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Windwithme have shared two Cherry mechanical keyboards in 2008. I am irrevocably committed to mechanical keyboard. I have been using Cherry G80-1865 for 6 years. I am very satisfied with Cherry MX Brown Switchdurability and tactile bump. Cherry MX Switch has Green, Brown, Black, White and Red, the most popular one. One is Gaming gears become more popular, and the other is Red switch has more advantages. Comparing to the keyboard market years ago, mechanical keyboard brands are more and more. Price range is also enlarged due to competition, not only for high end market now. For mechanical keyboard fans, more options are good. This article is about USA CORSAIR two keyboards, different segment and size. They are all Vengeance series, and both use Cherry MX Red Switch. Let?s start with Vengeance K65 package. Back side has product features, hot keys and function keys. Lower-left logo shows CORSAIR provides 2 years warranty. Inside the box Vengeance K65, manual, warranty card and 1.5M USB cable Front View Frameless design looks simple and easy to clean dust. 80%87 keys design will remove number keys on right hand side to make keyboard smaller. N-key Rollovermakes sure every keystroke translates into accurate gameplay or even when multiple keys are pressed. Gunmetal gray anodized aluminum chassis make professional-grade look and feel. K65 focus on small PC or table size users. Back View 4 corners all have soft pad to fix the keyboard on table. There are 2 stands on upper side for users to adjust. Detachable, braided cloth USB cable with cable management in the center. It is durable and easy to stow, plus the K65 has cable routing to keep the cable locked in. Left side is USB cabling hole. Right side is BIOS Switch, 4 steps. No. 1 is 1000Hz, 2 is 500Hz, 3 is 250Hz and 4 is 125Hz. The response time is 1 / 2 / 4 / 8 ms. You can adjust USB response time by different mainboards. Sometimes, this is important. Side View The dimension is 350 x 165 x 30 mm and weight is 900g. The upper side is higher. If it is not enough, you can use stand to adjust it. Right Side View Lower right side has 4 grey direction keys. Left side, AWSD grey keys are the same function for left handers. Rightmost is Win Key and middle is 4 media keys. It is play/pause, stop, next, forward, mute, and volume keys. Black and Grey printings are laser etch. It enhances the font printing durability. Test platform use Mini-iTX to fit K65 user environment. MB is GIGABYTE H87N-WIFI. There are more and more ITX products in past couple years. GIGABYTE also launched several ITX MB. This is more high-end version. It builds in Intel WiFi and BT4.0 PCIe card. It is dual LAN design, both Atheros and Intel GbE LAN, for more networking applications.

OC at running LinX to full speed CPU - 58~68 4960X temperature is also good. In the same environment, temperature is much lower than Ivy Bridge4770K. CPU temperature is one of the LGA 2011 advantages. It?s same structure but different design. The possible reason is LGA 2011 CPU without GPU and CPU dimension is bigger. X79 and C606 both support 2 native SATA3 ports. I use CORSAIR NEUTRON 256GB to test the performance. NEUTRON has 2 types. More high-end one is NEUTRON GTX, outlook is red. In the picture, the blue version is NEUTRON 256GB. Thickness is 7mm. It?s 2.5? and 256GB capacity. 4K Max Random is 83k IOPS. ATTO Disk Benchmark can reach 540/450 MB/s. Neutron uses Link_A_Media LM87800 Controller with ONFI NAND Flash. AS SSD Benchmark - 1061 Seq Read - 509.01 MB/s Write - 431.96 MB/s 4K - 64Thrd Read - 354.93 MB/s Write - 291.37 MB/s ATTO DISK Benchmark Over 64KB test, the max read is 544.1 Mb/s and max write is 452.3 MB/s. CrystalDiskMark Seq Read - 510.8 MB/s Write - 445.3 MB/s Neutron performance is also good. Only 10% lower than Neutron GTX. By the way, LGA 2011 provides two SATA3 ports, you can use RAID 0 SSD to enhance the performance. Other SATA2 or NS devices, you can use HDD to store data. It should be enough for most application. If you need more than three SATA3 SSDs, you can choose LGA 1150 for more ports. However, LGA 1150 has no dual PCI-E X16 bandwidth, and 6C12T CPU. Every platform has its pros and cons. After IntelLGA 2011 platform launched 2 years, they refresh the 3 new CPUs. Original Sandy Bridge-ECPU enhance to Ivy Bridge-E. The entry i7-3820 also upgrade to i7-4820K as unlock version. It makes better C/P. Ivy Bridge-E in manufacturing, temperature, power consumption and DDR3 OC bandwidth are all improved. Quad channel DDR3 bandwidth, dual PCI-E X16 bandwidth and C606 supports Server CPU also create more advantages. The fly in the ointment is only 2 native SATA3 ports. Hopefully, next generation will solve this issue. LGA 2011 platform is the top of pyramid. It?s for few high budget users. The life cycle is 3 years which is longer than annual update LGA 1155 or LGA 1150. Ivy Bridge-E offers the upgrade option for current LGA 2011 users. It also provides better multitasking performance. If you are doing graphics design, file converting or video editing, of course higher budget, this is the platform for you. It?swindwithme guide and share about Intel Ivy Bridge-E structure. The paper is also published on my Blog WIND3C, 3C fans are welcome to visit and give advice or comments:)

FRYRENDER Running Time => 3m 07s x264 FHD Benchmark => 36.6 i7-4960X is a true most powerful multitasking CPU in Intel. The default performance is already high. Even the latest Haswell i7-4770K OC to 4.5GHz, the performance is still 13% lower than 4960X default setup. Comparing to default and OC to 4.3GHz multitasking performance, the improvement is around 17~20%. Unfortunately, C606 OC capability is not as good as X79. If you use X79, it can be OC to 4.5~4.6GHz. Power Consumption Test This is another key point. I use ANTEC High Current Pro 850W,80Plus Platinum, the power efficiency is 94%. 12V divides into 4 routes. Each route can support 40A. The total power supply is 850W. High Current Pro 850W Platinum certificate Power Supply has official 7 years warranty. Power Consumption Test Default at OS desktop without running any software, and enable C1E power saving technology - 77W. OC at OS desktop without running any software, and disable C1E power saving technology - 117W Default at running LinX to full speed CPU - 181W OC at running LinX to full speed CPU - 250W Comparing to former i7-3960X power consumption data, i7-4960X is a bit lower. 4960X is with Raden HD 6970 CrossFire, but 3960X is with single Nvidia GTX 560Ti. Especially after OC, 4.3GHz 4960X doesn?t like 4.5GHz 3960X to reach more than 300W. Of course Platinum Power Supply is also helpful. However, the main reason is Ivy Bridge-E move to 22nm. Temperature (Room is 18˚C) Default at OS desktop - 23~30 OC at OS desktop - 23~30 OC and default temperatures are similar. It?s a great performance. Default at running LinX to full speed CPU - 45~52

DDR3 2399.6 CL11 13-13-31 2T ADIA64 Memory Read - 57695 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 52604 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 15457 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory seems doesn?t support quad channel. The bandwidth is even lower than dual channel. I hope it can patch to support quad channel soon. The other two software can test the quad channel bandwidth. Even though Haswell bandwidth will be 20% higher than Ivy Bridge at the same clock, Ivy Bridge-E quad channel DDR3 1333 bandwidth is higher than Haswell DDR3 2400. Ivy Bridge-EDDR3 2400 is 61~67% higher than Haswell DDR3 2400. You can see if you need more DDR3 capacity or high bandwidth, LGA 2011 is your best option. CPU and System Performance PerformanceTest 8.0 => 4738.9 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 40.08/19236 PerformanceTest 8.0 => 5126.3 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 48.00/23041 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 366200 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 422626 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 11.03 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.64 pts CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 13.00 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.83 pts CINEBENCH R15 CPU => 978 cb CPU(Single Core) => 139 cb CINEBENCH R15 CPU => 1143 cb CPU(Single Core) => 151 cb FRYRENDER Running Time => 3m 40s x264 FHD Benchmark => 31.3

