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Review: Scan 3XS SMART pre-overclocked Core i3 530 bundle: 4GHz and counting

by Tarinder Sandhu on 18 March 2010, 23:19

Tags: SCAN

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qawni

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System setup and notes

CPU Intel Core i3 530 Scan OC Intel Core i3 530 Intel Core i5 661 Intel Core i5 750 Intel Core i7 870 Intel Core i7 930 AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE AMD Phenom II X4 945
Frequency 4.0GHz (20 x 200MHz) 2.93GHz (22 x 133MHz) 3.33GHz (25 x 133MHz) 2.67GHz (20 x 133MHz) 2.93GHz (22 x 133MHz) 2.80GHz (21 x 133MHz) 3.40GHz (17x 200MHz) 3.0GHz (15x 200MHz)
Cache 0.5MB L2, 4MB L3 0.5MB L2, 4MB L3 0.5MB L2, 4MB L3 1MB L2, 8MB L3 1MB L2, 8MB L3 1MB L2, 8MB L3 2MB L2, 6MB L3 2MB L2, 6MB L3
Cores/threads 2/4 2/4 2/4 4/4 4/8 4/8 4/4 4/4
Process 32nm 32nm 32nm 45nm 45nm 45nm 45nm 45nm
Form factor LGA1156 LGA1156 LGA1156 LGA1156 LGA1156 LGA1366 AM3 AM3
Price N/A £94 £160 £160 £430 £210 £145 £125
Bundle price (CPU, mobo, RAM) £316 £286 £335 £335 £605 £510 £350 £330
Motherboard Gigabyte H55M-UD2H ASUS P6T SE Gigabyte 890GX
BIOS revision F7 (12/02/2010) 0402 (09/02/10) F4 (08/03/10)
Mainboard software Intel Inf 9.1.1.1025
Intel Management Engine Interface 6.0.31.1208		 AHCI 1.2.0.164
NEC USB 3.0 1.0.18.0
Memory 4GB (2 x 2GB) Corsair DDR3-1,600 6GB (3 x 2GB) Crucial DDR3-1,066 4GB (2 x 2GB) Corsair DDR3-1,600
Memory timings and speed 9-9-9-24-2T @ DDR3-1,600 9-9-9-24 2T @ DDR3 1,333 7-7-7-20-1T @ DDR3-1,066 9-9-9-24-2T @ DDR3-1,333
Graphics card Catalyst 10.2
Integrated graphics Intel HD Graphics (733MHz) Intel HD Graphics (900MHz) NA NA NA Radeon HD 4290 NA
Integrated graphics driver 8.15.10.2086 NA NA NA Catalyst 10.2 NA
Disk drive Kingston SSDNow V+ 128GB
Operating system Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)
PSU Corsair HX1000W

Tests

Benchmarks

SiSoft Sandra 2010 (16.26), aggregate bandwidth and memory latency
HEXUS.PiFast to 10m places
CINEBENCH R10 multi-CPU render, 64-bit
CINEBENCH R11.5 multi-CPU render, 64-bit
POV-ray 3.7.0 beta 35a
wPrime v2.02
Bibble v5.02 image-processing benchmark - 200 photos
x264 HD v3.0 media-encoding benchmark - both passes noted
7zip v4.65 built-in file-compression benchmark

Far Cry 2 v1.03 - 1,024x768 medium quality, DX9 (IGP), and 1,680x1,050 HQ, DX10
H.A.W.X v1.02 - 1,024x768 medium/low quality - IGP and discrete

Power-consumption tests - idle and 2D load

Testing notes

We're comparing the performance of the SMART bundle against seven other CPUs - five from Intel and two from AMD - that weigh in between £94 and £430. The majority are under £200, however.

Intel Core i5 661 also ships with integrated HD Graphics, clocked in at a faster 900MHz, and AMD's AM3 CPUs can also use an IGP from the 890GX chipset, albeit not on-die like Intel's.

The bundle prices are derived by adding the component costs together. One can remove £15 from the overall cost from the other bundles if, strictly speaking, DDR3-1,333 CL9 memory is used.

What we want to see is how the SMART's overclocked performance compares with the other setups on test.

Gaming tests are run with the integrated graphics and, primarily, with a discrete Radeon HD 5850 card.

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