|
Test System
For testing, I try to use hardware that isn't quite the best or
the fastest, but something more along the lines of something the average
person would put together for a nice gaming system for a reasonable
amount of money. However, the EVGA nForce 680i SLI motherboard is
probably one of the fastest, if not the fastest Socket 775 C2D
motherboard around. Here's a rundown of the test system:
|
Hardware |
Model |
|
Motherboard: |
EVGA nForce 680i SLI |
|
Motherboard BIOS Version: |
NF68P21 |
|
Platform Drivers: |
nForce
680i v9.53 |
| CPU |
Intel
C2D E6700 |
|
Memory |
Mushkin Extreme Performance
XP2-8500 5-5-4-12
2Gb Kit |
|
Video Cards |
2x EVGA GeForce 7600GT
Running in SLI |
|
Video Card Drivers |
NVIDIA Forceware v93.71 |
|
Hard Drive |
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9
SATA 80gb |
Testing
Memory tests will be done using
SiSoft
Sandra Pro Business version 2007.1.11.17. ClubOC has been using
SiSoft Sandra for many years now and it's pretty much the only
benchmarking program we trust for testing memory and processors.
Let's run some tests and see where this new Mushkin XP memory comes
in. |
800MHz
|
Motherboard Settings |
|
SLI/EPP Memory Setting: |
Disabled |
|
CPU/Memory Link: |
Unlinked |
|
Memory Bus Speed: |
800MHz |
|
Memory Voltage: |
2.2v |
|
Memory Timings: |
5-5-4-12
(default) |
| CPU
Bus Speed: |
1066MHz (default) |
|
Final CPU Clock Speed: |
2.66GHz (default) |
Sandra scores are shown in red: 7504/7512.
The
first benchmark was at 800MHz, which is below the rated speed of the
XP2-8500 memory. The only reason I ran this benchmark is because some
systems do not have overclocking capabilities and the memory will
default to 800MHz. However, we know this isn't true about the EVGA 680i
SLI motherboard... Next we run the memory up to it's rated speed of
1066MHz.
1066MHz
|
Motherboard Settings |
|
SLI/EPP Memory Setting: |
Disabled |
|
CPU/Memory Link: |
Unlinked |
|
Memory Bus Speed: |
1066MHz |
|
Memory Voltage: |
2.2v |
|
Memory Timings: |
5-5-4-12
(default) |
| CPU
Bus Speed: |
1066MHz (default) |
|
Final CPU Clock Speed: |
2.66GHz (default) |
Sandra scores are shown in red: 7606/7593.
At
1066MHz the XP2-8500 performs extremely well. We didn't set any new
records or beat out the new SLI-Ready memory we've tested, but this
Mushkin memory still held it's own.
So
how high can we overclock Mushkin's XP2-8500 before it either bursts
into flames? Let's get the Fire Department on hold and find out!
|
