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DDR3 1995.2 CL9 11-10-27 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 19509 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 24499 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 20886 MB/s In the test, I OC DDR3 8GB X2 from 1866 to 2000. You can see DDR3 performance is always Intel advantage. The bandwidth is similar to Sandy Bridge, but DDR3 clock can rise 2~3 levels. Previously, H67 only can reach DDR3 1333, but H77 max clock is DDR3 2000. Of course, Z77 with better quality DDR3 can even achieve 2400~2600 which is enhance DRAM extreme clock a lot. 3D Performance Test Intel HD Graphics HD2500 3DMark Vantage => P1783 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1366 X 768 => 41.72 FPS FINAL FANTASY XIV 1280 X 720 => 709 i3-3220 builds in HD2500 and former i3-3120 or i5-2300 both built in HD2000. For above three 3D software, HD2500 performance is 30~50% higher. If HD2500 3D performance is not enough, you can choose HD4000 built-in or external VGA. SPARKLE nVIDIA GTX570 3DMark Vantage => P25923 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1920 X 1080 => 238.46 FPS FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080 => 4002 I use the mid to high end VGA to see how the performance is of i3-3220 with VGA. Three 3D software is around 10~20% lower than nVIDIA GTX570 bundle with i7 CPU. This can be the reference for limited budget. If you want to enhance 3D performance, you better to put you money on VGA. i3-3220 can bring out around 80% 3D performance. If you have more budget, you can consider CPU either. H77 also support Intel Smart Response Technology. Also, GIGABYTE H77-DS3H has mSATA slot. HDD performance test (Disable SRT feature) ATTO DISK Benchmark max Read is 106.5 Mb/s and Write is 104.4 MB/s. HD Tune Pro 5.00 64K - Read - Average 82.6 MB/s Access Time 15.2ms HDD plus SSD performance test (Enable SRT feature) ATTO DISK Benchmark max Read is 212.6 Mb/s and Write is 69.6 MB/s HD Tune Pro 5.00 64K - Read - Average 151.9 MB/s Access Time 0.2ms SanDisk U100 spec is mSATA and SATA3. The max Read/Write is 450/380MB/s. Due to H77-DS3H mSATA only supports SATA2. The bandwidth will limit the mSATA3 SSD performance. After enabling Intel SRT, the Write performance is 1.5~2 times faster. Access Time is 76 times faster. The Write performance boost a lot in small files but max is lower than HDD. For actual usage, system boot is 2~3 times faster. I do hope GIGABYTE can upgrade mSATA slot to SATA3. It will boost SSD performance. Temperature (Room is 28˚C) Enter to OS Desktop - 33~37

UEFI Screen Intel Core i3-3220 default is 3.3GHz DRAM can set to DDR3 2000 after fine tune. The performance is much higher than former H67 DDR3 1333. DRAM Advanced Parameters set the latency to CL9 11-10-27 1T. Test Configuration CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 MB: GIGABYTE H77-DS3H DRAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT CMT32GX3M4X1866C9 VGA: Intel HD Graphics 2500 / SPARKLE GTX570 HDD: Seagate Momentus 500G / SanDisk U100 64GB POWER: Thermaltake TR2 600W Cooler: Intel Original Cooler OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit System Performance Test CPU 99.8 X 32 => 3292.72MHz DDR3 1995.2 CL9 11-10-27 1T Hyper PI 32M X4 => 14m 54.007s CPUMARK 99 => 519 Nuclearus Multi Core => 14204 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 13.28/6376 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 200583 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 3.18 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.35 pts FRYRENDER Running Time => 11m 36s x264 FHD Benchmark => 9.8 PCMark Vantage => 8644 Windows Experience Index - CPU 7.2 Intel structure advantage is high performance of individual thread. You can see the good score in single core benchmark above. i3-3220 is 2C4T and supports Hyper-Threading. IT will be 30% faster than own 2C2T CPU. Former share, Ivy Bridge 3770K, single thread performance is 3~6% faster than Sandy Birdge 2700K and 10~14% in multi-tasking. Comparing i3-3220 and i3-2120, the performance is close. It may causes by L3 Cache capacity.

Intel Core I Gen 3 is named Ivy Bridge which is launched in April. In the beginning, there were only mid to high end models, Core i5 and Core i7. For lower price Ivy Bridge Core i3 was launched in Sep. Now you can save some budget for Ivy Bridge CPU to buy Core i3 instead of Core i3. There are three models for new Core i3, Core i3-3220, i3-3225 and i3-3240 from low to high. Each is 100MHz difference. i3-3225 built-in Intel max performance HD4000 GPU. i3-3220 and i3-3240 are HD2500. This is the simplest way to distinguish. This guide is using Intel Core i3-3220, the cheapest one of three models. The clock is 3.3GHz. It?s physical 2 Cores and none Hyper-Threading. It can run 4 threads, called 2C4T. It?s 22nm manufacturing and TDP is 55W. L3 Cache is 3MB. It?s most entry Ivy Bridge CPU. The bottom of original cooler is none cooper for own 2 Cores CPU. If you add some better quality thermal paste, it?s helpful for temperature control. CPU back, it?s Revision E1. There are 4 chipsets in the market. The cheapest is H61 since Sandy Bridge. H61 doesn?t support SATA3 and USB 3.0. It?s quite a pity. The higher level is B75. Intel set it at Small Business Advantage. The picture is GIGABYTE B75M-D3V. B75support native SATA3 and USB 3.0. The price is higher than H61. If B75M-D3V got 4 DIMMs, the expandability would be better. LGA 1155 most high-end chipset is Z77. The price is even higher. Since this year the MB competition is very tough. Z77 entry model MB is much cheaper the former structures. The picture is FOXCONN Z77A-S. Z77 owns highest specs, expandability and adjustable CPU ratio for OC in LGA 1155. K sku CPU can adjust higher ratio and none K sku CPU can rise 200~600MHz clock. The mid-end uses H77 chipset - GIGABYTE H77-DS3H H77 can OC the built-in GPU, but not CPU. The other features are the same with Z77. GIGABYTE recently builds in mSATA slot from mid-end ATX MB. Windwithme just got mSATA SSD and will share Intel Smart Response Technology.

