Here is
a run down on our test system for this evaluation.
-
Asus
P4T Motherboard with Pentium 4 Processor @
1.5GHz.
-
Intel
D850GB Motherboard with Pentium 4 Processor @
1.5GHz.
-
256MB
of Samsung PC800 RAMBUS DRDRAM,
-
IBM DTLA307030 30Gig ATA100 7200 RPM Hard Drive - Supplied
by Outside Loop!
-
nVidia
GeForce 2 Ultra 64MB AGP Graphics Card,
-
Intel
100tx PCI NIC, 56K PCI Modem
-
Sound
Blaster Live Sound Card,
-
Hitachi
DVD ROM Drive,
-
WindowsME
-
Direct
X 8.0 and nVidia reference drivers version 7.17
-
Intel
chipset drivers version 2.60a
|
Benchmarks
With The Asus P4T |
Raising
the bar somewhat |
|
Sandra CPU
Test @ 1.5GHz.
|
Sandra Memory
Test @ 1.5GHz.
|
Sandra
Multimedia Test @ 1.5GHz.
|
Sandra
Drive Test @ 1.5GHz.
|
Sandra
CPU Test @ 1.74GHz.
|
Sandra
Memory Test @ 1.74GHz.
|
These
SiSoft Sandra scores report excellent performance at
all levels for the Asus P4T. The CPU clock is
reported at about 10MHz. faster than its actual
setting in the BIOS. This leads us to believe
that Asus took a slightly aggressive approach to the
timing of this board yet it still yields good
stability as we reported earlier. The
overclocked score shows you the sizable headroom that
the P4T has along with the Pentium 4 at higher clock
speeds. In each case, the P4T bested the
reference system. Next
we have some our Business Winstone and more taxing
Content Creation Winstone tests.
The
Asus P4T, turns out good performance and is on par
with the Intel i850 reference board in these
tests. Once again however, we show you the
benefits of over-clocking here. Substantial
gains were realized with excellent performance Finally,
just a quick check with respect to Gaming/Graphics
performance. The
Pentium 4 is King of the Hill in our book, when it
comes to Quake 3 performance. You just can't
buy a faster system for gaming these days. The
Asus P4T puts up fantastic scores here but there is
always a price to pay for performance. This
makes for a nice lead in to our final
assessment. The
lowest price that we could find the Asus P4T on
various net shopping search engines, was about $300.
Couple that with a 1.4GHz. Pentium 4 at about $600
and some RAMBUS memory at $200-$300 and you are
looking at a $1200 base price before you even get
into to peripherals. This is a steep entry
level price point for any "build it
yourself" type or for someone looking at a bare
bones solution from a Systems Integrator. In
short, there are just better values in the market
place right now, than the Pentium 4. On
the other hand, if you are the type that demands the
utmost in performance, an Asus P4T and Pentium 4
setup will not disappoint you. There is simply
nothing faster on the market right now.
However, that window is closing fast as clock
speeds for AMD solutions creep up and DDR SDRAM
comes into the mainstream. And so the battle
rages on. The
P4T is a VERY high quality board with very few short
comings. It's stability was top notch as was
its ability to over-clock our Pentium 4 well out of
spec. In addition, the folks at Asus also went
the extra mile helping to ease the pain of
conversion to this new platform with their
innovative motherboard converter back plate.
We are sure this adds to the cost over all but if
you have a standard ATX case this will allow you to
avoid any modifications or a new case all
together. Do we recommend the P4T? You
bet we do. If you are heading down the Pentium
4 path it is great foundation on which to build
yourself a machine that will leave your colleges
green with envy but will also tap some
"green" from your pocket. The
Hot Hardware Conference Room...
Group Therapy For PC Hardware Addicts. Get
into it!
|