Analytic cooler for the best buy of Intel Micro ATX with Core i3-530

In the past as far as built-in GPU platforms were concerned, Intel usually used “G Series” to name its products.

G45 or G41 as Intel’s main chipset were commonly seen in the market in the last generation.

At the beginning of 2010, Intel released new “All in one PC” structure, and firstly introduced the new technology that GPU was directly built in the CPU.

Moreover, Intel improved its CPU to 32nm process, and also released a series of CPUs that support the platform.

At present, there are 6 CPUs in the market: low-level Pentium G6950; mid-level Core i3 530/540; and high-level Core i5 650/660/661/670.

As to MB chipset, Intel released H55/H57 to support new CPU design, and the main difference was with and without RAID function.

Therefore, this time I am going to build a Micro ATX PC based upon Intel’s new structure.

As to CPU:

I choose Intel Core i3 530, with 73W and the latest 32nm process.

The code name is Clarkdale, with clock 2.93GHz, L2 2 x 256KB and L3 4MB. The price was about USD about 120.

The OEM coolers of Clarkdale series are all non-copper bottom design, so I infer that copper bottom is not definitely necessary for dual-core CPU with 32nm.

The main difference between Core i3 530 and Pentium G6950 is that the former supports HT technology;

higher-level Clarkdale i5 also supports TurboBoost auto-overclocking technology.

As to DRAM:

I choose American brand CORSAIR TWIN3X4G-1333C9A.

Its capacity is 2GB X 2, and the clock 1333 CL9 9-9-24 1.50V. The price is about USD about 75.

CORSAIR has unique DDR3 heat sink, and the appearance and quality are also good.

As to MB:

I use H55 chipset—BIOSTAR H55 HD, with higher C/P.

There are no whole solid capacitors, no USB3, and no sumptuous material on this mothboard,

but the price of the product is the lowest in H55 market, about USD 57.

BIOSTAR has another TH55B HD, with 4 DIMM DDR3 and high C/P, and the price is only USD 90.

Recently BIOSTAR seems to like using red as material colour, making products more impressive.

If this H55 MB can adopt Japanese electrolytic capacitors, I think this product can be more perfect.

As to Power Supply:

Judging from Intel’s latest 32nm platform, because of built-in GPU, I observe the power consumption of the whole system is low.

Antec’s latest Neo ECO 400W is chosen, so the power supply will be enough to add VGA card higher than mid-level.

The price is about USD about 55.

The power supply uses Japanese high-performance capacitors and quiet 12-centimetre fan with 2 Ball Bearing; this product is also 80 PLUS certified.

Test Platform:

CPU: Intel Core i3 530 ES

MB: BIOSTAR H55 HD

DRAM: CORSAIR TWIN3X4G-1333C9A

VGA: Intel Clarkdale 733MHz

HD: WD 6400AAKS 640GB

POWER: Antec Neo ECO 400W

Cooler: Intel OEM Cooler

OS: Windows7 Ultimate 64bit

Default Performance:

CPU 133.8 X 22 => 2942.9MHz

DRAM DDR3 1337.6 CL8 8-8-24 1T

GPU 733MHz 128mb

Hyper 4 X PI 32M=> 20m 12.640s

CPUMARK 99=> 452

Nuclearus Multi Core => 10881

Fritz Chess Benchmark => 11.18/5367

CrystalMark 2004R3 => 128706

CINEBENCH R10

1 CPU=> 3982

x CPU=> 9236

PCMark Vantage => 5541

The platform based upon Core i3 530 basically has great performance, so it can easily deal with most software making CPU high loading.

It also has excellent performance to deal with HD 1080P films or file converting.

3DMARK2006 => 1751

StreetFighter IV Benchmark

800 X 600 => 27.80FPS

3D performance of Intel Clarkdale structure has been almost the same as that of 785G.

Intel Clarkdale can easily deal with many introductory 3D games.

3D requirement of StreetFighter IV is more than mid-level, and the software can run nearly smoothly.

As far as built-in GPU standard is concerned, 3D performance is good.

To those who prefer small PC machine, they can consider buying Intel’s new structure if needing higher-performance 3D platform.

Temperature Test:

System standby: - 24/26

OCCT full loading: - 55/52

After all, the default clock of the dual-core CPU is near 3GHz, and the temperature is quite low with OEM thin Cooler.

And, the temperature is also acceptable even if CPU is full loading.

Power Consumption Test:

System standby: -39W

OCCT full loading: - 82W

Intel Burn Test v2.4，Stress Level High

With 32nm new technology, Intel has an advantageous position in the aspect of power consumption.

After overclocking, power consumption is 39W under stand by, and only 82W under full loading.

