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 SB61G2R RefleXion XPC SFF platform with FB61 motherboard
Other components
- ATI Radeon 9
Software
- Windows XP Professional
The strangest of issues presented itself once the RefleXion booted. It would steadfastedly refuse to boot from the IBM primary IDE drive. The drive was recognised in BIOS correctly, but the pre-OS screen would consistently report the dreaded words of 'DISK BOOT FAILURE'. Given an hour to rest, it booted and installed Windows XP fine. I only mention it because it's one of the more bizarre anomalies ever encountered. No other strange behaviour to report.
It installed all requisite drivers correctly. The BIOS has a lofty 355MHz FSB ceiling. Overclocking was undertaken by reducing the test 3.2GHz CPU's multiplier to 12x and raising the FSB. One loop of 3DMark 2001SE was run to ensure basic stability. We'd seen the SB65G2 hit 260MHz FSB. The RefleXion went a step further and was perfectly stable at 270MHz (DDR320 setting). It even managed to operate at 280MHz+ FSB, but it would run into the odd freeze or otherwise unexplained crash.
You can't argue with that kind of potential.
I've banged on my personal drum about this before. 2D quality via the onboard graphics is dire. It caused the screen to blur noticeably on a Sony (Dell branded) 19" flat-faced CRT at 1280x1024x32. We suppose that one could get used to its output. Intel really does need to rectify its performance in 2D and 3D.
Benchmarks were conducted at 1024x768x32 @ 85Hz unless otherwise stated. The running speed of the protagonists were as follows:
3207.7MHz - P4 3.2GHz / RefleXion (Springdale i865G)
3192.5MHz - P4 3.2GHz / ST61G4 (ATI Radeon 9100 IGP)
1999.8MHz - Athlon 64 3200+ / SN85G4 (nForce3 150)
