Aria GLADIATOR Sparta i5 4.40GHz Overclocked Bundle Review

HandBrake is a fantastic free program that can be used to convert video files to many common formats for portable devices. HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multi-platform, multi-threaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows.

We used the latest V 0.9.9 version.

For our testing today we are converting a 4.4GB 720p MKV file (1h:58mins) to MP4 format, using HandBrake's ‘Normal' profile, for playback on High-Resolution devices. This is a common procedure for many people and will give a good indication of system power.

Handbrake is far more multi-threaded than its Cyberlink counterpart. Even with a 500MHz frequency boost over the forced-turbo 4770K, the 4670K-based Gladiator Sparta i5 bundle cannot get near the performance of our stock-clocked i7.

Our similarly-priced AMD FX-8350-based system is beaten by the Aria bundle by a considerable margin, however.