GMC R-4 Bulldozer Review

Testing:

I finally managed to get my hardware to fit into the Bulldozer. If only it had been as easy to perform that task as it was to write these words, but it wasn't. I'm hoping GMC managed to engineer the Bulldozer in such a way that performance will make up for lack of space. In order to test the GMC R-4 Bulldozer, I will be monitoring the load and idle temperatures of my CPU, my HDD, chipset, and my GPU. To record temperatures, I will be using CPUID Hardware Monitor. For those of you that have never used it, it's a temperature monitoring program from the people that created CPU-Z. To put my hardware at load, I will run Prime95 for three hours. To load the GPU, I will play through a few hours of Crysis and record the highest temperature.

Testing System:

• Processor: Intel Core I7 920 (3GHz)
• Motherboard: MSI X58 Platinum
• Memory: Mushkin HP3 12800 7-7-7-20
• Video Card(s): Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2
• Power Supply: ANTEC 1000W
• Hard Drive: 1X Seagate Barracuda 750GB
• OS: Windows Vista Ultimate Edition SP1 64-bit

Comparison Cases:

• Thermaltake XaserVI
• GMC X-Station
• Antec Nine Hundred Two
• Generic Mid Tower Case

I was extraordinarily surprised at how the Bulldozer performed. It didn't perform exceptionally well, but for the most part, it performed well. The Bulldozer had the lowest CPU temperatures and normal HDD temperatures. The idle GPU temps were slightly high, but the load GPU temps were the same as the Antec Nine Hundred Two. However, the Bulldozer's cramped space definitely had a negative effect on the chipset temperatures. While the performance really wasn't that bad, I'm not sure if it makes up for the lack of space.