Test Methodology
Comparison Systems |
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| System Name | Asus ET2321INTH | Gigabyte Brix Pro | Intel NUC D54250WYK | PC Specialist Vanquish Mini 130 | Scan 3XS Z87 Hadron Hydro |
| Overclocked | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-4500U @ 3.0GHz | Intel Core i7-4770R @ 3.9GHz | Intel Core i5-4250U @ 2.6GHz | Intel Core i3-4130 @ 3.4GHz | Intel Core i7-4770K @ 4.2GHz |
| Cooler | Asus ET2321 Reference | Gigabyte Brix Pro Reference | Intel NUC Reference | Intel Reference | Custom EVGA liquid cooling |
| Motherboard | Asus ET2321 Reference | Gigabyte M4HM87P | NUC QS87 reference | Asus H81I-Plus | EVGA Z87 Stinger |
| Memory | Generic 8GB DDR3 (2x4GB) | G.Skill 8GB DDR3 (2x4GB) (added) | Corsair 8GB DDR3 (2x4GB) (added) | Kingston Hyper-X Genesis 8GB DDR3 (2x4GB) | Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB DDR3 (2x8GB) |
| Memory Speed | 11-11-11-28-1T @ 1,600MHz | 11-11-11-28-1T @ 1,600MHz | 11-13-13-30-2T @ 1,600MHz | 11-11-11-28-1T @ 1,600MHz | 11-11-11-27-2T @ 2,133MHz |
| Integrated Graphics | Intel HD 4400 | Intel Iris Pro 5200 | Intel HD 5000 | - | - |
| Discrete Graphics | Nvidia GeForce GT 740M | - | - | Palit GeForce GTX 660 2GB | EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti Superclocked |
| Sound Card | Onboard audio | Onboard audio | Onboard audio | Onboard audio | Onboard audio |
| Storage | 2TB Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 HDD | 180GB Intel mSATA SSD (added) | 128GB Plextor M5M mSATA SSD (added) | 1TB Toshiba HDD | 500GB Samsung Evo SSD |
| Optical Drive | Blu-ray Combo Drive | - | - | Lite-On DVD Writer | Slot-loading DVD Writer |
| PSU | Asus (90W, external) | Gigabyte (135W, external) | Intel NUC (65W, external) | Corsair VS 450 (450W) | EVGA 1U PSU (500W) |
| Chassis | Asus ET2321 AIO | Gigabyte Brix Pro | Intel NUC | Cooler Master Elite 130 | EVGA Hadron Hydro |
| Operating System | Windows 8.1 (64-bit) | Windows 8.1 (64-bit, added) | Windows 8.1 (64-bit, added) | Windows 8.1 (64-bit) | Windows 8.1 (64-bit) |
| Standard Warranty | Two years | Two years | Two years | Three years (one-year collect-and-return, one-year parts, three-year labour) | Three years (first year onsite, second year return-to-base with parts and labour, third year return-to-base with labour only) |
| Approx. System Cost | £1,200 | £750 | £450 | £550 | £1,949 |
CPU 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. | |||||||||||
System and Gaming Benchmarks |
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| PCMark 8 | System-wide examination that uses the Home preset, run with OpenCL acceleration. | |||||||||||
| 3DMark | DX11, run at the Firestrike default test. | |||||||||||
| Aliens vs. Predator | 1,920x1,080 resolution, 2xAA, 4xAF, medium quality. | |||||||||||
| Miscellaneous Benchmarks | ||||||||||||
| Power Consumption | Noted for system idling, under HandBrake video-transcoding load, and for GPU playing Aliens vs. Predator. | |||||||||||
| Temperature | Noted for CPU idling, under HandBrake video-transcoding load, and for GPU playing Aliens vs. Predator. | |||||||||||
Notes
Scan's 3XS Z87 Hadron Hydro is the first overclocked gaming rig to enter the HEXUS labs since the introduction of our new test suite. We're including benchmark results from a selection of much cheaper small-form-factor PCs, though do bear in mind they are only a point of reference and cannot be compared directly.
Other gaming rigs will be added to the line-up in due course, but for now we're only interested in seeing what sort of numbers the 3XS Z87 Hadron Hydro can achieve.