System Review – PC-Club Silencer

Testing Configuration

For our testing, we will be comparing the PC-Club to our previous SFF systems. Right now, we'll only include the recent Shuttle SN25P, although we'll be adding other setups in the near future. You'll be able to see how the Silencer compares to other SFF systems (even though it's not technically a SFF) in upcoming articles. We have a few more socket 939 systems coming, as well as a Pentium M SFF and the socket 775 SFF roundup.

For this review, we will actually have several sets of benchmarks, depending on the test. First, we have the system as configured by PC-Club. We will then have a separate test using the 6800GT with our own OCZ Rev.2 Platinum (Samsung TCCD blanks) RAM running 2-2-2-5 timings and our 80GB Seagate SATA HDD that we use in our SFF tests. In this setup, we will unplug the extra case fan, as it should not be necessary with a single 7200 RPM HDD environment. Finally, we will include results for the system using our complete set of SFF equipment, which means that we'll swap the 6800GT Silencer out for a Sapphire X800 Pro. We'll also provide a few tests using the onboard graphics, primarily as a means to reduce noise levels and heat output.

Of course, you can't purchase the Silencer in most of these configurations from PC-Club without doing a custom order, and we wouldn't actually recommend several of them. The SFF configuration is included in order to get an apples-to-apples comparison with our SFF setups – at least insofar as the graphics card, RAM, and hard drive are concerned. The IGP represents the minimum noise configuration, but unless you have no interest in any 3D or TV application, we wouldn't bother with that setup. Our recommended setup is to keep the 6800GT, as it is both faster and quieter than the X800 Pro. Then, go with a single hard drive, or if you want to take a risk, simply unplug the case fan.

We will label the Silencer configurations as follows: "Stock" is the default configuration and will be shown in blue; "CL2" will use our OCZ RAM with the Seagate drive and will be in green; "X800Pro" will also use the OCZ and Seagate parts only with an X800Pro graphics card, and it will be in red; and lastly, "IGP" will use the Intel Integrated Graphics with the OCZ RAM and Seagate and will be in yellow.   (The SN25P will be in black.)

Performance Test Configuration
Processor(s):	AMD Athlon 64 3800+ (2.4GHz 512KB cache) Socket 939 Intel Pentium M 755J (2.0GHz 2MB cache)
RAM:	2 x 512MB Mushkin 2.5-3-3 2 x 512MB OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2
Hard Drive(s):	Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10000RPM SATA Western Digital 200GB 7200RPM SATA Seagate 80GB 7200 RPM SATA (8MB Buffer)
Video AGP & IDE Bus Master Drivers:	nVidia nForce 6.39 Intel 855 Chipset Drivers 6.3.0.1007
Video Card(s):	eVGA 6800GT Silencer 400/1000 Sapphire X800 Pro PCIe VIVO
Video Drivers:	NVIDIA ForceWare 71.84 ATI Catalyst 5.2 without CCC
Operating System(s):	Windows XP Professional SP2
Systems:	PC-Club Silencer EN-SI1 Shuttle XPC SN25P

If it seems unfair to match up the Pentium M 2.0GHz against a 2.4GHz Athlon 64, remember that the current retail pricing puts the Pentium 755 at $450 while the Athlon 64 3800+ can be had for $375 and the Athlon 64 4000+ can be had for $540. Price-wise, the Athlon 64 system is actually cheaper than the Pentium M, and it is certainly the better buy (assuming that it outperforms the Pentium M as we expect).