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StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1280 X 720 => 98.62 FPS FINAL FANTASY XIV 1280 X 720 => 1818 LOST PLANET 2 DX9C 1280 X 720 TEST B - 10.3 fps A8-3850 built-in Radeon HD6550D and A6-3650 built-in Radeon HD6530D. The spec and performance is a little different. The test is higher level HD 6550D. 3D performance is close to entry level VGA card. This is impressive part for Llano APU. Game Benchmark is 3~4 times more than pervious 890GX. You can see the advantage for GPU leading company here. As Llano APU 3D performance, it’s decided by DDR3 clock and CPU FSB. If you set DDR3 at default 1066, 3DVANTAGE is about P3000. Comparing to DDR3 1866, 3DVANTAGE increase about 50%. Of course, APU 3D limitation is not only this. If you OC CPU FSB and higher DDR3 clock, it can be over P6000. GIGABYTE A75M-D2H Good 1. 100% Japanese made solid caps, USB 3x power design and On/Off Charge practical features. 2. Rich BIOS items for complete CPU/GPU/DDR3 OC requirement. 3. APU latest IGP technology. Most high end HD 6550D 3D performance is leaping. 4. Native 6 SATA3 and 2 USB 3.0. Also support 2 front USB 3.0 devices. 5. AMD Dual Graphics and Dual-link DVI is good for Gaming or multimedia. Weakness 1. CPU PWM has no heat sink. 2. 4 DIMM DDR3 will be better 2. AMD 3850/3650 + A75 MB price is too high currently Performance ★★★★★★★★☆☆ Components ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ Specification ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ Outlook ★★★★★★★★☆☆ C/P Value ★★★★★★★★☆☆ A8-3850 is 32nm which has been waiting for long time by AMD fans. 3D IGP performance is leaping and A75 also supports USB 3.0 and SATA3. It enhances AMD advantages in market competition. However, for CPU performance, power consumption and temperature is same after moving to 32nm. Also DDR3 bandwidth hasn’t been improved for years. AMD should improve these points soon. Maybe, the future 8 Cores CPU, Bulldozer, performance will be better. Llano APU built-in 3D performance is very impressive. It’s may stimulated by Intel which focus on IGP performance improvement in these 2 years. AMD(ATI) is one of the two GPU leading manufacturer. However, this time they cannot care entry VGA market profit this time. After merging ATI, AMD must improve IGP performance to lead in 3D field. OF course, you won’t disappoint the AMD GPU. HD6550D win back the IGP leading position again. As previous AMD is for mid to low end market, Llano APU price is higher. If you think it’s X4 955 and entry level VGA, APU platform is cheaper actually. As AMD just launched Llano APU structure in early July, it’s only A75 chipset now. It will have A55 chipset later. CPU is only A8-3800 and A6-3600. If A6-3600 plus A55 MB, the cost performance will be enhanced. Intel Sandy Bridge fires the IGP war, and AMD Llano APU hold the leading positon. Even though they both launched only high end product in the beginning, as new structure be more popular, you will see more mid to entry products. According to 2011 IGP performance war, I believe users are the final winners. You can get better performance system with lower price. This article is also post in my own blog WIND3C Welcome your visit.

Temperature(It’s 32℃ in room. All temperature is showed by ℃ in the test below.) Enter to OS Desktop - 34 CPU Full Speed - 65 Intel Burn Test v2.4，Stress Level Maximum For temperature, ADIA64 score is much lower and Core Temp only can test single core. So I pick ADIA64 and Easy Tune6 for standard. Personally, I feel Easy Tune6 is close to real temperature. Comparing to Athlon II or Phenom II I used to test, the temperature didn’t drop much as 32nm. It might causes by CPU integrated GPU. I hope the future yield rate can improve this issue. Power Consumption Test Enter to OS Desktop - 32W CPU Full Speed - 146W Intel Burn Test v2.4，Stress Level Maximum CPU and GPU Full Speed - 171W OCCT Power Supply Test BIOS enable Cool&Quiet technology and just enter to OS desktop, the temperature is very good. CPU full speed, it increases to 113W, and CPU/GPU full speed up to 134W. You can see GPU effect 26W. The main power consumption of whole system is CPU. Built-in GPU is not high as Desktop system. A75 chipset native support SATA3. SATA transfer rate is another key for AMD platform. I use CORSAIR Performance 3 Series, supports SATA3, for higher SSD performance. Model is P3-256. The size is common 2.5”. Capacity is 256GB and weight is 80 grams. Official spec, max reading is 480 MB/s and writing is 320 MB/s. (Test by ATTO Disk Benchmark) Silver shell and MTBF 150000 hours. 3 years warranty. ATTO DISK Benchmark over 32k test is very close to max performance. The reading is 482.5 Mb/s and writing is 328.2 MB/s. File Benchmark over 512k test the writing is over 300 MB/s. AS SSD Benchmark Seq Read - 438.20 MB/s Write - 288.70 MB/s CrystalDiskMark reading is 444.8 Mb/s and writing is 313.9 MB/s A75 SATA3 transfer rate is over standard. ATTO max Read/Write can achieve 438/328 MB/s. In other benchmark software, the scores are not far from official spec. You can see AMD chipset great leap in this part. It supports 6 SATA3 ports. It’s good for more and more SATA3 HDD or SSD products in the markret. AMD Radeon HD6550D Performance Test Default Clock 600MHz 3DMark Vantage => P4450

CPU is AMD latest A8-3850. There is another model, A6-3650, in the market. It’s also Llano APU structure. The core name is Llano, 32nm, TDP 100W, clock 2.90GHz and 4MB L2 Cache. In L2 cache, it’s higher than Phenom II 2MB, but it’s no L3 cache. Performance Test CPU 100.0 X 29 => 2900.1MHz DDR3 1866.8 CL8 10-8-27 1T GPU 600MHz Hyper PI 32M X 4 => 22m 43.084s CPUMARK 99 => 453 Nuclearus Multi Core => 12559 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 15.08/7240 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 204026 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 3.46 pts CPU(Single Core) => 0.88 pts PCMark Vantage => 12276 Windows Experience Index - CPU 7.3 A8-3850 double L2 cache and no L3 cache compare to Phenom II. The performance is similar. Even though phase in 32nm is exciting for AMD fans. However, they might be upset for same performance. I do hope Bulldozer 8Core CPU can show users the leap improvement. DRAM Bandwidth DDR3 1333.4 CL6 6-6-18 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 8088 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 12640 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy -9455 MB/s DDR3 1600.2 CL7 8-7-24 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 9229 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 15266 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 10655 MB/s DDR3 1866.8 CL8 10-8-27 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 9556 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 16192 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 10979 MB/s FM1 DDR3 spec is 1.50V. CPU in default clock, memory can reach DDR3 1866 which is improved. You can see the performance improve most from DDR3 1333 to 1600. From 1600 to 1866, the improvement is much less. For DRAM bandwidth, it’s weak point for AMD for many years. They should try to solve this issue soon…

