ASRock ConRoe945G-DVI: Core 2 Duo goes mATX
by Gary Key on September 1, 2006 5:15 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Application Performance
We decided to test a few real world applications that typically stress the CPU, memory, and storage systems to see if the results from our synthetic memory tests carry over to the desktop.
Our tasks include three activities that are common on the desktop. Our first test was to measure the time it takes to shrink the entire Office Space DVD that was extracted with AnyDVD into a single 4.5GB DVD image utilizing Nero Recode 2. Our second test utilizes WinRAR 3.6 and measures the time it takes to compress our test folder that contains 444 files, 10 folders, and has 602MB of data.
Our third test uses Exact Audio Copy as the front end for our version 3.98a3 of LAME. We set up EAC for variable bit rate encoding, burst mode for extraction, use external program for compression, and to start the external compressor upon extraction. (EAC will read the next track while LAME is working on the previous track, thus removing a potential bottleneck with the optical drive.) Our test CD is INXS Greatest Hits, which contains 16 tracks totaling 606MB of songs. The results of our tests are presented in minutes/seconds with lower numbers being better.
Our application test results mirror those of the synthetic results where the ASRock 945G scored well in both the buffered and unbuffered Sandra benchmarks along with the SuperPI 2M test. This chipset scored at the top of the DDR2-533 and DDR2-667 tests. You will want to run this board at either memory setting with low latency memory for best performance, but it will cost less to find DDR2-533 memory that can run at these settings with the memory voltage limitation. We believe the BIOS on this board is tuned better than the ASRock 945P board as in past testing we found the 945P to be a better performing chipset.
We decided to test a few real world applications that typically stress the CPU, memory, and storage systems to see if the results from our synthetic memory tests carry over to the desktop.
Our tasks include three activities that are common on the desktop. Our first test was to measure the time it takes to shrink the entire Office Space DVD that was extracted with AnyDVD into a single 4.5GB DVD image utilizing Nero Recode 2. Our second test utilizes WinRAR 3.6 and measures the time it takes to compress our test folder that contains 444 files, 10 folders, and has 602MB of data.
Our third test uses Exact Audio Copy as the front end for our version 3.98a3 of LAME. We set up EAC for variable bit rate encoding, burst mode for extraction, use external program for compression, and to start the external compressor upon extraction. (EAC will read the next track while LAME is working on the previous track, thus removing a potential bottleneck with the optical drive.) Our test CD is INXS Greatest Hits, which contains 16 tracks totaling 606MB of songs. The results of our tests are presented in minutes/seconds with lower numbers being better.
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| Click to enlarge |
Our application test results mirror those of the synthetic results where the ASRock 945G scored well in both the buffered and unbuffered Sandra benchmarks along with the SuperPI 2M test. This chipset scored at the top of the DDR2-533 and DDR2-667 tests. You will want to run this board at either memory setting with low latency memory for best performance, but it will cost less to find DDR2-533 memory that can run at these settings with the memory voltage limitation. We believe the BIOS on this board is tuned better than the ASRock 945P board as in past testing we found the 945P to be a better performing chipset.
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Gary Key - Friday, September 1, 2006 - link
3D Performance more in alignment with the GeForce FX5600 series but with better video quality. The 6200TC would provide up to double the frame rates in Quake4 at 1024x768 HQ as an example.mino - Friday, September 1, 2006 - link
I know, it's AM2 but a little mATX roundup won't hurt.Especially with EE SFF parts and Conroe out of the gates..
Also I would love to see power comparison between different chipsets/boards.
For C2D as well as for X2.
dmce - Friday, September 1, 2006 - link
Yeah i would be very interested in this. Would also be interested in a little more info on the RS600/SB600 (Radeon Xpress 1250) boards.dmce - Friday, September 1, 2006 - link
Dont suppose you know if it supports 1080p?Would have liked to see how it coped with HD playback.
Looking forward to the mATX reviews mentioned
mino - Friday, September 1, 2006 - link
They used it with 24inch Acer DVI LCD => it works reliably up to 1920x1200 which is the top of single-link DVI spec.mino - Friday, September 1, 2006 - link
In the other word 1080p playability should depend on the CPU.dmce - Friday, September 1, 2006 - link
Thanks mate.poohbear - Friday, September 1, 2006 - link
just wanna say thanks for covering the budget mobos instead of the super high end stuff.:) I was really impressed w/ the asrock dualsata2, so nice to see their new stuff.esterhasz - Friday, September 1, 2006 - link
Great article, tnx. Would be great to have numbers for power consumtion though. In the HTPC Arena, this is a rather interesting matter...Calin - Friday, September 1, 2006 - link
Or at least subjective ratings regarding different places on the mainboard - VRM modules, chipset, ...