windwithme

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 Read - 965.2 MB/s Write - 855.6 MB/s 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 15? 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.

The large gold heat-dissipation module shows an emphasis on providing better cooling capacity. If gold had been used for the color of the heat pipe in middle, the overall appearance would be more consistent. The heat sink for the Z77 chipset is not small and the spatial design is also good. The special characteristic of the Black Extreme name printed on the high-end ECS series is that an orange pattern will be displayed as the temperature rises to a certain range. The pins for the LGA 1155 CPU use a 15? gold connecting material, which is also used for the DDR3 DIMM to emphasize the provision of materials that on average have more than three times the oxidation resistance, heat resistance and scratch resistance of ordinary materials. The main view of the ECS UEFI shows four graphical interface functions. In total, 10 different languages are supported including traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese. Advanced Interface M.I.B X The main choices are for CPU and DRAM functions, clock speed, parameters or voltage settings. Voltage Details CPU Voltage +0.010 -- +0.630 V AXG Voltage +0.010 -- +0.630 V IMC Vlotage +0.011 -- +0.945 V DIMM Voltage +0.010 -- +0.630 V System Agent Voltage +0.010 -- +0.630 V PCH Voltage +0.010 -- +0.630 V CPU PLL Voltage +0.010 -- +0.630 V The CPU multiplier default is 47, or in other words, 3770K for 4700MHz operation The Graphics Core Ratio Limit is the clock speed of the CPU’s internal GPU The 23 algorithm is 23 X 50 => 1150MHz, and the figure shows the default 3770K clock for the internal HD 4000 DDR3 Setting Page Supporting XMP technology, the DDR3 clock default is 2400 The main parameters are CL10 11-11-28 1T In the Z77H2-A2X, ECS has opened a lot more DDR3 parameters than in their own X79R-AX Page with CPU information and related technology You can choose to open a few CPU cores. I personally am accustomed to turning off the power saving C3/C6 and C1E in low-bandwidth overclocking mode to find the best settings.

Intel has just launched the Ivy Bridge platform, and the price seems to be positioned in middle to high range of the desktop market. The high-end Z77 Ivy Bridge chipset has also become the main objective for performance among all of the motherboard brand competitors. While in recent years ECS has mainly focused on the OEM business, in the last few years, the company has been more active in launching its own brand of motherboard products. ECS has launched four new products based on the ATX Z77, together with about four products based on the H77. Currently, the ECS product line has a wider range of selections for the Ivy Bridge platform than before. High-end motherboards often appear in colors such as black, red, green, orange and white, yet the ECS Z77 comes in a very rare color. From the website information, it seems that the Z77H2-A2X and the Z77H2-AX both emphasize the use of gold as their color. The other three ECS Z77 products are almost the same as earlier products with black PCBs that are supplemented by gray and white versions in the entry-level Z77H2-A2X, which is ECS’s mid-level Z77 motherboard model, and the highest level product is the Z77H2-AX. The ECS Z77H2-A2X Besides the black PCB, the first thing you see is that other parts of the system almost all have a gold glitter. Even the solid-state capacitors and inductors are gold, and this design really makes a unique impression in the hearts of users. Gold 4Ever is the main appeal, including the golden quality, the golden stability, the golden heat dissipation and the golden appearance. But it is unclear whether the company is promoting these standards, because in some situations, the user only has this impression after using the products for a long time. Accessories Included English user manual, quick-start manual, golden IO panel, driver software CD SLI bridge, protective plastic cover for IO ports, mobile connect wireless. SATA Cable, Front USB 3.0 Panel Lower Left of Motherboard 2 X PCI-E X16 Gen 3.0, supporting AMD CrossFireX / nVIDIA SLI technology Two VGA bandwidth cards X8 + X8 2 X PCI-E X1 2 X PCI The network chip is the Realtek RTL8111E. The sound chip is the Realtek ALC892 with eight channels that supports HD Audio technology. Bottom Right of Motherboard 2 X Black SATA ports, Z77 chipset provided, SATA3 specification 2 X Black SATA ports, Z77 chipset provided, SATA2 specification Above can be combined to set up RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10, with the top performance determined by the installed SATA devices 2 x Black SATA ports, ASM1061 chip provided, SATA3 specification, support for AHCI 1 x Mini PCI Express port, supporting