Even though AMD A75 chipset is mid end range, if MOSFET has heat sink will be better. A75 chipset heat sink is new design this year and the matte handle quality is good. A75M-D2H use Realtek ALC889 audio chip and GIGABYTE emphasize it’s 108dB SNR, Signal-to-Noise Ratio. If I get time, I will test it with other MBs ALC889 by high end speakers or headset to compare the difference. BIOS M.I.T. Menu Voltage Range DDR3 Voltage Control 1.025~1800V CPU VDDP Voltage Control 0.900~1.480V CPU Vcore 0.750~1.795V CPU NB VID Control -0.600~+0.300V CPU Voltage Control -0.600~+0.400V Memory Clock AM3 platform can support up to DDR3 1600. FM1 socket can pull clock to DDR3 1866. IGX Setup Items You can set share memory as 256, 512 or 1024MB. Dual-link DVI enable item can support highest resolution to 2560 x 1600. VGA Core Clock can adjust GPU clock. However, APU 3D performance is not pulling by this item. Advanced DDR3 Parameters Setup CORSAIR XMS 8GB DDR3 1600 CL9 OC to 1866 CL8 CPU related items, you can enter IGX setup page from here. PC Health Status BIOS items are similar with AM2+/AM3. If you used to use previous AMD platform, it won’t be problem to you. A75M-D2H provides plenty items for users to fine tune. Test Configuration CPU: AMD A8-3850 MB: GIGABYTE A75M-D2H DRAM: CORSAIR CMX8GX3M2A1600C9 VGA: AMD Radeon HD6550D HD: CORSAIR Performance 3 Series P3-256 SSD POWER: Thermaltake TR2 450W Cooler: Thermaltake Jing OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit SP1

Few months ago, AMD launched new product line called APU. It’s AMD dual core E-350 CPU which integrate GPU and the chipset is Hudson-M1 FCH. This combo main competitor is Intel Atom platform, and not popular in consumer market. E-350 CPU performance is similar to Atom, however, its GPU performance is much better than Atom which even better than AMD own IGP performance. It breaks the trend of IGP performance slow improvement. In the past, built-in graphic is integrating in Chipset. Since last year, Intel LGA 1155 platform integrated GPU into CPU. It makes Intel IGP performance catch up AMD platform. This is the first time Intel lead the IGP performance. AMD IGP is always the leader in the market. However, each generation 3D performance improvement is small; it causes the UMA market no breakthrough products. 2011, Intel LGA 1156 changed the trend. Early this year, Intel launched LGA1155 Sandy Bridge, the performance improves 20~30% more. Intel HD2000/3000 performance is leaping. Finally, AMD launched new Llano APU high performance IGP structure which is the key role this review. Llano APU chipset has A75 and A55. So far you only can find A75 products in Taiwan. First of all, let’s see GIGABYTE A75M-D2H package. It is white background and feature and technology logos. GIGABYTE recently promotes SUPER 4 in entry products. At the first sight, I thought it’s new Japanese Super Sentai series... GIGABYTE A75M-D2H SUPER 4 are Super Safe, Super Speed, Super Savings, and Super Sound. If you are interested in, you can search internet to compare with other brands A75 MB. This year, GIGABYTE mid to high end MB is black PCB design. Personally, I prefer water blue or sky blue color. A75M-D2H color tone is pretty good. It’s Micro ATX and size is 24.4 cmx 22.5 cm. Bundle Accessories Product manual, quick installation guide, I/O panel, SATA cables and Driver CD. Lower-Left Corner 2 X PCI-E X16, first one is X16 and second one is X4 which support AMD CrossFireX technology 1 X PCI-E X1 1 X PCI Realtek ALC889 audio chip supports 7.1 channel and High Definition Audio technology. Realtek RTL8111E LAN chip and TPM module connector in black. Lower-Right Corner 6 X Blue SATA provided by A75. It’s SATA3 and supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10, JBOD. Left side has USB 2.0/3.0 front panel connector and right side is DualBIOS. Upper-Right Corner 2 X DIMM DDR3 supports 1066/1333/1600/1866/2400(OC) and DDR3 max capacity is 32GB. Next is 24-PIN power connector. Upper-Left Corner AMD new Socket FM1 latch is different with AM2+/AM3, but the cooler is common in use. It’s 4+1 phase PWM. One phase can supply 30~40W, it’s really enough design. Upper-Left is 4-pin power input. IO 1 X PS2 KB/MS D-SUB/DVI/HDMI Output 1 X S/PDIF Fiber Output 4 X USB 2.0(Red) 2 X USB 3.0(Blue) 1 X RJ-45 LAN

G850 Enter to Desktop - 30W G620 OCCT POWER SUPPLY Mode - 64W G850 OCCT POWER SUPPLY Mode - 75W Comparing previous H55 plus G6950 platform, it’s 32nm CPU structure as well, however, G620/G850 Enter to Desktop is lower 8W and Full Speed is lower 30W. Sandy Bridge platform show it’s advantage in power consumption. These 2 CPU is testing under OC GPU, so the power consumption is higher than standard. Intel HD Graphics Performance Test 3DMark Vantage => P1292 3DMark Vantage => P1455 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1280 X 720 => 30.98 FPS StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1280 X 720 => 34.22 FPS FINAL FANTASY XIV 1280 X 720 => 427 FINAL FANTASY XIV 1280 X 720 => 479 You can know Sandy Bridge built-in GPUs are HD Graphics 2000 and HD Graphics 3000. Pentium G series GPU named HD Graphics and follow 2000/3000. However, the clock is same, 850/1100, so 3D performance is same as HD2000. For GPU OC, G850 clock can be higher to achieve 1433MHz and pass 3D tset. Comparing to previous LGA 1156 GPU, 3D performance is much higher. This is the other new platform strength. Intel launched 3 Pentium CPU this time and price is lower than Core i3-2100. MB you also can have Micro ATX H61 or H67. It’s good small PC or office PC. ITX boards are getting more and more in the market. Mainly, the chipset is H61 or H67. Usually, HTPC hardware price is higher. More and more makers sell ITX MB in these 2 years. HTPC users can lower the HTPC budget to normal ATX or Micro ATX PC. H67N-USB3-B3 features and expansion are quite good. The rich BIOS features can OC GPU, fine tune DDR3 parameters, also can lower CPU voltage to make system be good performance and green. I also saw some H61N-USB3 news in website. I think the C/P value will be even higher. The article is sharing Intel latest entry level CPU mainly. You can see the some improvement of CPU performance and power consumption. However, the DDR3 bandwidth and 3D performance improvement is bigger. Recently, H61 price is lower and many MB makers start to kill price. No matter ITX or Micro ATX platform, you can take it as your reference. I wish everyone can use lower budget to build higher performance next generation PC. This article is also in my blog. WIND3C Welcome your visit.

Windows Experience Index - CPU 6.4 Windows Experience Index - CPU 6.7 Windows Experience Index is simple and fast benchmark software. User can understand system performance easily. G620 and G850 are both 2 Cores CPU, but get good score. I hope this software can revise to be more detail test. As my experience, i3 3.3GHz is 7.1分, i5 2.8GHz s 7.4, i5 3.3GHz is 7.7 and i5 4.8GHz is 7.7 I think the full score should be 7.9. If the hardware performance is good enough the index over 7 is difficult to make a distinction. DDR3 Test G620 DDR3 1064.2 CL5 6-5-18 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 13035 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 13849 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 14196 MB/s G850 DDR3 1330.4 CL6 7-6-18 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 15553 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 17250 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 16723 MB/s LGA 1156 CPU, built-in GPU, causes low DDR3 performance. LGA 1155 Sandy Bridge platform has corrected this issue. The bandwidth is higher 10~20% than previous platform. BIOS setup is AUTO. G620 is DDR3 1066 and G850 is DDR3 1333, which are the official spec. Actually, if you use high end chipset, the DDR3 clock can be even higher. G620 DDR3 1872.2 CL9 9-8-24 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 16638 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 21978 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 16605 MB/s P67/Z68 OC series chipset, if your DDR3 quality is good enough, you can set as 1866 or 2133. Due to G series is entry model for higher C/P or office PC, most users won’t consider to use P67/Z68. I just would like to show entry CPU has higher DDR3 performance, so changing to Z68 here to share G620 high DDR3 bandwidth. Temperature G620 Enter to Desktop - 31~32(Air condition 27℃) G850 Enter to Desktop - 42(Room temperature 33℃) G620 Full Speed - 49~52(Air condition 27℃) Intel Burn Test v2.4，Stress Level Maximum G850 Full Speed - 53~56(Room temperature 33℃) Intel Burn Test v2.4，Stress Level Maximum As these 2 CPUs clock are similar, so I make different environment to share the temperature test. In hot summer, the highest temperature in open case is 56 and G850 in chassis is around 60. If you change to air conditioning room, G850 full speed is 50~52 which is higher 2~3 than G620. The temperature is key advantage for 32nm CPU. Power Consumption G620 Enter to Desktop - 30W