Hi-Fi Z77X uses relatively high-level ALC898 of Realtek, which has the good performance in both computability and stability. Its audio effect is quite acceptable. At present the MB manufacturers use various audio chipsets of Realtek. Hi-Fi Z77X uses Realtek, so it is difficult to be distinguished from other MB brands. The design on the upper side of the audio chipset is the metal shield printed with BIOSTAR Logo shining red when power-on. Altec Lansing BackBeat Plus UHP206 is sold at a price closed to the medium-level earphone in the common consumption market. I compare the actual audio effect of Hi-Fi Z77X and TZ77XE4 when the Realtek ALC898 audio chipset is used. Altec Lansing is a U.S. brand with long history. I believe most PC users can speak out some of its well-known loudspeakers which produce quite high-level performance. BackBeat Plus UHP206 is of in-ear type, belonging to the monitoring function, and can present the audio effect of real sound source. It supports Creative THX technology. Let?s first take a look at the THX software interface. The first three options are enabled by default. If the user enables the options of SMART VOLUME and DIALOG PLUS, it will optimize the sound field, but decrease the finer points of intermediate frequency. It is suggested opening these two options when gaming or watching videos. When comparing the audio quality of these two MB brands, it will disable all THX options to achieve the original audio effect. The left side is the Multi-Channels Calibration interface, used for the multi-channel calibration of PC loudspeaker. The right side is SmartEAR Headphone Utility，used for adjustment under the earphone environment. Below is the test for audio quality, which belongs to personal opinion. It makes the comparison of the built-in audio effect between the Hi-Fi Z77X and TZ77XE4. When the earphone volume is 50%, the sound is loud enough. Thus, it?s no need to worry the insufficient power will cause small volume. High frequency ? there is no sharp tune, and it is much finer . Intermediate frequency ? the definition and the finer points are improved. If the intermediate frequency can be fuller, it will be better. Low frequency ? bass is quite shocking, free from the problems of TZ77XE4 in which the sound is not thick or muddy enough. As for the built-in level, Hi-Fi Z77X improves the audio effect more or less. Moreover, with the THX software, it will be more suitable for watching video or gaming, bringing about a better performance in the effect of audio field. Compared with the last generation under the same brand, TZ77XE4 makes the most improvements in the performance in the intermediate frequency. It will get quite good built-in audio effect for listening to the music. Of course, Hi-Fi Z77X improves the audio effect of built-in audio chipset, making the consumer enjoy better audio quality with the same price. However, its audio effect is not so good as the lower or medium-level audio card on the market. After all, the built-in audio effect doesn?t need to spend extra money like the additional audio card, so it is hard to compare this part fairly. Temperature performance (Ambient temperature is 28 Celsius) System standby - 38~46 Running LinX, CPU at full speed - 82~87 XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 is a radiator that has gain higher C/P ratio on the market, while its price falls around the medium level. Although the temperature is slightly higher when overclocking to 4.5GHz, its radiation capacity is quite satisfactory if considering its reasonable price.. If you think the temperature of 80 Celsius is too high, it is helpful to enhance the internal cooling or reduce the overclocking to 4.4GHz when installing it into the case. Power consumption test System standby - 125W Running LinX, CPU at full speed - 222W 3770K OC 4.5GHz, C1E disabled, and the system standby under GTX 570 SLI mode, it is only 125W. When CPU is at full speed, it will increase about 97W. The power consumption under Ivy Bridge platform is obviously lower than the last generation of Sandy Bridge. BIOSTAR Hi-Fi Z77X Pros 1. The price is a little higher than the basic-level Z77, with its specification and material similar to the middle-level Z77. 2. Japanese solid capacitor, built-in Power/Reset buttons and simple debug LED. 3. It adopts UEFI interface with fast startup speed, rich options and large range of voltage, as well as excellent overclocking ability. 4. Provide special Calibration Microphone to adjust the sound field based on the surroundings. 5. With special design of audio effect of the built-in Hi-Fi, the MB power supply has 13 phases in total. Cons 1. BIOSTAR has no distribution channel in Taiwan currently. 2. It is suggested using the advanced audio chips, such as Creative CA0132 or VIA Envy24MT. 3. DDR3 bandwidth has some improvement room. Performance ratio ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 80/100 Material ratio ★★★★★★★★★☆ 85/100 Specification ratio ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 82/100 Appearance ratio ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 82/100 C/P ratio ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 83/100 BIOSTAR Hi-Fi Z77X is sold at US$150(NT$4,382), which is almost the same price of TZ77XE4 when released on the market. Currently, the price of TZ77XE4 has dropped to US$120 or so, but it has two more SATAs and one DisplayPort. Thus, the C/P ratio will be increased. Both Hi-Fi Z77X and Hi-Fi H77S are two models of Intel platform introduced with Hi-Fi material. Hi-Fi A85X and Hi-Fi A85W with the AMD FM2 that are released by BIOSTAR lately, also have the same audio effect design. In recent years, some MB brands have improved the audio effect or the network on the advanced product line, which seems to pave road for the gaming market. Moreover, the BIOSTAR with affordable price and high performance has also stepped in the design of audio effect. It is a piece of good news for the users who calls for better built-in audio effect with limited budget. And Hi-Fi design does make substantial improvements on the audio effect. I hope BIOSTAR will adopt Hi-Fi material in more MB products in the future, so that the consumers will have more MB options with higher C/P ratio:) This article is also post in my blog - WIND3C, All comments are welcome.

Nuclearus Multi Core => 31526 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 35.08 /16837 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 378507 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 9.14 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.92 pts FRYRENDER Running Time => 4m 10s x264 FHD Benchmark => 26.6 PCMark Vantage => 26885 The frequency of 4.8GHz is about 6.7% higher than that of 4.5GHz. Compared with 4.8GHz, the Fritz Chess Benchmark of 4.5GHz is 7.8% higher in the test, and CINEBENCH R11.5 7.2% higher. Moreover, the x264 FHD Benchmark is 7.1% higher and FRYRENDER is 6.3% faster. It seems that the increased CPU frequency will improve the performance accordingly. However, most of my previous tests use the advanced radiator with overclocking to 4.8GHz. This time I use the affordable CPU radiator with overclocking to 4.5GHz to test the performance, getting different results in the voltage, power consumption and working performance. It is hoped to provide reference for the users of medium-level radiator. After all, overclocking to 4.8GHz requires more conditions. DRAM bandwidth test DDR3 2400 CL11 12-11-28 2T ADIA64 Memory Read - 19333 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 19292 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 22702 MB/s When installing 4DIMM in the DRAM, the overclocking capability of the same DDR3 will be lowered by one or two levels, which is common for many Z77. Thus, I set it as DDR2400 2T, which is a stable parameter. Those who want to achieve the overclocking frequency of DDR3 2400~2600 1T, it is suggested using 2DIMM which also provides a favorable environment to achieve the purpose in addition to the powerful DDR3. Moreover, the DRAM bandwidth of Hi-Fi Z77X is two-level lower than that of TZ77XE4, which needs to be enhanced by the newer BIOS in the future. 3D performance test - SPARKLE GTX570 SLI 3DMark Vantage => P45768 FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080 => 6244 Unigine Heaven Benchmark 3.0 1920 X 1080 => 101.4 FPS The bandwidth required by SLI mode is X8 + X8, but the performance might be poorer. However, sold at this lower price, Hi-Fi Z77X still supports AMD CrossFireX/nVIDIA SLI technology, thus it is a product with rather good specification. BIOSTAR advertises Hi-Fi Caps and Hi-Fi resistors, and the material adopts the non-polarized capacitor and film resistor. Equipped with the audio-amplification chipset on the front earphone, it provides the users with better audio quality.

The radiation fin for Z77?s chipset is of long-shape design. In addition to the unique appearance, it is also labeled with PURO Hi-Fi. O.N.E calibration page of BIOSTAR UEFI interface The frequency multiplication of the CPU Ratio is 45, i.e. 3770K will be operated by 4500MHz Graphics Core Ratio Limit is the frequency of the built-in GPU The algorithm of 23 is 23 X 50 => 1150MHz. In the figure below, it adopts the default frequency of built-in HD 4000 for 3770K. DDR3 frequency is set as 24, namely DDR3 2400. For DRAM frequency and parameter settings, generally, smaller value leads to higher performance. Set it as DDR3 2400 CL11 12-11-28 2T, and adjust other detailed options to optimal setting values. The user can increase the frequency and adjust the parameters based on the DDR3 property, so as to increase DDR3 bandwidth. Voltage page Four CPU VCore Modes are included, i.e. SPEC Volgate/Auto/Offset Mode/Fixed Mode CPU VCore Offset -0.200~+0.370V CPU VCore Fixed 1.000~1.790V In terms of the purpose of overclocking, the major change here is the CPU voltage. In the sample figure, the CPU Vcore is fixed as 1.280V. Making slight adjustment based on the radiation ability and CPU property are two major foundations for overclocking CPU. This page can adjust the shared capacity needed by the HD 4000 built in 3770K. CPU Smart FAN can control the rotating speed based on the CPU condition. PC Health Status The CPU temperature detected here is higher, while the wind temperature felt from the radiator or the detected temperature by OS temperature detection software will be lower. This time the common and affordable CPU radiator is used, and the 3770K overclocking to 4.5GHz is set stably. Install 4DIMM DDR3 2133 and overclock it to 2400 2T. The capacity of DRAM is 4G X4, namely 16GB in total. Hi-Fi Z77X is equipped with better radiator and 2DIMM DDR3, which can also achieve the overclocking performance of 4.8GHz / 2600. I only intend to test the overclocking in different ways, providing more information to the users who need. Test platform CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K MB: BIOSTAR Hi-Fi Z77X DRAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT CMT16GX3M4X2133C9 VGA: SPARKLE GTX570 SLI SSD: CORSAIR Performance Pro Series 256GB POWER: CORSAIR AX650W Cooler: XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit Intel Core i7-3770K overclocking performance CPU 100 X 45 => 4500MHz 1.280V DDR3 2400 CL11 12-11-28 2T 1.608V Hyper PI 32M X8 => 12m 57.381s CPUMARK 99 => 708

