System setup and notes
Here's a quick rundown of the test system should you wish to compare benchmark results with your own.- DFI LANPARTY 925X-T2 i925X motherboard
- ASUS A8V Deluxe S939 VIA K8T800 Pro motherboard
Other components
Software
- Windows XP Professional
I've chosen to compare the DFI 925X-T2 Alderwood board to a comparable AMD setup. Intel's recent price drops now puts an LGA755 560 (3.6GHz) processor nearer the price of AMD's Athlon 64 3500+ (2.2GHz). PCI-Express and AGP GeForce 6800 GTs were used for testing. Although we've previously tested ASUS' 915/925 boards, the use of PEG Link to overclock graphics cards makes the comparison between them and DFI's board redundant.
DFI hasn't indulged in Front-Side Bus overclocking as a means to artificially boost performance. A FSB of 200.02MHz gave an overall running speed of 3600.25MHz.
Overclocking
Enthusiasts have been spoiled ever since i865PE/i875P boards were released. Air-cooled Front-Side Bus speeds of 300MHz weren't uncommon. 250MHz FSB was considered a given for most boards and you'd be considered unlucky if a stable 275MHz FSB wasn't achievable with a little tweaking.
That's why it's been disappointing to see most 900-series boards lose stability at only ~230MHz FSB. A non-working PCIe bus lock seems to be the biggest culprit and obstacle in the way of achieving i875P-like clocks. DFI's BIOS, as mentioned, implies a working PCIe bus-fixing function. However, even after setting the most conservative, overclocking-friendly timings avaiable our sample simply refused to boot at anything above 230MHz FSB. That's hugely disappointing from an enthusiast's point of view. Generally speaking, FSB overclocking is not a forte of 915/925 chipsets.
