooks with sound enhancement models. The sound detail is closer to same level notebooks from TOSHIBA. Low frequency: The 2.1 channel design with a subwoofer, low frequency is really good as a notebook; you could feel the sound power, not to strong and very clear. The sound quality of GT683R is really good, it’s suitable for high quality video and gaming, good on sound detail and crystal surround sound stage, it’s a type of multimedia speaker design. The middle frequency is already better than most notebooks, is MSI could enhance this part, it will become great. Summarized on MSI GT683R Pros: 1.Suitable size and weight of 15.6” gaming notebook, hardware performance closer to gaming PC. 2.Dual SATA3 port and 4DIMM slot design, make this notebook have good space to increase system performance and expansion space. 3.Rich IO ports, besides D-Sub and 2x USB2.0, HDMI, 2x USB3.0 and eSATA ports to use. 4.Designed with gamer style and 5 part of orange LED light, big size gaming keyboard, Turbo, Cooler Boost to increase GPU and fan performance. 5.Special 2.1 channel speakers design with Sound by Dynaudio, it’s really helpful on high level sound quality. 6.Built in 1920x1080 Full HD LCD, it’s good for gaming and video playback. Cons: 1.The shield around touch pad will increase the quality if comes with matted and non glare design. 2.Used non glare panel will be better for gamers. 3.The price is a bit higher than normal notebooks. Performance Ratio ★★★★★★★★★★ Material Ratio ★★★★★★★★★☆ Specification Ratio ★★★★★★★★★★ ID Design Ratio ★★★★★★★★★☆ Cost/Value Ratio ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ (Above Ratio of stars was based on HDD 500GBx2 RAID 0, DDR3 4GBx4 and Blu-Ray Combo) The main design of MSI Gaming Series notebooks is 15.6”, 16” and 17.3” size. Different size comes with different ID style design, the GT683R comes with newer gamer style ID, made some special design on 3D shield and LED lights, that make the notebooks ID looks with better quality with style and similar as race car shape. This is the main improvement from MSI to make their Gaming Series more gamer oriented design. The 2.1 speakers system is excellent, and could present better surround sound stage with THX technology, it’s really good for gaming and movies. Keyboard designed with independent number keys, also marked the WASD keys for smoother FPS gaming experience. LED lights also have different lighting style, the lights could set to follow the tempo and right/left sound volume. Look on the spec., it built with Core i7 CPU and nVIDIA GTX560M graphics, for storage systems used dual SATA3 with HDD RAID 0 features, these are all definitely high performance combinations and could fulfill most heavy loading usages. The overall of GT683R presents high class design; it’s indeed a good notebook of the gaming series. If it could add in some overclock features in BIOS such as Alianware notebooks, and enhance the ID design with better shield material, it will become better. MSI GT683R also have many different specification combinations in different regions, this review was based on my on hand version of the specifications. At last I apply the color celebration file by Spider tool, it fits for all GT680/GT683 series notebooks. windwithme msi GT683R This article is also post in my own blog WIND3C , Welcome your visit.

FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080 => 2181 After overclocked, it will get around 15% gaming performance increase, P11639 score is really high of notebook platform. If you sense the GPU is hot after overclock, you could press the fan icon on left side of the control panel; this will increase the fan speed to 110% and reduce some system temperatures. MSI GT683R apply unique Turbo feature, actually the GTX560M already got high performance for a notebook, enable Turbo and use Afterburner software to adjust the frequency, it’s great help on 3D gaming performance. DDR3 performance tests DDR3 1330.6 CL9 9-9-24 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 15235 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 17017 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 16038MB/s DRAM bandwidth is an advantage on Sandy Bridge platform, it’s around 20% higher than last generation Core I platform, and 2x faster than Core 2 Duo platform. Because of 4DIMM of DDR3 slot, once used with 16GB, it’s really good enough to use for recent years. Temperature (Room temp. around 25℃) System idle – 42~45℃ CPU full speed – 85~88℃ Intel Burn Test v2.4，Stress Level Maximum The idle mode temperature is same as other notebooks with i5-2410M, this is good. Full loading temperature close to 90℃, the fan is not too noise, and not high frequency noise as well. GT683R designed with bigger size thermal module and fan, when used for 4 Core 8 Treat Core i7 and high power GTX560M, this kind of temperature is acceptable. Enable Cooler Boost to boost fan speed. Idle mode – 42~43℃ CPU full loading – 80~82℃ Intel Burn Test v2.4，Stress Level Maximum If we let fan runs with 110% speed, the fan will become louder than auto control. Idle mode could reduce 1~2℃ and full loading mode could reduce 5~6℃, it’s really good effect when on full loading usage. This is also a good feature with value to reduce system temperature, users could try this if needed. Power watts tests Get into OS only and not running any program. – 28W CPU full loading – 91W Intel Burn Test v2.4，Stress Level Maximum CPU and GPU all full loading – 158W OCCT Power Supply tests Above 3 power watts benchmark data runs with AC adaptor mode, CPU/GPU could runs with full speed at full loading. The power consumption of idle mode is close to normal notebooks, Core i7 full speed is also acceptable. If used CPU/GPU with full loading, it’s much higher than normal Core i5/GT540M notebooks platform. But if we compare with PC desktop, compare the power consumption and performance ratio, 158W is really great. Battery life test 9Cell batteries, runs BatteryEaterPro Full speed – 1:11:15

