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Date |
: Jun 24th, 2002 |
| Category |
: Motherboards |
| Manufacturer |
: EPoX |
| Author |
: Jin-Wei Tioh |
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Our test suite and methodology has been revised by quite a fair bit. For starters, CPU performance scores have been eliminated in favor of the overall performance measurement done by MadOnion's PCMark 2002? 3DMark 2001SE has also been discontinued as a stability test in favor of allocating more time to the other tests. How does the EPoX 8K3A+ fare?
| Platform Information |
| CPU |
AMD Duron 800MHz |
| Motherboard |
EPoX 8K3A+ |
| HS/F |
Arkua 7528 w/Arctic Silver II |
| Memory |
1 x 256MB DDR333 CL 2.5 DDR (Kingmax)
|
| Hard
Drive |
Seagate
U10 10GB 5400rpm U-ATA 66 |
| CD-ROM |
AOpen
36x |
| Network |
RealTek
8139A |
| Video
Card |
ABIT
Siluro MX400 64MB (default clock - 200/166) |
| Operating
System |
Windows
XP Professional |
| DirectX
Version |
8.1 |
| Video
Drivers |
6.13.10.2832
(Ver 28.32) |
| Benchmarks |
3DMark 2001SE
Quake III Arena - demo001
SiSoft Sandra 2002 Professional
ZDLabs WinBench 99
|
| Stability Tests |
FreeBSD 4.5 - makeworld -j4
Quake III Arena - demo001
Stability Test
Ultra-X RAM Stress Test
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For the results below, the 8K3A+ was run with standard parameters (ie. no overclocking) at 800MHz (6 x 133 FSB), with a memory speed of 166MHz at CAS 2.5. Please note however, that you shouldn't compare the results obtained here to rate a Socket-370 motherboard and vice versa.
| Motherboard |
Benchmarks |
Memory
Benchmark
(Sandra 2002) |
Disk
WinMarks
(WinBench 99) |
3DMark
2001SE
(640x480x16) |
Quake
III Arena
(Normal) |
| EPoX
8K3A+ (KT333 / 133 MHz /
DDR-333) |
1812 -
Int
1685 - Float |
3060 -
Business
9600 - High-End |
4128 |
135.77 |
| EPoX
8K3A+ (KT333 / 133 MHz /
DDR-266) |
1802 -
Int
1672 - Float |
3054 -
Business
9120 - High-End |
4090 |
120.63 |
| AOpen
AK77 Plus (KT266A / 133 MHz /
DDR-266) |
1786 -
Int
1649 - Float |
3140 -
Business
9490 - High-End |
4054 |
119.27 |
| Motherboard |
Crashes |
| makeworld -j4 |
Stability Test
|
RAM Stress Test |
Quake III Arena
|
| EPoX
8K3A+ (KT333 / 133 MHz /
DDR-333) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| EPoX
8K3A+ (KT333 / 133 MHz /
DDR-266) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| AOpen
AK77 Plus (KT266 / 133MHz /
DDR-266) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
We would like to take a moment to thank the sponsors who helped facilitate this review. The 7528 was supplied by Arkua, the Artic Silver II TIM by Arctic Silver LLC, and the Siluro MX400 by ABIT.
In addition to the standard performance measures, overclocking tests were performed to ascertain the highest FSB speeds the system could sustain. The CPU (an unlocked Duron 800) was set to run at 6 x 133MHz, with overall stability gauged via informal tests such as Aquamark and 3DMark 2001SE. The FSB is gradually dialed up, with stability being tested via Ultra-X's RAM Stress Test and Stability Test. At the highest FSB determined to be stable, 3 makeworld -j4s are performed under FreeBSD 4.5 to confirm results.
What did we find? The highest FSB we achieved was a blazing 166MHz, with the CPU being gunned at 830MHz (5 x 166). A full 25% increase in FSB frequency without any tweaks whatsoever, which certainly speaks well for EPoX.
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