Performance Test G620 CPU 99.8 X 26 => 2594.1MHz DDR3 1064.2 CL5 6-5-18 1T GPU 1100 OC 1350MHz G850 CPU 99.8 X 29 => 2893.4MHz DDR3 1330.4 CL6 7-6-18 1T GPU 1100 OC 1433MHz Below is using same benchmark software. The first is G620 and second is G850. Hyper PI 32M X 2 => 13m 31.794s CPUMARK 99 => 400 Hyper PI 32M X 2 => 12m 07.461s CPUMARK 99 => 446 CPUMARK is simple benchmark for testing CPU single core performance. Hyper PI can test system stability and multi-core software. Currently, Intel structure is faster. G620/G850 clock difference is 300MHz, so the performance is 10% gap. Nuclearus Multi Core => 9059 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 8.08/3876 Nuclearus Multi Core => 10055 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 9.01/4324 You can see the performance under Fritz Chess Benchmark is around 10%. CrystalMark 2004R3 => 148458 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 162889 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 2.01 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.04 pts CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 2.25 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.15 pts PCMark Vantage => 8598 PCMark Vantage => 10325 It’s the H67 platform and I use CORSAIR F40 SSD to set RAID0. You can see the advantage. Comparing to last generation Intel Pentium Dual Core G6950, both are 32nm, G series performance is improved. Even though CPU performance is not big improved, there are many parity price H61/H67 MB in the market. For new generation office PC, C/P is better. Also, Sandy Bridge has more features.

Boot Screen with some feature logos. BIOS Main Page MB Intelligent Tweaker, called M.I.T. Clock Setup Page CPUFSB/Ratio, DDR3 Clock, Integrated Graphics clock… CPU Related Items You can adjust CPU cores and C1E is power saving feature. DDR3 Clock Setup Advanced DDR3 Parameters Setup Voltage Page CPU Vcore 0.750~1.795V QPI/Vtt Voltage 0.900~1.500V Graphics Core 0.850~+1.705V PCH Core 0.900~1.500V DRAM 1.100~2.400V PC Health Status H67 is setting as IGP chipset, so it cannot OC as 2500K/2600K. GIGABYE H67N-USB3-B3 BIOS provides rich features for end users to adjust. For non-K i3, i5 or Pentium CPU, you can fine tune system by CPU voltage, DRAM parameters and GPU clock OC. Test Configuration CPU: Intel Pentium Processor G620/G850 MB: GIGABYTE H67N-USB3-B3 DRAM: CORSAIR CMX8GX3M2A1600C9 VGA: Integrated Graphics HD: CORSAIR CSSD-F40GB2 Raid0 POWER: Thermaltake TR2 450W Cooler: Intel Cooler OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit

Jan 2011, Intel launched new structure LGA 1155 socket Sandy Bridge platform. In the first stage, Intel focus on mid to high Core i5 and Core i7. The chipset is P67 and H67 which are also positioning at mid end. For the entry product, Intel launched H61 and Core i3 in March. In the market, Core i3 2100 or 2120 price is still high for entry CPU segment. For the users, lower than 100USD Sandy Bridge CPU is more suitable for office or worksheet users. LGA 1156 has Pentium G6950 which is cheaper and enough performance. However, in Taiwan, G6950 is the only model for 1156 platform. Sandy Bridge launched 3 Pentium CPU, G620/G840/G850, in May. It’s better structure and richer options for Intel platform CPU. First of all, let’s check Intel Pentium Processor G620, the clock is 2.6GHz. Physical 2 Cores don’t support Hyper-Threading. It can support 2 threads which called 2C/2T. 32nm and Max TDP is 65W. L3 Cache is 3MB. It’s most entry 2 Cores CPU in LGA 1155. Lower-Left is G620 back. Upper-Right is bottom of original cooler for 2 Cores CPU. Intel uses non0-sooper design. Another more high end G series, Intel Pentium Processor G850, clock is 2.9GHz. The other specs are same as G620. The main difference of G850 and i3 -2100 are Hyper-Threading and Intel GPU version. For advanced technology, i3 can support more. You can find the detail in official spec documents. G850 back is same as G620. Besides the clock, G850 DDR3 also support to 1333. It owns Embedded Options Available. These are key difference between G620 and G850. MB is H67 chipset, GIGABYTE H67N-USB3-B3. The price is not high as ITX and H67. Also the components and features are good quality. C/P is acceptable. CPU is 4+1 phases PWM. 2 DIMM DDR3 support max 16GB. It built-in 2 SATA3 and 1 PCI-E X16 which is quite good spec for ITX IO 1 X S/PDIF fiber and coaxial output 1 X D-SUB/2 X HDMI 4 X USB 2.0(Black) 2 X USB 3.0(Vlue) 1 X RJ-45 LAN 1 X eSATA(Yellow) USB 3.0 chip uses NEC D720200AF1, made in Japan. If GIGABYTE can add Bluetooth and mSATA wireless slot will be more practical for HTPC. AMD normally has more advantage in ITX MB. Some brands have many product lines but not easy to find in Taiwan. Since Intel IGP performance is much improved, H55 and H67/H61 all have many ITX MB. The price is cheaper than AMD ITX MB. Users can have more options within budget. H67N-USB3-B3 price is higher than entry H61 boards. Normally, USB 3.0 H61/H67 is around 10~15 USD higher. If you don’t need RAID or higher spec, you can choose H61 to have better C/P.

WD 320GB is the OS drive and add 510 120GB SSD. 39~40W, it’s around half-half. 320 160GB SSD is the OS drive add 320GB HDD, it’s still at 39W. For power consumption, no matter if there is SSD, it only increase 1~2W. Comparing to platform with both HDD and SSD, HDD power consumption is little bit higher than SSD but not big gap. NoteBook platform use TOSHIBA 2nd generation Core i7. The chipset is Intel HM65. You can figure out this TOSHIBA NB quality just need to use for a while. Speaker quality is very good in my experience. The Keyboard touch feeling and plastic copy hair line surface texture is very good as well. These 3 designs compare to my “Dual A” new NB are even better. 320 SERIES 160GB ADIA64 Linear Read Average 252.6 MB/s AS SSD Benchmark Seq Read - 253.81 MB/s Write - 166.77 MB/s 4K-64Thrd Read - 135.70 MB/s Write - 59.43 MB/s FDEBENCH test reading is 252.2 Mb/s and writing is 172.3 MB/s ATTO DISK Benchmark over 32k test is achieving max reading 280.7 Mb/s and writing 174.8MB/s CrystalDiskMark test reading is 256.4 Mb/s and writing is 170.5 MB/s 510 SERIES 120GB ADIA64 Linear Read Average 370.5 MB/s AS SSD Benchmark Seq Read - 440.53 MB/s Write - 204.73 MB/s 4K-64Thrd Read - 81.84 MB/s Write - 63.49 MB/s FDEBENCH test reading is 374.4 Mb/s and writing is 204.8 MB/s ATTO DISK Benchmark over 32k test is achieving max reading 479.3 Mb/s and writing 228.9MB/s CrystalDiskMark test reading is 433.3 Mb/s and writing is 212.9 MB/s The performance at NoteBook is still good. Some benchmark is same as PC, but the gap is not big. Personally, I think SSD has more advantage in NB than PC, because 2.5” HDD is slower than 3.5” HDD, also 2.5” HDD is more expensive. Even though SSD has no advantage at capacity, the difference with 2.5” HDD is smaller. It doesn’t mean SSD is not fit PC. Just consider about C/P value, it’s lower than NoteBook platform. Small capacity SSD use for Z68 SRT hybrid acceleration technology with 2~3TB HDD is more suitable for PC platform. If in the future, the TRIM technology can use under RAID mode, the SSD advantage at PC platform will be more clear. Intel SSD is easy to find in the market. This time, these 2 series SSD price is higher than the other brands. Due to Intel brand awareness and good after service, the SSD acceptance is still high. I hope 320/510 price can be lower in the future. It can enhance the completion force and market share. Currently, many read/write performance around 200 MB/s 128GB SSD price is 200USD. In same price position, SSD capacity increase to 128GB from 64GB in the past. It’s really helpful for execution. Of course, the unit price of SSD is still much higher than HDD. We do can look forward the lower unit price in the future. For most users, before buying 3C products, you need to study some basic information to avoid get unsatisfied products. Such as outlook, spec, after service, performance and executive features are all important. This review includes 2 Intel new series SSD performance data for readers who has SSD demand. This article is also in my blog. WIND3C Welcome your visit.

