We prepared our testing rig, installed Windows as well as latest Windows updates. We used the original version that came on the DVD’s. For our testing we used: Cinebench R10, 3Dmarks, FarCry, Crysis v1.1, LameMT, SiSoft Sandra lite XII, SuperPi, Gordian Knot, Company of Heroes, F.E.A.R. and World in Conflict.

LameMT

For our MP3 testing we opted for popular encoder LameMT, although we usually don't advise MP3 encoding because AC3 is better.

We used the internal play/CPU ratio, which means CPU is encoding content X times faster than the actual length of audio content. Memory speed is not that important for this test. We'll also give you single-thread bench results you might get with different versions of this encoder, because only LameMT can perform in more than one thread and utilize the second core.



We used the following settings: lamemt --vbr-new -q 2 -V 2 -m j --strictly-enforce-ISO --resample 48

MultiThread result was 27,503, while single thread scores 17,978.



FarCry Crysis

Although we had a powerful graphics card, this rig scored playable FPS only at lower resolutions with AA off, but it’s important to note that the rest of the settings were set to maximum.





F.E.A.R.





This rig is more than enough for F.E.A.R. All resolutions with maximum antialiasing and anisotropic filtering scored playable FPS.


Company of Heroes





Just as in F.E.A.R., in Company of Heroes our test rig scored playable FPS at highest resolutions with AA and AF on.



World in Conflict





This is where this rig started to show weak points. At 1024x760 with no AA or AF, we scored playable FPS. Even at 1600x1200 the result was good. However, as soon as we turned on AA and AF, the tides turned. At 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 with AA and AF on, our test rig failed to deliver playable FPS.



Super PI

We put our test-rig trough Super Pi test with 1M and 8M calculations, and the results were as follows:




Gordian Knot /XVID 1.1.3

For our Gordian Knot testing we took a PAL episode from "Babylon 5" with a length of 41 minutes, 57 seconds and 8 frames.

We tried to "emulate" the most common usage of Gordian Knot:

1st: We have a perfect master, so we only de-interlace the content and resize it without any other manipulations; we marked this as "fast."

2nd: You get bad mastering on many DVDs, especially "old" stuff or when the studios are in a hurry for the release. In this case you want to improve the picture quality, which is done by filtering the content. You can choose from lots of filters for any purposes you can think of, but we only used the most common "undot," "FluxSmooth" and "MSharpen." Of course, we also de-interlaced, filters were done before any resizing took place (which is slower). We marked this as "slow."



Conclusion

Although this rig didn’t meet our expectations in certain tests, we think it’s due to the fact that this is the first revision of this particular processor.

Overclocking this Phenom wasn’t particularly successful. We couldn’t push the sample we had over 2350MHz, which is only 150MHz more than reference speed. Still, in the IT world, first attempts are usually buggy and don’t mean much.

For our testing, we used Kingston ValueRAM memory running at 800MHz with 5-5-5-18 latencies, but we think that you could boost this rig’s performance by using faster memory modules. The graphics card in this rig has proven that it has what it takes to meet the demands of more demanding users.

Considering the availability of this hardware and its prices in the Balkans, we think that Ingel’s Gamer XXL rig is a good call. MSI K9A2 is a budget motherboard that proved it works well with Phenoms, and those who want more can simply opt for a more powerful chipset, such as AMD 790FZ. Considering the price of components in Ingel’s Gamer XXL, we think that price/performance ratio is more than good. You can read more on the prices and components on their website - www.ingel.ba.