HD Tune Pro 4.61 Benchmark Read - Average 429.1 MB/s Access Time 0.221ms CrystalDiskMark Seq <All 0x00, 0Fill> 471.1 MB/s Write - 450.1 MB/s <All 0xFF, 1Fill> 472.5 MB/s Write - 448.7 MB/s HD Tune Pro 4.61 Benchmark File Benchmark highest reading performance over 520MB/s ATTO DISK Benchmark test will over 554.1MB/s reading speed when test data over 256k, and highest writing speed over 510MB/s. BootRacer Time to Logon 8 seconds Time to Desktop 15 seconds After installed SSD with SATA3 interface, it totally presents great performance of native SATA3 on Sandy Bridge platform. It’s over 2x faster than HDD RAID 0. If users want extreme speed, could try to use 2x SSD RAID 0 to reach the top. Most of the test items comes with 450~470MB/s speed, ATTO DISK test is very close to formal data speed, boot up speed is much faster with shorter time, SSD is indeed the fastest weapon to increase system access performance. Compare CORSAIR Force GT performance on PC desktop, most performance is 10% faster than GT683R. This happened on many notebooks of SATA3 performance, since SATA3 still new, hope MSI could enhance their BIOS to raise the SATA3 performance. Most notebooks in the market only come with GT540M, a friendly price on standard notebooks. GT683R equipped with GeForce GTX560M graphics from nVIDIA, and built in 1.5GB DDR5 with higher performance. GPU 813/GDDR5 1250 MHz 3DMark Vantage - P10090 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1024 X 720 => 220.70 FPS 1920 X 1080 => 128.96 FPS DEVIL MAY CRY4 DX10 1920 X 1080 => 104.66/86.98/111.92/73.50 fps FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080 => 1921 Monster Hunter Frontier 1920 X 1080 => 5081 Built in GTX560M graphics present great performance on 3D benchmark, of course the 3D and gaming performance is the key benefit of a gaming notebook. Under 1920x1080 resolution, most games run smoothly, even with highest detail still could run most heavy games over 24~30fps. These benchmark was tested on AC mode with adaptor, MSI designed with ECO mode and GTX560M also have power saving feature, so the performance will drop a lot when on battery mode to save more power. Touch the Turbo key on top of keyboard will unlock the GPU frequency limitation, and will overclock GPU around 5% to make 3D Mark Vantage over P10400 score. GTX560M overclock to 870MHz/1625MHz test Turn on Turbo function and use MSI Afterburner software to overclock. 3DMark Vantage - P11639 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1920 X 1080 => 149.32 FPS

Windows7 benchmark GT683 built in with Core i7-2630QM, the performance almost 2x of i5-2410M which I did share the benchmark in one of my other review last time. The performance of Core i7 is really excellent on single or multi tasks, also the only Quad Core CPU segment of Intel platform. Normally Core i7-2630QM is 2GHz, but through TurboBoost 2.0 technology, it will mostly run at 2.4~2.6GHz, this performance level already great enough for a gaming notebook. SATA performance tests HDD used WD5000BPKT black label with RAID 0. Format is 2.5” SATA3; seek time 12.0ms, 16MB buffer HD Tune Pro 4.61 Benchmark Read - Average 162.0 MB/s Access Time 16.0ms CrystalDiskMark Seq - 173.3 MB/s Write - 184.3 MB/s HD Tune Pro 4.61 Benchmark File Benchmark highest write in speed close to 175MB/s ATTO DISK Benchmark will reach 197/3MB/s reading speed when over 64k data tests, and writing speed is 200.3MB/s BootRacer Time to Logon 18 seconds Time to Desktop 34 seconds Because of dual SATA3 design, a great advantage of 15.6” GT683R, normally we only see dual HDD design on 17” or higher size notebooks. If users what bigger capacities and higher performance at same time, use 2 same capacity HDD become RAID 0 is good solution. It will make HDD performance up to 2x speed and also with 2x HDD capacities. MSI already built in some software and present fast boot up into Windows7 quickly. 2 SATA3 port is very flexible for HDD or SSD combination, I take over the bottom cover to take a look the inside design. 2 WD HDD is on up left and down right side, only with 2 DIMM slot, guess another 2 DIMM is under keyboard. Here comes with big size thermal module design for whole system Used 2 heatpipes for CPU to pass the heat from Intel Core i7 2630QM, nVIDIA GeForce GTX560M used 3 heatpipes to pass the heat. The MXM VGA card is nVIDIA GeForce GTX560M under the heatsink, if the MXM card comes with same format and size, it seems still have some room for upgrade? The highest temperature of whole system is GTX560M, after burning test, I use hand to touch CPU heatsink could stay over 5sec, but to touch the heatsink on GPU I cannot stay over 3sec, temperature always a priority topic from nVIDIA and needs to make some improvement. The second way to improve the performance is to use 1 SSD become system disk and keep 1 HDD as data disk. CORSAIR Force GT series support SATA3, with much higher performance than SATA2 SSDs. Formal data shows this SSD could reach 555MB/s reading speed, 515MB/s of writing speed (Used ATTO DISK Benchmark). CORSAIR Force GT Series used red shield looks; MTBF is 150k hours, 3 years warranty. Installed the Force GT SSD into GT683R, this combines greater performance and still keep most capacities.

9Cell battery comes with 481g. The weight of GT683R is 3436g with battery, lighter than formal number 3.5kg, if we take a look on the version with single 750GB HDD and 2 DIMM DDR3 4GBx2, it could be lighter around 3.3kg, it’s really not heavy as a gaming laptop. Special designed MSI logo, will show white light when turn on power, it increase the sense of quality. MSI GT683R based on Intel Sandy Bridge platform, use Core i7-2630QM, frequency is 100x20 = 2GHz, L2 = 6MB, 4 Cores with HT technology. TurboBoost 2.0 technology could increase the frequency up to 2.9GHz, built with HM67 chipset. Compare with last generation Core i platform, it comes with better performance and newer technologies. Performance test Built in with Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit version OS This version of GT683R is high level version; some region might be selling with lower spec. combination. HDD is 500GB x2 by RAID 0, 4GB x4 overall 16GB DDR3 and Blu-Ray Combo drive. Already installed with MSI software, the desk image shows GT683R is great on performance. System performance tests Super PI 32M => 22m 31.850s CPUMARK99 => 439 Nuclearus Multi Core => 17201 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 20.03/9614 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 227107 CINEBENCH 11.5 OpenGL 40.03 fps CPU 4.82 pts CPU (Single Core) 1.10 pts PCMark Vantage => 9297

The pad is good on design and touch feeling, very sensitive and easy to handle, 2 keys use brushed looks and feels like metallic, but it’s plastic material. The light signal on the bottom from left to right is Bluetooth, Wireless, Battery, Sleep mode and HDD. The shield icon in the middle is power button, will show white light when turn on. Control panel used touch sensor design, with 8 features to turn on and off. Left 2: Turbo is the GPU overclock function, will enhance 3D gaming performance, for the stability, MSI will not make overclock range high, but enable Turbo key will unlock the limitation and users could use software to overclock as well. One of the most important features of gaming is sound effect. MSI use Sound by Dynaudio 2.1 channel HD speaker system, it present good sound quality as their advantage. The hinge design is very solid; the open angles almost reach flat 180 degrees. 15.6 inch glossy LED back light panel with 1920x1080 full HD resolutions, MSI adjust on character size to fit this resolution for users. Built in HD WebCam comes with 30fps 1280x720 video recording and 1280x1024 photo resolution. Left side: Start from left, 1x USB2.0\ multi card reader\ 2x USB 3.0\ heat release holes. Start from right, Blu-Ray Combo\1x USB2.0\Line out\ Line in\ Mic in\ Headphone out The back side Start from left, 1x HDMI\ 1x eSATA\ 1x D-Sub\ 1x RJ-45 LAN\ AC in There is another heat release hole in the back, high performance notebooks really take it serious on thermal solution. The image comes with small subwoofer, this is unusual design, and it really helps on better low frequency sound quality.

