System setup and notes
Here's a quick rundown of the test system should you wish to compare benchmark results with your own.- AOpen AK86-L K8T800 chipset-based motherboard (R1.09 BIOS, 07/03/2004)
- EPoX 8HDA3+ K8T800 chipset-based motherboard (02/12/2003 BIOS)
- DFI i865PE Springdale motherboard with PAT-like BIOS (19/12/2003 BIOS)
Other components
- ATI Radeon 9
Software
- Windows XP Professional
AOpen's AK86-L will be directly compared to EPoX's 8HDA3+ motherboard that's powered by the same K8T800 chipset. We'll also throw in a DFI i865PE LANPARTY motherboard and Pentium 4 3.4GHz Northwood combination. The DFI board uses a PAT-like BIOS for near-Canterwood performance. No issues or anomalies were encountered during testing. A couple of differences between the K8T800 boards will influence results. Firstly, the AK86-L ran the test AMD Athlon 64 3400+ CPU at 2199.9MHz. The EPoX board, however, inflated the FSB just a touch, so overall running speed was 2208.4MHz. Secondly, the 8HDA3+ could only run with a CAS latency of 2.5 clocks whilst the AOpen managed our regular 2-2-2-6 settings just fine.
Running speeds were as follows:
3207.5MHz - Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz / DFI i865PE LANPARTY (Springdale 2-2-2-6)
2208.4MHz - AMD Athlon 64 Model 3400+ / EPoX 8HDA3+ (K8T800 - 2.5-2-2-6)
2199.9MHz - AMD Athlon 64 Model 3400+ / AOpen AK86-L (K8T800 - 2-2-2-6)
Overclocking
Running past specifications on a KT880 chipset is fraught with obvious danger. You can lower maximum memory clocks to limit the problems associated with pushing the memory controller past rated speeds, reduce the LDT bus speed, ramp up voltages, but you can't ignore the lack bus locking. We managed a steady 224MHz top speed, which is in line with results obtained from other K8T800-based boards.
