System setups and notes
Here's a quick rundown of the test system should you wish to compare benchmark results with your own.- AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Clawhammer CPU. RAM running with an 10 divisor (DDR400, single channel)
- Intel Pentium 4 3.2GHz ES 800FSB CPU
- Shuttle ST61G4 XPC SFF platform with Radeon 9100 IGP (13/11/03 BIOS)
- Shuttle SB62G2 XPC SFF platform with i865G onboard graphics
- Shuttle SN85G4 XPC SFF platform with FN85 nForce3 150 motherboard
Other components
- AT
Software
- Windows XP Professional
Notes
We were unable to run the ST61G4 with our preferred 2-2-2-6 latencies. As explained before, the chipset would often re-apply SPD latencies when we attempted inputting aggressive DRAM latency timing. After trying a number of different parameters in an effort to gain maximum performance, we settled for 2-2-4-8 timings. These aren't as strict as the other two comparison Shuttles', but it's about as tight as we could go with some proven Corsair XMS3500C2 RAM and 2.8v DDR voltage.
2D quality was pretty sharp with the onboard graphics, right up to 1600x1200x32. If solely judged on 2D quality, we'd take ATI's Radeon 9100 IGP over Intel's i865G onboard graphics every time. We also know that the former has more 3D clout than Intel's Extreme Graphics 2, so we expect it to benchmark well in the gaming section. To that end, we'll run the ST61G4 against the SB62G2 (i865G chipset, Intel dual-channel) and SN85G4 (AMD Athlon 64 Clawhammer / nForce3 150) XPC systems. The SB62G2's numbers will be of most interest. It does exactly what the ST61G4 purports to do, that is, support all Intel S478 CPUs, use a dual-channel memory architecture, and support onboard graphics. We'll, therefore, run the similar XPCs with a discrete Radeon 9800 Pro and with onboard graphics. (limited to the gaming section)
When attempting to use the onboard video's S-Video socket, it appeared as if one couldn't set independent display modes for both the default CRT and S-Video output. That meant that we couldn't watch TV output and have the primary display set to CRT. Switching to the TV tab forced the primary display off and vice-versa. That's kind of annoying as one of the ST61G4's appealing traits is in providing excellent video feeds to TVs and LCD screens. The latter cannot be connected natively, either, as there's no DVI socket on the I/O section.
During week-long testing, the ST61G4 would sometimes reboot as soon as Windows XP had loaded. At other times, however, it would remain perfectly stable. If it managed to load the desktop and associated programs, it would inevitably be stable as the proverbial rock. The rebooting could not be pinpointed to any one component or driver. Somewhat strange. It would also, at times, refuse to recognise the attachment of a USB-powered D-Link Wi-Fi adapter. Perhaps these small problems are peculiar to our sample. Perhaps not. Benchmarks were conducted three times and the highest and lowest results were discarded.
The running speed of the protagonists were as follows:
3207.7MHz - P4 3.2GHz / SB62G2 (Springdale i865G)
3192.5MHz - P4 3.2GHz / ST61G4 (ATI Radeon 9100 IGP)
1999.8MHz - Athlon 64 3200+ / SN85G4 (nForce3 150)
It's rare to see a motherboard run the CPU at below spec. speeds. The ST61G4 gives away around 15MHz to the SB62G2. Please bear that in mind when comparing results.