Notebooks are always a good solution to instead of desktop PCs for most users. Years ago I always heard my family or friends said that they want to build up new PCs, but in recent years, that voice often become which notebook is better for them to choose. If users are not demanding on usually upgrade hardware, notebooks always a better solution with higher mobility and better convenience. The main usage of notebooks comes with 2 types, you might need to analysis your usage before you buy your own laptop. The first one is business or long time trip, which will need longer battery life and light weight, performance will not be in the high priority. The second usage is to replace PCs, most because of only have a small room, or long time stay at home or school but need to carry to different places. This type is more performance oriented demand; users will be more focus on features of higher level CPU, graphics performance, bigger LCD size and high quality speakers. MSI already building their business for years and now they have 5 different segment of their notebook product lines. This time I would like to share the 2nd type of notebook, it positioning on Gaming Series, the MSI GT683R. MSI did have GT680/GT680R in early 2011, so this GT683R should be the upgrade version. Take a look on the outlooks; GT683R is same as GT680R, built in orange color LED with 7 parts. The A side cover design is special compare with normal notebooks; it’s more like Alianware and gives a racing car speedy style. GT683R is black based design, built with latest Sandy Bridge platform with higher performance. The MSI logo shows white light when boot up, and the silver bar below the logo will show orange color light as well. The dimension of GT683R is 396mm*265mm*55mm Accessories: Bundled gaming mouse in GT683R is good to put your hands on and very sensitive feedback. Adaptor is 150W normal version with bigger size, it will show green light when power on, and the temperature is not hot when full loading, hands on will only feel warmer. The adaptor was made by DELTA, the well known power/ adaptor brand from Taiwan, so the quality is good and reliable, it comes with 4 pads for protection to prevent damage and helpful on reduce The gaming mouse resolution is 3200DPI, could switch the DPI with the light below the scroll key, also have the page-up/page-down key on the left side, and its light with only 50g weight. The bottom of the notebook comes with several pad protection, the battery is on down left side, other placement parts are CPU, GPU, HDD, DDR3 and thermal module. DDR3 comes with 4DIMM design and up to 32GB for users to install, this GT683R comes with 4GBx4 overall 16GB. Built in with 2 SATA slot supports SATA3 and RAID 0, this is unique for higher storage performance. Used 9 Cell batteries with 7800mAH, could apply more heavy loading usage for longer time. Remove the battery could see the mechanical detail and Windows sticker. C side design The whole cover used the glossy painting with honeycomb surface design and sleek touch feeling. Regular chiclet keyboard design, use big size placement and independent number keys section, it’s good for most of gaming usages. The design tone is closer to glossy metallic style, if want to have higher level feeling it might need matted surface treatment with metallic materials.

DRAM Bandwidth DDR3 2278.4 CL10 11-10-27 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 10826 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 18915 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 13200 MB/s The Llano APU platform has made obvious progress with the DDR3 clock. In the past, the AM3 could only reach the upper limit of about 1800 to 2000 only This is the first time I’ve seen the AMD DDR3 overclocked to a clock of DDR3 2278, and better compatibility with the physical properties of DDR3 is very important Bandwidth has increased by about 16 percent, and after the DDR3 clock is pulled up sharply, one of the key areas that AMD needs to improve in the future is bandwidth efficiency Temperature Performance (room temperature about 26 degrees) Standby - 5 CPU at Full Speed - 50 LinX 0.6.4 We have tried three A75 motherboard brands, and data showed standby temperatures of 5-18 degrees. This should be a result of C&Q power-saving technology, low voltage and low clock speed. The temperature of the ECS board at full speed was more than 10 degrees lower than that of the previous A75. The difference in temperature may be a result of Autumn coming on or the A75F-A temperature monitoring chip However, the above temperature data shows the 32nm process has reached a necessary level, and temperature performance is fairly good Power Consumption Test Standby - 30W CPU at Full Speed - 167W LinX 0.6.4 Full speed simultaneously for the CPU and GPU - 210W Test of the power supply with OCCT With C & Q power-saving technology enabled and the desktop in standby and when the CPU is operating at full speed, CPU power consumption increases by 137W or so, which is very high data The GPU increases by about 43W, and at such a high performance level for the GPU, power consumption is still within an acceptable range Although Llano APU is now fabricated with a 32nm process, the power performance still leaves room for improvement 3D Test Internal AMD Radeon HD6550D display driver 3DMark Vantage => P5451 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1920 X 1080 => 70.21 FPS FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080 => 1171 The Llano APU’s internal performance mainly depends on level of the DDR3 clock When overclocking reaches DDR3 2278, there is an approximate 23 - 30% increase in 3D performance. In high-resolution environments, as long as the 3D game is not too demanding and not too many 3D effects are enabled, the system should be able to operate smoothly In the past, the gap in performance with entry-level VGA display was often as much as 5 to 10 times. In this year’s battle, the Llano APU’s 3D performance has attained almost the same level as entry-level VGA. ECS A75F-A Advantages 1. ECS has moved the BIOS to the UEFI interface, and many optional languages are available 2. CPU and DDR3 overclocking ability is good, helping improve system performance 3. PCI-E/PCI provides a sufficient and convenient number of expansions, and the A75 includes native SATA3 and USB 3.0 technology 4. Three display output interfaces are provided that together with the A8/A6 CPU provide very dazzling 3D performance 5. Heat dissipation is well implemented, and while the power is on heat sink and chipset temperature is not high Shortcomings 1. The visibility of sales channels and service providers can be further enhanced 2. When the CPU is overclocked to 107MHz or more only the IDE mode can be used. We hope that the BIOS can be revised Performance ratio ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ Material comparison ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ Specification comparison ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ Appearance ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ Cost-effectiveness ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ When playing a Blu-ray movie, using the previously mentioned 1080P video playback, CPU usage rose as much as 10% The Intel internal HD2000/3000 GPU is of a comparable standard, and the new generations of the two brands can easily cope with 1080P The A75’s six internal SATA3 mechanisms are a significant difference compared with the native USB 3.0 technology of the A55 Although the A75 is a bit more expensive than the A55, it still falls within mid-range market price points If you want a cheaper combination, of course the A55 will save some money, but if you want outstanding specifications, we suggest you consider budgeting a little more for the A75 ECS has currently introduced three A75 motherboards, and this review is only for the A75F-A Black Series product with the ATX specification The A75F-A has a price of about NT$2900 or less, (equivalent to a retail price of about US$84.99) which is cheaper than some other A75 ATX brands Combining the UEFI interface, plenty of IO and ample PCI-E/PCI expansion slots as well as excellent overclocking features and more. The A75F-A’s cost to performance value is quite good, and we hope more value-added products will be introduced for consumers to choose from This article is windwithme’s third overclocking test of the A75, and each one provides detailed insight on performance, teaching methodology and the overclocking experience This is provided as detailed reference for consumers who are interested in buying new platforms using the AMD Llano APU. Thanks This article is also post in my own blog WIND3C Welcome your visit.

