Velocity Micro Edge Z55: Core i7-940 with CrossFire 4870

Setup and Startup

We've mentioned before that many systems we get in after being shipped need reseating or adjustment prior to startup. Some of this is attention to packing and some of it is luck. In this case, the system fired right up out of the box.

First let's take a look at the BIOS. This is a stock Intel board, but it does contain some overclocking features.

BIOS Config. 1

BIOS Config. 2

Memory Config. 1

Memory Config. 2

Gary has been working with X58 motherboards for some time now, and an overclocking guide is coming up in the future. This was my first experience with Core i7 and there are some differences compared to Core 2 platforms, but most of the necessary settings are present here in the BIOS. The "uncore" multiplier, typically twice that of the memory, allows for adjustment of the QPI link when the base clock is increased. There are two shots of the main BIOS screen and the Memory settings due to the two systems we received; again, more on that in a moment.

First boot is clean, with low overhead.

There are no extraneous programs or bloatware on the system, as Velocity Micro promises. The number of processes is reasonably low for Vista, and a basic edition of 3DMark Vantage comes installed only if desired. Their support information is prominently displayed in System Information, which is great. We don't like to see a lack of an anti-virus system though, even if it's an optional install on startup, or similar to 3DMark is selected (or not) when being ordered.

We don't normally delve into the Vista settings or usability very much, but in this case there were a number of small tweaks that bear mentioning. First of all, automatic updates, user account control, and system restore were all set to Off. To our minds this is a plus, as these are all settings an enthusiast would normally disable anyway. TCP/IP settings arrived set to "Manual" with a local DNS server and static IP - clearly this is a mistake, and it was present on both of our test systems, but we suspect it wouldn't happen to a typical end user and we'll write it off as a review sample anomaly.

Recent programs were also disabled, which we found slightly annoying - many users do make use of that function in Vista (especially reviewers who take lots of screenshots), so we re-enabled that feature. The program TweakVI came installed with a number of plug-ins.

It provides a number of ways to tweak Vista to one's liking, so we count it as a plus and not bloatware. The case itself doesn't have a front USB port, which is slightly annoying from a usability standpoint, and the Recycle Bin was set to permanently delete everything, which may be alright for some but is certainly worth flagging as a potential negative. Hopefully that was another anomaly in the review system; some of us use that setting, but that's one that should be left up to the end user and not made on the factory floor.

The video card drivers were up-to-date at the time of shipping (8.11), and we also installed the recent hotfix for Far Cry 2. Later, we installed the Beta of 8.12, and have documented those results. Overdrive was also enabled, but we tested at default settings.