Test Setup & Methodologies
Test Setup & Methodologies
| Test Platform: | | Motherboard: | ASUS Rampage II Gene | | Processor: | Intel Core i7 965 Extreme Edition | | Processor Cooling: | Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme CU
2 x Scythe Ultra Kaze 120MM 2000RPM 87.6CFM (DFS123812L-2000) | | Thermal Paste: | Arctic Cooling MX-2 | | North Bridge Cooling: | Stock | | South Bridge Cooling: | Stock | | PWM Cooling: | Stock | | Memory: | Corsair Dominator-GT 3x2GB PC3-15000 7-8-7 (TR3X6G1866C7GTF)
Corsair Dominator 3x2GB PC3-12800 8-8-8 (TR3X6G1600C8D) | | Power Supply: | Corsair HX1000W | | Video Card: | EVGA GTX 295 (NVIDIA GeForce 185.85 WHQL) | | Additional Fan: | Scythe Ultra Kaze 120MM 2000RPM 87.6CFM (DFS123812L-2000) | | Hard Drives: | Seagate 7200.9 80GB SATAII 8MB cache | | OS: | Windows Vista SP1 (with all updates) |
Both kits of the Corsair Dominator memory will be checked for XMP compatibility, but we will be using the Dominator-GT modules for the rest of the testing and overclocking as it is the far superior kit. Stability Overclocking MethodologyWe have not made any changes to our stability testing methodology that has been used with great success in past motherboard and memory reviews. Because of this, we will simply cut and paste our previous explanation of our stability testing methodology.
"Testing for true system stability is an arduous task and one that is hotly debated in open forums all the time. We have many years of experience watching these debates and have tried to put together a strong collection of stability tests to accommodate all schools of thought on the subject. Our stability testing methodology has also been a great success in finding a number of 24/7 overclocks on all kinds of systems. A lot of us here at HWC, myself included, use this same type of testing when setting up our own daily use machines and those that we setup for friends and family. This methodology is sound and shouldn't be taken lightly. We are definitely not like other sites that post a CPU-Z screen shot and then say the system passed all of our benchmarks. Our results should be considered a realistic sample of what one can expect from this motherboard for 24/7 operation."  Our virtual recipe of stability testing may not be considered true 24/7 stability testing but due to time constraints of a review, complete stability testing at so many different overclocks is virtually impossible. For that reason, we have designed the following list of programs to provide a very accurate portrait of complete system stability: We are confident in our stability testing and feel we offer a very accurate representation of what the Rampage II Gene can handle. Obviously there is more involved in a systems overclocking abilities than the motherboard. The rest of our hardware plays a key role in overclocking performance, so please keep that in mind when looking over the overclocking results we will be presenting shortly. Benchmark MethodologyWithout giving too much away from the Stability & Overclocking Results section, we will mention that the Corsair Dominator-GT memory designed to run at DDR3-1866 with 7-8-7-20 timings simply weren't able to stabilize on the Rampage II Gene. For this reason, our stock results in the benchmarks will be run with the Corsair Dominator XMP profiles at DDR3-1600 with 8-8-8-24 timings. These results will be displayed with the blue bars in the charts.
The red bars in our charts will display the benchmark results from our overall overclock which we are going to look a shortly. These settings were determined the best we could achieve given the rest of the overclocking results with the Rampage II Gene. Essentially, if we were to set this system up for daily use, the red results will depict how we would have the system setup and the performance we can expect. Having given away our overall overclock, we certainly have a few items to discuss; primarily dealing with memory. As mentioned, we will discuss that in a hot minute. Right now, here is a rundown of how our benchmarking setup is prepared: - Windows Vista x64 w/SP1 is installed using a full format
- Intel Chipset drivers and accessory hardware drivers (audio, network, GPU) are installed followed by a defragment and a reboot
- At time of benchmarks the latest drivers were downloaded from their official web sites as the latest drivers, most notable, NVIDIA GeForce Release 185.85 WHQL
- Programs and games are then installed followed by another defragment
- Windows updates are then completed installing all available updates followed by a defragment
- Benchmarks are each ran three times after a clean reboot for every iteration of the benchmark unless otherwise stated, the results are then averaged
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