Test System:

Motherboard: Asus P5B Deluxe
Processor: Intel Core 2 Q6600 @ 2.4ghz
Additional Processors (used in various sections of the review): Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700, Core 2 Extreme X6800 and Core 2 Duo E6700
Memory: Corsair 6400 Dominator @ 800mhz (CAS 4-4-4-12) 2GB (2x1GB)
Graphics: Sapphire X1900XTX 512MB
Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor X
Cooler: Zalman CNPS 9700
Display: Dell 2407 and Sharp 52inch 1080p HDTV
Operating System: Windows XP SP2

The test system was built from scratch, a format of the hard drive was performed (NTFS) and then Windows XP was installed. Following the completion of the installation, the ATI drivers were installed (Catalyst 7.2). The only updates applied were SP2 and .NET Framework 1.1( latest service pack) and the latest Media Player version and Patches. Next, the latest builds of the benchmarking tools were installed and finally, the hard drive was de-fragmented. For each test, the ATI drivers were set to default quality/optimizations (unless otherwise stated). Game resolutions are chosen at the lower end of the spectrum to better ascertain performance differences between the various CPU’s rather than bringing the GFX into the mix.

Good Benchmarking Practice:
Each benchmark was performed 3 times and the median result for each resolution/setting is shown in the tables that will follow. All applications had their latest patches applied and all hardware features the latest BIOS/Firmware.