VDIMM Voltage -300~+600 mV NB Voltage +10~+360 mV DDR3 Frequency Options Built-in GPU that can share main memory capacity of 64M - 2GB Hardware Status Added Smart Fan speed control function Details about overclocking have been mentioned previously. When the Llano APU pulls the CPU to a higher clock, the SATA FSB will be pulled up at the same time For an extended time under 100MHz non-overclocked conditions, the stability of the SATA device may be uncertain This occurs with the entire A75/A55 series under overclocking conditions, and this is an inherent physical limitation in AMD’s design For a wide range of users who want to overclock the CPU, we recommend that you wait for the launch of CPUs that are not locked. Increasing the multiplier is a better solution for overclocking With the AMD Llano APU, overclocking settings are a bit simpler Just pull up the CPU FSB and combine that with the appropriate voltage to achieve overclocking results Of course, you’ll need to choose the right DRAM to effectively and simultaneously boost DDR3 and GPU performance Above are the overclocking settings from windwithme for the A75F-A for use as reference Overclocking Performance Test (SATA to IDE mode) CPU 122.0 X 29 => 3539.4MHz DDR3 2278.4 CL10 11-10-27 1T Hyper PI 32M X 4 => 19m 01.017s CPUMARK 99 => 510 Nuclearus Multi Core => 15036 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 18.07/8671 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 235011 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 4.18 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.07 pts PCMark Vantage => 14304 Windows Experience Index - CPU 7.4 When the A8-3850 overclocked from 2900MHz to 3540MHz, the CPU performance increase was about 20% Compared with the 32nm process CPU, overclocking added about 1.45V to the required voltage. This relationship between the clock and voltage did not result in significant progress. Although the performance of the A8-3850 CPU has been sufficient for most environments, consumers would like to see more progress with the new architecture

Power Consumption Standby - 27W CPU Full Speed - 125W LinX 0.6.4 Both the CPU and the GPU simultaneously at full speed - 153W With OCCT running, a test of the power supply In standby mode, because of the AMD C&Q power-saving technology, power consumption is reduced to only 27W With the Llano APU platform, the main power consumer is the CPU. At full speed, there is an increase of about 98W in CPU power consumption In addition, following our comparisons, we believe that the ECS had more outstanding power performance, and the A75F-A was about 10-20W lower than the previously used A75 platform 3D Test Internal AMD Radeon HD6550D display driver 3DMark Vantage => P4423 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1920 X 1080 => 57.58 FPS FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080 => 947 Built-in 3D performance is the biggest advantage of this platform, and the largest factor boosting the performance level is the DDR3 clock When combined with top of the line DDR3, taking the setting to 1866 will result in a significant 3D performance boost The above test data showed the internal 3D almost on a par with the nVIDIA GT430, and slightly better than the AMD Radeon HD5570 Consumers who want to buy entry-level VGA should save their budget with this expenditure ECS brought the BIOS interface to the UEFI, and this new specification is what most of the motherboard brands have pursued in 2011 Main Screen Quite good support is provided with options for multiple languages M.I.B III Overclocking Page At the top are mainly the CPU multiplier, DDR3 clock and parameter settings In the middle are current parameters for the DRAM Below are the CPU FSB overclocking settings. This has a very significant impact on the Llano APU Voltage Range CPU Voltage +10 - +500 mV

Test Platform CPU: AMD A8-3850 MB: ECS A75F-A DRAM: CORSAIR CMZ8GX3M2A1866C9R VGA: AMD Radeon HD6550D HD: CORSAIR FORCEGT 120GB POWER: Thermaltake TR2 450W Cooler: Thermaltake BigTyp 14Pro OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit SP1 CPU Default Performance Test CPU 100.0 X 29 => 2900.4MHz DDR3 1866.8 CL8 9-7-27 1T Hyper PI 32M X 4 => 23m 00.134s CPUMARK 99 => 418 Nuclearus Multi Core => 12315 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 14.86/7131 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 200725 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 3.46 pts CPU(Single Core) => 0.88 pts PCMark Vantage => 12700 Windows Experience Index - CPU 7.3 The A8-3850’s performance is little changed from the previous generation Phenom II, even when the CPU cache sizes of both L2 and L3 are slightly different. For those who need quad-core CPU performance, AMD offers better cost to performance, but regarding the single-thread performance of AMD CPUs, I still feel that in the future, AMD still has a lot of room to improve DRAM Bandwidth DDR3 1866.8 CL8 9-7-27 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 9360 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 15775 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 10680 MB/s This is where the Llano APU platform has made progress. The CPU default is adjustable up to DDR3 1866, which is a bit higher than the previous 1600 platform. While the bandwidth and their platform have made a bit more progress, compared with rivals such as the Sandy Bridge platform, the bandwidth seems to be lagging further behind ... DDR3 bandwidth is where AMD needs to improve in the future, and we hope that performance will improve with the launch of the Bulldozer Temperature Performance (room temperature about 26 degrees) Standby - 18 CPU at Full Speed - 39 LinX 0.6.4 In a test of the AMD C&Q power-saving technology, in standby the CPU clock / voltage drops significantly, and for this reason the temperature falls quite a bit At this point, the obtained data was quite good, and even at full speed it was only 39 degrees. However, because the chips tested for temperature on each motherboard were different, actual temperatures may have been higher for some. But what is certain is that AMD used 32nm for the A8-3850, so there has been some progress with the temperature performance of the AMD platform