In recent years, overclocking and material are the major positioning route in the middle and high-level MB market. With the Desktop market changing, the terms like electric competition or Gaming appear on the technical data of a lot of hardware. For the MB field with mature specifications, it has put the focus on the audio effect and network. In this way, it intends to improve the traditional design model before, providing better audio effect for users in gaming environment. Most customers are under the impression that BIOSTAR take the affordable price and the overclocking as the major market positioning. TZ77XE4 released before performs well in the aspects of C/P ratio and overclocking capabilities. And Hi-Fi Z77X released lately, as implied in the product name, mainly strengthens the audio effect. The product package this time takes the sound-related pattern, which is also quite special. Hi-Fi Z77X Appearance Currently, most MB brands use the shining black PCB, while BIOSTAR uses the matte PCB material which increases the sense of texture. As for colors of Hi-Fi Z77X, PCB, DRAM and PCI slots are all black, and then matched with blue radiator. Hi-Fi Z77X looks different from the black and orange appearance of TZ77XE4. Personally, I like its external package design and new colors better. Accessories enclosed: Product manual, IO board, SLI / CorssFire X bridge, SATA wires, Calibration Microphone and driver disk The lower-left section of motherboard 2 X PCI-E X16 3.0, supporting AMD CrossFireX/nVIDIA SLI technology at most, with a bandwidth of X8 + X8 1 X PCI-E X16 2.0, with a bandwidth of X4 3 X PCI-E X1 Network chip adopts Realtek RTL8111E Audio chip Realtek ALC898 supports 8-channel Blu-ray Audio and THX TruStudio Pro technology at most The lower-right of motherboard 2 X black SATA, provided by chipset Z77, with SATA3 specification 4 X black SATA, provided by chipset Z77, with SATA2 specification They can work together to build RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10, and the highest performance depends on the SATA device installed. Power / Reset buttons and debug LED, and the black section on upper side is the front USB 3.0 slot The upper -right of motherboard 4 X DIMM DDR3, supporting 1066/1333/1600/1866(OC)/2133(OC)/2400(OC)/2600(OC) The maximum capacity supported by DDR3 is 32GB, supporting Extreme Memory Profile technology. The lower side is the 24-PIN power input. The upper-left of motherboard The power supplies on both sides of CPU are equipped with the enhanced passive radiator, with a power input on the upper side of 8PIN. IO 1 X PS/2 Keyboard 1 X D-Sub / DVI-D / HDMI DisplayPort 4 X USB 2.0(black) 2 X USB 3.0(blue) 1 X RJ-45 Network hole 6 X Audio hole The power supply design has 13 phases in total, including 10 CPU VCORE phases + 1 VCC phase + 2 IGD phases

Enable X.M.P. => DDR3 1866.8 CL9 10-9-27 and manual adjust to 1T. ADIA64 Memory Read - 17252 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 45532 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 13238 MB/s There is only part of software supporting LGA 2011 exclusive quad channel. You can see Sandra Memory Bandwidth supports quad chanel. LGA 2011 DDR3 1333 quad channel bandwidth is only 10% more than LGA 1155 DDR 2600 dual channel. CrystalMark reached multi-memory scoreand quad channel bandwidth. ADIA64 Memory Read and MaXXMEM Memory don’t improve much. If we compare three clock and parameters to see the bandwidth, and using Sandra Memory Bandwidth as base, DDR3 1333 1T is 0.4% higher than 1866 2T. You can see 1T or 2T is not the key factor. Pulling high DDR3 clock is more helpful for DDR3 bandwidth. Temperature(Room is 30˚C) Enter to OS Desktop – 32~35 CPU full speed by LinX – 38~50 Even the threading is 8C16T, due to CPU clock is not too high and H100 water cooler performance, the temperature is very good. It seems Intel original cooler is enough for Xeon CPU. Power Consumption (Enter to OS Desktop) Enable C1E - 65W Disable C1E - 107W CPU full speed by LinX - 205W The power consumption is using AMD Radeon HD 7970 as well. New LGA 2011 and former LGA 1366 CPU are both 32nm. The power consumption is big different. You can see LGA2011 is lower 50~70W than LGA 1366 CPU. Besides CPU power consumption is lower, new C606 or X79 is also saving more power than X58. 3D Performance - PowerColor AX7970 3GBD5-2DHV3 3DMark Vantage => P32516 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1920 X 1080 => 369.88 FPS FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080 => 5996 Redaon HD 7970 is current AMD most high end single GPU VGA. All tests have very high 3D performance. Of course, AMD also has Redaon HD 7990 with two7970 GP. You can choose your own VGA by budget or requirements. This is for simple share. As room is 30 degree C, I use tool to test MOSFET temperature. When entering to OS desktop and enable C1E, the max temperature is 40.5 and 51.6 in burning CPU. As my own experience in several X79 boards, X79S-UP5 MOSFET is quite low in CPU default mode. My every LGA 2011 articles all have these numbers for reference. GIGABYTE X79S-UP5-WIFI Pros 1. First C606 Server Chipset in DeskTop market 2. UEFI BIOS provides two BIOS interfaces 3. DDR3 supports 8 DIMM and ECC. It supports up to 14 SATA devices. 4. First IR3550 PowlRstage PWM design to lower the MOSFET temperature. 5. Exclusive BT4.0/Wi – Fi card to support all mobile devices. Cons 1. CPU voltage drift between standby and OC is too big. 2. OC ability is lower than X79 3. Intel C606 SAS only supports SATA2 Performance ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 82/100 Components ★★★★★★★★★☆ 91/100 Specifications ★★★★★★★★★☆ 93/100 Appearance ★★★★★★★★★☆ 86/100 C/P Value ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 82/100 I used to share Core i7-3930K / 3960X default and OC performance. These two CPUs are most high end in consumer PC which is 6C12T. This Intel Xeon E5-2000 series CPU only use in high end Server. E5-2680 is 8C16T. Some general software doesn’t support it, but it still improves some software performance. If you are OC enthusiasts, 3930K and 3960X adjustable ratio is a better choice. X79S-UP5 price segment is same as former X79-UD5. The main difference is X79S-UP5 using Intel C606 chipset. It adds dual LAN, 14 SATA devices, supporting ECC and new IR3550 PowlRstage PWM design. Unfortunately, Intel C606 only supports two SATA3 devices. Otherwise, X79S-UP5 spec will be even better. X79S-UP5in mid-end X79 market is quite competitive in specs and components. Currently, X79 MB is still in high end market. However, LGA2011 life cycle is longer than mainstream LGA 1155 platform. It’s all depending on your budget and needs. This is just a reference guide for who is considering LGA 2011 platform. This article is also post in my blog - WIND3C, All comments are welcome.

CrystalMark 2004R3 => 351690 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 11.96 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.41 pts FRYRENDER Running Time => 3m 6s x264 FHD Benchmark => 31.2 PCMark Vantage => 16941 Windows Experience Index Fritz Chess Benchmark => 43.47/20867 In E5-2680 8C16T structure, it has very good performance for multi-threading software, such like CINEBENCH R11.5 / FRYRENDER / x264 FHD Benchmark. As overall system performance, some software seems no performance improved due to none multi-threading support, such like CrystalMark 2004R3 / PCMark Vantage. Windows Experience Index cannot support 8C16T, so I just ignore it. Xeon is great for multimedia or file converting, but not some regular software. Besides you have specified software requirement, for general users, 4C6T or 6C12T CPU utilization rate will be higher. LGA 2011 is the only quad channel DDR# platform in DeskTop market. DDR3 is CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT series, CMT32GX3M4X1866C9. The packing clearly shows supporting Intel X.M.P. Certified QUAD CHANNEL. The clock is 1866 and latency is CL9 10-9-27 with 1.50V. DOMINATOR-GT uses exclusive DHX thermal technology. The heatsink and PCB designs are bigger than some high end DDR3. DDR3 capacity is 4 X 8GB As X79S-UP5 8DIMM design, it can support up to 64GB, 8G X 8, 64GB. UEFI DualBIOS default is DDR3 1333.4 CL9 9-9-24 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 15203 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 33842 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 12531 MB/s Enable X.M.P. => DDR3 1866.8 CL9 10-9-27 2T ADIA64 Memory Read - 17100 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 44352 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory - Copy - 13127 MB/s The performance difference between DDR3 1333 1T to enable X.M.P. DDR3 1866 2T is as below. ADIA64 increases 12.5%, Sandra increases 31% and MaXXMEM increases about 5%. ADIA64 and MaXXMEM performance is not much for quad channel platform. But you can see Sandra Memory bandwidth is almost double the LGA 1155 platform. The quad channel support really impacts the DDR3 performance.