Intel launched LGA 2011Extreme platform at the end of 2011. It?s different position as annual renewed LGA 1155 or LGA 1150. LGA 2011 CPU refresh cycle is longer and having simple product line. CPU usually has 3 models. Mostly is using X79 chipset. LGA 2011 launched three Core i7 CPU,Sandy Briidge-E, in the beginning. After almost 2 years, Ivy Bridge-E was revealed last Sep. The socket is LGA 2011. Pre-owned X79 users just need to update the BIOS. Sandy Briidge-E has 3 CPUs. Entry is Core i7-4820K,3.7~3.9GHz / 4C8T / L3 Cache 10MB. Mid end is Core i7-4930K,3.4~3.9GHz / 6C12T / L3 Cache 12MB High end is Core i7-4960X,3.6~4GHz / 6C12T / L3 Cache 15MB Even 4820is also Ksku. It should be able to adjust multiplier. 4820K is better than former i7-3820 at unlock geature. Sandy Briidge-E is 22nm and Max TDP is 130W. LGA 2011 doesn?t build in GPU, so the temperature and heat control should be better. Below is Intel Core i7-4960X, the dimension is much bigger than LGA 1155. 4960X back side is almost the same as 4930K. Main difference is 4960XL3 Cache is 15MB. MB is GIGABYTE X79S-UP5-WiFi, the only Intel C606MB so far. It?s E-ATX, 30.5cm x 26.4cm. Basically normal size ATX Case can support it. C606 is Server chipset. The CPU support is much better but OC capability will be weaker than X79. X79S-UP5-WiFi supports 8DIMM DDR3, and max capacity is 64GB. It supports 2SATA3 and 8SAS devices. It?s good for more HDDs or RAID. Unless you are using 3 SATA3 SSD, otherwise 8 SAS ports still provide a better expandability. After all, HDD still cannot break through SATA2 bandwidth. System Configuration CPU: Intel Core i7-4960X MB: GIGABYTE X79S-UP5-WiFi DRAM: CORSAIR VENGEANCE PRO DDR3 2400 8GX4 VGA: SAPPHIRE Raden HD 6970 CrossFire SSD: CORSAIR NEUTRON 256GB POWER: ANTEC High Current Pro 850W Cooler: Thermalright Archon SB-E X2 OS: Windows8.1 64bit As i7-4960X test figure will divide into two. Picture A is default, enable C1E mode. CPU max clock is 3.6~4.0GHz, and DDR3 1333 CL9 9-9-24 1T. Picture B is OC, disable C1E mode. CPU clock is 4.3GHz, and DDR3 2399.6 CL11 13-13-31 2T. LGA 2011 is the only quad channel supported platform. It?s a great advantage for DDR3 bandwidth. DDR3 is CORSAIR CMY32GX3M4A2400C11R, Vengeance Pro series. 8GB X 4 support LGA 1155/1150 dual channel and LAG 2011 quad channel. I will also show you the quad channel and dual channel bandwidth performance. The clock is DDR3 2400. If it?s LGA 1155Ivy Bridge, the max can be over DDR3 2800. This LGA 2011 also supports Ivy Bridge-E structure, I think DDR3 2600 is also piossible, DRAM Performance DDR3 1333 CL9 9-9-24 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 38589 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 33647 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 13312 MB/s

CINEBENCH R15 CPU => 903 cb CPU(Single Core) => 171 cb FRYRENDER Running Time => 3m 54s x264 FHD Benchmark => 29.8 PCMARK7 - 7378 SNIPER5 OC is above average. Intel Core i7-4770K can OC and run at 4.5GHz. Windows 8.1 cannot find system performance index. It?s a pity. Comparing in several popular benchmark software, the scores are pretty god. DRAM Performance Test Using CORSAIR Dominator Platinum DDR3 2400 8GX2 2400 CL10 12-12-31 2T ADIA64 Memory Read - 34749 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 28938 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 29556 MB/s Using CORSAIR Dominator Platinum DDR3 2800 4GX4 2800 CL10 12-12-31 2T ADIA64 Memory Read - 33232 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 31286 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 32187 MB/s As former other high end Z87 MB test, DDR3 2400 bandwidth is very good already. Sometimes it can reach almost DDR3 2800, however SNIPER5 has some gaps. This is what GIGABYTE need to improve in DDR3 bandwidth performance. SNIPER5 in DDR3 frequency OC is very good. It?s above standard. Temperature Performance(Room temperature 19~22 degree C) Enter to System Desktop - 32~40 CPU Full Speed by running LinX - 73~81 No matter CPU standby or full speed, the temperature is the best Z87 platform I have ever used. Maybe it?s the cold weather to make standby mode better. However, the max temperature is around 83 when the room temperature was 25~28. If you install in chassis, the temperature will increase 3~5 depending on chassis design. GIGABYTE G1.SNIPER5 Pros 1.G1-Killer thermal module add first ever active fan and water cooling headers 2.Creative Sound Core 3D chip with Japanese audio caps and switchable OP AMP 3.Latest Killer E2201 NPU and Intel LAN 4.Exclusive BT4.0 / Wi ? Fi card to enhance connection capability to mobile devices. 5.Front panel has USB 3.0, OC keys and headset amplifier. 6.Support max 4-Way AMD CrossFireX / nVIDIA SLI 7.Phase in FHD UEFI BIOS. It also provides old and new look BIOS interfaces. Cons 1.DDR3 bandwidth can be better. 2.Make built-in audio or LAN be expansion card to release more application space. 3.Skull can be more cute design. Performance ★★★★★★★★★☆ 90/100 Components ★★★★★★★★★☆ 92/100 Specification ★★★★★★★★★☆ 92/100 Appearance ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 83/100 C/P Value ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 75/100 G1.SNIPER5 has obviously improvement to former GIGABYTE G1.SNIPER. First of all, the thermal module adds active fan and water cooling headers. It creates more expansion capability in thermal solution for high end users. Creative latest Sound Core3D audio chip with better green LED audio to make better noise isolation. Additional swappable OP AMP design improves the personal audio quality needs. Atheros Killer E2201 ad Intel dual LAN enhance the network stability. G1.SNIPER5 brings the higher specs for Gaming MB market. Besides higher hardware specs, the OC ability is also very good. If the DRAM bandwidth can be improved, it can be an excellent OC board as well. Recently, GIGABYTE just launched G1.Sniper Z87, almost half price. G1.SNPIER Z87 can be a good option for users have budget concern or higher C/P value. Windwithme next review will be Notebook Rveiw which is rare to see in the market. It?s Gaming laptop, DELL Alienware 17.I hope this alien can have good performance as well!! The paper is also published on my Blog WIND3C, 3C fans are welcome to visit and give advice or comments:)

