System Configurations, Software and Benchmarks Used

This review was severely hampered by a few technical hiccups we encountered along during the proceedings, however many thanks to Diskeeper Europe, MSI and Western Digital Technical Support teams who helped finally resolve the issue. Huge thanks to you all. Therefore this meant we had in the end very tight time constraints to complete the review as we did hope to show 64 Bit results with the emphasis now focusing heavily upon this Operating System. Next time round!

System 1

1 X Akasa Mirage 62 Chassis
1 X Akasa ALLInONE Controller
1 X Akasa EVO 120 ^V2 HSF utilising Akasa Pro Grade 460 Thermal Compound
1 X Intel E6700 CPU
1 X MSI 975X Platinum PowerUp Edition – Modified Version
2 X 1GB PC2 8500 Corsair XMS2 Memory Modules
1 X Akasa Amber 120mm Intake Fan
1 X Akasa Amber 120mm Exhaust Fan
2 X Western Digital Caviar^® SE 120GB SATA Hard Drives configured to Raid 0

System 2

1 X Akasa Mirage 62 Chassis
1 X Akasa ALLInONE Controller
1 X Akasa EVO 120 ^V2 HSF utilising Akasa Pro Grade 460 Thermal Compound
1 X Intel E6700 CPU
1 X MSI 965 Platinum Edition – Modified Version
2 X 1GB PC2 8500 Corsair XMS2 Memory Modules
1 X Akasa Amber 120mm Intake Fan
1 X Akasa Amber 120mm Exhaust Fan
2 X Western Digital Caviar^® SE16 250GB SATA Hard Drives configured to Raid 0

Both mainboards bios settings were left at default with a few adjustments to disable certain parts that are not required for example the JMicron® JMB361 controller and COM Port 2.   On the 1 X MSI 975X Platinum PowerUp Edition we did have to adjust the memory voltage settings to allow the memory to run at the full 800MHz FSB.   The MSI 965 Platinum Edition mainboard automatically found the new 800FSB memory and adjusted the settings and memory voltage to facilitate the memories higher functionality.

Hardware Suppliers for the Review

MSI for the supply of the Mainboards shown, Corsair, for the supply of their spanking new Dominator memory, Akasa for the major peripherals required for this review and finally but by no means least; Western Digital for the SATA Hard Discs. Our thanks to all involved in making this an interesting but exciting review.

Corsair’s new memory really has hit home, expensive in some areas for some, but the performance and stability that we encountered over the last few weeks has been magnificent. Ranting on once more stability in the high-end is of a paramont and for those inclined and feel the need for speed, we can say that this memory on these boards can be well tweaked – Thunderbirds are Go…..

As the Dominator Series memory is pretty new in the wild and here’s a brief insight to what it’s all about;

The Dominator Series Twin2X2048-8500C5D is a 2048 MByte matched pair of DDR2 SDRAM DIMMs built using Corsair’s latest high performance heat sink with Dual-Path Heat Xchange (DHX) technology. This part delivers outstanding performance in the latest generation of dual-channel DDR2-based motherboards. It has been tested extensively in multiple DDR2 motherboards to ensure compatibility and performance at its rated speed. This memory has been verified to operate at 1066MHz at latencies of 5-5-5-15. The Twin2X2048-8500C5D comes with Enhanced Performance Profiles (EPP), the open standard for performance module SPD’s jointly developed by Corsair and NVIDIA. EPP SPD’s on Corsair modules allow users to automatically configure EPP enabled motherboards with aggressive memory performance settings, for maximum memory and system performance. Performance of these modules incorporating DHX can be further enhanced by using the optional Dominator Airflow Fan, for even more cooling and protection.

Systems Integrators, OEM’s and VAR’s should contact all companies directly for pricing and availability of all components.   Members of the public should contact their respective suppliers requesting the parts directly.

Diskeeper can be purchased from most leading Distributors and software retail outlets.  Or those of you wishing a try before buy, a 30 day trial version maybe downloaded direct from Diskeeper Europe

As we stated earlier, this review was severely hampered by a few technical hiccups we encountered along during the proceedings.   What was a marvel to see was all companies pitching in to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, however many thanks to Diskeeper Europe, MSI and Western Digital Technical Support teams who helped finally resolve the issue.   A huge thanks to you all.   Therefore this meant we had in the end very tight time constraints as this equipment is in extremely high demand.   However, we have managed to squeeze in what has been requested from the system showing off as the relevant tests and benchmarks.   This though will give the reader an indication at what to actually expect.

Earlier on in the introduction we stated that we had completed a temperature comparison between the 2 X MSI 975X Platinum PowerUp Edition mainboards.   The benchmark results between each board were found to be near on identical, though as we can imagine the temperature and acoustics’ were quite something else as the chart below shows.
 

* What we did encounter was that the alarms on the Akasa ALLInONE kept sounding as soon as the MSI 975X Platinum PowerUp Edition unmodified mainboard took any form of load.   We therefore had to switch the fan controls over to manual and turn up the fans to maximum to maintain low levels of temperatures; however the plenty to pay was that the Acoustics went up ever so slightly!

Benchmarks, Software Used and Conclusions (32 Bit Mode)

To complete all of the tests on the system has taken some considerable time.   A render has been completed many times over different periods of the system uptime.  Maintaining the fair play rules we did not manipulate any of this mainboards functionality and left it at its default settings in which it was supplied.  All tests have been conducted at 1024 X 768 @ 60Hz in 32 bit colour.

Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2
Diskeeper 2007 Professional Premium Edition
Sandra 2007 SP1
HD Tach 3
PCMark 2005 Advanced with build 1.2.0
3D Mark 2006 Advanced with build 1.1.0
Autodesk® 3ds Max® 8 with SP3
Cinebench 9.5
SPECapc^SM for 3ds Max™ 8
SPECviewperf® 9.0.3

The plethora of benchmarks available in this arena; one could spend all day in producing results if the time permitted, paralysis by analysis!  Sadly the clock ticked hard and fast against us therefore we did only have a very short time in which to complete this basic but factual review.   Hopefully next outing we will have time to complete 64 Bit tests to appease you who are looking for them.   If you cannot fully make out the charts and visuals which we have shown below, please e-mail – administrator at 3d professor dot org and we shall send over in priority of receipt the picture you are looking for.

      With these statements complete we move onwards to the critical results.

Page 1 - Introduction
Page 2 - MSI 975 and MSI 965 Mainboard Pictures
Page 3 - System Configurations, Software and Benchmarks Used
Page 4 - SiSoftware 2007 SP1- MSI 975X Platinum PowerUp Edition – Modified Mainboard
Page 5 - SiSoftware 2007 SP1- MSI 965X Platinum Edition – Modified Mainboard
**Page 6 - Hard Drive Tach 3.0.1.0 - Journalists Edition
Page 7 - PCMark 2005 Advanced with build 1.2.0 and 3D Mark 2006 Advanced with build 1.1.0
Page 8 - Autodesk® 3ds Max® 8 with SP3
Page 9 - Cinebench, SPEC Benchmarks and Conclusions