Chipset heat sink is pretty big with good match colors. GIGABYTE own UEFI DualBIOS Interface Intel Xeon E5-2680 operating information shows physical 8 cores clock is around 2.7~3.1GHz. M.I.T. Tuning Page E5-2680 is 27x and supporting Turbo Boost. As core utilization, you can adjust between 31~35 ratio. Enable X.M.P. to OC DDR3 1333 to 1866. Advanced CPU Features Menu You can adjust individual CPU Core ratio and choose how many cores to run. C1E is power saving feature. Intel Turbo Boost is opposite with C1E. It will boost the CPU speed by loading. LGA 2011 is exclusive quad channels structure. You can set up by Channel A/B/C/D. For X.M.P. DDR3, it has original parameters. The picture shows CL9 10-9-27. CPU Vcore 0.800~1.700V CPU Vtt 0.715~1.610V CPU PLL 1.195~1.985V IMC 0.800~1.600V DRAM Voltage 1.100~1.990V PC Health Status Xeon E5-2680 is for Server market. It’s more on multi-threads and reliability. If you want to pull higher clock, you can adjust the CPU frequency. However, it’s limited. If you are OC enthusiasts or looking for higher clock, Core i7 3930K or 3960X is more suitable. The test below is based on E5-2680 8C16T structure. Test Configuration CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2680 MB: GIGABYTE X79S-UP5-WiFi DRAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT CMT32GX3M4X1866C9 VGA: PowerColor AX7970 3GBD5-2DHV3 HD: SanDisk Extreme 240GB POWER: CORSAIR AX650W Cooler: CORSAIR Hydro Series H100 OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit CPU 100 X 27 => 2700MHz Enable C1E and Turbo Boost, clock is around 1200~3500MHz by CPU utilization. DDR3 1867 CL9 10-9-27 2T Hyper PI 32M X4 => 17m 36.824s CPUMARK 99 => 533

This year, Intel has 2 CPU sockets in DeskTop market. As previous generation, Extreme was LGA 1366 and mainstream was LGA 1156. The new generation Extreme is LGA 2011 and mainstream is LGA 1155. X79 life cycle should be around 3 years which is same as X58. LGA 2011 in consumer market only has X79 chipset. Some MB makers launch new X79 series and even use Server level chipset to enhance spec. GIGABYTE X79S-UP5-WiFi is the first model to use Intel C606 chipset. I, windwithme, will share you the LGA 2011 Server CPU, 8C16T, performance. Let’s look at the CPU backside first. Left is most high-end CPU in consumer market, Intel Core i7-3960X. Right is Intel Xeon E5-2680. Serve level CPU price and usage are different with our common views. E5-2680 clock is 2.7GHz. It supports Turbo Boost 2.0 to 3.5GHz. It’s physical 8 Cores and Hyper-Threading to reach 16 threads, called 8C16T. It’s 32nm manufacturing, TDP 130W, and 20MB L3 Cache. It’s very high end CPU in E2600 series. MB is GIGABYTE latest X79S-UP5-WiFi. It’s mid-end price in X79 MB segment. X79S-UP5 is same as former X79-UD5 and G1.Assassin2 bundling BT4.0/Wi-Fi PCI-E card. X79S-UP5 can be treat as enhance edition from former X79-UD5. The color tone is similar, but some specs are enhanced. It’s E-ATX spec. Size is 30.5cm x 26.4cm. You can just use standard ATX case. Lower-Left Corner 3 X PCI-E X16 support 3-Way AMD CrossFireX/nVIDIA SLI The bandwidth is operating at X16 + X16 or X8 + X8 + X8. 1 X PCI-E X16 bandwidth is X4 1 X PCI-E X1 1 X PCI Dual LAN chip design with Intel GbE LAN and Realtek GbE. Audio chip is Realtek ALC898 supporting 7.1 channel and High Definition Audio Design in Taipei Lower-Right Corner 2 X White SATA, provided by C606 and support SATA3 4 X Black SATA, provided by C606 and support SATA2 It supports hybrid RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10. The max performance is depending on installed SATA devices. 8 X Gray SAS SATA provided by C606 and support SAS or SATA2. It also supports RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 10. 2 X 64 Mbit flash with Dual BIO. It build-in RST_SW blue button. Upper-Right Corner X79S-UP5 CPU PWM is 8-phase digital and the cover is plating for better look. Red button is Power for bare system. Upper-Left Corner There are 8 X DIMM DDR3, supporting 1066/1333/1600/1866/2133. DDR3 max capacity is 64GB. It supports ECC memory, quad channel DDR3 and Extreme Memory Profile. IO 1 X PS2 KB/MS 1 X O.C. button 1 X BIOS Switch button 1 X Clear CMOS button 5 X USB 2.0(Red/Black) 1 X eSATA/USB 2.0 Combo(Red) 1 X eSATA3 (Blue) 4 X USB 3.0(Blue) 2 X RJ-45 LAN 1 X S/PDIF Optical output 5 X Audio jacks GIGABYTE displayed IR3550 PowlRstage in ComputeX 2012 as new PWM design for own high-end MB. It delivers 60A per phase and lower temperature by single package design.

Vengeance 2000 positioned as Gaming Headset, it's good on bass, deep enough and not feel hard at all. All the sound detail could heard clearly when gaming, the sound stage positioning is clear. If use for gaming environment, Vengeance 2000 presents alive and good surround sound experience. If users love music or songs, the performance still good, just could be better on mid frequency to be stronger. Power consumption tests Under OS desktop with idle mode - 26W CPU full loading - 91W Intel Burn Test V2.4, Stress Level Maximum. CPU and GPU full loading at same time - 188W OCCT Power Supply test Ivy Bridge architecture Core i7-3610QM is less power of 2~5W than last generation Sandy Bridge of same level CPU. Core i7-3610QM is better than older architecture on clock and performance, maybe the Watt saving is not too much, but still have great help to use 22nm process. On OCCT test, because of nVIDIA top level GTX680M graphics, let the whole system power consumption up to 188W. Battery life 9 Cell battery, BatteryEaterPro tests (Enable WiFi and BT) Full loading - 1:16:51 Idle mode - 3:49:27 GT70 use 9 Cell battery with such enthusiast level hardware SPEC., the performance is good on full loading or idle mode battery life. Tested with some 13.3~15.6 inch notebooks with lower SPEC., but still presents same battery life as GT70. If use GT70 for video broadcast, the playback time is around 3 hours, it's ok for mobility usage. If compare to last generation GT683R, GT70 built in more high level SPEC., but still keep same battery life as GT683R. Summarize of MSI GT70 Pros: 1. The seldom 17.3 inch large panel Gaming notebook in the market, SPEC. is closer to top level of desktop PC. 2. Dual mSATA3 SSD plus a 2.5 inch 750GB HDD to make balanced on great performance and large capacity. 4 DIMM of DDR3 extend more capacity in the future. 3. The IO port is rich, 3 USB3.0 ports and 2 USB 2.0 ports, with HDMI, D-Sub and eSATA. 4. With full size SteelSeries gaming keyboard with multi backlight. with Turbo and Cooler Boost keys to increase the GPU and FAN performance. 5. Designed with better 2.1 channel speakers, use Sound By Dynaudio technology, present better quality than last generation. 6. Built in 1920x1080 high resolution panel, matted design could make eyes feel more comfortable for gaming or Full HD video experience. 7. Cable LAN use Bigfoot Killer E2200 Gaming LAN, this is good help for faster response internet gaming and streaming. Cons: 1. Beside brushed metallic cover, the exterior design could refer DELL Alienware with robber plastic material. 2. Recommend to use smaller size power adaptor for high level notebooks. 3. High level Gaming notebooks will cost much more higher than regular notebooks. 4. Recommend to use CREATIVE latest Sound Core3D quad core sound processor chip to enhance the total sound quality. Performance Ratio: ★★★★★★★★★★ 95/100 Material Ratio: ★★★★★★★★★☆ 90/100 Specification Ratio: ★★★★★★★★★☆ 92/100 Outlooks Ratio: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 82/100 Cost/Performance Ratio: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ 63/100 MSI Gaming Series NoteBook on latest Ivy Bridge platform comes with 15.6" and 17.3" design, and also separate with Enthusiast GT series and Performance GE series, the GT70 is much more difference with GE70, the top level GT70 ID design is more low-profile and solid design style, and brushed metallic to increase the sense of quality. The SPEC. combination is really good on GT70, of course you have to pay more for it. The storage comes with dual 128GB SSD RAID 0 as system drive, 750GB 7200rpm HDD to be data drive. Sound By Dynaudio 2.1 channel speakers, Audio Boost with gold jack and headset AMP circuit design. Keyboard comes with more durable and better feedback which was Keyboard By SteelSeries, combine 3 zone of multi color backlight design. Used Core i7-3610QM CPU and nVIDIA GTX680M top level graphics. MSI keep improvement on every generation gaming notebooks, this time we could see the big enhance of design and hardware. We mentioned that GT70 comes with 3 version of graphics, this GT70 with GTX680M graphics is the top level, it's around $2799USD in US, it still cheaper compare to same level same SPEC. from other brands. But since GT70 top level version comes with highest SPEC., the price is also the highest as well. The middle level GT70 in Taiwan with lower SPEC., use dual 64GB SSD/DDR3 8GB/Blu-Ray Combo/nVIDIA GTX675M, the price is around $2335USD, it's still high at first look, but still lower than the top level one. But most consumers will be more interested on the GE series, since GE70 is only 60% or less price range compare to GT70. In recent years, more consumers wants to use NB to replace PC, it also more and more popular especially on high-end level notebooks. MSI provide GE60/GT60/GE70/GT70 in the market, it's more option for Gaming Series of the NB brands. Everyone have their own condition and budget to buy a notebook, it's the first priority to choose with your favor from your limitation. The MSI GT70 top level gaming notebook test and share as above, for people who need these info for a detail reference. MSI GT70 is the same as other notebook brands, the different region might have different SPEC. combination. This article is from one of the version I got in hand. Attached is the color correction fie from windwithme with Spyder tool. Share to users who had GT70 on hand. windwithme-msi GT70.icm This article also shared in my blog WIND3C , welcome to visit and recommend.

