System setup and notes
Here's a quick rundown of the test system should you wish to compare
benchmark results with your own.
ASUS A8V Deluxe VIA K8T800 Pro S939 motherboard (1005 BIOS)
MSI K8T Gem (MSI 7032) VIA K8T800 Pro S939 motherboard
ASUS P4C800-E i875P (Rev 1.15 BIOS)
EPoX 8HDA3+ VIA K8T880 S754 motherboard (02/12/03 BIOS)
ASUS SK8N nForce3 Pro 150 S940 motherboard (Rev 1005 Beta 006)
AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 S939 CPU - 2.4GHz - 1.5v
AMD Athlon 64 Model 3800+ S939 CPU - 2.4GHz - 1.5v
AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 S940 CPU - 2.4GHz -
1.5v
AMD Athlon 64 Model 3400+ S754 CPU - 2.2GHz - 1.5v
Intel Pentium 4 3.4GHz Prescott S478 CPU - 1.4v
Intel Pentium 4 3.4GHz Northwood S478 CPU -
1.6v
Intel Pentium 4 3.4GHz Northwood Extreme
Edition S478 CPU - 1.6v
Other components
2 x 256MB Corsair XMS3500C2, run at 2-2-2-6 for all S478 CPUs and S754
2 x 512MB Legacy Electronics DDR400 Registered / ECC memory used for FX-53 (S940), run at 2.5-3-3-5
2 x 512MB Corsair XMS3200LLPT DDR400 for S939 CPUs, run at 2-3-2-6
ATI Radeon 9800 XT 256MB (412/730)
Western Digital 160GB PATA hard drive
Toshiba 8x DVD
Samcheer 420w PSU
Dell P991 19" monitor
Zalman 7000Cu S478 / 754 / S939 cooler
Software
Windows XP Professional SP1 with latest updates
DirectX9.0b
VIA Hyperion 4.51 drivers
Intel 5.02.1002 chipset drivers
ATI CATALYST 4.1 drivers and control panel
Pifast v41 to 10m places
Lame v3.92 MP3 encoding with Razor-Lame 1.15 front-end using U2's Pop album
(607MB)
Gordian Knot - XviD encoding test using first vob of Sleepy Hollow. 1433kbit/s
bitrate
Kribi Bench v1.1
ScienceMark 2.0
Realstorm Raytracing benchmark 320x180x32
3DMark 2001SE v330
UT2003 Retail (Build 2225)
X²: The Threat - Rolling Demo
Comanche 4 benchmark
Quake 3 v1.30 HQ
Notes
No fewer than 7 CPUs on 5 different platforms should make for a decent high-end comparison. We'll do well to remember that all of AMD's three premier CPUs run at 2.4Ghz, that is, the FX-53 (both S939 and S940) and Model 3800+, all of which use dual-channel memory. Intel's moved on to a non-MHz rating now, too. Running speed of the board was exactly 200MHz driven clock, giving an overall speed of 2400MHz. No problems to report during installation or testing.
Overclocking
Not too great, I'm afraid. As mentioned, stability was compromised at driven clock speeds in excess of 220MHz. It's not a case of the CPU topping out, either, as we set the final clock speed to 1800MHz, giving a multiplier of 9x.