In early July, AMD launched the latest architecture Llano APU. Since the launch, it has already been two and a half months. Initially, the only CPUs that can work with it were the relatively high-end A8-3850 and the A6-3650. The market prices of course were a bit higher. For chipsets, there are two options, the A75 and the A55, adopting the latest FM1pinout design. For now, it appears the price difference between the two is not very wide. The main advantage of the A75 is its support for the new SATA3 and USB 3.0 specifications. If you have sufficient budget, this is the better choice. The Llano APU was relaunched in early September together with three new CPUs, and compared with the previous two, the prices are lower With built-in GPUs, the A4-3400/A6-3500 are quite expensive compared with the A6-631, which has no GPU Currently, a total of five CPUs support the Llano APU architecture to offer more choices for the AMD FM1 platform To begin, windwithme has shared tests of the previous two Llano APUs, and we know that the biggest advantage of this platform lies in its significant 3D performance. Now the star of the show is the latest product from ECS, the ECS A75 motherboard The product is positioned as part of the Black Series, and the complete serial number is A75F-A, including the AMD A75 chipset The PCB is black, and the extension card slots are a complimentary gray or white Based on the ATX form factor, the size is 305mm x 220mm, a little smaller than standard ATX measurements The A75F-A is positioned as a high level A75 product, but the price is actually lower than many other brands Motherboard Lower Left 2 X PCI-E X16, supporting 2Way CrossFireX technology, bandwidth of X16 + X4 2 X PCI-E X1 3 X PCI Realtek RTL8111E LAN chip Realtek ALC892 audio chip, with support for 8-channel High Definition Audio technology Lower Right of Motherboard 6 X gray SATA, A75 chip included, SATA3 specification, supporting RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 10 Lower area F_USB1 USB 3.0 expansion slots for the front Top Right of Motherboard 4 X DIMM DDR3, supporting 1333/1600/1866/2133 (OC) This board can be overclocked to extra performance of DDR3 2133. Beside this is the 24-PIN power input. Upper Left of Motherboard The A75F-A uses a 4-phase power supply supporting AMD's latest FM1 series CPU At the top is the 8 pin power input, and heat sinks used with the previous AM2 + / AM3 can also be installed on the pins of the FM1 IO 1 X PS2 keyboard / mouse VGA / DVI / HDMI Clr CMOS button 4 X USB 2.0 (Black / Red) 1 X eSATA / USB 2.0 both supported (red) 2 X USB 3.0 (Blue) 1 X RJ-45 network connector Closeup of Power Supply While the machine is running, you can feel the temperature is not high around the heat sink. The heat sink models used with the A75F-A are of a typical style with a design that increases the cooling area If you touch the heat sink, you’ll find the actual surface temperature is quite low, but if you use a more attractive heat sink, it’s certain to have a stronger selling point

CrystalMark 2004R3 => 341127 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 9.74 pts CPU(Single Core) => 2.03 pts Windows experience index - CPU 7.8 PCMark Vantage => 24126 After overclocking, the performance is increased by about 30% at the single-core threading, and by over 40% at the multi-core threading, which is quite satisfactory. The 5GHz which is the performance of 2700K should be the acme of the 4 Cores CPU on the market currently. In the future, it may be surpassed by Sandy Bridge-E or Ivy Bridge to be released next year which uses its own LGA 2011 platform. DRAM bandwidth test DDR3 1866.4 CL8 10-9-27 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 22805 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 24680 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 25963 MB/s The Sandy Bridge framework improves the bandwidth of DRAM a lot, thus a dual-channel platform can already compete with the performance of a tri-channel platform of X58. Furthermore, the bandwidth improvement for DDR3 is in clock rate, there is 10-20% bandwidth improvement after being increased from 1600 to 1866. The high bandwidth performance for LGA 1155 is helpful to improvement for system performance to some extent. Temperature performance (about 26 DEG C at room temperature) System standby- 36~42 CPU full speed - 76~80 Intel Burn Test v2.4，Stress Level Maximum The temperature increases a little when system standby because of overclocking, which is substantially within an acceptable range. The temperature increases a lot at full speed, which will also happen to the Sandy Bridge framework at the high clock rate of 5 GHz. Therefore, it is quite important to lower the temperature which is also a challenge for the capability of the heat sinks. The temperature is about 90 DEG C when top-level air cooling is employed previously. The hydro-cooling performance of CORSAIR H80 is excellent, in which the temperature is below 80. It is an acceptable overclocking temperature for most users. For BIOSTAR, the voltage control of CPU can be strengthened, 1.512V at standby and 1.416V at full speed are helpful to stability after overclocking, but it fluctuates strongly. Power consumption test No software running on OS desktop - 103W CPU full speed- 239W After powering off the C1E, the power consumption after overclocking is increased a lot simultaneously, which it is over 100W at standby. The power consumption will be increased by about 136 W at full speed. From the clock rate and performance of 5 GHz, the power consumption is a little higher than 95 W which is the official preset data. However, compared with the high power consumption of competitor’s 32 nm 4Cores/8Cores, the power consumption for 32nm process of Intel is excellent. It is necessary to select two chipsets, i.e., P67/Z68 and the like to play the overclocking performance of the three frequency-unlocked CPU, i.e., 2500K、2600K and latest 2700K. P67 has lowered to a reasonable price on the market, so that it is a MB choice with light economic burden for consumers with limited budgets. But Z68 has the primary functions of two chipsets at the same time, i.e., overclocking frequency multiplication of CPU of P67 and display output of H67, so that it is the chipset of LGA 1155 that has the most comprehensive functions currently. Unlike LGA 1156 or LGA 775 at a quite high price when just released in one year, Z68 of the LGA 1155 platform soon after being put on the market has a reasonable price. Additionally, Z68 has exclusive SSD acceleration, so that it is a good function for accelerating the performance of system for the users with small-capacity SSD on hands. If selected by myself, I prefer to directly selecting Z68 MB optimally through adding some budgets. The price of TZ68K+ of BIOSTAR is about the same as that of P67 of the other brands; from this part, the value of C/P is obviously enhanced. With the overclocking capability of a rather high level and the advantages of supporting UEFI user interface and eight-phase power supply, the Z68 should be taken into account. If the number of USB 2.0 can be increased or the voltage of CPU can be suppressed, it will be a valuable high-performance Z68 MB. Intel will release 2700K in Q4, which should be used to replace 2600K that is the highest-level CPU of LGA 1155 currently. Although, 2700K is only increased by 100 MHz, the price is only tens of dollars higher according to information on Internet. The voltage for overclocking at 5GHz is about the same as that for 2600K which is shared by windwithme, and is about 1.4V. At Nov., Intel will release a higher level LGA 2011 platform, in which the configuration of X79 and CPU will be much more expensive than that of 2700K and Z68. On the current market, the middle-high level platform with higher value of C/P consists of several combinations, i.e., Z68+2500K or 2600K/2700K. Personally, I think it is unnecessary for the users who already have 2600K to upgrade, and it would be better for those who want to buy 2600K recently to wait the market information of 2700K. The above is about sharing my experience for overclocking of i7-2700K, which is provided for users in need as references. This article is also post in my own blog WIND3C Welcome your visit.

