Intel i7 3960X EE / Gigabyte GA X79 UD3 / 16GB GSkill Ripjaws Z (2133mhz) Review

1. Introduction2. Intel i7 3960x Extreme Edition3. Intel Active Thermal Solution (RTS2011LC)4. Intel i7 3960x & RTS2011LC (Super High Res Gallery)5. GSkill Ripjaws Z (2133mhz)6. GSkill Ripjaws Z (Super High Res Gallery)7. Intel DX79SL Extreme Series Motherboard8. Intel DX79SL Extreme Series (Super High Res Gallery)9. Gigabyte GA X79 UD3 Motherboard10. Gigabyte GA X79 UD3 Motherboard (Super High Res Gallery)11. Technical: Bios & Overclocking12. Testing Methodology13. Synthetic: PCMark 714. Synthetic: Unigine Heaven 2.015. Synthetic: 3DMark Vantage16. Synthetic: 3DMark 1117. Synthetic: SiSoft Sandra18. Synthetic: Cinebench R11.5 64 bit19. Synthetic: SSD Performance20. Synthetic: AIDA 6421. Image Quality: HQV Benchmark22. Real World: 3D Rendering23. Real World: Media Encoding24. Real World: BluRay Playback25. Real World: Flash HD Playback26. Real World: HandBrake 9.527. Gaming: Battlefield 3 - Eyefinity28. Technical: Power Consumption29. Closing Thoughts30. View All Pages

As mentioned earlier in the review, we are focusing on a stable overclock this time without playing with core voltage and other power tweak settings. We are running the i7 3960X EE at 4.2ghz which only requires one change in the Gigabyte GA X79 UD3 bios. To keep down costs a little we are testing with a single Sapphire HD6970 graphics card.

Processor: Intel i7 3960X EE @ 4.2ghz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA X79 UD3
Cooler: Intel RTS2011LC
Memory: 16GB GSkill Ripjaws Z 9-11-10-28 @ 2133mhz
Graphics Card: Sapphire HD6970
Power Supply: Enermax Platimax 1200W
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive
Chassis: Lian Li PC-A77FR Aluminium Red Full Tower Case No PSU
Monitors: Dell U3011, 3x Ilyama ProLite E2472HDD.
Boot Drive: Crucial 128GB SSD.
Secondary Drive: Patriot Pyro 120GB.

Software:
Windows 7 Enterprise (64-bit).
FRAPS Professional.
SiSoft Sandra.
Windows Media Player/VLC Player.
CPUz.
GPUz.
CPUID Hardware Monitor.
Cinebench R11.5 (64-bit).
Cyberlink PowerDVD 11 Ultra.
Cyberlink MediaEspresso.
CrystalDiskMark.
3D Mark Vantage.
3DMark 11.
PCMark 7.
Catalyst 11.10

Games:
Battlefield 3

Comparison Systems:

AMD FX 8150 Black Edition
Processor: AMD FX 8150 Black Edition
Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Memory: G-SKill Ripjaws 1600mhz 8GB (2x 4GB)
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W
Chassis: SilverStone Raven 3
Boot Drive: Intel 40GB SSD
Secondary Drive: Patriot 120GB WildFire

Intel Core i7 990X
Processor: Intel Core i7 990x
Cooler: Corsair H100
Motherboard: Gigabyte G1 Assassin
Memory: Kingston HyperX 6GB
Drives: Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB
Power Supply: Corsair AX1200
Chassis: Antec Twelve Hundred

Intel Core i7 2700k
Processor: Intel Core i7 2700k
Cooling: ThermalTake Frio OCK
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 Z68 Motherboard
Chassis: Silverstone Raven 3.
Power Supply: Corsair 850W.
Memory: Corsair 1600mhz memory
Storage: Intel 80GB SSD (boot) / Patriot Wildfire 120GB SSD.

Intel Core i7 2600k
Processor: Intel Core i7 2600k
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen 3
Cooler: Intel XTS-100H
Memory: ADATA 1600mhz DDR3 8GB (2x4GB)
Graphics Card: HIS HD6970 IceQ Mix
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower 850W
Boot Drive: Intel 510 SSD 250GB

Intel Core i5 2500k
Processor: Intel Core i7 2500k
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 Z68 Motherboard
Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer Xtreme Rev.2 CPU Cooler
Memory: Corsair 1600mhz memory 8GB (2x4GB)
Graphics Card: HIS HD6970 IceQ Mix
Power Supply: Corsair 850W.
Boot Drive: Patriot Pyro 120GB SSD.

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T
Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T
Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Memory: G-SKill Ripjaws 1600mhz 8GB (2x 4GB)
Graphics Card: HIS HD6970 IceQ Mix
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W
Chassis: SilverStone Raven 3
Boot Drive: Intel 40GB SSD
Secondary Drive: Patriot 120GB WildFire

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