Our testing methods
As ever, we did our best to deliver clean benchmark numbers. Tests were run at least three times, and the results were averaged.

Our test systems were configured like so:

Processor Dual Woodcrest 3GHz Dual Opteron 285 2.6GHz
System bus 1333MHz (333MHz quad-pumped) 1GHz HyperTransport
Motherboard Intel S5000 Tyan Thunder K8WE
BIOS revision S5000.86B.01.00.0036.040420061424 3/14/2006
North bridge Blackford MCH nForce Professional 2200
South bridge ESB-2 I/O bridge nForce Professional 2050
AMD-8131
Chipset drivers INF Update 7.3.1.1013 ForceWare 6.69
Memory size 4GB (4 DIMMs) 4GB (8 DIMMs)
Memory type Micron FB-DIMMs Kingston registered ECC DDR SDRAM at 400MHz
Hard drive HGST Deskstar T7K250 SATA Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB SATA 150
Graphics ATI ES1000 (onboard) ATI Radeon X300 PCI-E
OS Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition w/Service Pack 1

The test systems' Windows desktops were set at 1280x1024 in 32-bit color.

We used the following versions of our test applications:

The tests and methods we employ are generally publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.