Mini SATA and Mini PCI Express Power / Reset button and debug LED lights. On the left, the black connector is the front USB 3.0 port Upper Right of Motherboard 4 X DIMM DDR3 supporting 1600/1800/2133/2400/2600/2800 (OC), maximum capacity for DDR3 up to 32GB Supporting Extreme Memory Profile technology. Below is the 24-pin power input. Beside the CPU, the power supply is designed with eight outputs, and in the upper portion, behind the cooling module is an 8-pin power input. New LGA 1155 protective cover, making usage more convenient IO 1 X Bluetooth Dongle 3 X USB 2.0 Ports (Red/Black) 1 X D-Sub / DVI-D/HDMI 1 X Wireless LAN Dongle 1 X eSATA3/USB 2.0 Ports (Red) 4 X USB 3.0 Ports (Blue) 1 X RJ-45 Ethernet Port 6 x Audio Jacks

Vengeance 1500 has exclusive driver and software. There are three modes and many details to fine tune the sound quality. Vengeance 1500 position on Gaming segment, the bass is very good. It’s low but not stiff. In game scene, you can hear all details. The position in sound files is also very clear. When I use game profile, Vengeance 1500 is full of live feeling and sound-surround ambiance. If you like listening music, it’s also very good level. Only mid-frequency needs to be improved. Unfortunately, it use USB built-in audio chip. If the headset can work with Creative CA0132, I believe the sound quality will be much better. 3D Performance - SPARKLE GTX570 SLI 3DMark Vantage => P47338 StreetFighter IV Benchmark 1920 X 1080 => 397.73 FPS FINAL FANTASY XIV 1920 X 1080 => 7591 Unigine Heaven Benchmark 3.0 1920 X 1080 => 115.5 FPS GTX570 is former mid-high VGA, however its’ 3D performance is still good. After enabling SLI, 3DMark Vantage performance improved a lot. The other 3D benchmark software is also enhanced by SLI. SLI 3D performance will be vary by different software. G1.SNIPER3 can support up to 4Way VGA to maximize the expandability. Diablo3 1920 X 1080 special effect at highest => 163 FPS In Town => 171 FPS Standard single person game is around 97 FPS As easy to capture the screen, I set at window mode. The page shows 163 FPS. If you use full screen, the page number will up to 210 FPS. The number is vary by resolution. Diablo3 updated revision and some setup, it fix the 100FPS limitation issue. This recent most popular game 3D requirement is not so high, AMD Redaon 7770 is capable to run already. GIGABYTE G1.SNIPER3 Pros 1.G1-Killer packing is more delicateness than the other high end model. The heat sink is looking better than G1 X79. 2.Creative latest CA0132 audio chip with Japanese high end capacitors, new software and more supported technologies improve sound effect. 3.Dual LAN support by latest Killer E2200 network NPU and Intel LAN chip 4.Exclusive BT4.0 / Wi – Fi card to enhance application with all mobile devices. 5.Front control panel supports USB 3.0 and real time OC features. It also supports headset amplifier which is very rare. 6.Supports up to 4-Way AMD CrossFireX/nVIDIA SLI technology. 7.BIOS native support Xeon V2 CPU. Cons 1.CPU voltage vibration during standby and full speed should be smaller. 2.4DIMM DDR3 OC should be same as 2DIMM DDR3 3. Audio or LAN can be daughter card Performance ?????????? 90/100 Components ?????????? 88/100 Specification ?????????? 92/100 Appearance ?????????? 86/100 C/P Value ?????????? 72/100 Intel Ivy Bridge structure has been launched over 3 months. New 22nm CPU has three advantages, higher performance, lower power consumption and better IGP 3D performance. For the temperature, when OC to 4.8GHz, it’s 5 degrees higher than SNB which is needed to improve. PCI Express Gen3, Intel Smart Connect / Quick Sync 2.0 and Lucid Universal MVP all brings more advantages to new platform. However, Ivy Bridge CPU only has i5 and i7 currently. I do hope i3 and Pentium series can come faster. It will complete the Intel CPU product line and have more choices for entry PC market. GIGABYTE G1.SNIPER3 is cheaper than former G1 models. This is Z77 benefit. G1.Killer is still in high end MB position. It’s more suitable for higher requirement and budget users. Last G1 X79 thermal module is not good looking. This time, G1 Z77 revision is much better looking and quality. In high Loading mode, the temperature is around 50~55 degrees. It’s very good though. Gaming design is even improved. Audio chip changes to Creative latest CA0132 quad-core audio processor. LAN chip also improves from single Killer NPU to Killer E2200 plus Intel, dual LAN. You can see many improvement and progress in G1 Z77. It fixes several G1 cons. Of course, it’s still some minor points to make it perfect. I am glad to see better G1 in further chipset. If you are looking for best built-in LAN and audio chips, also high end gaming specs, you can put GIGABYTE G1.SNIPER3 in your wish list:) This article is also post in my log. WIND3C, All comments are welcome.

