Crysis is a very heavy DirectX 10 game. We updated this game to version 1.2.1 and used the HOC Crysis Benchmarking Utility to help us collecting data. Since we don’t think the default demo based on the island map stresses the video card the way we want, we used the HOC core demo available with the abovementioned utility. We ran this demo under three 16:10 widescreen resolutions, 1680x
1050, 1920×1200, and 2560×1600, first with image quality set to “low” and then with image quality set to “high.” Since all video cards achieved a number of frames per second below 10 at 2560×1600 with image details set to “high,” we are not including this test as the results aren’t reliable. We ran each test twice and discarded the first result, as usually the first run achieves a lower score compared to the subsequent runs since the game loses time loading files. The results below are the average number of frames per second (FPS) achieved by each card.
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.
We added five new thermal compounds to our previous roundup, for a total of 55 different thermal compounds from major brands. We also tried another alternative thermal compound: Philadelphia Cream Cheese.
Zalman ZM770-ZT is a 770 W power supply featuring modular cabling system and a heatpipe to cool down the components from the secondary. Let’s see if this is a good unit.
