System setup and notes
Hardware and Software
Test Platforms
| System | Dell Inspiron XPS Gen 2 laptop | Rock Xtreme Ti laptop | AMD Athlon 64 desktop system |
| Processor(s) | Intel Pentium M 770 | Intel Pentium 4 560 | AMD Athlon 64 4000+ |
| Mainboard | Intel i915PM Sonoma | Intel i915P PCI-Express | ABIT AX8 VIA K8T890 PCI-Express |
| Memory | 1GByte (2x512MB) Samsung PC4200 DDR2 SODIMMs | 1GByte (2x512MB) Samsung PC4200 DDR2 SODIMMs | 1GByte (2x512MB) Corsair XMS3200XL | Memory timings | 4-4-4-11 | 4-4-4-11 | 2-2-2-5 1T |
| Graphics Cards | GeForce 6800 Go Ultra 256MB | Mobility RADEON X800 256MB | GeForce 6800 GT 256MB (desktop) | Disk drive(s) | Fujitsu 100GB 4,200RPM | 2x 60GB Hitachi 7,200RPM in RAID0 | 160GB Western Digital 160JB | Screen | 17-inch WUXGA (1920x1200) | 17-inch WSXGA (1680x1050) | 20-inch Dell 2001FP (1600x1200) | Operating system | Windows XP Home SP2 | Windows XP Home SP2 | Windows XP Professional SP2 | Price | £2099 inc. VAT | £2062 inc. VAT | £1500 inc. VAT |
Benchmark Software
HEXUS.in-house Cryptography Benchmark
HEXUS Pifast Benchmark
ScienceMark 2.0 (7th February 2005)
Realstorm 2004
CINEBENCH 2003 multi-CPU render
HEXUS.in-house MP3 Encoding Benchmark using LAME 3.97a (Intel HT compiler) - 701MB WAV
picCOLOR 32-bit v4.0
KribiBench v1.1
Simpli Software's HDTach 3.01
DOOM 3 Timedemo 1
3DMark05 b1.2.0
Half-Lfe 2 - HEXUS custom benchmark (prison demo)
Notes
I'll be comparing the performance of Dell's Inspiron XPS Gen 2 against another £2000-ish DTR laptop. This time, however, Rock's Xtreme Ti weighs in at an unfriendly 5.5KG but uses a similar screen. It will be interesting to see how a Pentium M 770 and Pentium 4 560 compare against one another in our benchmark suite. Both laptops were run with mains power and power attributes set to maximum performance. Added to the mix is a top-end Athlon 64 desktop system complete with GeForce 6800 GT 256MB video card. This comparative system will give you some idea of just how well DTR laptops stack up against a decent PC.
No problems to report during testing. Dell's Inspiron XPS Gen 2 was the paradigm of stability and, just as importantly for some, quietness. As with most laptop vendors, Dell used proprietory drivers that were on a par with the Detonator 71.89 release. Dell also locks you out of any performance-enhancing settings in BIOS, unfortunately. Guess it decreases the number of RMAs issued.
Gentlemen, start your salivating!