Switchable OP-AMP design usually is in high end audio card. This is the first ever design in MB built-in audio. In picture, there is GIGABYTE GP-OP AMP upgrade kit, with three different audio amplifiers. Audio application still support THX as the past. After enable SBX PRO STUDIO, the sound effect does improve a lot. You can sense more space. The con is the intermediate frequency definition become worse. It?s more suitable for movie or gaming. Creative Sound Core 3D supports the technology below. SBX Pro Studio、Scout Mode、EAX ADVANCED HD 5.0、Creative ALchemy、VoiceFX. Also, it supports SBX surrounding processing. It has more advantage in creating sound effect in movies and games. I am using USHER S-520 and DIY amplifier. The default Burr-Brown - OPA2134 is changed to Analog Devices - AD827JNZ. GIGABYTE website says the sound is more rendering, greater sound field, high and low frequency scale is better and suitable for Symphony. Low Frequency ? drum and base are good. Subwoofer is strong enough. It will be better if the detail can be more clear. Intermediate Frequency ? vocal definition in songs and movies has no distortion. Sound thickness is also good. High Frequency ? some music and sound detail scalability is very good. There is no sharp spike. In changing OP-AMP, you can feel around 20% difference. It?s still depending on audio chipset and caps. SNIPER5 design really satisfies critical audio lovers. You can make it by your own requirement. Since it?s Gaming platform, let me share Oblanc NC2-U.F.O. It?s physical 5.1 channels and there are 4 drivers in each side for bass, front, surrounding and center This is very unique design. Right side also has in-line microphone with call control and tangle-free cord. Controller has many buttons, volume, bass, front, surrounding, center and mic. It?s adjustable and special earcups for extreme comfort. Application Interface. There is no Windows 8 driver but still can install. It supports 8 channels in Windows 7. In Windows 8.1, you only can see 6 channels. Features and layout are slightly different. The beginning was not so good. I just realized there is software to adjust. If you want to listen the music or better midband, you can set to headset or 2CH mode. If you need better surrounding, as watching movie or playing game, you can set as 6CH. Oblanc NC2-U.F.O will have better quality if you set the right channel numbers. It?s quite good quality gaming headset I used to use. Of course, the price is in high end segment. LAN chip is Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2201, Killer Network Manager Window 8.1 drive makes interface like APP. You can see all the network software traffic. It also builds in an easy network speed test. I am using 60/15M for this test. It?s hard to figure out Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2201 features in general use. You need to play online game long enough to test the connection quality. You also can prioritize the network connection sort. Intel Core i7-4770K OC Performance CPU 100 X 45 => 4500MHz 1.280V DDR3 2400 CL10 12-12-31 2T 1.650V Hyper PI 32M X8 => 11m 14.523s CPUMARK 99 => 782 Nuclearus Multi Core => 33167 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 35.88/17223

IO 1 X PS2 KB/Mouse 2 X USB 2.0 2 X HDMI 1 X DisplayPort 6 X USB 3.0 2 X RJ-45 LAN 1 X S/PDIF optical and coaxial outputs 5 X gold plated audio jacks Thermal module adds one active silent fan. I don?t hear much noise when using. If you have more concern about thermal solution, it also equips water cooling head for expansion. There are nine 4-PIN fan connectors. You can see more heart touch improvement in thermal solution. New UEFI DualBIOS interface, called Dashboard mode. The resolution is 1920 X 1080. Above column is voltage, fan speed and temperature graphs. Left side is CPU and DRAM status. Right side is system status showing other voltage and fan status. You can see most hardware status and parameters. DRAM Page Enable DDR3 XMP mode and multiplier is 24.00. More detail DRAM Page You can fine tune DRAM by yours characteristic to have higher bandwidth. CPU Voltage Page There are nine CPU related voltage for adjusting. It provides more options for enthusiasts. I am using air cooling, so I only set main CPU Vcore at 1.280V. Three are seven languages. Right side is date in calendar mode. Test Configuration CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K MB: GIGABYTE G1.SNIPER5 DRAM: CORSAIR Dominator Platinum CMD16GX3M2A2400C10 VGA: Intel HD Graphics 4600 / SPARKLE GTX570 HDD: Samsung 830 Series 128GB SSD Raid0 POWER: CORSAIR AX1200i Cooler: Thermalright Archon SB-E X2 OS: Windows8.1 64bit Audio chip updates from pervious SNIPER3 Creative CA0132 to Sound Core 3D. I used to check some data about Creative new chipset. Sound Core 3D is quad-core design. The transistors design and spec support are much better than elder one. However, I still believe no listen no truth. If built-in audio with general solid caps, the sound quality will be dry or hard. Green Nichicon Muse ES Acoustic Series and Yellow Nichicon MW are audio caps. It also builds in gaming headset amplifier to drive 600Ω loading and make better audio output.

GIGABYTE has OC and Gaming series in their high end segment. For most users, Gaming series is more practical. Besides high end audio and LAN chips, it also has average above OC ability. As this reason, there are more and more Gaming products in the market. Gaming series is still G1 product line. There are 2 models in the beginning. High end is G1.SNIPER 5 and mid end is G1.SNIPER M5. M5 is M-ATX design. Recently, I saw they launched a new G1.SNIPER Z87. It?s a par value ATX model. The imaginary enemy should be ASUS ROG HERO. G1.SNIPER5is high end MB, so the components and accessories are richer than general boards. The box is similar to past high end MB. Dimension is quite big. G1.SNIPER5 G1-Killer is the 4th generation. It?s named 5 that maybe it?s the pronunciation reason. Jungle war is the main image. The match colors are black and green. It?s E-ATX, 30.5cm X 26.4cm. The general ATX case all can fit it. G1 belongs to Gaming series. It supports multi VGA, high end LAN chip and audio chip. Product manual, software installation guide, driver CD, IO panel and 3~4Way SLI bridge. OP-AMP audio amplifier clips and LM4562NA OP-AMP chip. 3.5? front control panel, GC-WB300D, BT4.0/WiFi card and antenna. SATA bracket, 2Way SLI/CrossFireX bridge, SATA cables Lower-Left 4 X PCI-E X16 support max 4-Way AMD CrossFireX / nVIDIA SLI technology. Bandwidth operates as X16 + X8 + X16 + X8 or X8 + X8 + X8 + X8 3 X PCI-E X1 LAN chips are Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2201 and Intel GbE LAN. It built-in Creative Sound Core 3D chip supports 5.1 channels and High Definition Audio technology. Lower-Right 6 X Black SATA are provided byZ87 and support SATA3. It supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10. 4 X Gray SATA are provided by Marvell 88SE9230 and support SATA3. It supports RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 10. 2 X 128Mbit flash, Dual BIOS, 1X front USB 3.0. Upper Right 4 X DIMM DDR3 support 1333/1600/1800~3000(OC). DDR3 max capacity is 32GB. It supports Extreme Memory Profile technology. Next is 24-PIN power connector and Debug LED. Red is Power button, Blue is Reset and Black is Clear CMOS. There are 8 spots for measuring hardware voltage. It?s digital PWM design. There are total 18 phases, 16 phases for CPU, and 2 phases for DDR. The thermal module is upgrade version from former SNIPER. The design is more streamlined and bigger.

Besides GE60 built in 15.6" FHD resolution panel, user could still output separated screen on 2 more high resolution monitors for multi tasks works, for example, use left side monitor for internet searching, right side to watch favor movies, and use GE60 monitor to play games or office works. This feature is really convenience. Battery life present After 1 hour HD video playback, battery life still over 65%, the overall battery life is over 3 hours, With this high performance hard ware, the battery life is good ehough. Conclusion of MSI GE60 2OE Pros: 1. Cover style is good as a gaming notebook, red sport line make it looks speedy. 2. Used Killer Gaming LAN, enhanced audio boost with AMP and gold flash jack. 3. Dual mSATA3 SSD as Raid0 plus 750GB HDD makes real fast system and good capacities on data. 4. With 1920x1080 Full HD matted panel, it's comfortable for gaming or high quality video/movies. 5. Keyboard by Steelseries with blue backlit, Cooler Boost for higher thermal performance. 6 Matrix Display technology, HDMI supports up to 4Kx2K resolution, we could see that 2560x1440 is good when testing. Cons: 1. The touch pad for Windows 8 was floating, it takes time to used to it. 2.Intel Haswall platform comes with higher temperature, recommend to add on more pipeline to reduce the heat faster. 3. The glare A side cover looks good, but easy to scratch when using. Performance Rated:★★★★★★★★★☆ 89/100 Material Rated: ★★★★★★★★★☆ 87/100 Specification Rated:★★★★★★★★★☆ 88/100 ID Design Rated: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 83/100 Cost/Value Rated: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 80/100 The latest version of MSI GE60 with Haswall paltform comes with better CPU performance. The most improved part is HD4600 3D perfornamce, 3D tests comes 2x faster than last generation UMA graphics. But the higher temperature on new platform, it's a challenge for all the PC and NB brands to design their thermal solution. The thermal design of GE60 is better than many notebooks, so the full loading temperature is still acceptable. This year MSI offered more type of gaming notebooks, also improve the features and material design a lot. Especially for the thermal module, better sound quality, Killer LAN, Steelseries keyboard and FHD matted panels is better for gaming market. Since the price range of GE60 only belongs to middle level market, but the performance is about 80% compare to GT series, so the Cost/Value rate is higher. MSI GE60 comes with different segment and spec., this time we took higher level one to make benchmarks. It will be cheaper if there is no SSD inside, just depends on user's consideration to choose. Many consumer notebooks at same price range is only workable for Gaming, the GE60 maybe is a little bit higher price, but compare to other brands of this level, this still comes with better C/P rate. MSI also launched 14 inch gaming GE40 and ultra gaming GS70 slim gaming notebook, that will brings more choice for different gamers or users. The paper is also published on my Blog WIND3C, 3C fans are welcome to visit and give advice or comments:)