Intel 510 SERIES 120GB installs at white SATA3. Non OS system drive without data, model is SSDSC2MH120A2, test performance at PC platform. HD Tune Pro 4.60 Benchmark Read - Average 347.7 MB/s Access Time 0.183ms Write - Average 212.2MB/s Access Time 0.069ms Random Access Extra tests Sequential middle Read - 351.765 MB/s Write - 216.879 MB/s Random seek 4KB 12766 IOPS File Benchmark over 512k test is over 400 MB/s. ATTO DISK Benchmark over 32k test is achieving max reading 461.2 Mb/s and writing 230.0 MB/s. HD Tune Pro Benchmark SSD test result is always lower in my experience. It might be caused by the software. File Benchmark and ATTO File Benchmark can achieve 510 SERIES highest performance. Basically, reading is over 400~500 MB/s and writing is over 200 MB/s are grouping as high-end SSD. ADIA64 Read Test Suite - Linear Read(Middle) 444.4 MB/s FDEBENCH test is reading 385.6 Mb/s and writing 204.8 MB/s. CrystalDiskMark test is reading 442.0 Mb/s and writing 214.1 MB/s. ADIA64 Linear Read Average 420.8 MB/s AS SSD Benchmark Seq Read - 405.85 MB/s Write - 204.7 MB/s 4K-64Thrd Read - 85.32 MB/s Write - 62.97 MB/s ADIA64 Random Read 350.5 MB/s AS SSD Benchmark 4K-64Thrd Read - 21843 iops Write - 16120 iops CrystalMark Sequential Read 390.51 MB/s Sequential Write 208.82 MB/s SiSoftware Sandra 400.126 MB/s Controller IC is always key factor of SSD performance. This is the first time Intel use Marvell 88SS9174. The reading performance is excellent. The highest performance in PC is 461.2 Mb/s. Even though Intel 4k performance is always in leading position, 510 doesn’t have any big surprise. I hope there is a new product can break through the 4K performance. Power Consumption Enter to OS desktop for 3 minutes and take the lowest Watt. 2.5” WD 320GB is the OS drive. It shows 39W still. WD 320GB is the OS drive and add 320 160GB SSD. Most time, it’s 39W and less to 40W.

Z68 exclusive support Intel Smart Response Technology which provide hybrid mode of small capacity SSD and HDD acceleration feature. GIGABYTE even provides more convenient EZ Smart Response for users enable SRT as HDD is under AHCI or IDE mode. User doesn’t need to set BIOS as RAID mode and reinstall OS. It save lots of time. Test Configuration CPU: Intel Core i5-2400 MB: GIGABYTE Z68MX-UD2H DRAM: CORSAIR VENGEANCE CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 PK1 VGA: Intel HD Graphics 2000 HD: Intel 320 SERIES 160GB / 510 SERIES 120GB POWER: CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 Cooler: Intel Original Cooler OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit Intel 320 SERIES 160GB installs at blue SATA2. Non OS system drive without data, model is SSDSA2CW160G3, test performance at PC platform. HD Tune Pro 4.60 Benchmark Read - Average 205.3 MB/s Access Time 0.121ms Write - Average 158.0MB/s Access Time 0.080ms Random Access Extra tests Sequential middle Read - 207.169 MB/s Write - 157.031 MB/s Random seek 4KB 11339 IOPS File Benchmark over 512k test is above 250 MB/s. ATTO DISK Benchmark over 32k test get max reading 282.4 Mb/s and writing 175.8 MB/s. 320 SERIES is not high-end performance SSD. However, most HD Tune Pro test has quite good performance. Especially the writing performance, it’s over 60% improvement comparing previous X25-M G2 which is only 70~100 MB/s. ATTO DISK Benchmark max read/write performance is 280/175 MB/s. This is over official spec. ADIA64 Read Test Suite - Linear Read(Middle) 266.7 MB/s FDEBENCH is reading 267.3 Mb/s and writing 168.1 MB/s CrystalDiskMark is reading 274.6 Mb/s and writing 174.2 MB/s ADIA64 Linear Read Average 265.1 MB/s AS SSD Benchmark Seq Read - 264.09 MB/s Write - 170.07 MB/s 4K-64Thrd Read - 139.28 MB/s Write - 60.99 MB/s ADIA64 Random Read 214.9MB/s AS SSD Benchmark 4K-64Thrd Read - 35655 iops Write - 15614 iops CrystalMark Sequential Read 259.73 MB/s Sequential Write 166.15 MB/s SiSoftware Sandra 265 MB/s AS SSD Benchmark 4K-64Thrd test result is big gap with official spec. I have been test over 10 times but same result. I think it should be software and drive has compatibility issue. 320 SERIES has stable performance with most benchmark software. 270/165 MB/s spec and 4K performance is still Intel SSD strength. It’s middle range above performance in current SSD market. You can treat 320 SERIES as X25-M G2 enhance version. The reading performance is similar, but writing and manufacturing are enhanced.

Solid-State Drive also known as SSD is new PC storage in last 3 years. It owns linear transfer performance and super-fast seek time. The performance is leading HDD obviously. Some users also cannot be used to HDD speed after using SSD for a while. Comparing to 100/80 MB/s old type SSD and 100/100 MB/s HDD booting and opening file, the SSD is still much faster. SSD performance isn’t like HDD unstable dues to inner and outer gaps. Also, SSD seek time is very fast. These 2 points make SSD performance is much faster than HDD. As SSD performance development roadmap, it’s been stuck at 300MB/s for a period.It may cause by SATA2 bandwidth. Since SATA3 becomes popular and Intel chipset support natively, the SSD which is over 300MB/s started to sell since last year. Till this year, you even can see many 400~500 MB/s high speed SSD. The SSD products segment and price are decided by capacity and performance. Intel enters SSD business for long time. It owns own R&D ability for NAND Flash and controller chipset. Previous 2.5” version it uses X25-E/X25-M to distinguish SLC and MLC. After that, it launched MLC entry model, X25-V. SLC structure is better; however, the cost is too high. That’s why you see less and less SLC SSD in the market. In naming, these 2 new SSD product lines change to 320 and 510. First, let’s start with 320 SERIES 160GB. The packing is same as new CPU which all with Intel new logo. Of course, blue is Intel color. The warranty increase to 5 years from 3. It’s good news for users. Accessories 2.5” to 3.5” bay mounting bracket, screws, 4-Pin to SATA power cable and SATA cable. Installation CD, installation guide and sticker.s The outlook is same as G2 34nm X25-M. 320 capacity is 40~600GB which is much bigger than previous version. Controller chip is PC29AS210BA0. MLC NAND FLASH is 29F16B08CCMEI, total 12 chips and cache buffer is 64MB. 320 series is 25nm and model change to G3. The max capacity is 600GB. 160GB official spec is reading 270 MB/s and writing 165 MB/s. 4K reading is 39000 IOPS and 4K writing is 21000 IOPS. As SSD capacity is getting bigger, the performance is also improved. Backside is metal texture. If it has polishing, the quality will be better. Upper-Right golden finger is SATA and power connector. It supports SATA2 which is reasonable for 320 SERIES performance. Another model is 510 SERIES which has 120GB and 250GB. The shell is different with Intel other SSD product. The controller IC is 0Marvell 88SS9174. MLC NAND FLASH is 29F64G08CAMDD, total 16 ICs, and cache buffer is 128MB. The accessories are same as 320 series. The only difference is 510 using black SATA cable. Official warranty is 3 years, which is different with 320SERIES. I hope it can extend to 5 years in the future. Backside and front side are the same. Lower-Left is SATA and power connector. It supports SATA3. 510 120GB official spec, SATA2/SATA3 reading are 265/450 MB/s and writing are 200/210 MB/s. 4K reading is 38000 IOPS and 4K writing is 14000 IOPS. 510 SSD bigger capacities have better performance. Desktop PC platform uses GIGABYTE Z68MX-UD2H. Z68 is Intel latest Sandy Bridge chipset. I use it to test SATA performance. Z68 owns P67 OC and H67 built-in GPU simultaneously. Chipset native support SATA3 and all MB makers use other chip to support USB3.0 and other latest technology.

