Data Compression and Audio Encoding

WinRAR 3.51

Our own custom WinRAR benchmark, this test takes a large 650 MB text file and compresses it with the highest compression option. 

Alienware Aurora 7500 System Review: FX-62 and 7950 GX2 - Systems 80

Alienware Aurora 7500 System Review: FX-62 and 7950 GX2 - Systems 81

WinZIP 8.1

This test does basically the same thing in the World Bench suite but with WinZIP instead.

Alienware Aurora 7500 System Review: FX-62 and 7950 GX2 - Systems 82

LAME MT MP3 Encoding

This custom test uses the LAME MT engine to benchmark encoding a 650 MB WAV file into a standard 128 kbps MP3 file.  We used the Microsoft compiler for the most fair results.

Alienware Aurora 7500 System Review: FX-62 and 7950 GX2 - Systems 83

Alienware Aurora 7500 System Review: FX-62 and 7950 GX2 - Systems 84
(lower is better)

MusicMatch Jukebox 7.10

This World Bench test also encodes ripped WAV files into MP3 using the popular MusicMatch software.

Alienware Aurora 7500 System Review: FX-62 and 7950 GX2 - Systems 85

Here we see more indication that the hard drives Alienware is using is likely the limiting factor in these benchmarks — making the Aurora fall behind.  Interestingly, when looking at the MP3 encoding results, the Aurora 7500 is just as fast as the DIY system when multithreaded options are enabled.

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