HOW WE CONFIGURED THE TEST SYSTEMS: When configuring the test system, we entered the BIOS and loaded the "High Performance Defaults." The hard drive was then formatted, and Windows XP Professional with SP2 was installed. When the installation was complete, we installed the latest chipset drivers, installed all of the other necessary drivers for the rest of our components, and removed Windows Messenger from the system. Auto-Updating and System Restore were also disabled, the hard drive was defragmented, and a 768MB permanent page file was created on the same partition as the Windows installation. Lastly, we set Windows XP's Visual Effects to "best performance," installed all of the benchmarking software, and ran the tests. For all comparisons, an Abit AL8 945P as a performance reference point.
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The HotHardware Test System
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Pentium D 820 Powered
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Hardware Used
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Relevant Software
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Processor -
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Pentium D 820 (2.8GHz)
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Operating System -
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Windows XP Pro SP2
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Motherboard -
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MSI Mega mPC 945
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Chipset Drivers -
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Intel Drivers v8.0.1.1002
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Intel 945G Chipset
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DirectX -
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DirectX 9.0c (March Redist)
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Abit AL8
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Video Drivers -
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NVIDIA Forceware v84.21
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Intel 945P chipset
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Benchmarks Used
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Video Cards -
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MSI NX7600GT-VT2D256E
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PCMark2005 Pro
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3DMark06 v1.0.2
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Memory -
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1024MB PQI 24200-1GDB
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WorldBench 5
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SiSoftware Sandra 2007 Business
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Audio -
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Integrated on board
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LameMT
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Cinebench R9.5
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Hard Drive -
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Western Digital
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KribiBench
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F.E.A.R.
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80GB - 7,200RPM - PATA
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Quake 4*
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* - Custom Test (HH Exclusive demo)
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Synthetic Tests with SiSoftware's SANDRA Pro 2007 Business Edition
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CPU and Memory Assessments
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When comparing the MSI Mega mPC 945 to a full-sized 945P based system, powered by Abit's AL8, we found the Mega mPC 945 performed on par with the larger system. Whether we look at the Arithmetic, Multimedia or Memory Bandwidth results, the Mega mPC 945 trailed the AL8 by the slightest of margins. While hardly conclusive, this does show that there are no obvious performance issues when comparing performance to a similarly equipped, full-sized test bed.