Power Consumption Test Enter to OS Desktop - 168W CPU Full Speed by Linx - 268W 3770K OC to 4.8GHz and using GTX570 SLI both consume more power. When enter to OS desktop, it’s 168W already. For former review, 3770K default with IGP HD4000 is only 34W. This is very good power consumption performance. You can see when we OC 3770K to 4.8GHz, full speed only consume 100W more. It approves 22nm saving more power. When we run this high end Gaming platform in 3D test software, the power consumption is 600W. Most is by VGA. Former G1.Killer series use Creative CA20K2 audio chip. This time, G1.SNIPER3 changes to newer Creative CA0132. It’s Creative Sound Core3D quad-core audio processor. It supports THX, CRYSTAL VOICE, and so on. Using Nichicon MUSE ES series and MW series Bi-Polarized audio capacitors makes spec and components similar to high end audio card. Let’s see the Creative CA0132 new interface. The first screen emphasize the THX audio technology. CRYSTAL VOICE setup page SCOUT MODE items are more for Gaming Speaker/Headset setup page. It supports 5.1 channels and some detail items. Every channel voice volume and REC control. My 3.5mm headset only has SONY NOISE CANCEING level. The audio quality is not too high. I still can use it to distinguish Creative CA0132 and Realtek ALC898 chips. Creative CA0132 has more background detail. The low-frequency is stronger. The high-frequency is not too shrill. The mid-frequency is gruff and deep. Comparing to last CA20K2, mid-frequency and sound field are richer. The software also has more features and practical. Realtek ALC898 voice is very monotonous. It has much less detail, also over shrill in high-frequency. It’s high end Gaming platform, so I use gaming headset to test the audio. I use CORSAIR Vengeance 1500 Dolby 7.1 USB Gaming Headset to experience. CORSAIR launched several Gaming line up. Headset is one of it. Let’s see the Vengeance 1500 packing first. It’s official 2 years warranty. It’s surrounding design to enhance users comfort. I don’t feel any uncomfortable after use. The controller can adjust the microphone on/off and volume. Both sides are silver color laminated cover with hair-line surface treatment. Overall, the quality and texture is quite high end. If the cable can use gold plating, it will be even better. It also provide microphone, you can talk with your partners in games.