Right up side with big heatsink and fan for thermal solution, down side is 2 DDR3 DIMM slot, this 2OE version comes with 2x 8GB modules overall 16GB RAM. Middle and upper side are 2 mSATA slots support SATA3 interface, and used 2 SSDs become Super RAID storage. One pipeline to transfer Intel Core i7-4700QM CPU heat, and 2 pipelines to transfer the heat from nVIDIA GTX765M graphics. Above 2 parts of the pipelines was lass than MSI GT series, GT series used 2 pipelines for the CPU and 3 pipelines for the MXM GPU module. Right lower side is the 2.5 inch HDD port, MSI apply 750GB 7200rpm HDD, with 2 SDDs Raid 0 becomes great storage combination with fast system and good capacities! GE60 built in with 2 mSATA3 ports, 64GBx2 SSD Raid 0 become C: Drive for OS installed, and D: Drive with 750GB 7200rpm HDD for data storage, becomes great OS performance and good capacities. AS SSD Benchmark - 1031 Seq Read - 987.70 MB/s Write - 810.57 MB/s 4K - 64Thrd Read - 403.75 MB/s Write - 146.58 MB/s CrystalDiskMark Seq Read - 967.0 MB/s Write - 749.3 MB/s SSD Benchmark TOTAL => 3681.60 ATTO DISK Benchmark over 256k tests already reach highesst reading speed to 1050MB/s, writing performance also up to 894MB/s. GE60 2OE used new SSD as TOSHIBA THSNF064GMCS 64GB, The performance was really good on the mSATA product line, and great IO perfornace on Raid 0 combination. GE60 with 2 mSATA SSD slots was really attractive for high performance storages demand users. D: was data drive, use high performance 2.5 inch HDD as 750GB 7200rpm version. Let's take a look on the performance. ATTO DISK Benchmark over 32k reading tests up to 123.4MB/s, writing is 122.8MB/s CrystalDiskMark Seq Read - 124.6 MB/s Write - 122.1 MB/s The highest reading speed is over 120MB/s, it's good on 7200rpm 2.5 inch HDD products, if you compare with SSD Raid0 system it's not fast, but if you compare with regular laptops with HDD, it's really on the top performance. GE60 make it to be D: Drive for saving data, 750GB is a good combination for good performance and capacities. System temperature (room 29 degree C) System idle mode - 47~49 Full loading on CPU with LinX -86~91 degree. The CPU of Haswell architecture is hotter than last generation Ivy Bridge, This time we could see that Core i7-4700QM did over 90 degree C, although it's easy to see on other brand regular notebooks, but MSI got better thermal design on their gaming series, the previous 2 generations of Core i7 4C8T CPU was around 80 more degrees. Haswell architecture will be a test for the thermal design of all the notebooks' brands. Enable Cooler Boost System idle - 40~43 Use LinX program for CPU full loading -85~90 Use 2 temperature status to present MSI Cooler Boost performance, The idle mode and full loading mode highest temperature gap up to 6 degree C, CPU full loading temperature gap is 1 degree. So we knew that Cooler Boost did have some advantage for the thermal, but that will makes the fan on full speed, so it will have a little bit higher noise when using. But the noise is not so high frequency, so if you are playing games or watch movies, you could enable Cooler Boost to make system cooler. According to my user experience, many notebooks with Dual Core CPU will over 50 degree C on idle mode and over 90 degree C on full loading, So we could say that MSI still keep their better thermal design and performance on the GE60 with Core i7 CPU and high performance GPU. Matrix Display technology, HDMI 1.4 interface supports up to 4Kx2K resolution. Use HDMI output on EIZO FlexScan EV2736W with 2560x1400 resolution. And could still use VGA output to ASUS MX279H display with 1920x1080 resolution.

GE60 built in with 2 kinds of GPUs, one comes from Intel Core i7-4700QM as HD4600 Graphics, the other is nVIDIA GeForce GTX765M with 2GB DDR5 Graphics. First, we use 3D Mark Vantage and 3D Mark 11 as a starter benchmarks. Intel HD4600 => P5494 Intel HD4600 => P1320 nVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M => P15115 nVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M => P4136 The performance between HD4600 and GTX765M is 3x or more. But if we just compare the Intel UMA graphics from Haswell and previous version of Intel UMA, it's already close to 2x faster, it's better for battery mode for light loading 3D usage modes, also lower temperature. FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080 Intel HD4600 => 2416 nVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M => 7163 For the 3D games around middle performance loading, if we set with 1920x1080 and middle effects, Intel HD4600 Graphics still can play, but not so smooth. If used GTX765M graphics, things become a piece of cake with much higher score! Heaven Benchmark 4.0 DX11 1920 X 1080 Intel HD4600 => 6.1 FPS nVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M => 26 FPS If we goes for heavy loading 3D benchmarks - Heaven Benchmark, It's hard to use UMA graphics with Full HD resolution to get smooth experience, it needs Discrete Graphics indeed, DDR3 performance tests DDR3 1596.4 CL11 11-11-28 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 15235 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 19711 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 22377 MB/s New Haswell architecture with DDR3-1600 bandwidth is faster than previous 2 generation Intel platform with DDR3-1333 performance. ADIA65 Memory Read boot up to 58%, MaXXMEM Memory-Copy up to 39% faster. Sandra Memory Bandwidth is about 16% faster, this is another advantage of Haswell architecture. windwithme opened up GE60 bottom case to share the interior design and placement.

15.6 inch LED backlit non-glossy panel at Full HD 1920x1080 resolution. HD WebCam with 1280x1024 photo and 1280x720 30fps video shooting. MSI GE60 2OE embedded with latest Intel Haswell paltform CPU with Intel Core i7 4700QM, 100x24 => 2.4GHz, L3 6MB, Quad Cores with HT technology become 8 cores. TurboBoost could auto overclock up to 3.4GHz, and used HM87 chipset. OS used Windows 8 Get into the brick of the desktop, you will see the familiar Windows interface and GE60 original installed software from MSI. Windows 8 start page, left side bricks is often used bricks, include internet, massages and office works. Right side is more about entertainment Apps bricks. System performance benchmarks Nuclearus Multi Core => 24379 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 25.65/12310 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 336870 CINEBENCH 11.5 OpenGL => 57.42 fps CPU => 6.68 pts CPU (Single Core) => 1.50 pts PCMark7 => 6220 Windows 8 System performance tests GE60 2OE with Core i7 4700QM compared with last generation GT70 with Core i7 3630QM, CPU performance is almost the same. At same default frequency with 2.4GHz, Fritz Chess Benchmark score add up around 3% CINEBENCH 11.5 single Core add up 9%, multi CPU around 6% Although the CPU performance of Haswell platform enhancement did not higher than last few generations, but still in reasonable range.

