System setup and notes
Hardware and Software
Test Platforms
| Dell XPS Gen-4 System | SCAN 3XS ISOTOPE System | MV Cubik GamePro System | HEXUS Pentium 4 660 System | |
| Processor(s) | Intel Pentium 4 560 - 3.6GHz, 1MB L2 cache | AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (Clawhammer core) 2.4GHz, 1MB L2 cache | AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (Winchester core) 2.2GHz, 512kb L2 cache | Intel Pentium 4 660 - 3.6GHz, 2MB L2 cache |
| Mainboard | Dell i925X | Foxconn NF4K8MC nForce4 | Shuttle SN95G5 chassis (FN95 m/b) | EPoX 5LWA+ i925XE |
| Memory | 1GByte (2x512MB) Infineon DDR2-PC4300 | 1GByte (2x512MB) Corsair XMS3200XL | 1GByte (2x512MB) Corsair XMS3200C2PT | 1GByte (2x512MB) Crucial Ballistix DDR2-PC5400 | Memory timings | 4-4-4-12 | 2-2-2-5 | 3-3-3-8 | 4-4-4-12 |
| Graphics Card | ATI RADEON X850 XT PE 256MB - PEG16X - CATALYST 5.3 | GeForce 6800 GT 256MB - PEG16X - ForceWare 71.89 | Inno3D GeForce 6800 GT 256MB - AGP - ForceWare 71.89 | ATI RADEON X850 XT PE 256MB - PEG16X - CATALYST 5.3 | Disk Drive | Maxtor MaxLineII 250GB SATA | Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 250GB SATA | Hitachi Desktar 7K250 250GB SATA | Maxtor MaxLineII 250GB SATA |
| BIOS Version | 21/02/2005 | 18/12/2004 | 10/08/2004 | 23/02/2005 |
| Operating System | Windows XP Professional w/SP2 | Windows XP Professional w/SP2 | Windows XP Home w/SP2 | Windows XP Professional w/SP2 |
| Price | £1,799 inc. VAT (inc. 19" CRT and speakers) | £1,449 inc. VAT | £1,129 inc. VAT | ~£1,299 inc. VAT (base unit) |
Benchmark Software
HEXUS Pifast Benchmark
ScienceMark 2.0 (7th February 2005)
Realstorm 2004
CINEBENCH 2003 multi-CPU render
HEXUS.in-house MP3 Encoding Benchmark using LAME 3.97a (Intel HT compiler) - 701MB WAV
picCOLOR 32-bit v4.0
KribiBench v1.1.9
Microsoft Movie Maker 2.1
USB2.0 transfer test
DOOM 3 Timedemo 1
3DMark05 v1.2.0
3DMark2001SE b330
UT2003 Bot Match
Notes
The performance of Dell's XPS system will be judged alongside a couple of small form-factor PCs using AMD Athlon 64 CPUs and to HEXUS' own Pentium 4 660 (3.6GHz, 2MB L2 cache, EMT64) system that's housed in the black CoolerMaster case you saw for reference a couple of pages back. The HEXUS system features the same video card, hard drive and same speed of memory as the Dell XPS.
The XPS Gen-4 was a paradigm of stability during the review period. The very fact that it's extremely quiet is a definite bonus.
Clock speeds and memory timings for the various systems were as follows:
3630.8MHz - EPoX 5LWA+ - Intel Pentium 4 660 - HEXUS P4 660
3590.9MHz - Intel Pentium 4 560 - Dell Dimensions XPS Gen-4
2412.2MHz - AMD Athlon 64 4000+ - SCAN ISOTOPE
2210.8MHz - AMD Athlon 64 3500+ - MV Cubik GamePro
