Maingear Ephex 3-Way SLI Performance Gaming System
PCMark Vantage Continued
We continue our test coverage with a few more modules from the comprehensive PCMark Vantage suite of benchmarks.
Vantage Music suite includes the following tests:
Futuremark PCMark Vantage
Synthetic Benchmarks
Music 1 - Three simultaneous threads, Web page rendering – w/ music shop content, Audio transcoding: WAV -> WMA lossless, HDD: Adding music to Windows Media Player
Music 2 - Audio transcoding: WAV -> WMA lossless
Music 3 - Audio transcoding: MP3 -> WMA
Music 4 - Two simultaneous threads, Audio transcoding: WMA -> WMA, HDD: Adding music to Windows Media Player
Here the Maingear Ephex pulls way out in front of all competitors, with a sizable 14% advantage over even the Core 2 Extreme QX9650. This test is heavily affected by raw clock speed, though parts of are in fact multithreaded as well.
Vantage Communications suite includes the following tests: Communications 1 - Three simultaneous threads, Data encryption: CNG AES CBC, Data compression, Web page rendering: graphics content, 1024x768, windowed The results from Vantage's Communications test mirror those of the music test above, and for the mostly the same reasons, though this time our Ephex system posted a 22% lead over the fastest reference system we tested. Vantage Productivity suite includes the following tests: Productivity 1 - Two simultaneous threads, Text editing, HDD: application loading In the Vantage Productivity test, the Ephex's overall high-end configuration, including not only its overclocked 3.8GHz processor but its pair of WD Raptor drives in RAID 0, allow it to chalk up a commanding 26% performance lead over our fastest reference system. The Vantage HDD suite includes the following tests: HDD 1 - HDD: Windows Defender In the HDD test obviously the Maingear Ephex has an unfair advantage with its WD Raptor RAID 0 configuration, though of course these reference numbers are here just to give you a sense of relative performance versus more mainstream system configurations. 
Communications 2 - Three simultaneous threads. Web page rendering: open various news pages from IE 7 Favorites in separate tabs, close them one by one, Data decryption: CNG AES CBC, HDD: Windows Defender
Communications 3 - Windows Mail: Search
Communications 4 - Two simultaneous threads, Data encryption: CNG AES CBC, Audio transcoding: WMA -> WMA - to simulate VOIP 
Productivity 2 - Two simultaneous threads, Windows Contacts: search, HDD: Windows Defender
Productivity 3 - HDD: Windows Vista start-up
Productivity 4 - Three simultaneous threads, Windows Contacts: search, Windows Mail: Run Message Rules, Web page rendering: simultaneously open various pages from IE7 Favorites in separate tabs, close them one by one
HDD 2 - HDD: game HDD
HDD 3 - HDD: importing pictures
HDD 4 - HDD: Windows Vista start-up
HDD 5 - HDD: video editing
HDD 6 - HDD: Media Center
HDD 7 - HDD: Adding music to Windows Media Player
