First post, by flupke11
- Rank
- Oldbie
After reading through the Fastest Tualatin Chipset / Best Pentium III Motherboard thread and the Tualatin 1.4 512k vs Athlon Thunderbird 1Ghz thread, I decided to do some testing on my own.
Usually I use the stampeding rhinoceros approach, diving headlong into my boxes, quickly assembling a motley crew of parts and whacking an OS on, with much disregard for the more analytical/scientific approach of most of you here.
Time to repent!
As such, before I start my second round of testing, I'd like to consult here for a better way of tackling the problem of testing an array of mainboards.
1. The contenders (*=non-native Tualatin support, so adapter needed)
i440BX
Asus P3B-F*
Alt: QDI Legend P6I440BX*
Alt: Asus P2B*
i815EP
Asus TUSL2-C
Alt: Asus TUSL2-M
Alt: Aopen AX3S-U*
SIS 635T
ECS P6S5AT
Via 694
DFI CA64-TC Poor performer...
Aopen AX34 Pro II*
Alt: Asus CUV4X-DLS*
i820
IWILL DS-133R*
Alt: Aopen AX6C*
i840
Compaq AP440*
Serverworks Serverset III HE-SL
Supermicro P3TDE6
Via Pro266/8233
Chaintech CT-6VJD
2. The OS
Kudos, hats off and a bow to VooDooMan who did a great job in pitting the chipsets against each other in his thread. He used Win98SE, so the bulk of work on that OS has been done. I'll try to replicate his installation on the Serverworks Serverset III HE-SL chipset in the P3TDE6 I have, to incorporate dual SDR-SDRam on Win98SE.
That leaves Win2K and WinXP for me.
Which to choose and which service packs and other pieces of software are absolutely necessary for this batch of testing?
The poll is open: choose your option
2.A Win2K
2.B WinXP
2.C still Win98SE
2.D Other
The common equipment
3. The boot drive
I have a few options here. I have 16 GB CF-cards with adequate speed and a very robust Startech IDE to CF-adaptor. I also have 36GB SCSI 10K rpm drives which I can couple with an universally supported adaptec U160 PCI controller. Other options is a 64GB OCZ relatively old generation SSD, which I can couple with a PCI-to-SATA150 card. I'd rather avoid IDE spinners.
The poll is open: choose your option
3.A Startech with 16GB CF
3.B PCI Adaptec U160 with 36GB SCSI
3.C PCI SATA150 with 64GB OCZ
3.D Other: please specify
4. The VGA card
All boards have an AGP slot, which is compulsory to enter the test. Implementation differ, as I have experienced with the otherwise great P3TDE6.
Which drivers are recommended for either ATI or Nvidia in either Win2K or WinXP?
The poll is open: choose your option
4.A Asus V9570/TD/256
4.B Ati Radeon X850Pro 256
4.C Nvidia Quadro 900
4.D Ati Radeon AIW 9800XT
4.E Other: please specify
5. Drives
Plextor in slave on IDE-2
Gotek on Floppy1
6. RAM
SDR-SDRAM: 2*256 PC150 capable ram (M.tec TTS3808B4E-6 , yes that's 166Mhz capable ram 😁)
SDR-SDRAM: 2*256 ECC REG PC133 (for Serverworks)
DDR-SDRAM: 2*256 Kingston KVR333X64C25
RDRAM: 2*256 Samsung MR16R1628DF0-CT9 - 1066MHz
7. CPU
Tualatin 1.4S/512/133Mhz - Any particular sspec?
Adaptors available:
Slot1 -> S370
- powerleap pl-ip3/t
- Upgradeware Upgradeware Slot-T
S370 FCPGA -> FCPGA2
- LinLin S370
EDIT: Added Chaintech Via Apollo Pro266-based Mainboard
EDIT2: DFI CA64TC is thrown out, enter the Aopen AX34 PRO II as the VIA694 baseline.