Performance test for Intel HD Graphics HD3000 The preset value of GPU at BIOS is 30 which is equal to 1500 MHz after conversion. 3DMark Vantage => P2500 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1920 X 1080 => 30.58 FPS In the Sandy Bridge, two GPUs, i.e., HD2000/HD3000 are built in by Intel, thus the performance is much advanced than the previous edition. The detailed test data are shared in several related articles shared by me recently (windwithme). The HD3000 has about 6-7 times 3D performance of the previous platform built-in GPU of Intel, thus it is believed that the applicable range is wider. The following part is about sharing of the overclocking for 2700K. New-style UEFI graphical interfaces are introduced into the BIOS items by BIOSTAR. O.N.E debugging page By changing 2700K at Turbo Mode to 50, the clock rate, i.e., 100 X 50 => 5GHz, will be executed. The Internal PLL Voltage Override is a special Intel overclock option, which effectively strengthens the stability of the CPU after substantially overclocking. It is suggested that the C1E should be powered off when overclocking, thereby facilitating control of clock rate and voltage of the CPU. When setting clock rate and parameters for DRAM, the smaller the numerical values are, the higher the performance is. The following example is DDR3 1866 CL8 10-9-27 1T, and the set values for the other detailed options are adjusted for optimization. User can perform miniature adjustment on the clock rate or the parameters according to the condition of the DDR3 on hand, so as to increase the performance of the DRAM. The CPU voltage adjustment is one of the key points for overclocking. It can be adjusted according to the condition of CPU and the heat-dissipation system of the platform; and the CPU VCoce LoadLine is Enabled. The DRAM voltage is another option to be adjusted for overclocking. Substantially, the overclocking at the Sandy Bridge platform is much simpler than that of the previous platforms, so the overclocking can be realized by grasping CPU frequency multiplication, DDR3 parameters, and voltage adjustment for both. PC Health Status It’s still felt that the temperature test result for CPU is on the much higher side; actually, the wind temperature of the heat sinks or the temperature of the software for measuring temperature are much lower. The above are personally stable set values for 2700K OC 5GHz, which may be readjusted for overclocking according to different hardware or difference between conditions individually. However, the general direction is at least right, which can be considered as reference for setting BIOS for the overclocking users. Overclocking performance CPU 100 X 50 => 4998.9MHz, at full speed is 1.416V. DDR3 1866.4 CL8 10-9-27 1T 1.600V Hyper PI 32M X 4 => 11m 52.875s CPUMARK 99 => 771 Nuclearus Multi Core => 32119 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 38.95/18694

Nuclearus Multi Core => 23908 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 27.86/13374 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 264699 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 6.93 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.57 pts Experience index of Windows- CPU 7.6 PCMark Vantage => 19386 The frequency multiplication of the 2700K in the mode of Turbo Boost 2.0 is 39, 38, 37 and 36 respectively; and the basic clock rate is 3.5 GHz. The above specification is 100 MHz higher than that of the 2600 K, the performance of this part is presented in the test, but the improvement is not much. Practically, both the 2600K and the 2700K are the highest-level CPUs in the framework of the Sandy Bridge, and the data obtained without overclocking is fairly high already. For a general use environment, most of the software requirements can be met by using the high performance preset in 2700K. DRAM bandwidth test DDR3 1599.8 CL7 8-7-22 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 19618 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 21335 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 21168 MB/s The DDR3bandwidth is much higher than that of our own platform or a competitor’s platform, which is the advantage of the improved LGA 1155. The high transmission performance of nearly 20000 MB/s can be achieved only by using DDR3 1600, and the voltage is lower than that for the previous platforms. Temperature performance (about 26 DEG C at room temperature) System standby - 23~33 CPU full speed - 40~46 Intel Burn Test v2.4，Stress Level Maximum The temperature performance when system standby is good by enabling the energy-saving function of C1E. With the latest Hydro Series H80 of CORSAIR and the high thermal diffusivity of the hydro-cooling framework, the temperature is only 46 DEG C at full speed. Only by working with excellent air-cooling or hydro-cooling equipment, the state of the preset value on 2700K can still be lowered to a low temperature. Power consumption test No software running on the OS desktop - 45W CPU full speed- 103W Due to introduction of 32nm, the power consumption is much lower than that of the previous generation Core i7-870 with the process of 45nm. The power consumption of the clock rate at the environment of C1E is only 58W higher than that of the preset maximum clock rate. Based on several articles about AMD APU shared by me recently, in a test with the same 32 nm and 4Cores, the power consumption of the APU platform is nearly twice that of AMD. It is thus clear that the performance and the power consumption under the Intel’s framework have good advantages under the same process.

