Test Methodology
Comparison Systems - Part One |
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| System Name | Alienware Aurora R5 | Asus ROG G20CI | Asus ROG GR8 II | Corsair One Pro | Cyberpower Infinity X77 Titanium | MSI Trident 3 Arctic |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-6700 | Intel Core i7-7700 | Intel Core i7-7700 | Intel Core i7-7700K | Intel Core i7-7700K | Intel Core i7-7700 |
| Overclocked | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Max Turbo Frequency | 4.0GHz | 4.2GHz | 4.2GHz | 4.5GHz | 4.7GHz | 4.2GHz |
| CPU Cores / Threads | 4 / 8 | 4 / 8 | 4 / 8 | 4 / 8 | 4 / 8 | 4 / 8 |
| CPU TDP | 65W | 65W | 65W | 91W | 91W | 65W |
| CPU Cooler | Alienware Aurora | Asus ROG G20CI | Asus ROG GR8 II | Corsair One | Cooler Master MasterLiquid 120 | MSI Trident 3 |
| Motherboard | Alienware 01NYPT | Asus ROG G20CI | Asus ROG GR8 II | MSI Z270I Growler | MSI Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon | MSI MS-B9061 |
| Memory | 8GB DDR4 (2x4GB) | 16GB DDR4 (1x16GB) | 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB) | Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB) | Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB) | SK hynix 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB) |
| Memory Speed | 15-15-15-36-2T @ 2,133MHz | 17-17-17-39-2T @ 2,400MHz | 17-17-17-39-2T @ 2,400MHz | 16-16-16-36-2T @ 2,400MHz | 15-17-17-35-2T @ 3,000MHz | 17-17-17-39-2T @ 2,400MHz |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 8GB | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 8GB | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 3GB | MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Seahawk 8GB | MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Ti SeaHawk 11GB | MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Aero ITX 8GB |
| Primary Storage Device | 256GB Toshiba XG3 SSD | 512GB SanDisk X400 SSD | 256GB Intel 535 Series SSD | 960GB Corsair Force Series LE | 16GB Intel Optane Memory Accelerator | 256GB Intel 600p Series SSD |
| Second Storage Device | 1TB Seagate HDD | 2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD | - | - | 3TB Seagate Barracuda HDD | 1TB Hitachi Travelstar HDD |
| Optical Drive | - | DVD Writer | - | - | DVD Writer | - |
| PSU | Generic (460W, internal) | Asus ROG G20CI (230W + 180W, external) | Delta Electronics (230W, external) | Corsair SFX 400 Gold (400W, internal) | Cooler Master MasterWatt Lite (600W, internal) | Delta Electronics (330W, external) |
| Chassis | Alienware Aurora | Asus ROG G20CI | Asus ROG GR8 II | Corsair One | Cooler Master MasterCase Pro 5 Nvidia Edition | MSI Trident 3 |
| Operating System | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) |
| Warranty | One year | One year | One year | Two years (parts and labour, to an authorised centre - Scan in the UK) | Three years (one-month collect-and-return, two-year parts, three-year labour) | Two years (on-site collect and return) |
| Date Reviewed | December 2016 | April 2017 | February 2017 | March 2017 | June 2017 | April 2017 |
| Cost As Reviewed | £1,385 | £2,100 | TBC | £2,269 | £1,999 | £1,799 |
Comparison Systems - Part Two |
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| System Name | PC Specialist Apollo Zen | Scan 3XS Carbon Fluid Xp | Scan 3XS Gamer Aura | Scan 3XS Vengeance Ti | Scan 3XS Z270 Vengeance SLI | Scan 3XS Z370 Vengeance Ti |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 1600X | Intel Core i9-7900X | Intel Core i5-7500 | Intel Core i7-7700K | Intel Core i7-7700K | Intel Core i7-8700K |
| Overclocked | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Max Turbo Frequency | 4.0GHz | 4.6GHz | 3.8GHz | 4.8GHz | 5.0GHz | 5.0GHz |
| CPU Cores / Threads | 6 / 12 | 10 / 20 | 4 / 4 | 4 / 8 | 4 / 8 | 6 / 12 |
| CPU TDP | 95W | 140W | 65W | 91W | 91W | 95W |
| CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper 212X | EK Liquid Loop | Arctic Freezer 11 LP | Corsair Hydro Series H100i v2 | Corsair Hydro Series H100i | Fractal Design Celsius S24 |