Intel just launched the latest Haswell platform this June, PC and NB brand keep refreshing their product lines, the Notebook platform runs faster than before, there are lots of new platform products in the market right now. MSI focused on the high performance and gaming platform, and refreshed very fast too. MSI NB main product line is Gaming series, they also come out latest GE40 as 14" gaming laptop. For Top Level still keep GT70 and GT60, High Performance gaming will be GE70, GE60 and GE40. Since MSI performance gaming notebooks are same price range as regular high end notebooks, but they still presents more features and performance advantages on gaming notebooks field. This time I got GE60 2OE, the latest performance level gaming notebook. The A cover looks like Dragon beard, will reflect different color style with different angles. Top cover used glossy cover design, the good point is vivid and looks shinning, the bad part is easy to scratch. They use laser reflect and red lines to increase the design style and speedy feeling. Inside accessories Driver CD, quick manual, clean up cloth and 2 years warranty card. Up side one is gaming style mouse, it's optical designed, but still good positioning on cloth, the red light will breath when use, handling feeling is also good, it will be better if enhance to laser mouse. Below is the battery with 4400mAH 6 cell design. Adaptor was made by Delta, it's good quality one from power supply brands, up to 120W, this one is slimmer than regular 120W adaptors, only 2.5cm. The placement of palm rest side SteelSeries keyboard gives good response feeling when using, also presents higher durability, but GT series keyboard is even better than GE series. Left 1 button "Cooler Boost" is turbo cooling fan function, left 2 button is keyboard backlit enable with vivid blue light. The holes on the up side comes with 2 channel speakers. The platform around keyboard used metallic material design, special cutting makes the shape looks better. Metal cover gives better touch feeling, and the signal lights at bottom side, the SD card reader on the right side. On the left side. Kensington lock\power input\USB 2.0\HDMI\2x USB 3.0\Line out\Line in\Headphone-out Here comes the sound quality experience, this is objective point of view, compared with other notebooks at same level. The sound is loud when adjust the volume to 50%, so don't need to worry about the volume small problem. High frequency - Not too sharp, rich detail with high class sound level. Mid frequency - Transparent sound stage, it will be better if the sound could be stronger. Low frequency - Good present on mid-low frequency, but no subwoofer means the sound is not so powerful as GT series with subwoofer. GE60 used total 4 speakers with 2 channels stereo, good performance on the mid and high frequency, also good on the sound stage and overall sound field. It's not like GT series comes with subwoofer, so the bass and low frequency was not so strong. Foy my personal opinion, GE is good for music and GT is better for movies. From left, BD Combo / DVD Super Multi\USB2.0\D-SUB\RJ45 LAN

Temperature (Room temperature is 29˚C) Enter to OS Desktop - 40~56 Running ADIA64 to full speed 4670K - 68~80 4670K OC to 4.5GHz is lower than 4770K a little. I use pretty high end cooler, Thermalright Archon SB-E X2. The performance is very impressive. However, if you want to OC to 4.6~4.7GHz and running benchmark software stablily, you need more effort for voltage and temperature control. Expecting further Haswell CPU yield rate improved, we can see air cooling 4.6~4.8GHz level. The main difference between Haswell and former2 structures is CPU frequency can pull higher. In other words, you can OC by pulling CPU frequency. 4th generation CPU adds back this feature again. The test below is pulling CPU frequency from 100MHz to 166MHz for CINEBENCH R11.5 test. Of course, this setting can pass Hyper PI 32M to prove 166MHz stability is ok. GIGABYTE Z87X-OC Conclusion Pros 1. As high end Z87 OC MB, the price is close to mainstream high end board. 2. Phase in FHD UEFI BIOS. It also provides previous UEFI BIOS interface. 3. Exclusive OC-Touch design is more advanced. It provides more features and tuning settings. 4. OC Ignition can provide power to fan or other hardware under system shut down. 5.OC PEG provides power for individual PCIe slot. OC Brace can fix several PCIe cards when you use outsidechassis. 6. Black Nippon Chemi-Con caps life time is 10000 hours under 105?C working temperature. Cons 1. DDR3 3000 bandwidth is too low. Hopefully, it can improve by BIOS tuning. 2. For 3-Way AMD CrossFireX, I hope it will provide X8 + X8 + X8 bandwidth. 3. It can use better audio chip than Realtek ALC898. Performance ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 86/100 Components ★★★★★★★★★☆ 85/100 Specification ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 82/100 Appearance ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 80/100 C/P Value ★★★★★★★★★☆ 82/100 Intel new structure does improve DDR3 bandwidth and OC limitation. Built-in HD4600 GPU also raises the 3D performance. I have shared this in previous i7-4770K performance test. This review, I used lower price Intel Core i5-4760K. CUP/DDR3 OC range is similar to 4770K. If you consider to buy Core i5 CPU and you have more budget, also you want to do some quick OC, 4670K is a good pick for you. Z87X-OC implements many OC features in both software and hardware. Even though it?s still some spec difference with Z87X-OC Force, Z87X-OC C/P value is better. It has most OC features and components. It?s a good option for less budget overclokers. However, for most users, I think G1 series is more attractive. Besides G1.SNIPER5, I hope GIGABYTE can provide a mainstream ATX G1 model as Z87X-OC. The paper is also published on my Blog WIND3C, 3C fans are welcome to visit and give advice or comments:)

FRYRENDER Running Time => 5m 19s x264 FHD Benchmark => 25.2 PCMARK7 - 6108 Windows8 Experience Index - CPU 8.2 When OC i5-4670K to 4.5GHz, same as previous i7-4770K test, the single thread performance is almost the same. As multitasking, due to the 4C4T and 4C8T difference, 4770K performance is 19-29% higher. i5-4670K performance is more than enough for general users. The air cooling OC ability is almost same as i7. As less thread and less cache, sometimes you can pull 100MHz more for OC range. If you need multitasking graphic files converting, i7-4770K should be better. Of course, you need more budget for it. DRAM Bandwidth Test DDR3 3001.2 CL11 14-14-36 1T 1.668V ADIA64 Memory Read - 30898 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 28691 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 30715 MB/s Intel Haswell DRAM is really improved. This is always the advantage for new platform. If same DDR3 2800 clock, bandwidth is 13-27% higher than Ivy Bridge. DDR3 extreme clock also can reach 2800~3000 from former 2666~2800. Haswell structure improves Memory Controller design. As good quality DDR3, Z87X-OC can reach 3000 easily. Z87X-OC bandwidth is lower others Z87 about 5%. It may be caused by default latency settings. 3D Performance Test PowerColor AX7970 3GBD5-2DHV3 3DMark Vantage => P32550 Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 2560 X 1440 => 35.1 FPS FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1200 => 11570 As CPU performance change, 7970 3D performance is also connected. 4670K OC to 4.5GHz bundles with AMD most high-end 7970 single core GPU, you can have very good 3D scores. I use 2560 X 1440 high resolution to test Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0. I still remember the same 7970 card, ver3.0 with 1920 X 1080 can reach 100 FPS. It?s possible that 4.0 need more 3D performance. Also, higher resolution does drain 7970 performance. Power Consumption Test Enter to OS Desktop - 58W Running ADIA64 to full speed 4670K - 138W Running ADIA64 to full speed both 4670K and 7970 - 315W When i5-4670K run at 4.5GHz, same as i7-4770K, 4670K standby is 7W lower and full speed is 35W less. 315W doesn’t mean CPU and GPU are both full speed. Running FurMark to full speed 7970 already takes 250W. If adding CPU, HDD, SSD, DVD, I suggest you using 500W more Power supply. Haswell is 22nm design. The power consumption is similar to Ivy Bridge.

