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For those of you that like to really make money with your
workstation, we have the new SpecViewperf 7.1 benchmark
suite, for your model spinning pleasure. Since Intel
classifies the Canterwood as an "entry level workstation"
performance chipset, this test should put a smile on the
faces of the Marketing folks in Santa Clara.
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Professional MCAD and 3D Rendering Performance |
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Get to work! |
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In a few cases,
AMD's tag line for the Athlon XP, "the Athlon means
business", holds true. Intel has infused the new 3GHz
Pentium 4 just enough here to keep it out in front of the
Athlon XP 3000+ by respectable margin. Here we also
witnessed the anomaly of the 2.8GHz P4 beating out the
3.06GHz P4 (most likely due to Hyperthreading) but not in
the case of the Canterwood/D875PBZ driven P4 3.06GHz setup.
We're beginning to think Intel may have further optimized
the Canterwood chipset, in conjunction with their
Hyperthreading technology. Again, we'll provide more
detail here, if and when it becomes available.
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Intel SATA RAID Controller Testing |
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Intel's new ICH5
steps up to the plate |
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Before we wrap
things up, we want to give you a quick snapshot of what
Intel's ICH5 and its integrated SATA controller can do,
versus current SATA controller solutions on the market.
We've paired our two
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 SATA drives up with both the
Silicon Image controller and the new SATA 150 controller on
Intel's Southbridge.
Here's a quick
look at Intel's RAID BIOS, which is nicely laid out and user
friendly.
Also, a BIG new
feature that Intel is bringing to the table with this
controller, is that it can stripe a RAID 0 array on the fly
in WinXP. You simply install the OS with Soft RAID
enabled in the BIOS, as well as the respective drivers.
Then all you'll need to do in the future is add the second
drive and the next time you boot, the controller will stripe
the array in the background.
On with the
testing...
A very
respectable performance is offered by Intel's SATA solution
here, in both single drive and RAID 0 configurations.
These two controllers are neck and neck with each other,
although with a RAID 0 array, the nod clearly goes to the SI
controller. However, for the debut of this new Intel
controller and its supporting drivers, we're more than
impressed with the results. A driver revision or two
more and Intel could easily close this small gap.
Intel yet again
shows us how it is done, with this latest optimization to
the Pentium 4 architecture. In the early
Willamette days of the Pentium 4, there were many who
scoffed at the processor's performance, relative to its high
clock speed. However, one could hardly argue that the
Pentium 4 is the fastest Desktop processor on the market
today, perhaps not clock for clock but definitely in raw
performance and dare we say "dollar for dollar", for many
end users. The new Pentium 4 3GHz with 800 MHz System
Bus, will retail for somewhere in the mid $400 price range.
This new Pentium 4 outperformed the Athlon XP 3000+ by as
much as 25%, depending on the test and only lost to it by a
hair, in the two legacy Winstone test suites. What's
more impressive is that Intel was able to squeeze out as
much as another 8-10% increase in peformance, while
maintaining the same relative clock speed for the chip.
And this was achieved without making a change to the core
CPU design. You've got to hand it to Intel and the P4.
This chip has legs to stand, walk and run on for a long time
to come.
Finally, the
introduction of Intel's Canterwood chipset heralds in a new
day for the enthusiast, looking for performance and features
at a respectable price. With its high level of
integration, including features like AGP8X, Gigabit
Ethernet, SATA and SATA RAID, USB2.0 and Dual Channel DDR400
support, we expect this chipset to take over where the "BX"
left off. The i857P will sell for about $50 without
RAID and $53 with RAID enabled on the Southbridge (yeah,
we'll call it $50 even). This should allow for boards
in the $125 - $150 price range easily and that's a price
point that seems reasonable, considering the feature set.
In addition, Intel's new D875PBZ motherboard, that debuts
here today, would be a great place to start, if you are in
need of a rock stable board with great performance and
you're not looking to overclock too heavily. However,
you can almost hear the landslide of third part OEM boards
coming down, that will be based on Canterwood, so keep your
eyes peeled.
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