System setup and notes
Here's a quick rundown of the test system should you wish to compare benchmark results with your own.
- AMD XP2400+ CPU (133FSB and 166FSB)
- EPoX 8K9A2+ KT400 Motherboard (K9A22A25.BIN BIOS)
- Taisol 760 cooler
- Intel 2.53GHz Northwood CPU
- Iwill P4HT-S i845PE motherboard (run in DDR333 mode)
- Thermaltake S478 cooler
Common components
- ATi Radeon 9700 Pro (324/320)
- 256MB Corsair XMS3200 C2 run at 2-5-2-2 at DDR333 for both motherboards
- 61.5GB IBM 120GXP Hard Drive.
- Liteon 16x DVD
- Samcheer 420w PSU
- Samsung 181T TFT monitor
Software
- Windows XP Professional Build 2600.xpclient.010817-1148
- VIA 4-in-1s, 4.43
- Intel 4.00.109 chipset drivers
- Intel application accelerator drivers
- Plutonium XP 8.1 Radeon Drivers (based on ATI CATALYST build 6166)
- SiSoft SANDRA SP1
- Pifast v41
- Lame v3.91 MP3 encoding with Razor-Lame 1.15 front-end using U2's Pop album
- Virtual Dub 1.4.10 DVD encoding, DivX 4.12 CODEC
- OcUK SETI benchmark
- 3DMark 2001SE
- UT2003 Demo
- Comanche 4 benchmark
- Serious Sam 2 Demo
- Quake 3 v1.30
Notes
As the testing components / drivers have changed considerably since I last looked at a number of AMD-based motherboards, I'll be starting from scratch again. Due to the fact that the motherboard fully unlocks our test XP2400 processor, I'll be running the EPoX motherboard at both 2000MHz / 133FSB / 166MHz memory (DDR333) (15x multiplier) and at 2000MHz / 166FSB / 166MHz memory (12x multiplier). The AGP / PCI divider at 166FSB ensures that everything is in specification once more. It should also show just what a benefit the benchmarks obtain by running the processor on a faster FSB. The system memory is being run at the strictest timings possible: 2-5-2-2 1T at 166MHz (DDR333).
To see how well it stacks up against the competition, I'll include benchmarks from an Intel-based machine running a similarly-priced, stock 2.53GHz Northwood CPU on an i845PE motherboard. I'll add the results of forthcoming AMD motherboards in due course. It'll be interesting to see how the results compare against the rival platform.
Stability was excellent throughout testing. Strangely, our tested Corsair XMS3200 C2 module simply didn't like DIMM slot 1. It would refuse to run at 166MHz with the strictest timings irrespective of voltage applied. It was fine in slots 2 and 3 though.
Overclocking
I have to comment on the fact that the Northbridge got pretty hot when run at 166FSB; some active cooling would not have gone amiss. I managed to get to 184FSB before the test Radeon 9700 Pro began to experience problems with the out-of-specification AGP bus (74MHz AGP). The gaming benchmarks would simply freeze irrespective of CPU speed and memory timings. I wish the KT400 had a bus-locking feature found on Intel motherboards.