| Motherboard | Asus Prime B350-Plus | Asus RoG Strix X299-E Gaming | Asus RoG Strix B250F Gaming | Asus RoG Strix Z270H Gaming | Asus RoG Strix Z270E Gaming | Asus RoG Strix Z370-F Gaming |
| Memory | Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB) | Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB DDR4 (4x8GB) | Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB) | Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB) | Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB) | Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB) |
| Memory Speed | 15-15-15-51-1T @ 2,133MHz | 16-18-18-36-2T @ 3,200MHz | 15-17-17-35-2T @ 2,400MHz | 15-17-17-35-2T @ 3,000MHz | 15-17-17-35-2T @ 3,000MHz | 15-17-17-35-2T @ 3,000MHz |
| Graphics | XFX Radeon RX 570 RS Black Edition 4GB | Nvidia Titan Xp 12GB | Asus GeForce GTX 1070 Strix Gaming 8GB | EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB Founders Edition | 2x Asus GeForce GTX 1080 Strix Advanced 8GB in SLI | EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti SC2 iCX 11GB |
| Primary Storage Device | 250GB WD Blue SSD | 512GB Samsung 960 Pro SSD | 256GB Intel 600p Series SSD | 512GB Intel 600p Series SSD | 512GB Samsung SM951 SSD | 500GB Samsung 960 Evo SSD |
| Second Storage Device | 1TB Seagate Barracuda HDD | 2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD | 1TB WD Blue HDD | 2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD | 2TB WD Blue HDD | 2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD |
| Optical Drive | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| PSU | Corsair VS550 (550W, internal) | Corsair RM650X (650W, internal) | Corsair CX450M (450W, internal) | Corsair CX550M (550W, internal) | Corsair RM750i (750W, internal) | Corsair RM650X (650W, internal) |
| Chassis | PCS SR-620 | Fractal Design Define S | NZXT S340 | Corsair Crystal Series 460X RGB | Corsair Crystal Series 570X RGB | Fractal Design Meshify C |
| Operating System | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) |
| Warranty | Three years (one-month collect-and-return, one-year parts, three-year labour) | Three years (first year onsite, second and third year return-to-base with parts and labour) | Three years (first year onsite, second year return-to-base with parts and labour, third year return-to-base with labour only) | Three years (first year onsite, second year return-to-base with parts and labour, third year return-to-base with labour only) | Three years (first year onsite, second year return-to-base with parts and labour, third year return-to-base with labour only) | Three years (first year onsite, second and third year return-to-base with parts and labour) |
| Date Reviewed | June 2017 | August 2017 | February 2017 | March 2017 | January 2017 | October 2017 |
| Cost As Reviewed | £949 | £4,000 | £1,300 | £2,100 | £3,000 | £2,300 |
CPU and Storage Benchmarks |
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| HEXUS PiFast | Our number-crunching PiFast test is used to benchmark the computational power of each system's CPU. | |||||||||||
| Cinebench | Using Cinebench's multi-CPU render, this cross-platform benchmark stresses as many cores as possible. | |||||||||||
| HandBrake | Free-to-use video encoder that stresses all CPU cores. | |||||||||||
Memory and Storage Benchmarks |
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| AIDA64 | Benchmark that analyses memory bandwidth and latency. | |||||||||||
| CrystalDiskMark | Popular free-to-use storage benchmark, used to gauge sequential performance and aggregated 4K QD32 speeds. | |||||||||||
Gaming Benchmarks |
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| 3DMark | DX11, run at the Firestrike default test. | |||||||||||
| Gaming | A selection of modern titles are tested at various resolutions. | |||||||||||
Miscellaneous Benchmarks |
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| Power Consumption | Noted for system idling, under HandBrake video-transcoding load, and while gaming. | |||||||||||
| Temperature | Noted for CPU idling, under HandBrake video-transcoding load, and while gaming. | |||||||||||