Test Configuration CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K MB: GIGABYTE G1.SNIPER3 DRAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT CMT16GX3M4X2133C9 VGA: Intel HD Graphics 4000 / SPARKLE GTX570 SLI HD: SanDisk Extreme 240GB POWER: CORSAIR AX650W Cooler: CORSAIR Hydro Series H100 OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit CPU 100.0 X 48 => 4801.62MHz(Disable Turbo Boost and C1E) DDR3 2400.8 CL10 12-11-27 1T(Enable XMP mode) Hyper PI 32M X8 => 11m 26.916s CPUMARK 99 => 754 Nuclearus Multi Core => 35250 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 37.34/17924 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 403997 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 9.58 pts CPU(Single Core) => 2.04 pts FRYRENDER Running Time => 3m 52s PCMark Vantage => 28723 3rd Core i7-3770K compares to windwithme shared 2nd Core i7-2700K. With same frequency, 3770K single thread performance is 3~6% higher and 4C8T is 10~14% higher. i7-3770K and i5-3570K performance have 30% difference at same clock. It’s similar to Sany Bridge. I have shared four Ivy Bridge articles. I hope you can understand 4C8T CPU more. DRAM Bandwidth Test DDR3 2400.8 CL10 12-11-27 1T ADIA64 Memory Read - 24018 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 27725 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 29187MB/s G1.SNIPER3 with CORSAIR DOMINATOR-GT DDR3 2133 can reach 2600 2T stabilize at 2DIMM installed. 4DIMM is DDR3 2400 1T stable. As Ivy Bridge structure, it’s standards above OC performance. If you have better quality DDR3, you may reach DDR3 2666 above. For users who look for higher DDR3 frequency, Z77 chipset and better OC MB are good combo for you. Temperature Test (Room Temp. 29~31?C) Enter to OS Desktop - 41~53 CPU Full Speed by Linx - 82~88 I use market top water cooler, H100. When OC to 4.8GHz, the temperature is around 80~90. One reason is summer room temperature will make full speed higher 5~10 degrees. The other reason is Ivy Bridge temperature is higher 5 degrees than Sandy Bridge. You have to watch out the temperature after OC.

The PWM is all digital design. There are 17 phases divided into 12-phase CPU, 1-phase VTT, 2-phase DDR and 2-phase GPU. IO 1 X PS2 KB/Mouse 1 X D-Sub / DVI-D / HDMI / DisplayPort 6 X USB 3.0/2.0(Blue) 2 X RJ-45 LAN 1 X S/PDIF optical output 5 X audio jacks mSATA SSD slot for small capacity SSD users. Bundling with Intel Smart Response technology, you can enhance your system performance. After installing mSATA, SATA2 5th port will not work. Even though heat sink is still gun liked design, the military feeling is not as strong as former G1. VRM heat sink new design provides more surface. The appearance is better than former design in my own opinion. The matte processed design makes better texture. Also the radiating ability is better. UEFI Interface and OC Setup Intel Core i7-3770K default ratio is 35. I set it at 48, which means 4800MHz. X.M.P. item enabled. This CORSAIR DDR3 will set at 2133 parameters. System Memory Multiplier adjusted by DDR3 quality. In the picture, I set at 24, means DDR3 2600. Advanced CPU Items You can set individual CPU Core ratio here. You also can choose how many cores to work. I used to disable C1E/C3C6 and EIST power saving features when OC. DDR3 2400 latency setting is CL10 12-11-27 1T. Capacity is 4GB X 4 => 16GB This 3770K, OC to 4.8GHz needs CPU Vcore to set at 1.380V. DDR3 2400 1T needs DRAM Voltage to set at 1.600V. Ivy Bridge structure temperature is higher than former one when OC to 4.5GHz. No matter 3770K or 3570K, there are some conditions to OC to 4.5~4.8GHz with Z77. Besides CPU quality, you still need better CPU cooler. High end fan or ware cooler is better choice. Memory Controller OC ability is much improved in Ivy Bridge. But you need better quality IC to reach 2133~2600.