Intel released the new generation framework of Sandy Bridge at early January, 2011; meanwhile, LGA 1155 is provided for support. Compared with the specifications of several platforms in the past, the LGA 1155 is provided with a lot of modifications in CPU overclocking (OC) at this time. Firstly, when a CPU with the external frequency of 100 MHz is overclocking, the other surrounding clock rates will be increased accordingly, thus the upper limit will fall around 110 MHz. Although the new 32nm process is introduced into the new generation 4 cores CPUs, overclocking can be only achieved by using frequency multiplication. The model names of i5-2500K and i7-2600K that are two kinds of CPUs without lock frequency multiplication have been released for a long time, which are considered as the representatives of the overclocking line. However, the overclocking can be only done by working with the chipset of overclocking frequency multiplication, i.e., P67 or Z68. The overclocking environment for LGA 1155 is simply declared above, hoping the users can aware of the hardware for the equipment clearly. The middle-level CPU featured by overclocking is Core i5-2500K, while the advanced-level is Core i7-2600K. The main difference between them is that the 2600K is provided with Hyper-Threading (HT) technology and an 8MB L3 cache, while the 2500K is only provided 6 MB L3 cache without HT. This time I pursue Core i7-2700K which will appear on the market very soon and replace the advanced 2600 K. The total clock rate of 2700K is 3.5 GHz, which supports the new generation Turbo Boost 2.0 and can reach the maximum performance of 3.9 GHz. The real 4 Cores are incorporated into the Hyper-Threading technology, so that eight threading can be executed, 4C/8T for short. With the 32 nm process, the power consumption of 95W and the 8-MB L3 Cache, the 2700K, surpassing the 2600K 100MHz, becomes the most advanced CPU of LGA 1155. The rear side of the 2700K is still D2 Revision, so that there is little difference in appearance between the 2700K and the 2600K at this part. The MB is the latest Z68 high-level chipset of LGA 1155, i.e., the latest version TZ68K+ released by BIOSTAR. The appearance and the specification are the same as that of the TZ68A+ shared before and the primary difference is supply voltage of CPU. Although the TZ68K+ is the new edition of BIOSTAR Z68, the price is still about US$99, thus it can challenge the low-price market of ATX Z68. By using the well-marked red-black matching, it has the most specifications as that of the Z68 series with the built-in Power/Reset button and a simple debugging LED. With respect to IO, there are three types among which the two blue USBs 3.0 can provide high-speed transmission. If provided two more USBs 2.0, it would be more perfect with respect to the scalability. The previous TZ68A+ is designed with four-phase power supply only, while the new edition TZ68K+ is provided with eight-phase power supply, which is the primary difference. However, as mentioned before, one-phase power supply can provide about 30-40 W, so , the four-phase power supply is already quite enough for overclocking of power consumption of Intel CPU. The heat sinks above the Z68 chipset look good because of being cut by a special manner. Two native SATA3 units of Z68 are positioned at the right side, which are used at a general environment or in a Raid0 state. Test platform CPU: Intel Core i7-2700K MB: BIOSTAR TSERIES TZ68K+ DRAM: CORSAIR CMZ8GX3M2A1866C9R VGA: Intel HD Graphics 3000 HD: Intel 510 Series 120GB POWER: Thermaltake TR2 450W Cooler: CORSAIR Hydro Series H80 OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit Firstly, a performance test is performed by using the preset value of CPU. Preset the performance CPU 100 X 35 => 3500 MHz (booting Turbo Boost, and then C1E) DDR3 1599.8 CL7 8-7-22 1T Hyper PI 32M X8 => 15m 21.977s CPUMARK 99 => 597

FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080 => 4743 Due to Z68 PCI-E limited bandwidth, official spec cannot support 3Way graphics. GTX560 Ti performance should be satisfied by most gamers. If you need high resolution and effects, you can use 2-way SLi or higher grade VGA. GIGABYTE G1.Sniper2 Good 1.G1.Sniper2 is G1-Killer series which has top quality packing and components. 2.Built-in Creative CA20K2 audio chip with rare Japanese made high end caps and 128MB Memory cache. 3.Killer E2100 NPU chip with 1GB DDR2 cache provides better network traffic control. 4.High end Z68 with HDMI output supports Intel IGP exclusive Lucid Virtu technology. 5.Provides exclusive Front Access Control Panel to support USB 3.0 and quick OC. It also supports audio amplifier chip. 6.Special design military style heat sink has good quality and lookgin. Weak 1.CPU PWM should provide at least 12-phase to fit the product price. 2.No external chip to support 3Way VGA. 3.Can consider to make audio or LAN sub-card for more options. But it may cause users to have less PCI-E slots. 4.No GUI BIOS interface. Performance ★★★★★★★★★★ Components ★★★★★★★★★☆ Specification ★★★★★★★★★☆ Appearance ★★★★★★★★☆☆ C/P Value ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ For Intel Z68 exclusive Lucid Virtu Virtualization technology and SSD speed up Smart Response technology. I have shared in former several Z68 articles for detail introduction, using guide and performance. Currently, entry Z68 and high end one price difference is around 1.5~2c times. The main reason is components and spec. G1.Sniper2 positions at Gaming market. The audio and LAN chips are the top level in MB. Now the high end MB is for OC or Gaming. G1.Sniper2 integrates both advantages. If you buy same level audio and LAN cards, it will cost you much. G1.Sniper2 price is top. These two hardware components can enhance the product value. For looking for high end and OC Z68 gaming lovers, G1.Sniper2 can put into your wish list. Former, some readers suggest me to test more mid-end product, so this year I am trying to review more mid end or entry products. Like H61/H67, Pentium G620 and Core i5-2500K, if you are interested, you can search for that. This review takes me over 3 days, due to take pics, BIOS set and OC fine tune. Some readers may think it’s too long to read. If it’s possible, I am considering to separate into 2 parts like very popular Taiwanese movie, Seedig Bale. But after considering, I still decide to make in one article. If you are not familiar with OC or interested in buying in Z68, you can use it as your reference guide. This article is also post in my own blog WIND3C Welcome your visit.