Power Supply test in OCCT - 266W When overclocking the CPU and using the built-in GPU, the power consumption is not so high when on system standby. When the CPU/GPU are fully loaded during the OCCT Power Supply test, the highest power consumption was about 260~270W. CPU OC 4.8GHz /GPU GTX560 Ti default value No software running on the OS desktop - 111W Power Supply test in OCCT - 476W –Using the GTX560 Ti at medium or advanced level, its power consumption increased significantly at full speed, reaching around 480W. The efficiency of CX430 is about 80%. The test above environment used 110V and a maximum 476W. The highest power output after conversion is about 381W. Even under the heavy load of the test platform, it passed the burn-in test, and it maintained a low temperature – as determined by touching the the CX430 shell.. It proves that a 430W power supply is enough. BIOSTAR TSERIES TZ68A+ Advantages 1. High-end Intel chipset like the Z68, with a low price, is really rare. 2. Japanese solid capacitor, built-in POWER/RESET buttons and a simple debug LED 3. Its BIOS has been upgraded to UEFI interface, with rich options, a large voltage range, as well as excellent overclocking capacity. 4. Even if It is a low-price version, it still provides two PCI-E X16s, supporting 2Way ATI CrossFireX technology 5. The onboard GPU, with three output ports, also supports Intel SRT and Lucid Virtu. Weaknesses 1. BIOSTAR has no distribution channel in Taiwan currently. 2. It will be more practical if the USB ports at the rear IO are increased to 6. Performance ratio ★★★★★★★★☆☆ Material ratio ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ Specification ratio ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ Appearance ratio ★★★★★★★★☆☆ Performance vs. Price ratio ★★★★★★★★★★ The two major features of Z68 chipset are the Intel Smart Response Technology and the Lucid Virtu. I hope the above test sharing can help the user interested at a Z68 have a better understanding to it. Together with all the features of the Sandy Bridge platform, the Z68 is a rather good choice for the user who is looking for multi-function and high performance. The price of this BIOSTAR TZ68A+ will be about US$99(NT$2855). It is surprising to see the Z68 with this low price for the first time on the market, which is even as low as some basic chipsets, like the H61. After comparing all prices of the Z68 on the market, this one could be the lowest-priced Z68 MB, though the materials and specifications are not as good as the other Z68 MBs with higher price. However, it has all the basic features and technologies, such as USB 3.0, so it could be quite a practical Z68 product. Other advantages are: the BIOS with UEFI interface, and rich features, wide voltage range; it has outstanding performance in overclocking. One weakness is that there are only 4 USBs on the rear IO, which is kind of inconvenient to the users who need many USB ports. Another is that it is the only Z68 product BIOSTAR currently has. I hope they will release more low-price Z68 products in the future, like TP67XE specification This article is also posted on my blog WIND'S 3C 3C fans are welcome to visit and propose suggestions.

DDR3 1863.6 CL8 10-9-27 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 22603 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 24737 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 26252 MB/s DDR3 is the 1600 CL9 9-9-24 1.65V version of CORSAIR basic series After actual adjustment, the parameter is set as CL7 8-7-21 1T/DDR3 1866 CL8 10-9 -27 1T for DDR3 1600 or so. The frequency range for overclocking and the reduced parameter data both get good performance. The most significant performance improvement can be observed after it is increased to DDR3 1866. Intel HD Graphics HD3000 performance test Preset frequency 1100MHz OC 1800MHz 3DMark Vantage => P3135 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1280 X 800 => 61.87 FPS FINAL FANTASY XIV 1280 X 720 => 1202 LOST PLANET 2 DX9C 1280 X 800 TEST B - 12.1 fps There are two kinds of onboard display of Intel Sandy Bridge: the HD2000 and the HD3000 Windwithme has shared much about the 3D performance of the HD2000, and also compared the test results of overclocking. HD3000 used in this test can reach up to of 2000MHz, but the 3D performance did not significantly increase after 1800MHz. So I completed the test shown above at 1800MHz. The performance after overclocking is 3 or 4 times better than that of HD2000. HD3000 can be used for 3D software or games with medium or lower requirements as long as the resolution is not adjusted too high. Temperature performance (Ambient temperature is about 28 Celsius) System standby - 33~42 CPU full speed - 67~74 The highest temperature is about 74~77 Celsius. The ambient temperature now is much higher, but it is still within the acceptable range. Additionally, it can undergo the complete burn-in test of Intel Burn Test v2.4. If it is in the computer case, the temperature difference will be 5 Celsius more. Sandy Bridge is made using the 32nm manufacturing process, so extreme frequencies are obviously increased. However, for overclocking over 4.2GHz, it is recommended to install an advanced heat sink to reduce the temperature effectively, which is also my main reason for using Frio OCK for this test. If the original heat sink is used during CPU overclocking, the temperature will greatly increase when burning-in it above 4.2GHz. For the overclocking platform of Z68, I want to make a more detailed comparison on the power consumption test. Power Supply used is the CX430 of CORSAIR Builder, with an output specification of 430W. The matte black shell, plus the entire black color, makes for good texture. Even with a 12cm fan, it runs quite silently. The latest version of CX430 is the V2. The difference between these two versions is whether it has an 80Plus white label certification Power consumption test CPU OC 4.8GHz /GPU HD3000 OC 1800MHz No software running on the OS desktop - 87W

