Test methodology
Comparison Systems |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| System name | Dell Alienware Aurora R4 | Scan 3XS Cyclone SLI | Scan 3XS Velocity SLI | Chillblast Fusion Flash |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-3930K @ 4.1GHz | Intel Core i7-2600K @ 4.7GHz | Intel Core i7-3930K @ 4.5GHz | Intel Core i5-2500K @ 4.8GHz |
| Cooler | Alienware Liquid Cooling | Be Quiet! Dark Rock PRO BK016 | Corsair Hydro Series H100 | Corsair Air Series A70 |
| Motherboard | Alienware mATX X79 | Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD4 | MSI X79A-GD65-8D | ASUS P8Z68-V LE |
| Memory | Hynix 16GB (4 x 2GB) DDR3 | Corsair Vengeance LP 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 | Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3 | Corsair XMS3 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3 |
| Memory speed | 11-11-11-28-1T @ 1,600MHz | 9-9-9-24-2T @ 1,600MHz | 9-9-9-24-2T @ 1,600MHz | 9-9-9-24-2T @ 1,600MHz |
| Graphics card(s) | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB | EVGA GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB (x2 in SLI) | ASUS GTX 560 Ti TOP 1GB (x2 in SLI) | VTX3D Radeon HD 6970 2GB |
| Sound card | Onboard high-definition audio | Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional | ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 | Onboard high-definition audio |
| Disk drive(s) | 256GB Samsung PM810 SSD 1TB Seagate Barracuda HDD |
120GB Corsair Force GT SSD (x2 in RAID 0) 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black HDD 2TB Western Digital Caviar Green HDD (x2 in RAID 1) |
120GB Corsair Force GT SSD 1TB WD 10002FAEX HDD |
120GB Corsair Force 3 SSD 1TB Samsung HD103SJ HDD |
| Optical drive(s) | PLDS DH-24ABS DVD-RW | LG BH10LS30 Blu-ray writer | LG CH10LS20 Blu-ray writer | Samsung Blu-ray drive |
| Extras | Multi-card reader Built-in Wi-Fi |
- | - | - |
| PSU | Alienware 875W | Corsair AX850 | Corsair TX850M | Corsair CX600 |
| Chassis | Alienware Aurora ALX | Corsair Special Edition White Graphite 600T | Corsair Carbide Series 500R White | Fractal Design Define R3 |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit |
| Monitor | Alienware 23in OptX AW2310 | - | - | - |
| Keyboard | Alienware TactX Keyboard | - | - | - |
| Mouse | Alienware TactX Mouse | - | - | - |
| Standard Warranty | One year next day in-home service | Two years collect-and-return | Two years collect-and-return | Two years collect-and-return |
| Base Unit Price | £2,500 | £3,000 | £2,150 | £1,135 |
| Total Price | £3,000 | £3,000 | £2,150 | £1,135 |
Benchmarks |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geekbench | A cross-platform benchmark used to measure memory and processor performance. | |||||||||||
| Cinebench | Using Cinebench's multi-CPU render, this cross-platform benchmark stresses as many cores as possible. | |||||||||||
| Aliens vs. Predator | 1,920x1,080 resolution, 2xAA, 16xAF, very high quality. | |||||||||||
| Just Cause 2 | 1,920x1,080 resolution, 4xAA, 16x AF, very high quality. | |||||||||||
| 3DMark Vantage | Run at the 'high' preset. | |||||||||||
| Temperature | Noted for CPU idling, under Prime95 all-core load, and for GPU playing Aliens vs. Predator. | |||||||||||
| Power consumption | Noted for system idling, under Prime95 all-core load, and for GPU playing Aliens vs. Predator. | |||||||||||
| Noise | A PCE-318 noise level meter is placed at the front of the chassis. Noted for system idling, under Prime95 all-core load, and for GPU playing Aliens vs. Predator. | |||||||||||
Notes
We've four comparison systems in our line-up, but it's the two Sandy Bridge Extreme configurations that we're interested in; the Dell Alienware Aurora R4 and the Scan 3XS Velocity SLI. It won't have escaped your notice that the latter is comfortably cheaper, while offering a higher overclock on the CPU, double the amount of DDR memory, and two potent NVIDIA graphics cards in SLI.
