Systems' setup and notes
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Here's a quick rundown of the test system should you wish to compare benchmark results with your own.
Other components
Software
VIA recommended using a single 512MB DIMM for testing. It's in-house testing highlighted the fact that the reference board may not be fully stable with 2 DIMMS at DDR400 speeds. However, testing showed that our sample was perfectly stable with 2 x 256MB Corsair XMS3500 sticks at DDR400 speeds with 2-6-2-2 timings. We must note that the Corsair DIMMs were single-sided in nature and not what VIA ideally recommends for pure performance. We'll be looking at the effects of different memory sizes and types when we conduct a multi-board PT800 roundup in the near future; stay tuned. We experienced no untoward performance issues when running at stock speeds. 15 complete runs of 3DMark 2001SE v330 indicated that basic stability wasn't a problem. Another aspect to note before we benchmark is that the EPoX Springdale board features a new BIOS with a far more aggressive memory implementation, giving Canterwood-beating performance. For the record, we'll state the running speeds of each board. 3222.6MHz - EPoX 4PDA2+ i865PE 3216.6MHz - VIA PT800 reference board 3207.5MHz - DFI LANParty 875Pro Canterwood 2205.3MHZ - EPoX 8RDA3+ nForce2 Ultra 400 (AMD) So it's a refined single-channel chipset against two dual-channel Intel heavyweights and the cream of the crop as far as AMD is concerned, all battling it out at 200FSB.
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