Benchmarks
I tested the broad with the following hardware
| Processor | Intel Core i7 3930K,6C/12T, 3.2 GHz (3.8 GHz Turbo), 6 x 256KB L2, 12 MB L3 cache |
| Motherboard | Asus Rampage IV Black Edition, BIOS 0403 |
| RAM | GSkillRipjaws-Z PC3-12800, 16 GB, 1600 MHz, CL9-9-11-27 |
| GPU | HIS AMD Radeon HD 6870 Ice QX, Barts, 975/1150 MHz |
| HDD | Kingston SSDNow V300 64 GB SSD, SATA3 |
| CPU Cooler | Swiftech H320 Closed-loop CPU cooler |
| OS | Windows 7 x64, SP1 |
Overclocking:
Overclocking the RIVBE was pretty similar to what I’ve seen in the RIVE. For starters, you can try the safest way – through multipliers. To push the system further, SB-E/IB-E allows BCLK based overclocking as well, though not all motherboards/CPUs can reach similar levels. One point also to remember is that my processor is a 130W part and does require substantial cooling once you start going beyond 4.5 GHz. That being said, here are the overclocks I got with RIVBE, and an i7-3930K:
The maximum overclock achieved was 5.013 GHz @ 1.6 volts (100.26 BLCK, 50x multiplier), though it was not bench stable and gave me BSOD as soon as I ran anything CPU intensive.
The maximum stable overclock was 4.9 GHz @ 1.48 volts (100 BLCK, 49x multiplier). This was perfectly bench stable and for overclocked results, I took this as my reference.
The results are not overwhelming, but considering the limited amount of cooling at hand, they were pretty impressive. Sadly, it couldn’t beat my trusty old RIVE, which had the same processor running stable @ 5.0 GHz, and reached a maximum of 5.15 GHz @1.5 volts. I reckon an IB-E processor would’ve fared better here with RIVBE.
