Shuttle AE25R Motherboard Review


The Shuttle AE25R Motherboard Review - Page 3

 

Shuttle's AE25R Motherboard
Twice The Fun

By, Jeff Bouton
September 25th, 2001


 

Quake 3 Arena
Fragging it up...

 

When it comes to OpenGL, there is no benchmark more widely accepted than Quake 3.  So we loaded up the Time Demo 001 at the Fastest setting and let it ride at both default clock speed and overclocked.

 

 

When it comes to the default bus speed, the AE25R put up FPS consistent with other "Tualatin" based boards we've tested recently.  However, once we kicked the system into overdrive, the AE25R really shined.  With the BUS speed set at 160MHz., we were CPU limited at an excellent 204 FPS, a gain of over 21%.  I don't think any of us in our right mind could say anything negative about a 21% gain in performance.

 

Now let's move on to some low-level benchmarks...

 

Sandra 2001 se
Some Low Level Scores...

 

Now we'll run Sandra to see how the AE25R with the "Tualatin" installed compares to some other popular systems...

 

CPU@1.2GHz.

MM@1.2GHz.

MEM@1.2GHz.

CPU@1.44GHz.

MM@1.44GHz.

MEM@1.44GHz.

 

HD@1.2GHz.

 

Once again it is a familiar sight, the AE25R with the "Tualatin" processor has some impressive numbers.  At the default CPU speed, the CPU and Multimedia benchmarks were almost identical to an Athlon of the same speed.  Once we turned it up to 1.44GHz., the AE25R left everything in the dust including a Pentium 4 @ 1.6GHz.  RAM performance was very good for SDRAM, especially when overclocked, and the R.A.I.D. array was consistent with similar setups.
 


From what we've seen in the past and present, there is no denying the performance benefits of the Intel "Tualatin" processor.  Review after review we've seen motherboards from various manufacturers put up impressive scores across the board.  Shuttle has taken things a step further with the AE25R by adding the additional boost of R.A.I.D. With our test system configured for striping, the AE25R not only showed excellent performance scores, the system was much snappier and more responsive, with application load-times reduced dramatically.

The people at Shuttle have put together an excellent product with the release of the AE25R.    The quality and design of the board is quite good, with an excellent balance between value and features.  Whether looking to upgrade an existing workstation or build a quality gaming system with good overclockability, the AE25R is a wise choice at around $90.  We give the AE25R a Hot Hardware Meter Rating of an...8
 

Are you talkin' to me?  Get into the HotHardware Conference Room!

 

 

 

 

 

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