In the last two years, DeskTop market has changed. OC market becomes smaller. The main reason is mainstream CPU can afford most application requirements. Also, only high end CPU and chipset structure can do more OC. If you would like to have higher frequency or save video converting time, OC is still a good way. Besides OC and performance, the other key selling point of high end PC is Gaming market. You may hear about eSport. PC still has more advantage in high performance 3D field. This review is Ivy Bridge most high end platform. It owns high performance OC and Gaming specs. CPU is LGA 1155 3rd Gen. Intel Core i7-3770K K series is unlocked. There are only two for Ivy Bridge, 3570K and 3770K. Intel packing, 2nd and 3rd Core I series both use same product pictures. Contents are CPU, original cooler, product manual, and Intel sticker. Intel 4 Cores CPU all use cooper bottom cooler. 3770K frequency is 3.5GHz. It supports latest Turbo Boost 2.0 technology, max speed is 3.90GHz. It’s physical 4-Core and Hyper-Threading technology supports 8 threads. It calls 4C8T. 22nm manufacturing, power consumption is 77W, L3 Cache has 8MB. MB uses GIGABYTE last year new series - G1Killer. G1.SNIPER3 has special designs for gaming. Since X58, Z68, X79 and current Z77, GIGABYTE all has G1 models. SNIPER is 3rd generation now. G1 colors are different with the other brands black and red. It uses black and green as own style. As some jungle war games, PCI-E and DDR3 green slots all fit the concept. It’s E-ATX, 30.5cm x 26.4cm. As long as it’s not diminished version ATX Case, standard ATX Case can support this form factor. G1 is for Gaming market. GIGABYTE uses better level chips for audio and LAN. Bundled Accessories Product manual, software installation guide, drivers CD, IO panel, SLI / CrossFireX bride. 3.5” front control panel, BT 4.0/WiFi card and arena, SATA extended panel, SATA cables. Lower-Left Corner 4 X PCI-E X16 support max 4-Way AMD CrossFireX/nVIDIA SLI technology. Bandwidth is X16 + X8 + X16 + X8 or X8 + X8 + X8 + X8. 2 X PCI-E X1 1 X PCI LAN are rare Qualcomm Atheros Killer E2200 Chip and Intel GbE LAN Chip. It builds in Creative CA0132 audio chip supports 5.1 channels and High Definition Audio technology. Design in Taipei Lower-Right Corner 2 X White SATA, provided by Z77 chipset and support SATA3 4 X Black SATA provided by Z77 chipset and support SATA2 It supports hybrid RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 10. The performance is based on the installed SATA devices. 4 X Gray SATA provded by Marvell 88SE9172 and support SATA3. It also supports RAID 0 and RAID 1. 1 X mSATA 2 X 64 Mbit flash for Dual BIOS. 1 X front USB 3.0 and TPM module header. Upper-Right Corner 4 X DIMM DDR3 support 1066/1333/1600/2666(OC). DDR3 max capacity is 32GB. It supports Extreme Memory Profile technology. Next is 24-PIN power connector. Red is power button, black is Clear CMOS and blue is Restart. Right side has 7 contact points for hardware voltage measurement.

PCMark Vantage => 23602 i5-3570K OC ability is similar to i7-3770K, but 3770K performance is 25% higher than 3570K as same frequency. The CPU performance difference is caused by L3 cache and HT technology. However, the price gap is another key issue. Ivy Bridge 3570K juxtapose with Sandy Bridge 2500K, the performance is 6% higher. It’s lower than 3770K got 6~14% higher than 2770K. 3570K is capable for most software. It’s most preferred CPU in mid-end market. DRAM Bandwidth Test DDR3 2600.8 CL12 13-13-32 2T ADIA64 Memory Read - 23710 MB/s Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 28905 MB/s MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 28308 MB/s Ivy Bridge DDR3 bandwidth is close to Sandy Bridge. The key difference is Ivy Bridge can upgrade DDR3 clock to 2~3 higher levels. If DDR3 quality is good enough, you can run at 2600~2666 which is good enough for users demand for high clock. Z77-D3H can reach DDR3 2600 easily. It will be better if the bandwidth is higher. Temperature(Room is 32?C) Enter to OS Desktop - 38~45 CPU Full Speed by Linx - 79~90 Even though you have some ideas of Ivy Bridge temperature from my previous 3770K reviews. This