Test System Specs & WinRAR

Intel Test System Specs
- Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 (2.80GHz)
- Intel Pentium E6300 (2.80GHz)
- Intel Pentium E5400 (2.70GHz)
- x2 2GB DDR2-1066 G.Skill (CAS 5-5-5-15)
- ASUS P5E Deluxe (Intel X48)
- OCZ GameXStream (700 watt)
- Seagate 500GB 7200-RPM (Serial ATA300)
- ASUS GeForce GTX 285 (1GB)
Software
- Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 (64-bit)
- Nvidia Forceware 185.85

AMD Test System Specs
- AMD Phenom II X4 910 (AM2+)
- AMD Phenom II X2 550 (AM3)
- AMD Athlon II X2 250 (AM3)
- AMD Phenom X4 9950 (AM2+)

- x2 2GB DDR2-1066 G.Skill (CAS 5-5-5-15)
- x2 2GB DDR3-1333 G.Skill (CAS 7-7-7-17)
- ASUS M4A79T Deluxe (AMD 790FX)
- ASUS M3A79T Deluxe (AMD 790FX)
- OCZ GameXStream (700 watt)
- Seagate 500GB 7200-RPM (Serial ATA300)
- ASUS GeForce GTX 285 (1GB)
Software
- Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 (64-bit)
- Nvidia Forceware 185.85

It should be noted that both new AMD processors were tested using DDR3 memory because there aren't currently any available BIOS updates to use these processors on the AM2 platform. This should obviously take place some time after release but until then our numbers should remain valid as there is no real difference between DDR3-1333 and DDR2-1066 in terms of performance.

First up we tested the processors using WinRAR in both single thread and multi-thread modes. The Phenom II X2 550 and Athlon II X2 250 are the highest clocked processors of the pack and it showed in the single thread test. The Phenom II X2 550 produced the best result with a throughput of 862KB/s followed by the Athlon II X2 250 with 780KB/s.

When testing with multiple cores the quad-core Phenom X4 9950 and Phenom II X4 910 processors had a natural advantage over the dual-core competition. Still, despite of being two cores lighter the Phenom II X2 550 was not a great deal slower than the Phenom X4 9950 making it the fastest tested dual-core processor by quite a margin.