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Let's start the testing with
SANDRA and the Winstones, both at default and overclocked
speeds, but first
let's take a look at our setup.
Motherboard:
Abit NF7-S
Common
Hardware and Software:
AMD 2600+ Athlon Processor
333MHz FSB
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200
(Drivers - v.40.72 WHQL)
Seagate 40GB ATA-100
7200RPM Hard Drive
On board sound
WinXP Professional w/ SP1
DirectX 8.1
NVIDIA Unified Driver
Package v2.0
 |
|
SiSoft Sandra
and Overclocking Tests |
|
Simple performance metrics |
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Sandra Testing:
Default Settings DDR333
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Sandra CPU
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Sandra MM
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Sandra MEM
 |
For the default
settings, we have the memory at 333MHz with 8-4-4-2.5
timings. Not the most aggressive, but we were only
using PC2700 sticks. We also kept these settings so we
could compare to our previous scores taken from our
Chaintech and Leadtek nForce2 board
comparison. Comparing these
results to our other boards, the Abit falls in the middle
for CPU and Multimedia scores by a few points, but
takes the crown in the Sandra Memory test with a score of
2517 MB/s. That's a pretty amazing score considering
we were not overclocking.
Sandra Testing:
Overclocked DDR364
|
Sandra CPU
 |
Sandra MM
|
Sandra MEM
 |
For the overclocking test, we kept the
board at the same settings as the Chaintech and Leadtek.
A 182MHz front-side bus which gives us a 364MHz memory clock. I
increased the timings for the memory as well to 6-3-3-2.5.
This overclock was attained with the CPU core set to 1.85v.
In the Sandra CPU and multimedia scores, the Abit takes the
crown, but falls a bit short in the Memory score behind the
Chaintech. The beauty of this board, as I mentioned
before, is the adjustable CPU multiplier. Not being
satisfied with this score I lowered the multiplier to 11x
instead of the normal 12.5x and was able to achieve Memory
scores well over 3000 MB/s! This is what puts the Abit
above and beyond its competition. The ability to tweak
the BIOS to hit the sweet spot in performance for both the
CPU and memory and still maintain a stable system.
It's hard to ask for anything more than that.
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|
ZD eTesting Labs
Business and Content Creation Winstones |
|
Desktop Application
Performance |
|
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 Business
Winstone 2002, the Abit takes the highest scores at both
default settings and while overclocked. These are some
really good Winstone scores for an Athlon system.
Again I was able to achieve better results by adjusting the
multiplier and running the memory much faster.
Although overclocking results will differ from motherboard
to motherboard, the Abit is going to give a great chance at
getting the best possible results.
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)
Not much
difference in the Content Creation Winstone performance, but
the Abit NF7S is posting some of the highest scores. If
you're not happy, don't worry, just go adjust the BIOS and
give it another shot. The results are sure to please.
Let's move on to some of the more exciting benchmarks,
gaming performance.
Quake
3 and Comanche 4 |