System setup and notes
| System | AMD Phenom system | Intel Core 2 Quad system | Intel Core i7 system |
|---|---|---|---|
| Processors | AMD Phenom II 940
(3.0GHz, 2MB L2, 6MB L3,
AM2+, quad-core, 45nm) £215 AMD Phenom II 920 (2.8GHz, 2MB L2, 6MB L3, AM2+, quad-core, 45nm) £175 AMD Phenom X4 9950 BE (2.6GHz, 2MB L2, 2MB L, AM2+, quad-core, 65nm) £140 |
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200
(2.33GHz, 4MB L2 cache, quad-core,
45nm) £155 Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 (2.50GHz, 6MB L2 cache, quad-core, 45nm) £200 |
Intel Core i7 920
(2.67GHz, 1MB L2 cache, 8MB L3, quad-core,
45nm) £240 |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte MA790GP-DS4H (790GX + SB750) £120 | Foxconn P45A-S (Intel P45 + ICH10R) £100 | Intel DS58X0 (Intel X58 + ICH10R) £209 |
| BIOS revision | F3m (26/11/2008) | P05 (27/08/2008) | SOX5810J.86A.2786.EB.EXE (12/11/2008) |
| Memory |
4GB (2 x 2GB) Corsair PC8500 (£49) |
6GB (3 x 2GB) Crucial DDR3-1,066 CL7 (£140) | |
| Memory timings and speed | 5-5-5-15-2T @ 1,066MHz (4-4-4-12-2T @ 800MHz for 9950 BE) | 7-7-7-20-2T @ 1,066MHz | |
| Graphics card(s) | Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 512MB | ||
| Disk drive(s) | Seagate 500GB SATAII (ST3500320AS) | ||
| Optical drive(s) | Sony DW-Q30A | ||
| Mainboard software | Standard Vista SP1 drivers + AHCI 3.1.1540.64 | Intel Inf 9.0.0.1008 | Intel Inf 9.1.0.1007 |
| Graphics driver | ATI Catalyst 8.12 | ||
| Operating system | Windows Vista Business, SP1 64-bit | ||
| PSU | Akasa PowerMax 1,200W | Cooler Master Real Power Pro 850W | |
| Monitor | Dell 2405FPW | ||
Software
| Benchmarks |
ScienceMark Memory
Latency 2009 SP2 Power-draw at idle and load |
|---|
Our thanks to Scan.co.uk for providing the comparison Intel CPU at short notice.
We're comparing the two Phenom II CPUs to the erstwhile performance leader from AMD, the 9950 Black Edition. Coming in from the Intel side are the Q8200, priced at £155, and the Q9300, currently etailing for some £200, and segmenting the Phenom IIs nicely. The supporting motherboards from Gigabyte and Foxconn, for AMD and Intel, respectively, come in at £120 and £100, although near-identical boards will cost around the same.Lastly, we're including the Core i7 920, priced at £240 and sitting on top of the most-expensive motherboard here, the DS58X0, costing £209.
Platform costs
We know that the Core i7's DDR3 is more expensive than the DDR2 used on the other two platforms, to the extent that the Phenom II 940/Gigabyte 790GX/4GB Corsair RAM combination costs around £385, the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300/Foxconn P45/4GB Corsair tips the scales at £350, whilst the Core i7 guts cost around £590, albeit with 6GB of RAM. Please bear these in mind when comparing the upcoming results.