PC Health Status The monitor chip built in the MB is used to view the status of various primary voltages and temperatures in the system. It seems that the CPU temperature reading tends to be higher than the ambient temperature around the heat sink, or the temperature displayed by the software in the OS. BIOSTAR is abreast with the trend of using UEFI, which also makes for a more user-friendly interface and makes operating more convenient. Even if the TZ68A+ belongs to the low-price range, it is rich with options. The settings above are for CPU OC 4.8GHz and DDR3 OC 1866, providing reference for users with similar configurations. I used the first version of Frio. You can use one or two 12cm fans, if you want. According to the test, there is a high-level of cooling performance, so I’m having a good impression of the Frio series. This time, I have used the most advanced Frio OCK of Thermaltake, which is designed for CPU overclocking. OCK is designed for enhanced heat dissipation. The user needs to install dual-fans and heat sinks, which is easy, but its bulky. No problem is found on LGA 1366 platform has no, but on the LGA 1155 platform, it might interfere with one or two DIMMs due to a different slot location. In this case, the problem can be fixed if you install DDR3 DIMMs of standard height. It will interfere if you have installed large overclocking DDR3 DIMMs. The two cooling fans both have variable fan speeds controlled by a single VR knob based on your specific needs for cooling performance and noise. At the bottom, there are six heat pipes on each side. Compared to the last version of the Frio, there are two more heat pipes on this one. Overclocking performance CPU 99.8 X 48 => 4791.9MHz 1.376V DDR3 1863.6 CL8 9-10-27 1T 1.600V Hyper PI 32M X 4 => 8m 05.223s CPUMARK 99 => 738 Nuclearus Multi Core => 27532 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 29.69/14251 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 313513 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 7.49 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.94 pts Windows experience index - CPU 7.7 PCMark Vantage => 12328 After overclocking 4.8GHz of 2500K, the performance increased by 30~40% compared to the default value, according to most of the software test results. I personally hope to conduct overclocking test on a CPU under 1.4V. It can be stable for a long time. Moreover, the increased frequency and voltage, the temperature won’t be much higher. Generally, this system can meet the common demands. The CPU can get quite high scores under various test software. DDR3 performance DDR3 1587.4 CL7 8-7-21 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 20426 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 21619 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 23035 MB/s

MSI GTX560 Ti The lower left shows nVIDIA CUDA technology is enabled. 6 minutes 06 seconds For the same video conversion above, Intel Quick Sync Video is 1 minute 7 seconds faster than nVIDIA CUDA. With the Intel built-in HD3000, it could save the time by over 22%. Thus, it could save much time for the user with video conversion needs. Intel Quick Sync Video is highly efficient. When I used the P67 or the H61/H67 that don’t support Lucid Virtu, I have always thought it was such a pity that the file conversion feature of the onboard display was not used. For now, the Z68, with the Lucid Virtu technology, allows a user to switch GPU freely using a software application, which is much more convenient. Startup screen The biggest difference between UEFI interface and conventional BIOS is that with the UEFI, you can set options by using a mouse. In addition, you can also post some beautiful background image on it, so that the interface could look prettier. To enable Lucid Virtu feature, you need to enter the Chipset page to enable IGD Multi-Monitor. O.N.E adjustment page The default values of 2500K are 37,36,35, and 34 in Turbo Mode. The new version 2.0 even has the finer CPU acceleration mode Internal PLL Voltage Override is the option for Intel special overclocking, which effectively enhances the stability of a highly overclocked CPU. Graphics Core Ratio Limit is the overclocking option for GPU frequency, preset as 22. Each cell represents 50MHz, so 22 cells equals 1100MHz. The overclocking value in the figure is set at 1800MHz for the test. DRAM division supports 1066~2133 modes, so that the user can enjoy the supposed DDR3 performance more easily. The top is the setting page for detailed DDR3 parameters. CPU VCore Mode, SPEC Volgate/Auto/Offset Mode/Fixed Mode CPU VCore Offset +0.010~+0.520V CPU VCore Fixed 1.000~1.790V IGD VCore Mode, SPEC Volgate/Auto/Offset Mode/Fixed Mode IGD VCore Offset +0.010~+0.520V IGD VCore Fixed 1.000~1.520V CPU VCore LoadLine DRAM Voltage 1.300~2.200V CPU Configuration Enable or disable the CPU related major technologies The commonly used HT technology or the function of selecting the cores to be used

The chipset is covered by the heat sink. The appearance and texture are both good. However, the heat sink is small due to the price limitation. BIOSTAR uses the same design and material in the heat sink of P67/H67/Z68 chipsets. Test platform CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K MB: BIOSTAR TSERIES TZ68A+ DRAM: CORSAIR CMX8GX3M2A1600C9 VGA: Intel HD Graphics 3000 / msi N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II HD: WD 6400BPVT / Intel X25-V 40GB POWER: CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 Cooler: Thermaltake FrioOCK OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit SP1 First, I tested one of the major features of Z68 chipset, the Intel Smart Response Technology (hereinafter referred to as SRT). The user needs to install Smart Response Technology version 10.5 or higher to be able to use it. Intel Smart Response is mainly for increasing the performance of an HDD, by using an SSD to enhance the performance of the storage system. The recommended SSD capacity used is 18.6 ~ 64GB. This is ideal for those who have small-capacity SSDs or want to enhance their system performance by using SSD. SRT technology will reduce the cost needed for such performance enhancement. HDD performance test (without SRT acceleration feature) ATTO DISK Benchmark shows a maximum access speed of 85.5 Mb/s and a write speed of 81.2 MB/s when the test exceeds 64k. CrystalDiskMark Seq Read - 81.35 MB/s Write - 80.86 MB/s HD Tune Pro 4.60 Benchmark File Benchmark It can reach the access performance of 70MB/s when the test exceeds 128k. Read - Average 61.0 MB/s Access Time 21.1ms ADIA64 DISK Benchmark Read Test Suite Linear Read (Middle) - 69.1 MB/s When tested using a WD 2.5-inch blu-ray 5400 rpm 640GB HDD, The tested performance data reached 80MB/s, with over 60MB/s on the average. There are two modes for SRT acceleration: enhancement and maximization. Enhancement mode – This mode optimizes data protection. The write and search performance are improved to SSD level, while 4K and write speed are still at the HDD level. Maximization mode – This mode optimizes the input/output performance. The performance of enabling this mode is exactly the same as the current performance of SSDs. However, maximization mode uses the SSD as a cache where files are stored into it for system use. In case of a system crash, the data in the SSD might be lost. For data protection, the enhancement mode stores files into both the HDD and the SSD, so as to prevent data loss in the SSD. For performance, the maximization mode can enable the system to get maximum performance from the SSD. Both modes have strengths and weaknesses. It is up to the user to make the final decision according to one’s specific needs. HDD+SSD performance test (with SRT maximization acceleration feature) ATTO DISK Benchmark shows a maximum access speed of 157.2 Mb/s and a write speed of 46.1 MB/s when the test exceeds 16k. CrystalDiskMark Seq Read - 153.3 MB/s Write - 44.61 MB/s HD Tune Pro 4.60 Benchmark File Benchmark It can reach a maximum access speed of 150MB/s when the test exceeds 256k. Read - Average 110.8 MB/s Access Time 0.1ms ADIA64 DISK Benchmark Read Test Suite Linear Read (Middle) - 139.9 MB/s SSD used in the test is the Intel X25-V 40GB, which has an access speed of 170 MB/s and write speed of 35 MB/s. Enabling maximization mode can get the best performance of this SSD for access, write, 4k, or search time. Although its write speed is not as good as that of an HDD, the other 3 performance parameters make it much faster for booting up the system and or for opening files. Another feature of Z68 is the GPU virtualized technology released by Lucid Virtu, which enables users to dynamically switch between the built-in GPU and an external GPU. After starting the application, it will display a small icon at the tool bar on the bottom right corner of the screen. The dragon design on the left side of the icon is beautiful, while human design on the right side of the icon can still be improved. GPUs I used were, respectively, the Intel HD Graphics 3000 and the nVIDIA GTX560 Ti. My monitor is connected to the DVI port of the GTX560 Ti. The GPU switching is done through the application. I used MediaEspresso to compare the speed of video conversion when using the built-in GPU and the external GPU. I used the DVD file, VTS_01_1.VOB, which was 1023MB, 2500K to be converted into an MP4 file The icon of Lucid Virtu feature is shown on the upper left, when the Intel Quick Sync Video is enabled (better quality) 4 minutes 59 seconds