LOST PLANET 2 DX11 1920 X 1080 TEST B - 56.4 fps Heaven Benchmark 3.0 DX11 1920 X 1080 => 65.8 FPS The nVIDIA GTX680M is really powerful on 3D performance, especially the 3D Mark Vantage got really high score. Compare to last generation GTX560M, this GTX680M is over 50%~140% faster, this performance could run most 3D games easily and smoothly with highest detail. Of course the GTX680M could be better, if you want every game title could runs great as 3D Mark Vantage to over P24000, the other Game Benchmark just present 60%~90% of the GTX680M performance, the fine tune nVIDIA driver could enhance more gaming performance when new version release. Diablo 3 gaming 1920 x 1080 with highest detail setup => 115FPS Maze theme => 153FPS Normal single gaming status is around 113FPS This global popular game is not so demanded on 3D performance, but it's more suitable on Desktop platform. If we use GT540M on 1366x768 resolution it's only 23FPS on setup screen. So this could be a issue on middle or entry level notebooks for most consumers. On GT70 with GTX680M, highest detail and highest resolution with Full HD still over 100FPS, if play to higher level stage with more monsters and magic effects with heavy loading, GT70 will still runs smoothly like a piece of cake. Sound Presents GT70 supports THX TruStudio Pro technology, first we take a look on THS SW interface. Enable the SMART VOLUME and DIALOG PLUS options. This will make surround sound stage batter, but the detail of middle frequency will reduced, recommend to enable this when gaming or movies. Below is the feeling of listening. This part is more subjective feeling. compare with notebooks built in speakers. Turn the volume to maxima, the sound is really loud, you don't need to worry about the volume at all. High Frequency - No sharply sound, rich on detail, presents high quality. Mid Frequency - Crystal clear, detail is better than TOSHIBA Harman/Kardon. It will be better if the mid-frequency could be stronger. Low Frequency - It's good with 2.1 channel on law frequency, the subwoofer presents good on the power of bass. And the sound is not muddy at all. The sound of GT70 is very suitable for movies and gaming, good on surround sound effect and sound stage, it belongs to multimedia type of speakers. Middle frequency had great improvement compare with last generation MSI gaming notebooks. It will present good sound quality and sound stage if you use GT70 to listen to music or songs. For high-end gaming laptop, we often use gaming headset together. Used own CORSAIR Vengeance 2000 Wireless 7.1 Gaming Headset for experience. Vengeance 2000 packing, provide 2 years warranty. Apply mic device, let gamers could communicate with company in the game. Wireless headset become more and more popular, especially to use on the notebooks for higher mobility. Headset is high level design on material and quality. Use full size cover design, make user feels comfortable. I used for a time and did not have any uncomfortable feelings.

C: Main system devices performance was built on 2x128GB SSD RAID 0. HD Tune Pro 5.00 Read - Average 975.3MB/s, Access Time 0.111ms ATTO Disk Benchmark over 128k tests could reach the highest reading speed to 1073.7MB/s, writing speed 1032.4MB/s HD Tune Pro 5.00 sequential reading speed up to 1029MB/s ATTO Disk Benchmark sequential reading and writing speed also could over 1000MB/s. CrystalDiskMark Seq Read - 905.9 MB/s Write - 357.6 MB/s <All 0xFF, 0Fill> Read - 965.2 MB/s Write - 855.6 MB/s <All 0x00, 1Fill> Read - 958.5 MB/s Write - 859.8 MB/s CrystalDiskMark of the right image on random benchmark, the writing speed will be lower. This SSD should be use SandForce SF-2281 control chip depends on the performance characteristic. We could see that the NAND Flash used Micron chip. Left side of the image, CrystalDiskMark change to 2 pure sequential mode test, the writing speed is good enough to reach formal data. AS SSD Benchmark - 941 Seq Read - 932.53 MB/s Write - 348.68 MB/s 4K - 64Thrd Read - 261.47 MB/s Write - 319.41 MB/s Use the SSD with SandForce SF-2281 chip to run AS SSD Benchmark, single 120GB SSD could reach 500MB/s more, Compression Benchmark writing performance is frim 300MB/s up to 900MB/s. Although SandForce SF-2281 SSD control chip is not always on the highest performance and stable, it says that's because to reduce the write times to increase the life time o the SSD. So this is good or bad depends on the choice of end users. BootRacer Time to Logon 7 seconds Time to Desktop 12~22 seconds From boot up to desktop after loading all programs is around 19~29 seconds, The test use MSI installed OS system, it comes with some permanent small tools, so the loading time will be slower compare to pure OS. Besides that, the RAID 0 mode will also take few seconds to detect Intel RAID combination when boot on at BIOS post. But SSD RAID 0 is indeed make the boot up speed much faster, it's pretty smooth on launch software or program installing. If user installed a clean system without many extra tool bar programs, the real high speed SSD could get into OS desktop under 15 seconds. D: is the data Drive, also use higher level 2.5 inch HDD, 750GB with 7200rpm, let's take a look on the HITACHI 7K750-50 benchmarks HD Tune Pro 5.00 Read - Average 98.7 MB/s Access Time 17.2ms ATTO DISK Benchmark over 128k tests could reach the highest 120.2MB/s reading speed, writing is 120.3MB/s File Benchmark Sequential -116418 KB/s / Write - 108355 KB/s CrystalDiskMark Seq Read - 121.9 MB/s Write - 121.3 MB/s Highest read/write could over 120MB/s, average speed is close to 100MB/s, its really good performance as 2.5 inch HDD. Compare to the SSD RAID 0 storage system, the performance is 3~10x faster than HDD, but if compare with 2.5 inch HDD, this 7K750 is on the top performance level. GT70 set it as D: drive for mass data storage. the SSD RAID 0 + HDD combination indeed comes with great performance an large capacity. GT70 built in 2 kinds of GPU, one is the Intel HD4000 from i7-3610QM, another one is nVIDIA highest level GeForce GTX680M with huge 4GB GDDR5 memory. 3DMark Vantage - P24211 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1920 X 1080 => 223.65 FPS DEVIL MAY CRY4 DX10 1920 X 1080 => 201.85/188.26/223.79/157.84 fps FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080 => 2906