time, the room temperature is quite high. i5-3570K OC 4.8GHz numbers are higher of course. I used to expect 3570K, without HT, can be lower. So far, it seems the same with 3770K. If you want to OC 3570K / 3770K to 4.8GHz, cooling devices is the key factor. Power Consumption Enter to OS Desktop - 67W CPU Full Speed by Linx - 163W If only use IGP HD Graphics 4000, the power consumption is similar to 3770K in OS desktop. As 4.8GHz, 3570K is 12W lower than 3770K which is not big difference. These two CPU still owns Ivy Bridge 22nm advantage which is must power saving than former 32nm. GIGABYTE Z77-D3H Pros 1. Z77 series white color box and booting screen is improved. 2. Using UEFI BIOS technology and provide two interfaces for choice. 3. It’s standard ATX PCB and built-in my personal preferred Atheros LAN and VIA audio. 4. OC ability is excellent. CPU can run at 4.8GHz stable and DDR3 can reach 2600MHz as well. 5. Back IO panel provides 4 USB 3.0 ports and exclusive mSATA SSD slot. Cons 1. DDR3 2600 bandwidth need to be improved 2. CPU-Z cannot detect the real voltage Performance ?????????? 88/100 Components ?????????? 77/100 Specification ?????????? 83/100 Appearance ?????????? 77/100 C/P Value ?????????? 92/100 This review is focus on Ivy Bridge mid-end OC platform, Z77 with Core i5-3570K. 3570K is following model of 2500. The temperature and power consumption are similar to 3770K. OC range is also close to 3770K. If your cooling and CPU quality are good enough, 4.8GHz is easy to keep stable run. However, in terms of price, 3570K is much lower than 3770K. If you are not heavy overclockers, 3570K is good option for you. GIGABYTE Z77-D3H uses VIA VT2021 audio chip. I use Realtek ALC892 to compare with it by headset. VT2021 medium frequency is better, especially in vocal. For high frequency and stress are similar. If you are always listening music, you can consider to use VIA VT2021 to have better quality in medium frequency. Z77-D3H price is a little bit higher than entry Z77 MB, but the spec make it have better C/P value. The OC ability is close to high end Z77. LAN and audio chips are also better in my personal experience. This time, even though Intel Z77 is most high end Ivy Bridge chipset, but the price is lower than the past as launching stage. Maybe it’s the result of market and competition. Users can lower their budget to get latest platform. This review is also post in my blog WIND3C. Any comments are welcome.

nVIDIA GTS450 => 25.8 fps HD Graphics 4000 performance has 30%~50% improvement comparing to HD Graphics 3000. The IGP 3D performance is similar to AMD A8-3850 Radeon HD6550D. The performance is still a big gap with nVIDIA GTS450. However, it’s over GT430 / GT520 and close to GT440. Most Z77 MBs support Lucid MVP technology. It will enhance HD Graphics 4000 performance for further 3D applications. File converting performance test. The GPU still use Intel HD Graphics 4000 / nVIDIA GTS450 Output interface is DVI on GTS450 and switch GPU by software. MediaEspresso is the video converter for comparing IGP and external VGA. DVD File VTS_01_1.VOB, 1023MB and convert to MP4 file. Intel HD Graphics 4000 Upper-Left is Virtu MVP features. Enable Intel Quick Sync Video(Better quality) 4 mins 12 secs Galaxy GTS450 Lower-Left enable nVIDIA CUDA Technology 4 mins 52 secs I used same video file to test. Intel Quick Sync Video is 40 seconds faster than nVIDIA CUDA. Using Intel HD 4000 can save 16% time. For users who have high demand of video converting, you can save lot of time. Also, Intel claimed Ivy Bridge for Intel Quick Sync Video is much faster than Sandy Bridge as well. If I have time, I will use SNB to compare the real performance difference of Intel Quick Sync. Z77-3DH CPU and system performance in OC condition. CPU 100.3 X 46 => 4801.29MHz(Disable Turbo Boost and C1E) DDR3 2600.8 CL12 13-13-32 2T(Enable XMP Mode) Intel HD Graphics 4000 1150MHz Hyper PI 32M X4 => 7m 27.658s CPUMARK 99 => 757 Nuclearus Multi Core => 29517 Fritz Chess Benchmark => 30.06/14430 CrystalMark 2004R3 => 367177 CINEBENCH R11.5 CPU => 7.98 pts CPU(Single Core) => 2.04 pts FRYRENDER Running Time => 5m 38s x264 FHD Benchmark => 23.8