Testing and benchmarking @ 3200 MHz
Testing and benchmarking
Now that the system is hooked up and actually working with a cooling solution, let's run some performance tests. Initial thoughts: very exciting. We set our room temperature towards roughly 21 Degrees C for an objective comparison.
Mind you that we cool, nearly passive, the Zalman Reserator XT is used here.
The setup used for Project X:
- Smooth Creations paint job+chassis
- Core i7 965
- ASUS Rampage II eXTREME x58
- 1200 Watt PSU
- Corsair Dominator DDR3 1866 MHz
- GeForce GTX 295
- Alphacool waterblock
- OCZ SSD
- WD Raptor 150 GB
And excluding small stuff like DVD-RW etc, this project is very expensive and runs over 3500 EUR.
Right after system boot up the water obviously is cool at room-temperature, the components will be slightly warmer over a longer timeframe due to the nature of water-cooling.
Core i7 965 processor @ 3200 MHz (default)
For our first test we are going to look at the cooling performance of the kit. First let's focus at non-overclocked results. Out mainboard has extra power phases and typically wattage and temperatures run a little higher than your average system.
We tested the processor both in idle (nothing to do) and 100% stressed on all four cores with Prime95 software.
- Processor clocks at 3200 MHz (~3340 in Turbo mode).
- Zalman Resorator set at LOW - our primary mission here is to achieve a noiseless environment
In an idle status we see the processor roughly hover at 31 Degrees C / 88 F. Once we stress the four CPU cores real hard, almost unnatural for the PC to do and achieve, we peak at roughly 49 Degrees C / 120 F.
The is just perfect for a high-end processor when not overclocked, with no noise at all.
* screenshots for reference only - actual temp readings where taken after 20 minutes burn in.
