Our testing methods
There are plenty of P35-based motherboards on the market, and we've rounded up five models from Abit, Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI to see how Biostar's offerings stack up. You can read more about the other boards in our recent P35 motherboard round-up.
All tests were run at least twice, and their results were averaged, using the following test systems.
| Processor | Core 2 Duo E6700 2.67GHz | ||||||
| System bus | 1066MHz (266MHz quad-pumped) | ||||||
| Motherboard | Asus P5K3 Deluxe | Biostar TP35D3-A7 Deluxe | Abit IP35 Pro | Asus P5K Deluxe | Biostar TP35D2-A7 | Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 | MSI P35 Platinum |
| Bios revision | 0201 | P35AA615 | 10 | 1101 | P35BA625 | F4 | A7345IMS |
| North bridge | Intel P35 | Intel P35 | Intel P35 | Intel P35 | Intel P35 | Intel P35 | Intel P35 |
| South bridge | Intel ICH9R | Intel ICH9R | Intel ICH9R | Intel ICH9R | Intel ICH9 | Intel ICH9R | Intel ICH9R |
| Chipset drivers | Chipset 8.3.0.1013 AHCI 7.5.0.1017 |
Chipset 8.3.0.1013 AHCI 7.5.0.1017 |
Chipset 8.3.0.1013 AHCI 7.5.0.1017 |
Chipset 8.3.0.1013 AHCI 7.5.0.1017 |
Chipset 8.3.0.1013 | Chipset 8.3.0.1013 AHCI 7.5.0.1017 |
Chipset 8.3.0.1013 AHCI 7.5.0.1017 |
| Memory size | 2GB (2 DIMMs) | 2GB (2 DIMMs) | 2GB (2 DIMMs) | 2GB (2 DIMMs) | 2GB (2 DIMMs) | 2GB (2 DIMMs) | 2GB (2 DIMMs) |
| Memory type | Corsair CM3X1024-1066C7 DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz | Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5 DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz | |||||
| CAS latency (CL) | 7 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| RAS to CAS delay (tRCD) | 7 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| RAS precharge (tRP) | 7 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Cycle time (tRAS) | 21 | 21 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| Audio codec | Integrated ICH9R/AD1988B with 5.10.1.6110 drivers | Integrated ICH9R/ALC888 with 1.67 drivers | Integrated ICH9R/ALC888 with 1.67 drivers | Integrated ICH9R/AD1988B with 5.10.1.6110 drivers | Integrated ICH9/ALC888 with 1.67 drivers | Integrated ICH9R/ALC889A with 1.67 drivers | Integrated ICH9R/ALC888 with 1.67 drivers |
| Graphics | GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB PCI-E with ForceWare 93.71 drivers | ||||||
| Hard drive | Western Raptor X 150GB | ||||||
| OS | Windows Vista Ultimate x64 | ||||||
Thanks to Corsair for providing us with memory for our testing. 2GB of RAM seems to be the new standard for most folks, and Corsair hooked us up with some of its 1GB DIMMs for testing.
All of our test systems were powered by OCZ GameXStream 700W power supply units. Thanks to OCZ for providing these units for our use in testing.
Finally, we'd like to thank Western Digital for sending Raptor WD1500ADFD hard drives for our test rigs. The Raptor's still the fastest all-around drive on the market, and the only 10K-RPM Serial ATA drive you can buy.
We used the following versions of our test applications:
- SiSoft Sandra Standard XI SP2
- WorldBench 6.0 Beta 2
- TCD Labs HD Tach 3.01
- Futuremark 3DMark06 Build 110
- Supreme Commander 1.1.3251
- RightMark Audio Analyzer 6.02
- NTttcp
- Cinebench 9.5
- Sphinx 3.3
- Quake 4 1.30
- F.E.A.R. 1.08
- CPU-Z 1.40
The test systems' Windows desktop was set at 1280x1024 in 32-bit color at an 85Hz screen refresh rate. Vertical refresh sync (vsync) was disabled for all tests.
All the tests and methods we employed are publicly available and reproducible. If you have questions about our methods, hit our forums to talk with us about them.