Intel released the Z68 at the end of May in this year, which is the latest chipset of Sandy Bridge. As Z68 is the advanced chipset for the latest Intel platform, the MB brands released various motherboards for Z68 within a short time. I also mentioned some related information in the last test report of the Z68. The features of P67 overclocking and H67 output display are integrated into Z68. To put it simply, the Z68 is the chipset that possesses the most technologies and features among the platforms of Sandy Bridge. There are four kinds of Sandy Bridge chipsets, namely, H61, H67, P67, and Z68, which are ranked from the lowest price to highest price. The H61 has output built-in GPU. Its greatest difference with H67 is that it supports less DDR3 RAM and it has no RAID feature. The H67 has the advance version of the built-in GPU, it has a feature for adjusting the FSB frequency, but it does not have a feature for adjusting the CPU clock ratio. The P67 is designed for overclocking, and it also has a feature to for adjusting the FSB frequency and clock ratio. Its greatest difference with the H67 is that it doesn’t have integrated graphics output. The Z68 is the latest version and integrates all of the above features. It can be said that is is the enhanced version of the H67. Of course, its price is higher than the P67. This time I buy the BIOSTAR TZ68A+ At first glance, I can clearly see the label “Tseries” on the box, which has simple colors. Attached accessories User’s manual, IO board, SATA wires and software driver disc. BIOSTAR TZ68A+ appearance It mainly uses black PCB, and red-white PCI-E and DIMM slots. The appearance and texture are both good. TZ68A+ is has the ATX form factor, and the dimensions are 30.5 x 23 cm It is a little smaller than the common ATX size of 30.5 X 24.4 cm. The lower left section of the motherboard 2 X PCI-E 2.0 X16 supports 2Way CrossFireX technology, and the bandwidth is X16+X4 1 X PCI-E X1 2 X PCI Realtek RTL8111E network chip Realtek ALC892 audio chip support 6 sound channels and Blu-Ray Codec technology The lower right section of the motherboard 4 X red SATAII connectors are provided by the Z68 chip, which are of SATA2 specification and support RAID 0， RAID 1，RAID 5, and RAID 10. 2 X white SATAIII connectors are provided by the Z68 chip, which are of SATA3 specification and support RAID 0， RAID 1，RAID 5 and RAID 10. Power, Reset buttons, and a simple built-in Debug LED The upper right section of the motherboard 4 X DIMM DDR3 slots support 1066/1333/1600/1866/2133/2200, and the highest DDR3 capacity supported is 16GB. Specification of DDR3 2133 or higher can be only achieved by CPU overclocking, and if the DIMMs are placed on the slot closest to the 24-pin ATX power connector. The upper left section of the motherboard TZ68A+ requires 4+1 phase power supply, and this power supply design is enough for the 32nm CPU to run. 8Pin power input is in the upper left. IO 1 X PS2 keyboard/mouse VGA/DVI/HDMI 2 X USB 2.0(black) 2 X USB 3.0(blue) 1 X eSATA/USB 2.0 sharing (red) 1 X RJ-45 network port

Cooling fan size is 12cm and 2200rpm low acoustic. It’s 5 years warranty and 1 year for swapping new. 450W spec with the price and service, it’s good C/P value. If they can improve components more in the future, it’s very good value PSU. Power Consumption Test Enter to OS Desktop - 135W CPU Full Speed - 261W Power Consumption status is similar to temperature. Entering to OS, Power Consumption is 21W higher than 4.5GHz which is not big gap. 5GHz full speed Power Consumption is 261W which is 63W higher than 4.5GHz. This is another extra cost for 5GHz. For enthusiasts, the proud of 5GHz long term run is priceless. TR2 450W can really deal with this high end platform. Even GTX560 Ti full speed run, it’s still hard to over 400W Power Consumption. Sandy Bridge structure is really saving PC power. GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3 Good 1.Z68X-UD7 is all black design and new heatsink design. The texture is better. 2.Rich BIOS items, more voltage range, OC ability is very good. 3.VGA can support up to 3Way ATI CrossFireX/NVIDIA SLI technology 4.Dual LAN, 2 eSATA, 4 SATA3 and 10 USB3. 5.100% Japanese Solid Capacitors, built-in POWER/RESET/CMOS Reset buttons and debug LED. 6.Z68 exclusive SRT is really helpful for system performance, and GIGABYTE own design, EZ Smart Response, can avoid re-installing OS. Weak 1.Due to rich IO interfaces, it doesn’t have GPU output which cannot support Lucid Virtu. 2.CPU voltage only display correctly in BIOS and own software. Some software cannot display right. Performance ★★★★★★★★★☆ Components ★★★★★★★★☆☆ Specification ★★★★★★★★★☆ Outlook ★★★★★★★★★☆ C/P Value ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ UD7 is one of the most high end GIGABYTE model. The components and spec are the best in GIGABYTE brand. As it’s top end product, the price is also high. For pyramid top MB product, C/P value is always low. It’s only for high budget users. If you need high performance CPU, I recommend 2500K/2600K. After OC, the performance is improved clearly. Also new technologies of Sandy Bridge can improve platform efficiency. Z68 is only one integrated P67 OC and H67 GPU output Sandy Bridge chipset. Z68MB price is higher than P67 in same spec. If your original budget is P67, you can consider Z68. So far Z68 product line is not many in Taiwan. I believe all MB makers will launch more Z68 products for users. This article is top Intel LGA1155 platform which includes performance and new technologies. This is should be my longest review this year. It takes me 2 weeks for OC, tuning and all features test. My next one will be entry Z68 or AMD FM1 platform. Please look forward it. This article is also in my blog. WIND3C Welcome your visit.

5G OC Performance CPU 100 X 45 => 4501.5MHz 1.400V DDR3 1600.6 CL7 7-7-21 1T 1.600V Hyper PI 32M X8 => 12m 06.212s CPUMARK 99 => 770 Nuclearus Multi Core => 32868 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 39.25/18837 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 404509 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 9.73 pts CPU(Single Core) => 2.04 pts Windows Experience Index - CPU 7.8 PCMark Vantage => 15068 After Sandy Bridge launched, New 5G Club start to appear in internet. If you want to join it, besides good quality 2600K, cooler is another key factor. Pulling 4.5GHz to 5GHz, CPU related benchmark increase 8~10%. 5GHz 2600K single core performance is hard to have competitor. Muli-tasking competitor多 is only Intel 990X OC 4.5GHz or possible AMD Llano. DDR3 Test ADIA64 Memory Read - 24955 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 27908 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 27807 MB/s LGA 1155 platform DRAM bandwidth is decided by clock. DDR3 2133 performance is much higher than DDR3 1600. Of course, CL can rise some bandwidth, but the key factor is still frequency. Temperature (Room Temp. is 28℃) Enter to OS Desktop - 37~43 CPU Full Speed - 72~81 Intel Burn Test v2.4，Stress Level Maximum When entering to OS desktop, the temperature is similar to 4.5GHz. Full Speed is 11~17℃ higher. This is caused by higher voltage and frequency. It’s the extra cost for 5GHz. If you are using Mega Shadow Deluxe Edition, in full speed, the temperature is 90℃. This review is using CORSAIR H70 water cooling system, so you can see the difference. Last review, I used 2500K OC 5G/FOXCONN P67/nVIDIA GTX590 platform, Power Supply using 550W is enough. This time, 2600K OC 5G/GIGABYTE Z68/ nVIDIA GTX560 Ti, I use 450W to see if it’s enough for this high end platform. Thermaltake TR2 450W，Active PFC and 80PLUS Bronze.

