Benchmark Methodology

Focusing our benchmarking on just the single platform, the P5E3-Premium, we will run the test setup at the BIOS defaults and in the same configuration as the Maximum Overall Stability Overclocking. The benefit the stock setup will have is that when paired with Corsair Dominator TWIN3X2048-1800C7DFIN, the Intel XMP profile kicks in and adjusts the FSB and voltages accordingly to accommodate the 900MHz (DDR3-1800) frequency as well as 7-7-7 timings. This will heavily influence the memory bandwidth section of the benchmark results.

The blue results will outline that of the BIOS defaults and XMP profiles automatically enabled. The overclocked red results are then going to display the highest stable overclock we have seen a couple times already in the overclocking section.

The overclocking section provided us with a stable overclock of our E8400 to 4104MHz with the memory clocked to DDR3-1824. With these components, this is a higher-end overclock but seems mild for the memory and the system compared to the XMP defaults. The biggest difference is that the CPU is at a rather high frequency as a result of a lucky CPU that clocks very well on basic processor cooling. The following outlines our testing methodology:
a/ Windows is installed using a full format.
b/ Intel Chipset drivers and accessory hardware drivers (audio, network, GPU) are installed followed by a defragment and a reboot.
c/ At time of benchmarks the latest drivers were downloaded from their official web sites as the latest drivers, most notable, Intel Chipset 9.0.0.1008 and ATI Catalyst 8.5.
d/ Programs and games are then installed followed by another defragment.
e/ Windows updates are then completed installing all available updates followed by a defragment.
f/ Benchmarks are each ran three times after a clean reboot for every iteration of the benchmark unless otherwise stated, the results are then averaged.