DDR3 Test ADIA64 Memory Read - 24923 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 27863 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 27807 MB/s Z68 set DDR3 clock at 2133, the ADIA64 and MaXXMEM performance is over X58 DDR3 2000. But, Z68 Sandra benchmark is lower than X58. After Sandy Bridge enhance the memory controller, the performance can compete with 3-channel. If you want to OC LGA 1155 DDR3 to 2200~2300, you have to pull CPU clock to over 100MHz first. Temperature Test (Room Temperature 28℃) Enter to OS Desktop - 36~42 CPU Full Speed - 70~80 Intel Burn Test v2.4，Stress Level Maximum Enter to OS desktop, the temperature is not big difference. 5GHz full speed max temperature is 80 which is also acceptable. There are 2 issues in OC, one is CPU voltage too low and the other is temperature rise due to CPU voltage too high. It takes your time to fine tune the best CPU voltage during OC. Using CORSAIR H80 water cooling system, the temperature is good. If it’s winter, the CPU temperature will be even lower. Power Supply is Thermaltake high end product, Toughpower Grand Series. Toughpower Grand Series is 80Plus Golf Certificate which is excellent performance for power saving. TPG-1200M is highest watt version in Toughpower Grand Series. Of course, all spec is the highest. My first impression is the shell design which is curve design. It’s dual 12V to support 40A and 85A. The max power output is 1200W. 14” dual ball baring flower shape fan is also special. The acoustic is very quiet. Modulized design is the must for high end Power Supply. It’s all Japanese made electrolytic and solid caps. The official warranty is 7 years. You can be more confident with Thermaltake. Power Consumption Test Enter to OS Desktop - 116W OCCT POWER SUPPLY Mode - 468W CPU voltage pull to 1.4V when OC to 5GHz, the power consumption only increase 16W when enter to OS desktop. Full speed is only 58W higher which is acceptable range. 2600K OC 5GHz can be run stable in safe temperature range. Some users think bigger watt Power Supply will consume more power. It’s not a right idea. Like the same test configuration, if I use 450W PSU, the power consumption will be 14W higher. 1200W means max output watt. The power consumption level is decided by 80Plus grades. It’s like a big pipe. The water flow amount is decided by tap. 1200W doesn’t mean it always work under max power output condition. Higher watt Power Supply is mainly for upgradability. My friend used 550W in the beginning and he upgraded to 750W when he started to use SLi. Recently, he upgraded to 850W due to buy more high-end VGA. So if you would like to reserve some upgradability for game or VGA card, I suggest you better to get higher watt PSU. VGA is nVIDIA GTX560 Ti 3DMark Vantage => P23771 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1920 X 1080 => 305.18 FPS

Clicking "Quick Boost" will enable "Smart Quick Boost" and “@BIOS" will enable "@BIOS". These two are GIGABYTE exclusive applications. Touch BIOS integrates both for users easy to install. Killer E2100 LAN Chipset SOftware - Bigfoot Networks Killer Network Manager This network manager features are very rich. Users can know the network status through this software. Upper left, EZ Smart Response, enable system HDD can switch to RAID model and enable ISRT under AHCI/IDE mode automatically. Creative provides Entertainment, Game, Audio Creation modes. The Game mode panel and items as right hand side. It includes rich fine tune items. Entertainment mode panel interface is familiar to me as my X-FI audio card. Audio Creation mode provides different panel and items. It looks like Creative own EMU audio panel, but actually the items and features are different. Previously, I tested the audio effect in G1 X58. I would like to repeat some key points. X-FI audio is well benefit the video or gaming multimedia. You can feel very good sound filed. No matter bass, fighting or demolish, it’s really shocked. G1 builds in such high end audio chip and caps, it’s good C/P for gamers. You don’t need to buy an external sound card. For who owns 2500K or 2600K, many people want to use at 5GHz. However, for this high range OC, you need good quality CPU and high end cooler. If you don’t set well, the system will be unstable and CPU will be in high temperature. 5GHz is love and hate setting. Below is stable 5GHz OC Test CPU 100 X 50 => 5001.4MHz 1.400V DDR3 2134.2 CL7 10-7-27 1T 1.620V Hyper PI 32M X8 => 12m 09.442s CPUMARK 99 => 771 Nuclearus Multi Core => 31325 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 39.12/18776 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 400655 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 9.84 pts CPU(Single Core) => 2.03 pts PCMark Vantage => 26169 From 4.5GHz to 5GHz, the CPU performance increase around 10~12%. CPU performance enhance range is not much. However, 5GHz is an excellent feeling for most users. 2600K single core performance and OC range is the best in the market. The multi-tasking performance is only behind 6C12T 980X and 990X. AMD will launch 8-core CPU in the future, called Bulldozer. Its multi-tasking performance may be higher than 2600K.

CrystalMark 2004R3 => 381995 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 8.80 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.83 pts PCMark Vantage => 24328 The CPU voltage will be various as different CPU quality. Actually, if the cooling is good, 2600K no need to add too much voltage from 1.245V to 4.5GHz. The above test is setting as 1.250V. It can pass most benchmark software and burning test stabile. Sandy Bridge as Intel 2nd generation Core I structure. The CPU single thread performance is excellent. 4.5GHz clock to test all benchmark, the score and performance are very good. Also, OC to 4.5GHz is a stage. You have to control voltage and temperature well. DDR3 Test ADIA64 Memory Read - 22282 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 24726 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 24863 MB/s Sandy Bridge DDR3 bandwidth improves a lot. It’s even same as LGA 1366 3-channel. If DDR3 quality is good enough, even CPU clock is the same, you still can run at 2133. Using CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT to test 1866 CL6, the bandwidth and performance are very good. Temperature Test (Room Temperature 28℃) Enter to OS Desktop - 33~38 CPU Full Speed - 56~64 Intel Burn Test v2.4，Stress Level Maximum The temperature result is good. It owes to H80 water cooling system as well. 2600K OC to 4.5GHz won’t be a problem if you use mid-high end coolers. This is also 32nm advantage. I am looking forward to Panther Point next year. Power Consumption Test Enter to OS Desktop - 100W OCCT Power Supply Mode - 410W For 2600K OC to 4.5GHz add GTX 560 Ti, the power consumption is very low. For full speed, CPU full speed is around 200W and above test OCCT CPU and VGA is 410W. This value just needs 550W PSU for whole system. GIGABYTE hasn’t implemented UEFI interface, but it provides alternative solution called Touch BIOS software. Users can adjust BIOS items in OS and also support touchscreen LCD. This software also integrates many GIGABYTE features. It also provide multilingual interface. The screen shot is Traditional Chinese. BIOS is not UEFI design, but it means user can use BIOS interface in OS? When I see items called "Miscellaneous Settings", I can imagine how rich the settings are...