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.
Let’s take a look at this 850 W power supply from Sentey, which comes with the standard 80 Plus certification, but uses resonant configuration in its primary and DC-DC and synchronous designs in its secondary, features only found on high-efficiency power supplies.
Thunderbolt is a power supply series with 80 Plus Gold certification from Thortech, featuring a modular cabling system. Let’s see if the 850 W version survives our tests.
Moncaso972 from Moneual is an all-aluminum very high-end HTPC case, featuring a 7” LCD with touch screen capability. Let’s take an in-depth look at the Ferrari of the HTPC cases.
