Our testing methods
We're focusing on the P45 Express' performance today, so we've busted the chipset out in DDR2 and DDR3 configurations. The Asus P5Q3 Deluxe motherboard we looked at a couple of weeks ago will be standing in to fill out the DDR3 side of the equation.

To see how Intel's latest mid-range chipset fares against its predecessor, we've included DDR2 and DDR3 flavors of the P35 Express. We also have a couple of X48 setups, an X38, and Nvidia's nForce 780i and 790i SLI Ultra chipsets to fill out the pack.

While application tests were run on each board, we've consolidated our south bridge peripheral testing to only include one example of each chipset. In cases where we have DDR2 and DDR3 versions of a chipset, we've used the results from the DDR3 config.

All tests were run three times, and their results were averaged.

Processor Core 2 Duo E6750 2.67GHz
System bus 1333MHz (333MHz quad-pumped)
Motherboard Asus P5K3 Deluxe Asus P5Q3 Deluxe Asus P5E3 Deluxe Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 XFX MB-N790I-UL9 XFX MB-N780-ISH9 Gigabyte EP45-DQ6 Abit IP35 Pro Asus Rampage Formula
Bios revision 0604 0302 0201 F4D 811N1P01 2.053.B2 F2G 16 0219
North bridge Intel P35 Express Intel P45 Express Intel X38 Express Intel X48 Express nForce 790i SLI Ultra SPP nForce 780i SLI SPP Intel P45 Express Intel P35 Express Intel X48 Express
South bridge Intel ICH9R Intel ICH10R Intel ICH9R Intel ICH9R nForce 790i SLI MCP nForce 780i SLI MCP Intel ICH10R Intel ICH9R Intel ICH9R
Chipset drivers Chipset 8.3.1.1009
AHCI 7.8.0.1012 		Chipset 8.3.1.1009
AHCI 8.0.0.1039 		Chipset 8.3.1.1009
AHCI 7.8.0.1012 		Chipset 8.3.1.1009
AHCI 7.8.0.1012 		ForceWare 9.64 ForceWare 9.46 Chipset 8.3.1.1009
AHCI 8.0.0.1039 		Chipset 8.3.1.1009
AHCI 7.8.0.1012 		Chipset 8.3.1.1009
AHCI 7.8.0.1012
Memory size 2GB (2 DIMMs) 2GB (2 DIMMs) 2GB (2 DIMMs) 2GB (2 DIMMs) 2GB (2 DIMMs) 2GB (2 DIMMs) 2GB (2 DIMMs) 2GB (2 DIMMs) 2GB (2 DIMMs)
Memory type Corsair CM3X1024-1600C7DHX DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz Corsair CM2X2048-8500C5 DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz
CAS latency (CL) 7 7 7 7 7 4 4 4
RAS to CAS delay (tRCD) 7 7 7 7 7 4 4 4
RAS precharge (tRP) 7 7 7 7 7 4 4 4
Cycle time (tRAS) 21 21 21 21 21 12 12 12
Audio codec Integrated AD1988B with 5.10.1.6110 drivers Integrated AD2000B with 6.10.1.6480 drivers Integrated AD1988B with 7.0.0.0 drivers Integrated ALC889A with 1.88 drivers Integrated ALC888S with 1.88 drivers Integrated ALC888S with 1.88 drivers Integrated ALC889A with 1.88 drivers Integrated ALC888 with 1.88 drivers Integrated AD1988B with 6.10.1.6280 drivers
Graphics GeForce 8800 GT 1GB PCIe with ForceWare 169.25 drivers
Hard drive Western Raptor X 150GB
OS Windows Vista Ultimate x86 with KB936710, KB938194, KB938979, KB940105 updates

Thanks to Corsair for providing us with memory for our testing.

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.

Finally, we'd like to thank Western Digital for sending Raptor WD1500ADFD hard drives for our test rigs. The Raptor's still the fastest all-around drive on the market, and the only 10K-RPM Serial ATA drive you can buy.

We used the following versions of our test applications:

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.

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.