System Setup

Dell XPS 710

Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad QX6700 (2.66 GHz)
2GB DDR2-667MHz memory at 5-5-5-12
2x160GB 10K RPM Serial ATA (RAID 0) + 750GB additional hard drive
NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 x 2 (Quad SLI)
16X SATA DVD-ROM
16X SATA DVD+/-RW
Creative X-Fi Card
Microsoft Windows MCE 2005 Update (Emerald)
McAfee (15-month)
Saitek Eclipse II Keyboard
Logitech G5 Laser Gaming Mouse

The nForce 680i testbed

Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad QX6700 (2.66 GHz)
EVGA nForce 680i motherboard
2GB DDR2-800MHz memory at 5-5-5-12
150GB Western Digital Raptor
NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 x 2 (Quad SLI)
16X IDE DVD-ROM
Onboard audio
Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2

Benchmarks

LAME MT MP3 Encoding (MS Compiler)
Windows Media Encoder 9
3DMark06
F.E.A.R. 1.08
Quake 4 1.2
Company of Heroes 1.3
Half-Life 2 Lost Coast
Cinebench 9.5

Notes

We’re pairing our standard nForce 680i testbed against Dell’s XPS 710 system. This is basically the same system we tested NVIDIA’s GeForce 8800 GTX/GTS cards in last month, with the most notable change being the quad-core processor. One item we should also note is that we did ensure to use the same ForceWare 93.71 graphics drivers from NVIDIA.