New UEFI DualBIOS, call dashboard mode. Resolution is 1920 X 1080. Top column is voltage, fan speed and temperature. Left side is CPU and DRAM related information. Right side is system status, showing other voltage and fan status. In picture, it?s X02 version BIOS. You almost can see all hardware status and parameters in this page. There are 7 languages for selecting. Right side is calendar. CPU Voltage Page You can set 9 CPU related voltage parameters. It offers more options for enthusiasts. When I use air cooling, I only set CPU Vcore to 1.232V. DRAM details CPU frequency set at 125MHz and enable DDR3 XMP mode. Multiplier set at 24.00. You can reach DDR3 3000. BTW, the DRAM voltage is 1.65V. If you don?t get used to the new interface, you can switch back to the previous one. Besides higher resolution, new UEFI DualBIOS also improves the convenience. You can set up CPU frequency and voltage at first page, even DRAM clock and voltage. For most OC setup, you can finish at one page to save time. However, it still takes time to get used to the new interface for new users. The above reference setting is i5-4670K OC 4.5GHz bundling withCORSAIR DDR 2800 OC 3000. System Configuration CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K MB: GIGABYTE Z87X-OC DRAM: CORSAIR Dominator Platinum CMD16GX3M4A2800C11 VGA: Intel HD Graphics 4600 / PowerColor AX7970 3GBD5-2DHV3 HDD: Samsung 830 Series 128GB SSD POWER: CORSAIR AX1200i Cooler: Thermalright Archon SB-E X2 OS: Windows8 64bit Intel Core i5-4670K OC Performance CPU 100 X 45 => 4501.35MHz 1.232V DDR3 3001.2 CL11 14-14-36 1T 1.668V Hyper PI 32M X4 => 7m 22.374s CPUMARK 99 => 782 Nuclearus Multi Core => 29232 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 30.58/14680 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 421951 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 7.63 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.97 pts

GIGABYTE launched very rich product line for Intel latest Haswell. Haswell chipset has the most high end Z87, mainstream H87 and B85 and entry H81. Of course, more high-end chipset has more features and expandability. MB price is also higher. GIGABYTE in high-end Z87 has OC series and G1 series. Both series has its? own position. G1, as name said, is for Gaming market. I will share more about this after. OC series has 2 models. Z87X-OC Force is for extreme and Z87X-OC is for mid-high. This review is Z87X-OC, focusing on OC or looking for high performance. First look, you can see the box is black and orange. OC series is black and orange tone. G1 is black and green. I believe most users used to black and red for high end MB. Currently, too many MB use this color. GIGABYTE use different visual design to enhance their recognizable. Color is personal like. Z87X-OC is standard ATX spec. The size 30.5cm x 24.4cm OC is mainly for Overclocking market. There are many exclusive designs for hardware and software. I will explain the details later. Z87X-OC price is only half of Z87X-OC Force. It looks like a good choice for overclockers. Accessories Product manual, software guide, driver CD, SATA cable and IO panel. CrossFireX / 2-Way SLI bridge, wires for the voltage check points, OC Brace. Lower-Left Corner 1 X PCI-E X16, support X16 bandwidth 1 X PCI-E X16, support X8 bandwidth 2 X PCI-E X16, support X4 bandwidth It supports max 4-Way AMD CrossFireX / 2-Way nVIDIA SLI 2-Way AMD CrossFireX/nVIDIA SLI bandwidth is X8 + X8. 3-Way AMD CrossFireX bandwidth is X8 + X4 + X4. 4-Way AMD CrossFireX bandwidth is X8 + X4 + X4 + X4. 1 X PCI-E X1 2 X PCI LAN is Intel GbE LAN chip. Realtek ALC892 audio chip supports 7.1 channels and High Definition Audio. Design in Taipei Lower-Right Corner 6 X Black SATA, provided by Z87 and supports SATA3. It also supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10. 2 X Silver OC Connent / ON/OFF Charge2 Z87 chipset has new design large heatsink. Black round button is CHAT_SW for switching battery. Upper-Right Corner 4 X DIMM DDR3 support DDR3 1066~1600 / 1866~2800(OC) DDR3 max capacity is 32GB. It supports Extreme Memory Profile. Right is 24-PIN power in. Upper-Left Corner Z87X-OC uses the new thermal module. CPU metal cover is plating for better look. Behind top heatsink is 8 + 4Pin power in for high power consumption extreme OC. IO 2 X Black USB 2.0 1 X OC Ignition button 2 X HDMI 1 X DisplayPort 1 X S/PDIF optical output 1 X PS2 KB/Mouse 6 X Blue USB 3.0/2.0 1 X RJ-45 LAN 6 X audio jacks OC Touch area has more new features comparing to Z77X-UP7. There are 8 buttons. 2 set + and - for adjusting CPU or BCLK. Gear is for BCLK gap switching. The other 2 are OC Turbo and Tag. Right side OC PCIe Switch can switch on/off PCIe VGA power. Middle 3 black round buttons and 3 switches enhance OC convenience. There are 12 points in bottom for measuring voltages.

The bottom uses C1100 pure copper nickel plating, the other parts use aluminum fin material, the design technology of Thermalright is quite excellent Overall quality of Archon SB-E X2 is the best one I?ve used, of course the price of which falls on high level market naturally Length, width and height are respectively 150mm X 55mm X 170mm, loaded with 8X 6mm heat pipes to enhance capacity of heat conduction Temperature behavior (room temperature is about33?) System standby - 45~50 It operates IntelBurn Test to make CPU operate at full speed - 74~89 To pass IntelBurn Test, it needs to increase CPU voltage to 1.292V Like Ivy Bridge, the temperature of Haswell framework after overclocking will be higher than that of the last two generations For users of overclocking, it is suggested working with the middle and advanced CPU radiator, so that it is possible to reach stable 4.5GHz It is hoped that temperature can be lower except that Intel pursues progress of manufacturing process in the future BIOSTAR has launched Hi-Fi Z77X since Z77 in the last year, Z87X-3D launches more progressed Puro Hi-Fi 3D Non-Polarized Electrolysis Electric audio capacitors Metal-oxide film resistors carries front sound effect amplifying chip of headphones, which adopts multiple designs of audio grade It is designed with a BIOSTAR Logo metal shied right above the sound effect chip, which will emit red light with power on The sound effect is equipped with THX software supporting Creative THX technology Multi-Channels Calibration could provide the function of adjusting multi-channel PC loudspeaker effect. The following Samrt Ear 3D software is a power amplifier software specially designed for headphones Many sound stage modes are also provided for users to select, so it is a practical software capable of keeping sound quality Difference of Hi-Fi Z77X and Hi-Fi Z87X-3D has been listened in ComputeX before There is more obvious improvement in sound quality and articulation by using Z87X-3D of Puro Hi-Fi 3D technology In the test, it uses the loudspeaker USHER S-520 of Hi-Fi at entry level, music CD is the international HI-END sound exhibition in Taipei In the song of Pear Flower Fragrance, intermediate frequency vocal and high-pitched sounds are both fairly good Performance of low frequency is also above the level, maybe localization of the loudspeaker in low frequency is not so heavy, while articulation is good as well With good performance of built-in sound effect of Z87X 3D, along with the fair price, it should be high value added in MB BIOSTAR Hi-Fi Z87X 3D Advantages 1. Price is only a little higher than entry Z87, specification and material are similar to those of middle-level Z87 in other brands 2. All-Japanese solid capacitor, built-in Power / Reset buttons and LED debugging light signal 3. Visual impression of novel UEFI interface is good, with fast startup speed, rich options and wide range of voltage. 4. For built-in sound effect, it uses better Non-Polarized electrolysis Electric audio capacitors, in addition, sound effect range is also designed by dependent PCB 5. Main power supply includes 13 items, overclocking ability of CPU and DDR3 is also above level 6. It attaches with multiple sound effect softwares, used for users who need different sound fields or other environments Disadvantages 1. There have been no BIOSTAR sales channels in Taiwan at present 2. It suggests using relatively advanced sound effect chip of Creative CA0132 or VIA Envy24MT 3. It is hoped to use gold plated material for built-in sound effect holes 4. UEFI BIOS is suggested being upgraded to high resolution of 1920X1080 Performance ratio ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 82/100 Material ratio ★★★★★★★★★☆ 86/100 Specification ratio ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 83/100 Appearance ratio ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 83/100 Price-performance ratio ★★★★★★★★★☆ 88/100 Advantages of the Intel Haswell framework lie in that the Z87 chipset supports 6 sets of SATA3 devices The built-in display HD4600 of the most advanced i7-4770K has 17~39% improvement in 3D performance DDR3 bandwidth performance and the highest overclocking frequency are also improved again, which are all progresses While temperature control and overclocking pulse have not been better on contrary, which are pitiful Fortunately, default performance of CPU has been improved, overclocking to 4.5GHz is similar to overclocking to 4.8GHz of the last generation in air-cooled condition For consumers who have had Ivy Bridge platform, Haswell framework is not so attractive But for users who want to buy a new PC host machine, it suggests choosing Haswell framework directly Price of BIOSTAR Hi-Fi Z87X 3D falls around 150 US dollars, which can be a Z87 MB with a quite fair price Considering the market of Z87, the price is only a little higher than that of entry Z87, material and specification are similar to Z87 with a price of more than 200US dollars Especially in design and material of built-in sound effect chip, it is beyond many middle Z87 level, and sound quality performance is impressive CPU 4.5GHz and DDR3 2800 have stable overclocking performance, which can also reach the supposed performance level of Z87 MB. BIOSTAR is hoped to launch more products with fair price and stronger overclocking in the future, which brings more competition to the consumer market The paper is also published on my Blog WIND3C, 3C fans are welcome to visit and give advice or comments:)

