System setup and notes
Hardware and Software
Test Platforms
| System | Shuttle SD31P System | Intel i955X System | Intel i945G System | Foxconn C51GK8MA System | SAPPHIRE PURE Innovation System | ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 System | ABIT AX8 S939 System |
| Processor(s) | Intel Pentium 4 660 | Intel Pentium 4 660 | Intel Pentium 4 660 | AMD Athlon 64 4000+ | AMD Athlon 64 4000+ | AMD Athlon 64 4000+ | AMD Athlon 64 4000+ |
| Mainboard | Shuttle FD31 (integrated into chassis) | ABIT AW8-MAX | Intel i945G reference | Foxconn C51GK8MA nForce4 430 | SAPPHIRE PURE Innovation PI-A9RX480 - ATI RX480 | ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 nForce4 Ultra | ABIT AX8 VIA K8T890 |
| Memory | 1GByte (2x512MB) Corsair XMS2-5400UL | 1GByte (2x512MB) Corsair XMS2-5400UL | 1GByte (2x512MB) Corsair XMS2-5400UL | 1GByte (2x512MB) Corsair XMS3200XL | 1GByte (2x512MB) Corsair XMS3200XL | 1GByte (2x512MB) Corsair XMS3200XL | 1GByte (2x512MB) Corsair XMS3200XL | Memory timings | 3-2-2-8 @ DDR533 | 3-2-2-8 @ DDR533 | 3-2-2-8 @ DDR533 | 2-2-2-5 1T @ DDR400 | 2-2-2-5 1T @ DDR400 | 2-2-2-5 1T @ DDR400 | 2-2-2-5 1T @ DDR400 |
| Discrete Graphics Card | GeForce 7800 GT - 77.77 drivers | ||||||
| Onboard graphics | Intel GMA950 - 4384 drivers | - | Intel GMA950 - 4384 drivers | GeForce 6150 - 81.32 drivers | - | - | - | Disk Drive | 160GB WD IDE & 36GB SATA Raptor |
| BIOS Version | BIOS 16th Augutst 2005 | BIOS 1.2 | NT94510J.86A.0897 | BIOS 26th Augutst 2005 | BIOS 9th Augutst 2005 | BIOS 13 - 25th April 2005 | BIOS 13 |
| Operating System | Windows XP Professional, SP2 (32-bit) | ||||||
| Mainboard Software | Intel INF Update Utility 7.0.0.1019 | Intel INF Update Utility 7.0.0.1019 | Intel INF Update Utility 7.0.0.1019 | NVIDIA ForceWare 8.12 platform driver | ATI CATLYST 5.7 IGP | NVIDIA ForceWare 6.39 platform driver | VIA Hyperion Pro v4.55 |
Benchmark Software
HEXUS.in-house Cryptography Benchmark
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
KribiBench v1.1
Microsoft Movie Maker 2.1
Simpli Software's HDTach 3.01
DOOM 3 Timedemo 1
3DMar05 b1.2.0
Far Cry v1.3
Notes
Once again, no problems at all to report during installation or testing of the sample unit.
We'll be looking at performance against a trio of S939 chipsets and a couple of LGA775 chipsets from Intel. Integrated graphics will be compared to a discrete 32MB GeForce 6200 TurboCache card and to NVIDIA's GeForce 6150 accelerator, as found on the Foxconn C51GK8MA motherboard.
The running speed of the four PCI-Express-based systems were as follows:
3616.2MHz - Shuttle SD31P - Intel i945G - Intel Pentium 4 660
3600.2MHz - Intel i945GTP - Intel i945G - Intel Pentium 4 660
3592.2MHz - ABIT AW8-MAX - Intel i955X - Intel Pentium 4 660
2411.2MHz - ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 - nForce4 Ultra - AMD Athlon 64 4000+
2411.1MHz - Foxconn C51GK8MA - nForce4 430/6150 - AMD Athlon 64 4000+
2410.9MHz - SAPPHIRE PURE Innovation PI-A9RX480 - ATI Xpress 200P - AMD Athlon 64 4000+
2405.4MHz - ABIT AX8 - VIA K8T890 - AMD Athlon 64 4000+
The SD31P is run a touch faster than both a reference i945G motherboard and a retail ABIT AW8-MAX i955X.
Overclocking
A quick bout of tinkering with an unlocked Pentium 4 660 CPU gave us a stable, overclocked FSB speed of 275MHz. That's quite impressive considering that fan speeds were set to medium in both cases.