MSI GT70 use Intel Ivy Bridge platform Core i7 3610QM CPU The clock is 100x20 => 2GHz, L3 is 6MB, Quad Core with HT multi core technology. TurboBoost 2.0 native overclock will boost up to 3.3GHz, comes with 3rd generation HM77 chipsets. Native USB3.0 with 22nm process CPU and more technology. The performance benchmarks Use Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit English version OS from factory default. GT70 SPEC. have 3 versions, this one is the highest level one, so the price range is also higher. Compare with Taiwan standard version (Dual 64GB SSD RAID/DDR3 8GB/Blu-Ray Combo/NVIDIA GTX675M), there are 4 points of SPEC. difference. This GT70 built in 128GBx2 SSD RAID0, DDR3 4GBx4 with 16GB, GPU upgrade to GTX680M 4GB, and BD Writer ODD. The hardware info under Device Manager. MSI GT70 installed software on desktop. There is a hidden manual on the top, apply quick launch of many software application. System performance tests Hyper PI 32M X8 => 17m 46.465s CPUMARK99 => 507 Nuclearus Multi Core => 22172 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 24.02/11530 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 300898 CINEBENCH 11.5 OpenGL => 43.10 fps CPU => 6.18 pts CPU (Single Core) => 1.35 pts PCMark Vantage => 20533 GT70 with Core i7-3610QM is obviously faster than last generation Core i7-2630QM, it around 20%~30% faster no matter single core or multi core, because of the enthusiast level Dual SSD RAID0 and nVIDIA GTX680M, the performance reached to extreme high score on above tests. windwithme remove the shield of GT70 bottom to explore the inside design and placement. Right upper side is main thermal module design, use 2 copper pipes to release the heat of Intel Core i7-3610QM CPU, use 3 copper pipes to release the heat of nVIDIA GTX680M graphics. On left up side, MSI designed a 2.5 inch SATA3 HDD space, this time they change the placement become 2 mSATA3 SSD, it not only for save space but also increase much performance. But mSATA SSD is not popular in the market, this interface of SATA3 SSD will come out slower and performance is less than regular 2.5 inch SSDs. To have a high performance mSATA SSD is the part that MSI need to working on. Below image is 2 DDR3 DIMM, here installed 4GB DDR3-1600 modules, another 2 DIMM should be in another side of the motherboard. Another part is 2.5 inch SATA2, here used HITACHI 7K750-750 7200rpm HDD, use this big capacity HDD for mass storage use.

Touch pad is good touching for use, very sensitive and good on point positioning. The light on the bottom, the 5 signal light start from left is Bluetooth, WiFi, Battery, Stand-By, HDD reading. SteelSeries gaming keyboard, this did cost a lot, it's really great help for gaming control, typing response is really good and much more durable. The built in KLM software could apply multi color combinations, this is the popular Yellow-Green-Red combination. The button in the middle is power key, will have white light when turn on. The upper control panel used touch sensor design, have 6 feature keys to turn on and off. Left 1: Turbo is to overclock GPU a little bit and disable the lock on GPU clock. but MSI only increase a few clock because of the system stability. Left 2: Cooler Boost is the fan turbo key, could boost the fan speed up to 110% and cool down the system temperature. One of the important factor of Gaming is the present of sound. MSI again combined with the Sound By Dynaudio 2.1 channel HD speakers design, comes with metal mesh style cover, this kind of high quality design could apply higher sound quality presents. 17.3 inch matted LED back light panel, with Full HD 1920x1080 resolution. The word size was adjusted by MSI, the size is suitable for this resolution. Built in HD WebCam, photo resolution up to 1280x1024 video resolution up to 1280x720 30fps, quite good. The left side Start from left, Line out \Line in \Mic-in \Headphone-Out \Multi Card Reader \ 3x USB 3.0 \ thermal air flow holes. Both input and output audio jack use gold flashed design, and built in headset AMP to have better output sound quality. GT70 is more professional on sound quality presents, design and material is more outstanding from others. The right side Start from left, BD Writer optical drive, 2x USB2.0 ports. The back side Start from left, thermal air flow hole \1xHDMI \1x eSATA \1x D-Sub \1x RJ-45 LAN \AC in \Kensington lock. Theoretically this high performance and SPEC. GT70 is more suitable for small space and high performance demanded users. Like in Japan, the 15.6" notebook or ITX/M-ATX Small PC will be more popular. The weight of GT70 with battery is around 3.9kg, if compare with regular 17.3" notebooks is heavier, but if we consider about its high performance Gaming level with more components, most of the gaming notebook will be over 4kg, MSI GT70 around 3.9kg is much more acceptable.

On the high end notebook market, it's all about Ultrabook in the past year. Focus on thin & light with mobility, the price is higher than regular notebooks. In fact, the high end notebooks still have another direction, it's the pursuit of higher performance and big display design products. Gaming notebook market is not so popular in Taiwan, only few brand still working on this field, like Dell/Alienware, MSI Gaming and ASUS ROG series, it's all high-end level in the market. Right now MSI notebook comes with 4 series, the Gaming series was for high-end users and gives different segmentation for the market. Only Gaming series goes with high performance, high SPEC., high quality audio/video enjoyment, it's a niche product line in the market. This time I would like to share the latest MSI Gaming notebook with top level SPEC., it's GT70 0NE. MSI did not focus on Ultrabook like many other brands. They pay more attention on the Gaming series. This kind of marketing strategy is quite difference, this type of laptop is more suitable for small living space or high performance notebooks demanding market. GT70 outlooks overview, just little differences compare with their GT60, GT70 used big surface cover with brushed metallic aluminum material, the frame used plastic matted material, the whole design looks more low key and solid design style. Built on Intel Ivy Bridge platform, not only performance enhancement, but also get better layout and material enhancement. The MSI logo on the middle of cover will shows white light since system boot up. The dimension of GT70 is 428 x 288 x 55 mm. Adaptor was made by Delta, the quality should be good. The bottom comes with 4 robber pad for stand, apply adaptor protection and enhance the thermal. The bundled mouse is good on specific pointing position, the design and quality looks good. the red line will light up with orange/red color when you are using it. It will be more friendly for big hand users if the mouse size could be bigger. On the bottom of the laptop, use 5 soft pad for stand on 4 corners. Left down side is battery bay, another side is CPU, HDD, DDR3 and thermal module. DDR3 comes with 4 DIMM, up to 32GB support, this GT70 comes with 4GB x4 total 16GB. On the bottom there is the subwoofer of the 2.1 channel speakers, it's few special design on notebooks, this could enhanced more of the bass sound quality. The battery comes with 9 cell 7800mAh, the larger capacity could apply the longer battery life. C side placement. The palm rest side also use brushed metallic aluminum material, feels better quality when use it. Keyboard size is the same as desktop regular keyboard, it's more convenient that comes with numerical keys.

Power Consumption Test OC, OS Desktop - 46W Comparing to temperature, the power consumption is affecting by C1E in default mode. If you enable C1E in OC mode, the power consumption will drop a lot. Default, running LinX to fully speed CPU - 75W OC, running LinX to fully speed CPU - 80W When i5-3450 full speed more, the power consumption is only 5W as 400MHz clock difference. Ivy Bridge 22nm manufacturing save power more than 25~35% comparing to Sandy Bridge. Finally, I also test latest HD2500 IGP 3D performance. i5-3450 OC to 3.7GHz and HD2500 default clock is 1.1GHz. 3DMark Vantage => P1988 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1280 X 720 => 49.90 FPS FINAL FANTASY XIV 1280 X 720 => 765 In 3DMark Vantage, HD2500 is similar to HD2000. StreetFighter IV Benchmark improves 12% and FINAL FANTASY XIV improves 23%. The 3D performance increasing range is not big but still helpful. More accurate, HD2500 performance is still lower than former HD3000. User can notice by model name. For Ivy Bridge structure, if you want to have better integrated 3D performance, you can choose HD4000 IGP. GIGABYTE Z77M-D3H Pros 1.Z77 series use white color packing and booting screen. It’s minimalist style. 2.Phasing in UEFI BIOS and providing two BIOS interfaces. 3.Built-in personal preferred Atheros LAN and VIA audio. 4.Micro ATX Z77 is lower price, but features and performance are standard level above. Cons 1.CPU PWM better to have heatsink 2.Rare IO audio jacks better to have 6 for better function. Performance ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 83/100 Components ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 82/100 Specification ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 79/100 Appearance ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 77/100 C/P Value ★★★★★★★★★☆ 86/100 As Intel launched latest Ivy Bridge structure this year, it includes CPU and chipset. Entry IGP HD2500 is improved a little and high end IGP HD4000 improves a lot from HD3000. CPU performance is 10~14% enhance from Sandy Bridge in same spec and clock. Power consumption is much lower by 22nm implement. CPU temperature is a little higher than Sandy Bridge, but it’s still affordable for efficient OC. Ivy Bridge has Z77, H77 and B75 chipsets to complete the market segment. The price is lower than 6 series within few months after launching due to tough competition in MB market this year. Z77M-D3H price is only 17USD higher than H77M-D3H. If your budget is higher, Z77 provides you better C/P certainly. If you don’t OC, H77 is also alternative solution for you. This article mainly focus on Intel Core i5-3450 and Micro ATX Z77 Ivy Bridge entry combo. You can refer it if you have got i5-3450 or plan to buy i5-3470. This article is also post in my blog - WIND3C, All comments are welcome.