FRYRENDER Running Time => 3m 49s x264 FHD Benchmark => 29.9 4770K is 12.4% higher in x264 FHD Benchmark PCMARK7 - 7596 Windows8 WEI - CPU 8.3 The frequency of stable running for the new generation of Intel i7-4770K in air-cooled environment is about 4.5GHz It can be seen that most testing data are a little bit better than the last generation of i7-3770K overclocking 4.8GHz in performance We can conservatively consider the highest air-cooled stable frequency of the two generations of 4770K 4.5GHz and 3770K 4.8GHz to be equivalent The above is the performance comparison after overclocking, while defaults of the two types of CPU are 3.5GHz for the same, highest to 3.9GHz Default performance of i7-4770K is more or less improved than that of the last generation, which is similar to advancement extent of each generation of Core i framework DRAM bandwidth test DDR3 2800 CL11 14-14-35 2T ADIA64 Memory Read - 33686 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 31243 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 32187 MB/s The following is comparison between the two frameworks of Haswell and Ivy Bridge Frequency is still set to DR3 2800 2T i7-4770K is about 20% higher in Sandra Memory Bandwidth i7-4770K is about 13% higher in MaXXMEM Memory-Copy i7-4770K DDR3 2800 2T compares i7-3770K DDR3 2400 1T ADIA64 Memory Read is about 27% higher, we are sorry for data contrast about ADIA64 Bandwidth data of 3770K DDR3 2800 1T is not tested before, estimating that it won?t exceed 27000 MB/s even for the same setting Haswell framework has obvious progress in DDR3 bandwidth, and it is possible for the highest frequency to reach over 3000 if further adjusted Intel HD Graphics 4600 performance test GPU frequency is UEFI BIOS, 1400MHz by default 3DMark Vantage => P7553 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1280 X 720 => 135.90 FPS FINAL FANTASY XIV 1280 X 720 => 2440 For Haswell framework, it is the built-in CPU that is improved the most in performance Compared with the built-in HD4000 of the last generation of i7-3770K, HD4600 increases 31% in 3DMark Vantage, and 17% in StreetFighter IV FINAL FANTASY XIV also increases about 39%, which is an advantage for users who need built-in 3D In environment of 1920X1080 high resolution, it can be used smoothly except for advanced 3D GAME or too many special effects enabled Power consumption test System standby - 64W It operates IntelBurn Test to make CPU operate at full speed - 172W 4770K 4.5GHz with same 22nm manufacturing process is lower in power consumption than that in 3770K 4.8GHz It can be considered the same power consumption, because the difference is only about 3~5W, and performance is similar, too The radiator uses Archon SB-E X2 launched by Thermalright before It is located on the advanced CPU radiator, supporting a fan of12~14cm on left and right sides For users of LGA 1150 platform, it may make a fan stuck easily if working with the DDR3 with a high order cooling fin This won?t occur if LGA 2011 platform works with the DDR3 with general height

BIOSTAR changes to the design style of the new version in UEFI interface Some data of the current hardware are shown on the left, the background is also changed to red which has the sense of speed, and the resolution is 1024X768 It offers English and simplified Chinese for switching Main page of overclocking and effect adjusting Main page of CPU effect adjusting External frequency of 4770K is fixed at 45, i.e. 4500MHz It closes CPU C status energy-saving technology, the lower part is the clock rate and options of built-in GPU DDR3 uses CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 2800C11 It is able to reach stable high efficiency of DDR3 2800 easily after opening XMP technology Voltage page CPU voltage adopts options of increasing or decreasing, the CPU Voltage Offset(mV) is set as 120 overclocking of 4.5GHz Then, CPU voltage will turn to 1.284V shown on the left Without CPU of K version, it can also use external frequency for overlocking in the framework of Haswell, which is an advantage of the new platform The above sets CPU and DDR3 respectively to 4500 / 2800MHz through the overclocking method for conducting doubling frequency and increasing voltage to 4770K Because overclocking frequency of Haswell does not reach the stable level as the Ivy Bridge of the last generation which can reach 4.8GHz in the same air-cooled environment While the following test will compare the performance of the two different frameworks once again, for the frequency is possibly not equal to efficiency after all Testing platform CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K MB: BIOSTAR Hi-Fi Z87X 3D DRAM: CORSAIR Dominator Platinum CMD16GX3M4A2800C11 VGA: Intel HD Graphics 4000 HDD: Samsung 830 Series 128GB SSD POWER: XIGMATEK Tauro 400W Bronze Cooler: Thermalright Archon SB-E X2 OS: Windows8 64bit Intel Core i7-4770K overclocking performance CPU 100 X 45 => 4500MHz 1.284V DDR3 2800 CL11 14-14-35 2T 1.668V Hyper PI 32M X8 => 10m 30.456s CPUMARK 99 => 781 It compares performance of CPU through 3770K OC 4.8GHz and 4770K OC 4.5GHz 4770K is 3.6% higher in CPUMARK 99 Nuclearus Multi Core => 33835 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 36.37/17456 3770K is 2.7% higher in Fritz Chess Benchmark CrystalMark 2004R3 => 412719 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 9.86 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.96 pts 4770K is 2.9% higher in multiplexing CPU performance 3770K is 4% higher in CPU (Single Core)

At the beginning of June this year, Intel released a new generation of framework as scheduled, with the model name of Haswell The pin of the last two generations is LGA 1155. It is the biggest difference that the new platform is changed to LGA 1150. In a short time, Intel Core i series has advanced to the fourth generation of framework with better specification for each generation The code of the most advanced chipset is Z87, bringing out the six SATA3 interfaces which have been waited for by many people for a long time And CPU has recovered to the ability to exceed external frequency in the first generation of Core i, while the two aspects are both good improvements The MB is BIOSTAR Z87X 3D, imitating design of Hi-Fi material as well PCB uses black mist side material, cooling fin is blue, and color of appearance is similar to that of a middle and advance-level Z87 Hi-Fi Z87X 3D uses Z87 chipset, price of which is relatively fair compared with other brands in material and design At present, BIOSTAR launches two Z87s in Z series, the other is Hi-Fi Z87W, belonging to a cheaper version Intel has entered the fourth-generation framework of Core i series, names of CPU also begin with 4 The testing focus is the most advanced Core i7-4770K in Haswell framework, the codes followed by k all have function of adjusting doubling frequency The CPU radiator is on the right, for 4 Cores CPU, Intel all uses radiators with copper material at the bottom Total frequency of 4770K is 3.5GHz, supporting Turbo Boost technology, and top performance can reach 3.90GHz Entity 4 Cores is integrated with Hyper-Threading technology, which can reach 8 threads in total, called 4C8T for short It has the same 22nm manufacturing process with Ivy Bridge, with higher consumption of 84W, and 8MB of L3 Cache in total Lower left of the main board 2 X PCI-E X16 3.0, supremely supporting AMD CrossFireX/nVIDIA SLI technology, and bandwidth is X8 + X8 1 X PCI-E X16 2.0, bandwidth is X4 3 X PCI-E X1 Network chip is Realtek RTL8111F Sound chip is Realtek ALC898, highest to 8 sound channels of Blu-ray Audio and THX TruStudio Pro technology Lower right of the main board 6 X black SATAs, offered by Z87 chipset, in the specification of SATA3 The above can establish RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10 in a mix way, the maximum performance of which depends on the SATA device installed Power / Reset button and LED debugging light signal, black of the upper part is a front USB 3.0 Upper right of the main board 4 X DIMM DDR3, supporting DDR3 1066~1600 / 1866~2800(OC) DDR3 can supremely support 32GB，supporting Extreme Memory Profile technology, and 24-PIN power input is on the right Upper left of the main board CPU on both sides have enhanced passive thermal modules, and 8PIN power input is on the upper side IO 1 X PS/2 keyboard 1 X D-Sub / DVI-D / HDMI 4 X USB 2.0(black) 2 X USB 3.0(blue) 1 X RJ-45 network hole 6 X Audio sound holes

