Our testing methods
We have an all-Asus lineup for testing today. You can find out more about the P5B Deluxe, P5W DH Deluxe, and P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe in our three-way Core 2 mobo round-up.
All tests were run at least twice, and their results were averaged, using the following test systems.
| Processor | Core 2 Duo E6700 2.67GHz | |||
| System bus | 1066MHz (266MHz quad-pumped) | |||
| Motherboard | Asus P5B Deluxe Wifi-AP Edition | Asus P5W DH Deluxe | Asus P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe | Asus P5NSLI |
| Bios revision | 0505 | 0303 | 0801 | 0601 |
| North bridge | Intel P965 | Intel 975X | Nvidia nForce4 SLI X16 SPP | Nvidia nForce 570 SLI SPP |
| South bridge | Intel ICH8R | Intel ICH7R | Nvidia nForce SLI X16 MCP | Nvidia nForce 570 SLI MCP |
| Chipset drivers | Chipset 8.0.1.1002 AHCI 6.0.0.1022 |
Chipset 8.0.1.1002 AHCI 6.0.0.1022 |
ForceWare 6.86 | Chipset 8.0.1.1002 |
| Memory size | 2GB (2 DIMMs) | 2GB (2 DIMMs) | 2GB (2 DIMMs) | 2GB (2 DIMMs) |
| Memory type | Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5 DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz | |||
| CAS latency (CL) | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| RAS to CAS delay (tRCD) | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| RAS precharge (tRP) | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Cycle time (tRAS) | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| Audio codec | Integrated ICH8R/AD1988B with 6.0.0.61 drivers | Integrated ICH7R/ALC882M with Realtek HD 1.41 drivers | Integrated nForce4 SLI X16 MCP/ALC850 with Realtek 3.91 drivers | Integrated nForce 570 SLI MCP/AD1986A with 6.0.0.61 drivers |
| Graphics | GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB PCI-E with ForceWare 91.31 drivers | |||
| Hard drive | Western Digital Caviar RE2 400GB | |||
| OS | Windows XP Professional | |||
| OS updates | Service Pack 2 | |||
Thanks to Corsair for providing us with memory for our testing. 2GB of RAM seems to be the new standard for most folks, and Corsair hooked us up with some of its 1GB DIMMs for testing.
Also, all of our test systems were powered by OCZ GameXStream 700W power supply units. Thanks to OCZ for providing these units for our use in testing.
We used the following versions of our test applications:
- SiSoft Sandra Standard 2005 SR3
- WorldBench 5.0
- TCD Labs HD Tach v3.01
- Futuremark 3DMark06 Build 1.02
- Far Cry v1.3
- Splinter Cell Chaos Theory v1.05
- RightMark 3D Sound 2.2
- NTttcp
- Cinebench 2003
- Sphinx 3.3
- trq4demo1 demo
- F.E.A.R. 1.04
- Intel IOMeter v2004.07.30
- Intel iPEAK Storage Performance Toolkit 3.0
The test systems' Windows desktop was set at 1280x1024 in 32-bit color at an 85Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests. Most of the 3D gaming tests used the Medium detail image quality settings, with the exception that the resolution was set to 640x480 in 32-bit color.
All the tests and methods we employed are publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.
