The testing stage for this review takes on various forms, since we are trying to ascertain how well the system stands up to pressure in different areas, we are going to need to analysis the Brawler Pro with various tools. These tools are as follows:
Everest ULTIMATE
PCMARK Vantage
Energy Monitor
OCCT
Crysis Warhead
Call of Duty: World at War
As previously mentioned all these tests will be run under Microsoft Vista Home Premium 64-Bit.
Everest ULTIMATE is a computer diagnostics application that gives a full rundown of a system. It gives indepth details along with giving the option of benchmarking certain aspects of a system.
PCMARK Vantage is one of the most popular benchmarking tools on the web, used by enthusiasts, system builders and gamers it calculates through a series of tests how good a system really is by awarding points for FPS scores and read/write tests. PCMARK Vantage, once finished will publish a set of scores, these scores can be compared against a database of other users and therefore we can closely compare different systems.
Energy Monitor is a great bit of kit that does just what it says. It monitors the energy, more importantly the watts that a system will draw. From this we can ascertain how much power the Brawler Pro uses whilst idle and fully operational. Obviously if when loaded it reaches the maximum watts on our PSU then we should be worried.
OCCT is an application that stresses the system forcing various bits of hardware like the processor to operate. This tool will be used in the temperature and power cosumption tests. Fully loading the system will give us a good indication of the maximum draws. OCCT is a reliable tool for this.
Crysis Warhead and Call of Duty: World at War are two First-Person Shooter games that will demand a high spec system in order to play at maximum settings. Complex 3d games test the performance of our CPU, RAM and Graphics Card. Both of these titles are worthy candidates to benchmark whether our system is a true gaming system or not.
And onto the testing...
