Half-Life 2 is a popular franchise and we benchmark the video cards using Episode Two with the aid of HOC Half-Life 2 Episode Two benchmarking utility using the “HOC Demo 1” provided by this program. We ran the game in three 16:10 widescreen resolutions, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, and 2560×1600, under two scenarios. First with quality set to maximum, bilinear filtering and anti-aliasing set to x0. This configuration we are calling “low” on the charts and tables below. Then we maxed out image quality settings, enabling x16 anisotropic filtering and 16xQCS anti-aliasing. This configuration we are calling “high” on our charts and tables. We updated the game up to the June 9th 2008 patch. The results below are the average number of frames per second (FPS) achieved by each card.
Antec Twelve Hundred is a full-tower case targeted to gamers, with an impressive number of cooling options (six fans with speed control for all of them) and coming with twelve 5 ¼” bays, with nine of them available for hard disk drives.
We added five new thermal compounds to our previous roundup, for a total of 45 different thermal compounds from major brands. We also tried another “alternative” compound: mayonnaise.
The new Signature Series from Antec is a premium power supply line. But what does exactly “Premium” mean besides a higher price? Can it really deliver 650 W? Let’s see.
The HALE82 is the latest power supply series from NZXT, with modular cabling system, DC-DC design, and 80 Plus Bronze certification. Let’s see if the 850 W model is a good buy.
Our review of Gigabyte GA-M59SLI-S5, a very high-end socket AM2 motherboard based on nForce MCP 590 featuring a copper passive heatsink solution with heat-pipes, competing directly with ASUS M2N32-SLI De Luxe. Check it out!
