System setup, notes, and overclocking
Here's a quick rundown of the test system should you wish to compare benchmark results with your own.
- Intel Pentium 4 2800MHz 533FSB S478 Northwood CPU
- MSI 648 MAX SiS648 motherboard run in DDR-333 and DDR-400 modes
- Gigabyte 8IHXP i850E motherboard run at 533FSB with PC1066 RAMBUS
- ABIT IT7-MAX I845E run in DDR266 (supported) mode
Common components
- Leadtek GeForce4 Ti 4600 128MB at stock speeds (300/648)
- 256MB Mushkin PC3200 RAM run at CL 2 Ultra 1T timings in DDR333 mode and CL2.5 Fast 1T timings at DDR400 (Run at 133MHz 2-5-2-2 Enhance on the IT7)
- Samsung PC1066 RAMBUS run at PC1066 at 133FSB
- 120GB Western Digital 120JB 7200rpm hard drive with 8MB cache.
- Liteon 16x DVD
- Samcheer 420w PSU
- 21" Sony G500 FD monitor
- Thermaltake S478 cooler
Software
- Windows XP Professional Build 2600.xpclient.010817-1148
- SiS v1.11 AGP and IDE drivers
- Intel chipset drivers
- Detonator XP 40.41 drivers
- Sisoft Sandra 2002 Professional
- Pifast v41
- PC Mark 2002
- Lame v3.91 MP3 encoding with Razor-Lame 1.15 front-end
- OcUK SETI benchmark
- 3DMark 2001SE
- Unreal Tournament 2003 Demo
- Comanche 4 benchmark
- Serious Sam 2 Demo
- Quake 3 v1.30
Notes
Thanks to some excellent Mushkin RAM, I'll be benchmarking the MSI MAX 648 in its supported DDR-333 mode with Ultra and 1T timings. I also managed to get the MAX 648 stable using the DDR-400 option (2:3 ratio). To achieve stability I had to lower the timings to 'Fast' and use a CAS Latency of 2.5 clocks. These diminished timings will not put the DDR-400's benchmarks in the best possible light. I have to note that I tried using some proven Corsair XMS3200 C2 RAM. I simply couldn't get it stable at 'Turbo' settings at 166MHz memory. I have no idea as to why as it can run up to 220MHz, using CAS2, on an i845E motherboard.
I'll be comparing the MAX 648's performance the Gigabyte RAMBUS-powered 8IHXP and the i845E-based IT7-MAX motherboard. To keep things strictly by specification, I'll run the i845E motherboard at its supported DDR266 mode and not the DDR356 mode that can be implemented with a BIOS trick.
Overclocking
This is the fourth SiS648-based motherboard that I have personally tested. As yet, none have gained excellent stability when pushed much over 150FSB. Unfortunately, that remains true with the MSI 648 MAX. Using a proven 2.26GHz Northwood, one that has run as high as 185FSB in an ABIT IT7 (i845E), I could only manage 151FSB before random crashes set in. If you're looking to overclock your processor significantly, stay clear of the SiS 648 chipset. The limited Vcore, although not a problem with FSB testing, could also be a limiting factor for you.
Stability
Although overclocking potential was lacking from this motherboard, stability wasn't. I left it running SETI overnight using Ultra memory timings and 1.6v Vcore. It was, quite expectedly, still crunching 12 hours later.
