Test Setup

The revised nForce4 SLI Intel Edition chipset now fully supports the dual core Pentium D processors in both stock and overclocked conditions. There were no issues with this board recognizing the two cores and four logical processors that are created with the Hyperthreading feature on this EE processor during testing. However, dual core really makes a difference in certain multi-tasking scenarios, as was demonstrated in the dual core performance preview. If you are interested in how the various chipsets perform in a real world multitasking setup, please take another look at that review.

The board’s memory was operated at 3-2-2-8-1T for the benchmarking suites and previous boards have been retested at this configuration and DDR2-667. This will be our standard test setting unless otherwise noted or the board fails to run at this speed. We also found that certain benchmarks scored better without Hyper Threading enabled, but in fairness, we felt that it was best to show consistent scores with this feature enabled as it is the main selling point of this processor model.

 Performance Test Configuration
Processor(s): Intel Pentium EE 840 (3.2GHz, 800FSB, Dual-Core, HT enabled, 2x1MB L2) utilized for all tests
Intel Pentium 820 (2.8GHz) for dual core verification
RAM: 2 x 512MB Corsair CM2X512A-5400UL revision 1.3 Settings- DDR2-667 as noted at (CL3-2-2-8-1T)
Hard Drive(s): 2 x Maxtor MaXLine III 7L300S0 300GB 7200 RPM SATA (16MB Buffer), 1 x Maxtor MaXLine III 7L300R0 300GB 7200 RPM IDE (16MB Buffer)
System Platform Drivers: NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Edition 6.82
Video Cards: 1 x XFX 7800GTX OC (PCI Express) for all tests
2 x MSI 7800GTX (PCI Express) for SLI Verification
Video Drivers: NVIDIA nForce 78.01 for all tests; 81.85 for special results tests
Operating System(s): Windows XP Professional SP2
Motherboards: Asus P5N32-SLI Deluxe
Gigabyte GA-8I955X Royal
MSI P4N Diamond
Abit NI8 SLI
Gigabyte 8N SLI Quad Royal

ASUS P5N32-SLI Deluxe: Overclocking General Performance & Encoding
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  • Kensei - Friday, October 28, 2005 - link

    I just wanted to say that I REALLY appreciate the wonderful combination of a person who is a very, very good writer and technologist. This extremely rare combination makes him one of the best technical writers I've come across in the past 20 years.

    It's not too hard to find people who are technically competent but very hard to find someone who can communicate well and knows what the hell they're talking about (ask anyone who has been to college). Quite frankly, he sets a standard that I think all AnandTech writers (ok... all technical writers) should strive to eventually achieve. This level of expertise typically takes years of practice to acquire even among the talented. Can't wait for his next article.

    To quote the first post..."Mixing philosophy, classical literature and computer hardware reviews? Gotta love it."

    Kensei
  • Gary Key - Monday, October 31, 2005 - link

    I greatly appreciate the comments. This was my third article and hopefully I improve with each one although you have now placed a great deal of pressure on me. ;->
    The next article series will be a multiple board review. I am learning how to convey several different messages in a very condensed form. It will be different than this last article so I would appreciate comments, good or bad. I try my best to listen to the readers and follow up on suggestions.
    I have two very good editors in Wes and Karen so it really is a team effort at AnandTech. I still have a great deal to learn and in fact will be taking a composition course this winter to improve my skills.
  • Kensei - Thursday, November 3, 2005 - link

    You are welcome. I don't think you need a composition course so I'd be interested in hearing how much you learned once it's over. Hopefully I'm wrong, but you may be disappointed by the course. If this is a college course, you may find that people in English departments don't quite get technical writing. It's different (although not totally different) than writing good short stories.

    Keep up the good work and I look forward to your future articles.

    Kensei


  • screwtech02 - Friday, October 28, 2005 - link

    So let me get this straight... In "theory" i can run my 820 at a 250fsb or 4.0, with a ddr700 rating?? And the board will recognize both the cores?? I'm tempted to get this board, but after having the previous one from ASUS, i'm scared to death, it was a HORRIBLE overclocker, max i could get was 230fsb, and lousey mem performance.... But if you say this board is different, i may try one....
  • Gary Key - Saturday, October 29, 2005 - link

    Email me please and I can forward some testing results to you along with additional information.
  • NegativeEntropy - Friday, October 28, 2005 - link

    Please check your USB/Firewire/Ethernet throughput graphs for their use of MB (MegaByte) vs Mb (Megabit).

    Nice board :)
  • Gary Key - Friday, October 28, 2005 - link

    I have corrected the charts. Thank you for noticing the issue. Sometimes you view something so much that you miss the obvious. :)
  • noac - Friday, October 28, 2005 - link

    I read that you thought most would fit - "an excellent amount of room for alternative cooling solutions". Im wondering more specifically if the Scythe Ninja will fit with/without the optional fans. BTW did you test them, the fans? Wondering how much noise they make and if they work well.
  • Gary Key - Friday, October 28, 2005 - link

    I do not have the Ninja although I know where to get one for a test. :) I received the optional fans a couple of days ago from Asus (tried to get them before publishing but it did not work out). I will try them this weekend and respond to your questions. They are designed to be used with watercooling or phase change setups. The stock Intel 840EE cooler (upgraded from other Pentium D units) provided enough air flow in the area to keep the MOFSETs cool. The aftermarket coolers I used provided more than enough air flow and fit great within the CPU area. Let me know if you need a listing of these heatsinks.
  • yacoub - Thursday, October 27, 2005 - link

    That's a freakin' awesome (if expensive) board!

    Btw THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for finally showing just how greatly sound enabled impacts the framerates on boards with on-board audio. Amazing that 17-19% of your CPU's power can be sapped by a stupid audio chip, especially when that turns into ~15fps drop in some games. Ugh.

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