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Let's start the testing with
Sandra and the Winstones both at Default settings and
overclocked, but first let's take a look at our setup and
testing methodology.
Motherboard:
Soltek SL-75MRN-L
Common
Hardware and Software:
AMD 2600+ Athlon Processor
333MHz FSB
2 x 256MB Kingston HyperX
PC3500 Memory
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200
(Drivers - v.41.09 WHQL)
On-board IGP GeForce4
Seagate 40GB ATA-100
7200RPM Hard Drive
On-board 6-channel Sound
WinXP Professional w/ SP1
DirectX 8.1
NVIDIA Unified Driver
Package v2.0
TESTING
METHODOLOGY:
Before we run
any benchmarks, we feel it necessary to make clear exactly
what it is we do to get our test systems up and running.
When testing the Soltek SL-75MRN-L motherboard, the first
thing we did was enter the system BIOS and set the board to
"Load Optimized Defaults". We then configured the Memory CAS
Latency, and other related memory timings, to be set by the
SPD (Serial Presence Detect). The hard drive was then
formatted, and Windows XP Professional with SP1 was
installed. After the Windows XP Professional installation
had completed, we hit the Windows Update site and downloaded
all of the available updates. Then we installed all of the
necessary drivers, disabled and removed Windows Messenger,
disabled Auto-Updating, disabled System Restore and set a
768MB permanent page file. Lastly, we set the Visual Effects
to "best performance", installed all of our benchmarking
software, defragged the hard drive and ran all of the tests
at the CPU's default and overclocked speeds.
KINGSTON
HYPER-X MEMORY:
One last, but certainly not
least, note to make before running any test, is regarding
out memory of choice around the HH Labs,
Kingston Technology's
new 256MB Hyper-X PC3500
memory modules. This stuff is rated at CAS 2.0 at
217MHz ( DDR434 ) and we were able to run this memory at
timings of 2-2-2-5 at DDR333 and even as high as DDR364
without one hiccup. This product can handle what you
throw at it and has proven to be very high quality DDR DRAM
product, as you will see in the upcoming benchmarks.
If you have a dual channel DDR configuration or are just
looking for some high performance memory, then hook yourself
up with some Kingston Hyper-X memory. These sticks
usually come in a little cheaper than a few of the top
competitors as well, so you'll have yourself a great upgrade
without over-paying.
OVERCLOCKING
EXPERIENCE:
Overclocking with this
motherboard was simple, although the results weren't as
great as we had hoped when starting out. The highest,
stable FSB we could reach was 182MHz x 12.5 ( 2275MHz ).
This isn't too shabby but is only a 200MHz overclock from
default settings. We were able to boot into Windows
and run a few benchmarks at 185MHz FSB giving us 2312MHz,
but not all benchmarks would complete. We did managed
to hit the 182MHz FSB with the CPU vcore set at 1.80v.
We then bumped the vcore all the way up to 1.85v to hit the
higher FSB frequencies, but the system became unstable.
To be sure the memory wasn't our culprit at 185MHz FSB, I
backed way off on the timings, but to no avail. We
will have to put the blame on the cooling system being used.
The test setup is in open-air, but the HSF was only a stock
Athlon cooler which performs only adequately. With a
more efficient cooling system, it's possible higher FSB
frequencies could be achieved, but as we like to say up in
here in Maine, "It's hard tellin', not knowin'". Okay,
so we've seen the setup, let's get the results of the tests.
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SiSoft
Sandra and Overclocking Tests |
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Simple performance
metrics |
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Sandra Testing: Default Settings DDR333
|
Sandra
CPU
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Sandra
MM
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Sandra
MEM
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For the default
settings, we have the memory at 333MHz with 2-2-2-5 timings.
We were able to hit these aggressive timings with the
Kingston Hyper-X memory no problem at all. With this
setup, we are seeing some of the best scores we have seen
from an nForce2 motherboard compared to others we have
tested. The Sandra memory test came in at 2582MB/s!
That's the best score we've seen to date from an nForce2
board. There's no doubt the great memory helped
achieve such a great score.
Sandra Testing: Overclocked DDR364
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Sandra CPU
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Sandra MM
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Sandra MEM
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For overclocking we kept the
memory at the same settings and ran all our tests at 182MHz
front-side bus which gives us DDR364. This
overclock was reached with the CPU vcore set to 1.80v.
The Soltek motherboard scores very well across the board in
the Sandra tests and once gain manages to post a respectable
score in the memory test at 2796 MB/s. We have managed
to post higher scores in the memory test with other nForce2
boards, so we were a bit disappointed, given the fact we had
what is arguably the best memory available installed on this
motherboard.
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ZD
eTesting Labs Business and Content Creation
Winstones |
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Desktop Application
Performance |
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The Business
Winstone tests include:
-
Five Microsoft
Office 2000 applications (Access, Excel, FrontPage,
PowerPoint, and Word)
-
Microsoft
Project 98
-
Lotus Notes R5
-
NicoMak WinZip
-
Norton
Antivirus
-
Netscape
Communicator
In the Winstones
we can see the comparison charts. In Business Winstone
2002, the Soltek motherboard scores at the low end compared
to our other nForce2 setups although not by a huge margin.
All these tests were completed without any blunders at both
the default and overclocked settings. Although the
scores are a bit lower, Soltek has informed us that they set
out to deliver a very reliable, all-in-one solution...
So far, we'll concur with their claim.
Content
Creation Winstone 2002 tests include:
- Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1
- Adobe Premiere 6.0
- Macromedia Director 8.5
- Macromedia Dreamweaver
UltraDev 4
- Microsoft Windows Media
Encoder 7.01.00.3055
- Netscape Navigator 6/6.01
- Sonic Foundry Sound Forge
5.0c (build 184)
Here we see the
Soltek SL-75MRN-L motherboard balancing itself out in the
middle of the pack. One point to observe here is the
fact these scores differ by very little. We're talking less
than 1% and that, my friends, is unnoticeable to any
end-user. What is noticeable, however, is if a
motherboard can't complete tests and proves to be unstable.
This Soltek motherboard has been as solid as a rock
throughout the tests so far. Let's see how the Soltek
motherboard fares in gaming benchmarks.
Quake
3 and Comanche 4 |