Temperature (Room Temp. is 28℃) Enter to OS Desktop - 37~44 CPU Full Speed - 55~70 Intel Burn Test v2.4，Stress Level Maximum The temperature is acceptable which CPU OC to 4.5GHz. It’s summer now, Taiwan weather is hot, the CPU Full Speed is only 70℃ If you use for longtime under this setup, the stability is not a problem. H70 water cooling system really shows the benefit. Power Consumption Test Enter to OS Desktop - 114W CPU Full Speed - 198W Since this is high end platform, I use high end Z68 MB with top end 2600K CPU. Of course the VGA is mid-high end GTX 560 Ti. Enter to OS, the Power Consumption is only 114W. CPU full speed, 4.5GHz, is only 198W. Sandy Bridg CPU and chipset power consumption is much improved. Z68 exclusive Intel Smart Response Technology Test, hereinafter called ISRT. You need to install Smart Response Technology 10.5 to enable it. I use HDD Seagate Momentus XT 500G, 2.5”, 7200rp, and built-in 4GB SLC SSD. Performance test ATTO DISK Benchmark over 32K test, reading is 101.6 Mb/s and writing is 103.6 MB/s. CrystalDiskMark Seq Read - 99.97 MB/s and Write - 94.57 MB/s HD Tune Pro 4.60 Benchmark File Benchmark Transfer size over 2048k, the read performance is over 90MB/s. Read - Average 84.1 MB/s Access Time 0.661ms ADIA64 DISK Benchmark Buffered Read Average - 217.2 MB/s Momentus XT is hybrid HDD, the read/write performance above is not big improvement. Due to the built-in 4GB SSD, Access Time/ Buffered Read performance is SSD level. Access time is very fast, so the booting or software performance is all rising. Install CORSAIR F40 SSD to enable Intel ISRT for 2nd step. F40 spec is 2.5” and the max performance is 280/270 MB/s, Random 4K writing performance is 50000 IOPS. Enhanced Mode - (It’s write through mode, so will have no data loss) ATTO DISK Benchmark over 32K test, reading is 242.9 Mb/s and writing 101.4 MB/s CrystalDiskMark Seq Read - 149.0 MB/s, Write - 49.98 MB/s HD Tune Pro 4.60 Benchmark File Benchmark Over 128K, the reading performance is over 230MB/s. Read - Average 118.8 MB/s Access Time 0.076ms ADIA64 DISK Benchmark Buffered Read Average – 222.2 MB/s In Enhanced Mode, the reading performance is almost same as F40 SSD performance. Writing and 4K performance is similar to HDD which is not big improvement. ISRT technology is using SSD as buffer cache, some benchmark software need to run several times to achieve the best transfer rate. Maximized Mode - (Caches writes as well as reads) ATTO DISK Benchmark over 64k test, max reading is 275.6 Mb/s and writing is 262.9 MB/s. CrystalDiskMark Seq Read – 148.8 MB/s Write - 49.55 MB/s HD Tune Pro 4.60 Benchmark File Benchmark Over 256K, the reading is over 250MB/s. Read - Average 133.0 MB/s Access Time 0.080ms ADIA64 DISK Benchmark Buffered Read Average - 240.2 MB/s In maximized mode, writing and 4K performance is great improved and almost same performance as SSD F40. Enhanced mode improvement is not as big as Maximized mode. However, it’s write-through cache without data loss risk. Maximized mode is read/write cache. If you encounter access issue or drive failure, the data may lost or system crash. Depending on your need, you can choose which SRT mode is more suitable for you.

Touch BIOS also integrated several GIGABYTE tools. For example, “Update BIOS” links to @BIOS. After installing Touch BIOS, you don’t have to install some tools. Z68 exclusive Intel Smart Response technology is using HDD and SSD set to Raid0 mode to make SSD as the cache. This new feature needs to set Raid0 in BIOS before installing OS and install Intel software after OS is done. Most users set HHD as AHCI or IDE mode. If you would like to add SSD in the future, you have to reinstall OS. GIGABYTE EZ Smart Response can simplify the steps. It let user can install SSD and enable SRT function under HDD IDE or AHCI mode. In the pic, HDD uses AHCI mode to install the Windows7. Then I plug CORSAIR F40 SSD to SATA3 port. Then enable EZ Smart Response, the system will reboot after dialog window jump out. After enter OS again, it will jump out another dialog window and ask to reboot again. You will need to reboot 2 times and the BIOS change to Raid0 mode and you can use Intel SRT software to choose the speed up mode. First of all, I use default CPU voltage to test OC performance. CPU OC 4.5GHz and DDR3 1600 CL6 setup to share the total performance. OC performance without adding CPU 100 X 45 => 4501.5MHz 1.240V DDR3 1600.6 CL7 7-7-21 1T 1.460V Hyper PI 32M X8 => 13m 31.029s CPUMARK 99 => 693 Nuclearus Multi Core => 28266 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 35.00/16798 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 349880 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 8.78 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.82 pts Windows Experience Index - CPU 7.8 PCMark Vantage => 14594 2600K default voltage at BIOS is 1.245V and OC to 4.5GHz. I can finish all test by using 1.240V. Even though it’s not big OC gap, but it’s balance for performance, voltage, temperature and power consumption. It’s practical and good performance. Comparing to LGA1156 same clock CPU, Sandy Bridge is 10% faster. 4C8T CPU with 32nm improves the OC ability quite much. DDR3 Test ADIA64 Memory Read - 19727 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 21183 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 22166 MB/s Sandy Bridge DDR3 bandwidth is 20~30% higher than LGA 1156 in most software. Advanced Memory Controller technology frees the DDR3 install limitation and the bandwidth is even same as LGA 1366 3-channel platform.

Memory Setup Page It has 800, 1066, 1333, 1600, 1866 and 2133. Advanced DDR3 Parameters Setup Page The setting below is DDR3 2133 CL7 10-7-27 1T Voltage Page Milti-Steps Load-Line Disabled/Level 1~Level10 CPU Vcore 0.750~1.700V QPI/Vtt Voltage 0.800~1.700V PCH Core 0.840~1.940V CPU PLL 1.520~2.520V DRAM Voltage 0.900~2.600V PC Health Status Z68 BIOS OC tuning is same as P67. CPU just needs to adjust the ratio and fine tune voltage by CPU quality. For DDR3 OC setup, you just need to adjust the frequency, CL and voltage to fit your memory. Sandy Bridge BIOS OC is much easier than the past. Of course you only can use 2500K/2600K two CPUs. The setup above is windwithme using 2600K. CPU/DDR3 set as 5GHz/2133you’re your reference. Test Configuration CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K MB: GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3 DRAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT CMT4GX3M2B2133C9 VGA: msi N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II HD: Seagate Momentus XT 500G/ CORSAIR CSSD-F40GB2 POWER: Thermaltake TR2 450W Cooler: CORSAIR Hydro Series H70 OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit The cooler I use special CORSAIR Hydro Series H70 water cooler. Hydro Series has 5 models and the latest models are H80 and top H100. Most user image for water cooler is hard to install, but the cooling performance is better. However, CORSAIR water cooling kit emphasizes easy to install and no extra space need. During test, H70 can install in standard ATX Case which is very convenient. All black design make cooling pipe be better texture. You can install 2 12cm fan in both sides. Rotation speed set at 1600/2000rpm. The bottom is big dimension cooper sink which is good for heat conduction. The original thermal paste quality is very good. I suggest you can use it directly. Just like me install CPU very often, so I use Arctic Sliver or higher grade one instead. The temperature is still 3~5 ℃ higher than H70 original one. You have to beware it. GIGABYTE provides many tools in OS. Most is familiar with the users. This time, I pick 2 new applications to test. The first is fresh new Touch BIOS. It provides multi-language interface. The pic is Traditional Chinese version. The key feature is you can adjust BIOS in OS. Even though not all items can find, for the OC and standard setup are included which means you can find 80% BIOS items in Touch BIOS. If you are using the hottest touch panel LCD, you can use Touch BIOS more easily. Sandy Bridge DDR3 bandwidth is 20~30% higher than LGA 1156 in most software. Advanced Memory Controller technology frees the DDR3 install limitation and the bandwidth is even same as LGA 1366 3-channel platform.