Test Setup

Ad

We selected a typical upper mainstream configuration for this project:

Platform
CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 (65nm, 3000 MHz, 4 MB L2 Cache)
Motherboard DFI LANParty UT P35-T2R, Rev: A.03
Chipset: Intel P35, BIOS 23.08.2007
RAM Corsair CM2X1024-888C4D
2x 1024 MB DDR2-800 (CL 4-4-4-12, 2T)
System Hard Drive Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD
150 GB, 10,000 RPM, 16 MB cache, SATA/150
Additional Hard Drives Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD
150 GB, 10,000 RPM, 16 MB cache, SATA/150
DVD-ROM Samsung SH-S183
Graphics Card Zotac GeForce 8800 GTS
GPU: GeForce 8800 GTS (500 MHz)
RAM: 320 MB GDDR3 (1600 MHz)
Sound Card Integrated
Power Supply Enermax EG565P-VE
ATX 2.01, 510 Watt
System Software & Drivers
OS Windows XP Professional 5.10.2600, Service Pack 2
DirectX Version 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Platform Drivers Intel Version 8.3.1013
Graphics Drivers Nvidia Forceware 162.18

An AMD Athlon 64 X2 system would have been more memory sensitive, but its overall performance is smaller, which is why we decided to stay with the Intel Core 2 Duo system.

Benchmarks And Settings

Benchmarks and Settings
3D-Games
Call Of Duty 2 Version: 1.3 Retail
Video Mode: 1280x960
Anti Aliasing: off
Graphics Card: medium
Timedemo demo2
Prey Version: 1.3
Video Mode: 1280x1024
Video Quality: game default
Vsync = off
Benchmark: THG-Demo
Quake 4 Version: 1.2 (Dual-Core Patch)
Video Mode: 1280x1024
Video Quality: high
THG Timedemo waste.map
timedemo demo8.demo 1 (1 = load textures)
Audio
Lame MP3 Version 3.98 Beta 5
Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min
wave to mp3
160 kbps
Video
TMPEG 3.0 Express Version: 3.0.4.24 (no Audio)
fist 5 Minutes DVD Terminator 2 SE (704x576) 16:9
Multithreading by rendering
DivX 6.7 Version: 6.7 (4 Logical CPUs)
Profile: High Definition Profile
1-pass, 3000 kbit/s
Encoding mode: Insane Quality
Enhanced multithreading
no Audio
XviD 1.1.3 Version: 1.1.3
Target quantizer: 1.00
Mainconcept H.264 v2 Version 2.1
260 MB MPEG-2 source (1920x1080) 16:9
Codec: H.264
Mode: NTSC
Audio: AAC
Profile: High
Stream: Program
Applications
Winrar Version 3.70
(303 MB, 47 Files, 2 Folders)
Compression = Best
Dictionary = 4096 kB
Autodesk 3D Studio Max Version: 8.0
Characters "Dragon_Charater_rig"
Rendering HTDV 1920x1080
Cinebench Version: R10
1 CPU, x CPU run
Sysmark 2007 Preview Version 1.01
Official Run
Synthetics
PCMark05 Pro Version: 1.2.0
CPU and Memory Tests
Windows Media Player 10.00.00.3646
Windows Media Encoder 9.00.00.2980

Talkback
uk_gangsta 18/10/2007 07:28
Hide
-0+
uk_gangsta
cock
americanbrian 19/10/2007 10:01
Hide
-0+
americanbrian
for the raid zero test you really should have tried transferring files over a 1 Gbit network. This is where it rocks. Or even better, have a home network client stream video over the network from the test setups while the user on the raid 0 or single drive rig does other stuff, like play games, or also watches a different video.

You seem to have missed the point as to the practical advantages of a enthusiast raid 0 rig. some common situations are really helped out by better storage performance.
leexgx 19/10/2007 05:54
Hide
-0+
leexgx
hmm
leexgx 19/10/2007 06:01
Hide
-0+
leexgx
i respond to raid 0, 2 and 4 disks setup

Most built in raid seem to be stuck at max bandwith of 133 (basicly UDMA 133 IDE speeds spec and thats Total for all 6 ports combined in some caes) so when you add 1-2 more disk speed does not increase much or at all
BobWya 19/10/2007 07:09
Hide
-0+
BobWya
Bulls**t article...

Visa a vie raid-0 on HD. Try chucking big data about - that won't be cached in RAM... I do this a lot and bless striping everytime (linear access flies)! Sharing over a network (especially gigabit) benefits as well of course...

Does the author actually understand how computers work? Using CPU bound applications to demonstrate that raiding drives is a waste of time... !! What have the THG authors been smoking these days?? Do you guys have any formal qualifications in Computer Science or anything??

Pointless article...

Now how about an article about the guy who has hit 6Ghz recently with the new 45nm Intel chips...

Or an article about striping 8 266x CF cards with SATA-CF(ide) converters and booting Windows of it?? That would be interesting...

What happened to THG of old with the videos of liquid nitrogen experiments...

A big yawn to the author...

Bob


Tattysnuc 20/10/2007 11:36
Hide
-0+
Tattysnuc
I hate to be siding with the negative comments, but I have to agree with BobWya.

Where are all the EXCITING/INTERESTING articles nowadays? I can't remember the last time I saw a NEW video that was worth watching all the way through.

3dGameman is doing a cracking job of doing some h/w reviews. Nothing destructive, but worth checking out. Tom's seem to have gone on a green crusade of late, and while the solar panel pc is an interesting testbed, and pioneering, the majority of us would not build such a thing.

Enthusiast is a strong word, but I really thing that Tom's have gone completely mainstream, and with the diversification of the page layouts across the world wide sites, I'm finding myslef spending much more time in the madshrimps, hexus and ntcompatible sites as they still have something new to offer.

The next evolution in PC performance, imo, is the solid state drive. A week or so ago you wet our whiskers with an article that touched on the concept and basics. How about a more comprehensive breakout detailing the parts.

And please stop this childish blockade against raptor drives. They may well have some ideosynchracies, but there are so many of us out here that recognise them for what they are, surely you would be better off if you were to still include them and show the problem. If anything is going to get WD to fix the problem it'll be someone showing problems, rather than a site ignoring their product. New readers to your site, or people who missed your article wont have a clue as to why you dont use it, unless they actually look for the problem.

Just my pennies worth....
X3Style 20/10/2007 06:54
Hide
-0+
X3Style
Sad but true THG is dieing a ferry slow and painfully boring death.

I think u guys need to recruit new talents with new ideas.

We all know u cant come up with good things forever.

Stop trying to be irrational.

As i noticed recently ur just making articles for the sake of making them. And seriously noone cares about articles showing nothing changes.

But everyone wants to see articles that show a difference.

I am an old fan of THG and i dont want to see u guys go down like this.

Best of Luck.

Note You are going to post a comment as anonymous.



Google Ads