Contents Left side is Performance Pro 256GB. Right side is 2.5” to 3.5” adaptor and screws. The size is 2.5”. Official spec, max ATTO Disk Benchmark is 515/440 MB/s. Random 4K max writing performance is 65000 IOPS. It’s high performance spec in SSD market. ATTO DISK Benchmark over 512k test can reach max read 538 Mb/s and max write 443.1 MB/s. CrystalDiskMark Seq Read - 523.2 MB/s Write - 435.6 MB/s AS SSD Benchmark - 940 Seq Read - 500.97 MB/s Write - 422.08 MB/s 4K - 64Thrd Read - 278.91 MB/s Write - 251.25 MB/s BootRacer Time to Logon 3 seconds Time to Desktop 12~13 seconds CORSAIR Performance Pro sues Marvell 88SS9174-BKK2 controller which is very stable in writing performance. The random and sequential write are both over 400 MB/s. AS SSD also has very high score. That’s why users more prefer Marvell than SanForce. Temperature(Room is 30 degrees C) Default, OS Desktop - 36~37 OC, OS Desktop - 45~50 Default mode, as enabling C1E power saving feature, the CPU clock is only 1600MHz. OC mode, as disabling C1E, the CPU is always running at 3700MHz. Due to CPU power saving feature, CPU clock will affect temperature. Default, Full Speed - 61~67 Intel Burn Test v2.4，Stress Level Maximum OC, Full Speed - 62~70 Intel Burn Test v2.4，Stress Level Maximum i5-3450 is running in 3.3GHz in default mode and 3.7GHz in OC mode. It’s only 400MHz gap and temperature is only 1~3 degrees different. The cooler is Intel original one, so the temperature after OC is very impressive. Power Consumption Test Default, OS Desktop - 26W

CrystalMark 2004R3 => 295310 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 5.42 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.48 pts CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 6.06 pts CPU(Single Core) => 1.57 pts CINEBENCH R11.5 can see single core performance increases 6% and quad cores performance increases 11.8%. FRYRENDER Running Time => 8m 12s x264 FHD Benchmark => 16.2 FRYRENDER Running Time => 7m 18s x264 FHD Benchmark => 18.2 Both above software performance increase about 12%. PCMark Vantage => 18719 PCMark Vantage => 20435 You can see i5-3450 can do some OC by Z77 chipset. The single core performance is up 6% and quad cores are up to 12~13%. It does improve the overall performance. DDR3 Test Default is DDR3 1334.8 CL7 8-7-21 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 16082 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 17526 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 18004 MB/s DDR3 Test XMP mode is DDR3 1868.6 CL10 11-11-30 2T ADIA64 Memory Read - 19208 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 23583 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 21263 MB/s DDR3 clock pull from 1333 to 1866, the performance increases 18.1~34.6% upon different software. Even though Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge DDR3 bandwidth in same clock are similar, Ivy Bridge can pull DDR3 clock higher than Sandy Bridge if memory quality is good enough. SSD is another key tool to enhance system performance. In the past two months, it’s annual price dropping time for SSD. 128 or 256GB SSD price drops around 30~50%. It’s good news for all users. I am using CORSAIR Performance Pro 256GB which is higher capacity for easily arrangement. Let’s look at packing first. This series is official 3 years warranty by CORSAIR.

Upper-Left Corner It’s 5 phases PWM design, 3 for CPU, 1 for GPU and 1 for MCH. Upper left is 4Pin power in connector. IO 1 X PS2 KB/Mouse 1 X D-Sub / DVI-D / HDMI 4 X USB 2.0(Black) 2 X USB 3.0/2.0(Blue) 1 X RJ-45 LAN 3 X Audio jacks UEFI Screen Intel Core i5-3450 default clock is 3.1GHz. I enable Turbo Boost 2.0 to boost the single core to work at 3.5GHz. 4C4T full speed can reach 3.3GHz. If using same brand H77, the max CPU Clock Ratio is 35. When using Z77, the max CPU Clock Ratio up to 37. That’s why I am using Z77 here. CPU ratio adjusts to 37, disable C1E and EIST, power saving features. You can set CPU clock at 3.7GHz. Testing Configuration CPU: Intel Core i5-3450 MB: GIGABYTE Z77M-D3H DRAM: CORSAIR CMZ16GX3M2A1866C10R VGA: Intel HD Graphics 4000 HD: CORSAIR Performance Pro 256GB SSD POWER: CORSAIR AX650W Cooler: Intel Original Cooler OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit The comparison is between default and OC mode. The 1st picture is default. CPU 100.1 X 31 => 3100MHz Enable C1E and Turbo Boost, the clock will floating between 1600 to 3500MHz by CPU utilization rate. DDR3 1334.8 CL7 8-7-21 1T The 2nd picture is after OC. CPU 100.1 X 37 => 3703.79MHz DDR3 1868.6 CL10 11-11-30 2T, enable XMP mode. Hyper PI 32M X4 => 10m 59.772s CPUMARK 99 => 550 Hyper PI 32M X4 => 9m 39.354s CPUMARK 99 => 585 CPUMARK 99 only test single core, so the performance of 3.5GHz and 3.7GHz are similar. Nuclearus Multi Core => 19550 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 20.39/9787 Nuclearus Multi Core => 22682 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 22.93/11005 Fritz Chess Benchmark only test CPU multi-tasking 4C4T computing capability. The performance increase around 12.5%. CrystalMark 2004R3 => 259729

Intel officially launched Ivy Bridge end of April. The market was full of mid-end and high-end products. CPU still only had Core i5 and Core i7. Core i3 hasn’t updated to Ivy Bridge structure. Currently Core i3, Pentium and Celeron CPUs are Sandy Bridge for better price. I do hope Ivy Bridge structure Core i3 to launch earlier for better C/P value. Currently, most entry Ivy Bridge is Core i5-3450. The price is for mid-end market. Recently, Intel launched i5-3470 to replace it. The key difference is 100MHz clock. These two models are replacing former Core i5-2400. I will share the performance difference below. CPU is Intel Core i5-3450. Clock is 3.1GHz and supports Turbo Boost 2.0 technology. The max clock is 3.5GHz. It’s latest 22nm manufacturing, 3D transistor technology, physical 4 Cores and 4 threads, called 4C4T. It’s 77W TDP and 6MB L3 Cache. You can see i5-3470 has appeared in the channel. This article is for who has bought i5-3450 or looking forward i5-3470. Intel 4 cores CPUs all use cooper bottom cooler. The bottom has solid-state thermal paste. I recommend you to put more thermal paste personally to lower the temperature. Lower-Right i5-3450 and Upper-Left i5-2400 Comparison. Right is i5-3450 and left is i5-2400. MB uses GIGABYTE Z77M-D3H, price is around 116USD. PCB is Micro ATX and dimension is 24.4 X 22.0cm. It’s blue PCB and white slots. I prefer blue color more. Windwithme used to share several ATX Z77 MBs. This time, I am using entry Micro ATX Z77. Z77M-D3H is the cheapest version in 3 key brands. Lower-Left Corner 2 X PCI-E X16 supports 2-Way AMD CrossFireX When using Ivy Bridge CPU, the bandwidth is Gen3, X16 + X4 1 X PCI-E X1 1 X PCI LAN chip is Atheros GbE LAN Audio chip is VIA VT2021 supporting 7.1 channel and High Definition Audio Technology Design in Taipei Lower-Right Corner 2 X White SATA, provided by Z77 and support SATA3. 4 X Black SATA, provided by Z77 and support SATA2. It supports hybrid RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10. The max performance is decided by installed SATA devices. 2 X 64 Mbit flash Dual BIOS and TPM(Trusted Platform Module) header. Upper-Right Corner 4 X DIMM DDR3 support 1066/1333/1600/2400(OC). The max DDR3 capacity is 32GB. It supports Extreme Memory Profile. Upper right is 24-PIN power connector and front USB 3.0.

FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080 => 6038 Today the best high-performance integrated graphics Intel HD Graphics 4000 is about eight times better than the VGA AMD Radeon 7970. In the past, with each generation of high-end platforms, there has been a 30-50 fold gap in the 3D performance of integrated graphics compared with VGA. In the last two years, 3D performance in each generation of integrated graphics has increased at a multiple rate, and the actual gap with VGA has been getting smaller and smaller. However, for high-end 3D games, I recommend that you choose better performance VGA, which will be faster at high resolution and when special effects are fully enabled. Diablo3 1920 X 1200 special effects set to maximum => 100 FPS Typical single-player game mode about 100 FPS The 3D demands of Diablo3 are not very stringent, so if your budget is limited, the AMD Radeon 7770 provides very good performance. I previously used the NVIDIA GTX 560Ti, and at high resolution and with special effects fully enabled, it almost always ends up around 100 pages. Under the conditions of multiplayer warfare and in a complex environment, it was relatively easy to drop pages. In a test, when I used the 7970, the actual performance significantly exceeded the maximum display of 100 pages. Although sometimes the status reached 160 pages, within a very short time after starting, Diablo3 reached the maximum number of pages displayed at 100. Temperature Performance (room temperature about 31 degrees) System Standby - 36 to 42 Running LinX with CPU at full speed - 84 to 92 Ivy Bridge’s temperature was higher than Sandy Bridge’s by about 10 degrees, and this point needs to be emphasized. In addition, each core of a 3770K differs in quality, and at OC 4.7GHz, you will see a gap in data ranging from a minimum temperature of 84 and a maximum of 92 degrees. Due to the approach of summer, room temperatures are rising, and if you want to overclock to 4.6GHz and above, using a high-end heat sink is very important. Power Consumption Test System Standby - 78W Running LinX with the CPU at full speed - 181W The Intel Core i7-3770K is made with a 22nm process, and the power consumption performance is better than the previous 32nm generation. Standby consumption is lower than the previous generation platform by more than 20W, and at full speed during burn-in, power can also be reduced to about 50W. The 22nm CPU’s power consumption performance saves more electricity. I’ll share with you the temperature performance of the ECS cooling module while overclocking. The large gold cooling module next to the CPU had a standby temperature of 41.1 degrees and the temperature of the CPU at full speed was 51.3 degrees. The golden heat sink above the Z77 chipset had a standby temperature of 45.3 degrees and with the CPU running at full speed, the temperature was 49.5 degrees. ECS's new, large gold-colored cooling system, in addition to its advantages in size and appearance, achieved a very good level of heat dissipation. ECS Z77H2-A2X Advantages 1. A rarely seen gold product line, with packaging and the motherboard product well matched. 2. The UEFI interface features and overclocking performed well. 3. The unique wireless LAN and Bluetooth dongle provided two communication transmission methods. 4. The QoolTechTM IV cooling modules are beautifully designed and achieve a high level of heat dissipation. 5. An internal Mini PCI Express port, as well as support for Mini SATA and Mini PCI Express devices. 6. Use of eight driver MOS power supplies, native PCI-E Gen3, CPU/DDR3 installed with 15μ gold contacts Disadvantages 1. Need to add a DisplayPort output. 2. If the voltage options included a step-down function, it would be better. 3. Room for improvement in market visibility and sales service channels. Performance rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 85/100 Components rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 88/100 Specifications rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ 80/100 Appearance rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 88/100 Performance to price rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ 83/100 The current price of the ECS Z77H2-A2X is about US$220, equivalent to about NT$6600. In the mid-range market where the Z77 is positioned, there are many higher-priced Z77 motherboards. Touted as the Golden Board, in terms of appearance, materials, heat dissipation and stability, it can be considered a golden product line. In terms of durability, running at a temperature of 50 degrees for a 72-hour burn-in stability test, there is room for improvement in user confidence. The ECS gold thermal module performs well in heat dissipation, and while overclocking at a high clock speed, in standby mode or running at full speed the temperature difference is small. The overclocking ability is better than before, and I’m guessing that it was more careful attention to the UEFI interface that improved stability. If the voltage can be lowered, I personally feel that the overall function of the ECS UEFI will be better. ECS has launched quite a few Z77 motherboards, with specifications and price points ranging from entry level to high end. In the market for mid-range Z77H2-A2X products, the cost to performance value is quite good. Seeing that each generation of ECS software and hardware has made more-or-less steady progress, I also hope that the company can continue working on its own-brand products. If ECS can improve their sales channels and warranty service, I believe consumers will have more brands and more affordable motherboards to choose from. In early June at Computex, we photographed this ECS show girl emphasizing the gold line, and we’re sharing that here with you. This article is also post in my log, WIND3C, All comments are welcome.

Intel HD Graphics 4000 Performance Test GPU clock default value is 23, or after conversion is 1150MHz 3DMark Vantage => P4556 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1920 X 1080 => 52.01 FPS FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080 => 837 The Intel HD Graphics 4000 compared with the previous generation 3000 has a 60% boost in performance. These tests were performed at the high resolution of 1920 X 1080, and even with the integrated graphics, it has top-notch 3D performance. For entry-level 3D, it’s good enough, and of course, even performance with some mid-range software is quite good. Probably the most popular game -- Diablo3 1920 X 1200 effects setting default value => 26 FPS Typical single-player game in general is about 23 -- 28 FPS Increase the Intel HD Graphics 4000 from 1150MHz to 1400MHz 1920 X 1200 effects setting is the default value => 31 FPS Typical single-player game is generally about 27 -- 32 FPS The above Diablo3 environment is not too complex, set in a high-resolution, default-effects environment. I suggest that after overclocking the Intel HD Graphics 4000 a bit, performance should be a bit smoother. If you change to 1280 X 800, it will be 60 to 70 levels, while 1680 X 1050 will have 40 levels. If you use the current integrated graphics for the best 3D performance, resolution needs to be lowered a bit to make the pages smoother. I will share my experience with the high-end VGA I have on hand -- PowerColor PowerColor AX7970 3GBD5-2DHV3 3DMark Vantage => P34055 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1920 X 1080 => 392.82 FPS

The ECS UEFI interface provides eight types of access to files. Users can save or read their preferred settings, thereby saving setup time. Above are the some of the main screens of the Z77H2-A2X UEFI with more abundant options and features than before. When the Z77 is overclocking, it can only match 3770K or 3570K. Based on the CPU characteristics and heat dissipation environment it is possible to start overclocking. The timing parameters may also be adjusted based on the DDR3 characteristics, and voltage can be increased to 1.6 - 1.65V to improve stability. This time, ECS has made significant progress in terms of overclocking ability and stability of the Z77, and this should be encouraged. Test Platform CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K Motherboard: ECS Z77H2-A2X DRAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT CMT16GX3M4X2133C9 VGA: Intel HD Graphics 4000 / PowerColer 7970 HD: SanDisk Extreme 240GB POWER: CORSAIR AX650W Cooler: CORSAIR Hydro Series H100 OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit CPU 99.8 X 47 => 4689.13MHz (Turbo Boost and C1E turned off.) DDR3 2394.6 CL10 11-11-28 1T Intel HD Graphics 4000 1150MHz Hyper PI 32M X8 => 12m 5.526s CPUMARK 99 => 739 Nuclearus Multi Core => 32969 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 36.69/17612 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 372413 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 9.47 pts CPU (Single Core) => 1.99 pts FRYRENDER Running Time => 4m 02s x264 FHD Benchmark => 27.8 PCMark Vantage => 26265 To evaluate CPU performance, at the same clock speed, both the 3770K and the 3570K are almost the same in terms of single-line performance data. The 3770K has the advantage of support for 4C8T and HT, so multitasking effectiveness is as much as 20% higher. In multitasking performance, the Ivy Bridge architecture is about 10 to 14% higher compared with the previous generation Sandy Bridge architecture. For the above-mentioned overclocking performance, the vast majority of software gets very high marks, and in multiple-application environments, performance can be very good. DRAM Bandwidth Test DDR3 2394.6 CL10 11-11-28 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 24122 motherboard/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 30124 motherboard/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 27163 motherboard/s DDR3 2594 CL10 11-11-28 2T ADIA64 Memory Read - 24399 motherboard/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 31868 motherboard/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 27807 motherboard/s Thanks to the Ivy Bridge architecture, the Z77H2-A2X can easily reach the DDR3 2400 -- 2600 level. This high clock speed has not been easy to achieve on the Intel platform, and the new structure provides a significant improvement in DDR3 performance. Following these two clock comparisons, it can be seen that the DDR3 2400 1T clock has high bandwidth performance. If the DDR3 2600 2T is pulled up for a performance increase, there isn’t a big improvement, and if the DRAM I had on hand wasn’t such high quality, sometimes it might have been worthwhile to lower the clock a bit and use the 1T at a lower parameter for decent performance.