Clarkdale structure’s low power consumption is satisfactory.

Overclocking Performance Test:

CPU 180.3 X 22 => 3966MHz

DDR3 1802.6 CL11 11-11-30 1T

VGA 945MHz

BIOS Setup Utility:

BIOSTAR H55 HD, like other mid-level H55 products, also has many options for user to overclock.

However, as an introductory product, the range of voltage is not wide, 3~6 levels at most.

But the product still shows great overclocking performance, in any case.

CORSAIR DDR3 also has good performance with overclocking, and the setting 1.60V can run 1800 CL11 steadily.

Hyper 4 X PI 32M=> 16m 10.000s

CPUMARK 99=> 612

Nuclearus Multi Core => 15424

Fritz Chess Benchmark => 15.02/7207

CrystalMark 2004R3 => 169052

CINEBENCH R10

1 CPU=> 5448

x CPU=> 12447

PCMark Vantage => 7307

After CPU and GPU are overclocked, we can observe from previous software that performance improve 30% ~ 50%.

Furthermore, with OEM Cooler, 3966Mhz can also be steady under 1.212V; 32nm-CPU also shows excellent overclocking ability.

3DMARK2006 => 2170

StreetFighter IV Benchmark

800 X 600 => 34.31FPS

The clock of Clarkdale GPU from 700Mhz to 933Mhz is to be some help on 3D performance.

As for test results from previous two software, 3D performance leaves about 20% to be desired.

But if you still need more 3D performance, I recommend that buying VGA to upgrade your system is a better choice.

Temperature Test:

System standby: - 38/33

OCCT full loading: - 68/62

In the test what I install is OEM cooler, and the above temperature values are low.

If you install a higher-level cooler, the result which is less 10℃ ~ 20℃ than the above temperature values may appear.

Power Consumption Test:

System standby: - 63W

OCCT full loading: - 105W

Intel Burn Test v2.4，Stress Level High

If you don’t install VGA or too many other computer peripherals, the power consumption of 32nm-Clarkdale normally doesn’t exceed 100W.

Although overclocking results in a bit more power consumption, the range observed from the test is not high.

DDR3 Bandwidth Test:

DRAM DDR3 1337.6 CL8 8-8-24 1T

Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 11169 MB/s

EVEREST Memory Read - 8746 MB/s

DDR3 1802.6 CL11 11-11-30 1T

Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 14851 MB/s

EVEREST Memory Read - 11310 MB/s

DRAM DDR3 1602 CL8 8-8-24 1T

Sandra Memory Bandwidth - 15509 MB/s

EVEREST Memory Read - 12131 MB/s

As far as DDR3 bandwidth is concerned, Clarkdale platform doesn’t show better performance than 45nm Core i5/i7.

However compared with LAG 775 and AMD’s two platforms, Clarkdale is still better.

And about voltage, Clarkdale is better than the previous platforms; DDR3 1800 can run steadily under only 1.60V.

After the test of CORSAIR’s introductory DDR3 product, I find it has nice overclocking ability.

With the limit no more than 1.308V, CPU still can be overclocked to 4.2GHz with OEM cooler.

Hyper 4 X PI 1M=> 16.109s

CPUMARK 99=> 647

Intel Core i3-530 CPU has very high C/P, and its performance, temperature, and power consumption are satisfactory.

Especially overclocking, the clock raised to about 4GHz need not too high voltage and higher-level cooler.

The process technology of 32nm makes Intel CPU products more competitive. I sincerely hope Intel releases quad-core CPU with 32nm soon.

Most prices of H55 MB are about NT$3500 ~ 4200 (about US$110 ~ 113).

If MB manufacturers can lower prices 10% ~ 20%, I believe H55 MB will be more popular and universal.

BIOSTAR products mainly focus on parity and overclocking.

This time the price of BIOSTAR H55 is also friendly, deserving much praise.

Intel releases the latest structure IGP platform in 2010, and releases a series of many product lines so that consumers have more choices.

At present the prices of H57 chipset and high-level i5 CPU are too high, but H55 and introductory Pentium G6950 or Core i3 530 still have very high C/P.

After the appearance of Intel Clarkdale platform, one condition has changed in Micro ATX PC market for a few years:

in the past if consumers wanted to choose IGP with higher 3D performance, they usually intended to choose AMD platforms.

But now in 2010 Intel begins to focus more on this market, and also has excellent competitiveness.

Besides some products I use in this test, you can buy HDD and case so as to build a nice small PC machine.

Every consumer of course has his or her favourite brand or budget concerned, so building a PC can be adjustable according to marketing sale.

Finally I hope this article can be a good reference to this kind of product information. Thank you!