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"Real World" Application
Benchmarks |
Back to work! |
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To test
"real world" application performance, we used ZD Labs'
Business Winstone 2002 and Content Creation Winstones
2002 benchmarks. We'll directly quote ZD's
eTestingLabs website, for an explanation as to how
Business Winstone 2002 derives its score. (Content
Creation Winstone 2002 uses the same process, but the
test is comprised of different applications):
"Business Winstone is a system-level,
application-based benchmark that measures a PC's
overall performance when running today's top-selling
Windows-based 32-bit applications on Windows 98,
Windows 2000 (SP2 or later), Windows Me, or Windows
XP. Business Winstone doesn't mimic what these
packages do; it runs real applications through a
series of scripted activities and uses the time a PC
takes to complete those activities to produce its
performance scores."
Business Winstone
Applications:
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Five Microsoft Office 2002 applications
(Access, Excel, FrontPage, PowerPoint, and
Word)
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Microsoft Project 2000
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Lotus Notes
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WinZip 8.0
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Norton Antivirus
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Netscape Communicator
Content Creation
Winstone Applications:
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Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1
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Adobe Premiere 6.0
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Macromedia Director 8.5
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Macromedia Dreamweaver UltraDev 4
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Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 7.01.00.3055
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Netscape Navigator 6/6.01
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Sonic Foundry Sound Forge 5.0c (build 184)
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The Abit
IS7 came out on top in both tests, but by a minor and
completely negligible difference each time.
Using the integrated graphics in these tests brought
the performance down of the SB61G2 by just a bit.
As we have explained earlier, this is caused by the
reliance of the integrated graphics engine on the same
memory bandwidth that the system is using.
Another reason is because there is also less system
memory available. When using the add-in Radeon
9500 Pro, the full 512MB we installed is available to
the system. When using the Intel Extreme
Graphics 2 however, 64 of those megabytes are
allocated for the graphics processor, leaving only
448MB available.
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Overclocking Results |
Going where no one has gone before |
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As we
mentioned earlier, the FB61 motherboard has
overclocking capabilities not found on previous
models. We started out tentatively, this being
our first overclocking experience with a new P4
2.40C CPU. Since this was a retail version, we
could not look forward to changing the multiplier, but
set out to raise the FSB in jumps of 5MHz.
Immediately we hit a roadblock at 210MHz, but we found
we could get past this by lowering the timings on the
memory to 2-6-3-3. From there we moved up to
225MHz for the FSB, at which point the system would
not even boot. At this speed, the memory was
running at 450MHz, well above it's rating. We
went back into the BIOS at changed the memory speed to
DDR320, what amounts to a 5:4 divider. It was
clear sailing all the way to a 255MHz FSB, maxing out
the BIOS settings. This equated to the CPU
running at 3.06GHz. We re-ran a few benchmarks
to see what performance gains we would get.
The graphs
speak for themselves. We got some nice boosts
from overclocking the system, breaking 9000 in the
PCMark 2002 memory module. 3DMark 2001SE saw a
nice increase as well, about an 8% difference.
While we wouldn't recommend keeping the system
overclocked this high for a long time, it's good to
know that such options are available and that
stability of this new Suhttle XPC is right up there as
well.
Once
again, it looks like Shuttle has come up with a big
winner in the SB61G2. Designing this new Mini PC
around their Springdale-based FB61 motherboard was a
no-brainer, as it really benefits from the 800MHz FSB
P4 support, Dual DDR400 memory channels and to a
lesser degree the Intel Extreme Graphics 2 engine.
Some thought has to be taken beforehand on what one
intends to do with the XPC, as expandability is a
small concern. Hardcore gamers will definitely
want to go out and purchase a more powerful video
card, as the on-board graphics are only passable as a
2D solution. Likewise, audiophiles may want to
look into a superior audio solution, although the
RealTek ALC650 codec does do an admirable job.
Additionally, Shuttle has listened to end user
feedback and have added features in the BIOS that
allow the system to be overclocked. The
Smart-fan option in the BIOS is a boon to those users
searching for peace and quiet, as the system runs
almost perfectly quiet, even under load. With
great looks on the outside and a powerhouse on the
inside, we find it hard to find many faults with the
Shuttle XPC SB61G2.
We'll
give the Shuttle XPC SB61G2 a 9.5 out of 10 on the
HotHardware Heat Meter, for overall excellence inside
and out.
Discuss this or
any other Hot Hardware Review in the PC Hardware
Forum!
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