After then, I fine tune it to DDR3 2800 CL11 14-14-35 1T 1.65V. The official spec 2T with 1.65V is more conservative. Hyper PI 32M X 8 => 11m 14.440s CrystalMark 2004R3 MEM => 95465 MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 29007 MB/s ADIA64 Memory Read - 26384 MB/s SoftPerfect RamDisk PCMark Vantage Memories Score => 14892 / HDD Score 1507704 ATTO DISK Benchmark max read is 4227.9 Mb/s and write is 3496.3 MB/s CrystalDiskMark Seq Read - 13325 MB/s Write - 15267 MB/s DDR3 2800 at same CL and other parameters, 1T and 2T performance are similar. Most benchmark software above has better performance in 1T. However, 2T set up has better stability. As DDR3 2400 and 2800 difference, DDR3 high clock does have better bandwidth. I would like to mention AIRFLOW cooler temperature performance at DDR3 2800 2T setup. If without AIRFLOW, the max temperature is around 47.5, otherwise it's about 37.6. The temperature drops 9.9 degree C. It's helpful for stability for sure. Intel new structure always advantages DDR3. Either pull higher clock or performance improved as same bandwidth. Last generation, Sandy Bridge, max is DDR3 2133. Ivy Bridge max is DDR3 2800. Regarding to DDR3 clock improvement, if CPU clock can pull higher than 100MHz, the clock will be higher. These 2 generations structure sync CPU clock with PCI-E clock. If you pull CPU clock too high, the system stability is a question. So this review only set CPU clock at 100MHz. CORSAIR most high end DDR3 product line, Dominator Platinum, has several clocks. The official site shows 5 models from DDR3 1600 to DDR3 2800. Higher clock is higher price. DDR3 is no more competition for clock performance and capacity. As RamDisk software becomes more popular, more DDR3 capacity provides richer and more convenient applications. Especially, the incredible bandwidth leverages the performance. This review, Dominator Platinum DDR3 2800 CL11, performance is excellent. I hope it will have 8GX4 version soon. It will show us another milestone of DDR3 performance. DDR3 can be higher or not? 8G price can be more parity? I think these are what end users care about. Hopefully, after 2nd June, Intel new Haswell structure will fly over DDR3 3000. This article is also post in my blog - WIND3C, Any comments are welcome.

Let's start with the comparison between DDR3 2400 and DDR3 2800. Enable XMP in UEFI BIOS. The first pic is DDR3 2400 CL11 14-14-35 2T. Hyper PI 32M X 8 => 11m 39.698s The 2nd pic is DDR3 2800 CL11 14-14-35 2T Hyper PI 32M X 8 => 11m 24.254s Hyper PI 32M can test stability and arithmetic performance. You can see DDR3 2800 is 15 seconds faster than DDR3 2400. CrystalMark 2004R3 MEM => 83220 MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 27972 MB/s CrystalMark 2004R3 MEM => 91528 MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 29007 MB/s DDR3 2800在CrystalMark 2004R3 MEM is about 9.9% higher. MaXXMEM Memory-Copy is 3.7% higher. ADIA64 Memory Read - 23600 MB/s ADIA64 Memory Read - 26037 MB/s ADIA64 Memory Read DDR3 2800 improves about 10.3%. Then, I installed SoftPerfect RamDisk. I set 8192MB capacity for RamDisk test. PCMark Vantage Memories Score => 14297 / HDD Score 1438588 PCMark Vantage Memories Score => 14428 / HDD Score 1435109 In PCMark Vantage test, no matter Memory or RamDisk HDD test, you can see the difference is minor. ATTO DISK Benchmark max read is 4093.6 Mb/s and write is 3286.8 MB/s. CrystalDiskMark Seq Read - 12702 MB/s Write - 15024 MB/s ATTO DISK Benchmark max read is 4160.7 Mb/s and write is 3807.2 MB/s CrystalDiskMark Seq Read - 13094 MB/s Write - 15086 MB/s After RamDisk, DDR3 2800 performance improves in most benchmark software. Maybe the performance is much higher than the regular usage, the DDR3 clock impact becomes smaller. Ivy Bridge structure, when set CPU frequency as 100MHz, max DDR3 clock is 2800. Even though, the DRAM quality really impacts the DDR3 2800 stability. The CPU built-in Memory Controller must be good, also the MB. There are many conditions. However, DDR3 2800 bandwidth is worth for that.

DDR3 has been in the market for long time. It changes year by year. Ex: price change or capacity improves. Like last year, 4~8GB became the mainstream capacity. Most users use 4GX2 or 8GX2 as their PC spec. Besides capacity, high clock DDR3 is the other key factor of performance improving. CORSAIR focus on high performance DDR3 for years. High clock DDR3 products are Dominator series mainly. After that, it's with GT or GTX code. Last year, CORSAIR launched DDR3 most high end series, Dominator Platinum. This review is the current highest clock modules, Dominator Platinum. The model is CMD16GX3M4A2800C11. This is DDR3 2800 CL11, the top specs. The high end Dominator Platinum bundles with exclusive AIRFLOW. The package is much bigger than the regular DD3 modules. The back side lists the PCB and other technologies. DDR3 2800 4GB X 4, CL11 14-14-35, 1.65V Dominator Platinum DDR3 2800 has CL11 and CL12 versions. Product manual and AIRFLOW cooler. AIRFLOW texture and fan design are much better than former one. Dominator Platinum front and back. CORSAIR own DHX (Dual-path Heat eXchange) Cooling technology which flaunts it's better cooling capability. The top is white metal heat sink. I guess this is name, Platinum, from. After powering on, you can see the white light. It really enhances the product texture. They also have upgrade kit, Light Bar Upgrade Kit. I have seen some pics in internet. It has rich light effects. I choose Intel Ivy Bridge Z77 as test platform. Z77 is the current highest DD3 platform. I use GIGABYTE Z77X-UD4H. The spec and price are mid-range in Z77 market. It's Ultra Durable 4. CPU PWM is 8 phases design. It has 4 built-in GPU outputs. It has 3 PCI-E X16, 3 PCI-E X1 and 1 PCI. The design, components and expandability are quite balance. As LGA 1155 Sandy Bridge structure, DRAM can reach DDR3 2133 as none overclock CPU. The other LGA 2011 Sandy Bridge can reach DDR3 2400. LGA 1155 Ivy Bridge is the current highest DDR3 clock platform. It can reach DDR3 2666~2800. It's must for DDR3 2800 platform. Intel keeps improving Memory controller built in PU. Test Platform CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K MB: GIGABYTE Z77X-UD4H DRAM: CORSAIR Dominator Platinum CMD16GX3M4A2800C11 VGA: Intel HD Graphics 4000 HDD: Samsung 830 Series 128GB SSD POWER: XIGMATEK Tauro 400W Bronze Cooler: CORSAIR Hydro Series H100 OS: Windows8 64bit