Memory Testing

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All of the boards are able to run our 4GB of OCZ HPC Reaper at DDR2-800 speeds on 2.04V or less. Our optimal timings for each board are 4-4-4-12 at DDR2-800. The ASUS and MSI boards have the best overall memory throughput and latencies of the test boards. In the Sandra unbuffered scores the ASUS board is around 8% better than the Gigabyte board, though latencies are extremely close. In a couple of our application benchmarks that rely on memory throughput, this advantage will be apparent for the ASUS board and to a certain extent the MSI board.

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In our EVEREST benchmarks we see the same pattern as in the Sandra benchmarks. However, the MSI board scores slightly better due to a slight CPU FSB advantage at stock speeds. The MSI runs at 201.6MHz, ASUS at 200.8, and the Gigabyte board at an even 200MHz. MSI receives a flagrant foul in this case as manually setting the FSB to 200 results in the same setting. Although the difference is slight, it is just enough to place the board ahead of the ASUS in these scores.

Test Setup Benchmark Suite Performance
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  • sprockkets - Friday, September 28, 2007 - link

    Sad how an AMD 7050 board can be had for $80, $40 cheaper with the same features. It is the premium you pay for having dvi.

    Oddly enough too is that the Gigabyte board you quote doesn't use all solid caps yet the lower end board does. And of course, they didn't bother with solid caps on their new AMD boards period, cause "AMD is second tier."
  • tayhimself - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link

    Preposterous!! Why do they even bother making this junk without DVI. More and more I find that I don't want a leet board that overclocks 100 Mhz higher but a stable board with the right features. -sigh-
  • 8steve8 - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link

    and on top of it, these igp's are not suited well for gaming or videos,,, (the two applications where you may not notice the difference between a digital and analog interface), so they will be used for text/office work... an application where the discrepancies in the user-experience of analog vs digital interfaces with an LCD are undeniable.

    again, great article.,, but in the end, I sort of wonder why waste ur time exploring these boards when your time is better spent on solutions that deserve our money?
  • JarredWalton - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link

    I think both of those G33 + SDVO models launched long after Gary had started work on this uATX stuff. Good to see that some people are including the necessary chip, as uATX without DVI is simply unacceptable. Unfortunately, testing some of this stuff takes a lot more time than we would like. We're working to address that, however.
  • jenli - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link

    I would love to see a review of motherboards with igp
    that can be converted to raid servers by using the lone
    pcie 16x slot.

    Have fun,
  • CK804 - Thursday, September 27, 2007 - link

    I'm doing exactly what you mention with an Intel DG965RY. I have an Areca ARC-1210 fitted in there with 3 320GB WD Caviar SE16s in RAID 5.

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