New Post, benchmarks.

[YegaDoyai]

As a guide for all those who are looking to upgrade and as a historic report for us I prepose we use this thread to post our machine spec and benchmarks. And btw this is not because I think mine machine will beat everyones, it's a sempron!! However when I tell you how much it cost AND the performance I get I reckon we will be better able to judge future upgrades.

Rig follows, benchmarks later tonight.

Antec P180 Case
Tagan 420W PSU
Sempron 2800+ (1.6) + Zalman 7700Cu
Epox 8NJPA NF4 MOBO + Zalman NB
Geil 1GB 3200 CAS 2.5 Mem
Gigabyte X700Pro PCIe 128MB (425/430) + Zalman VF700Cu
Western Digital 80GB SATA
MX1000 Laser mouse! (As it was said, so it is true... Everything is better with Lasers!!)
Crappy monitor that buzzes louder than the computer (no really)
Awful keyboard that stops me from strafing left while walking.

CPU/MEM/MOBO = £200
GFX Card = £100
Zalmans = £50
PSU = £50
HDD/Mouse/DVDRW = £110
Case = £90
Total = £600

Benchmarks shall be the following Quake 3 ("four"), 3dm00/'01/'03/'05 and some sandra tests.

[Bluepixie]

Good idea man. I shall get some tests done tonight too. Just finished putting my baby back together. Just noticed how blooming noisy my darn VGA fan is!

Buzzy little bugger! But that shall change soon, Zalman VF-700 VGA cooler for me too! Maybe if we all get one we can start asking Zalman to sponsor our LAN's!

Long live the Zalman goodness! :D

[YegaDoyai]

Well I expected one more post than I got, the one telling me to stop it but that's not happened so expect the BM results tonight. Pixie get your sorry excuse for a 'pute working so you can get posting too. ( :wink: sorry bud I know it ain't your fault, 's just nice that _for once_ my machine isn't the laughing stock)

[DAve]

I had roughly the same idea when upgrading, benchmark with 3dmark 01 / 03 / 05 (99 didn't run on mine) and do a quick few flyby tests on UT2004 etc.

Quake 3 is a good idea though, just about everybody has it nowadays and it is a good raw power measurement. You won't catch nvidia or ati optimising their drivers for Q3 :)

I've got some benchmarks from the previous upgrade as well, I'll fish them out, as well as the previous system (celeron 550, diamond stealth 550 - the one with that texture compression whatsit, sstc?)

[YegaDoyai]

Quake 3 is actually fillrate/CPU limited it only passes a very small amount of work to the TnL unit - can't remember what right now, I think it's only entities not the static world but I could be wrong (soon find out though cos the source will be released soon). Anyway sadly due to my phone, yes, my phone resetting itself I've lost alll my benchmark results. However they were in the region of:

- edited for actual results -
Sandra:

Speed CPU A CPU MM Mem
Stock 7232 2470/3196 14914 16033 2640 2641
225 FSB 8078 2758/3570 16658 17919 3278 3278
265 FSB 9905 3246/4202 19616 21104 3029 3030
265 FSB 9519 3251/4200 19634 21123 3070 3075
275 FSB 9893 3378/4363 20408 21953 3203 3197
280 FSB 10032 3426/4424 20688 22256 3214 3208
300 FSB 10375 3673/4746 22205 23881 2851 2857

3dMark

Speed 3dm00 3dm01 3dm05
Stock 15434 14989 2773
225 FSB 17495 16583 2848
GC OC 17661 17295 3275
300 FSB 20896 18726 2955
GC OC 21248 20042 3358


Things to note, the poor memory performance!! should be 3000 on default but for some reason (dodgy timings) I can;t get it to get a better score than the above on maximum chat. :( Stock memory performace is very poor. I will investigte why. (not dual channel for a start but dont mess the sempron was really cheap!

All default settings for benchmarks - I will edit this post later with the actual scores. As a side note I Bmarked my mates XP2400+ and Nvidia 5200 and got a whopping 700 in '05. Yeah!!

My phone gets 600+ in the mobile Bmark suite :)

[YegaDoyai]

Ummm, when I edited the above post it does not show as anything has changed. That's why I'm writting this.

Umm, seen the QuakeCon stuff? Shave your head for a 7800GTX? Get a frag against Fatal1ty in Q4 and win Creative goodies (noone got a single kill against him BTW).

[YegaDoyai]

erugh, can't hit sh*t with this p228, must change gun soon. POST POST POTS :lol:

[DAve]

You can go back to the knife if you want :D

[Bluepixie]

Right. My turn.

I haven't done anything with the FSB yet as I'm still waiting for my machine to "convice me" that it's stable. She's a tricky little devil. :)

Anyway, here be the spec:

DFI LanParty nF2 Ultra B --- £54 ---
3200XP+ 2.3GHz (Barton Core) - (200FSB) --- £90 ---
Zalman 7000-Cu --- £30 ---
BFG GeForce 6600 GT (AGP) (CORE = 595Mhz, VRAM = 1.14Ghz) --- £180 ---
Zalman VF700 --- £18 ---
Corsair XMS3200 1GB [2x512] (2.5 - 3 - 3 - 6) (Dual Channel) (200FSB) --- £90 ---
Pioneer DVD Slot Drive --- £40 ---
WD 200GB Caviar (Primary) --- £70 ---
WD 80GB Caviar (Slave) --- £60 ---
Tagan 480W (TG480-U01) --- £70 ---
Black Widow Coolermaster --- £180 ---
17" Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 750SB --- £170 ---
Cherry Keyboard (Black) --- £30 ---
Logitech MX700 --- £50 ---
IceMat (1stEd) --- £30 ---
VideoLogic DigiTheatre (1stEd) --- £150 ---

Total = £1312 (this is an estimate)
Plus, some of this was bought a 2 years ago. i.e. the case, DVD, keyboard and monitor

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now the benchmarks. Only done 2003 and 2005 so.

Format:
3Dmark - 3Dmark year - Driver - OC settings


2003
7356 - 03 - 77.72 - Stock CPU + GPU

8170 - 03 - 77.76 XG - CPU 2.3Ghz - GPU stock - VF700

8741 - 03 - 77.76 XG - CPU 2.3Ghz - VCORE 570Mhz - VRAM 1.14Ghz

8985 - 03 - 77.76 XG - CPU 2.3Ghz - VCORE 595Mhz - VRAM 1.14Ghz - DFI

2005
3446 - 05 - 77.72 - Stock CPU + GPU

3617 - 05 - 77.76 XG - CPU 2.3Ghz - GPU stock - VF700

3871 - 05 - 77.76 XG - CPU 2.3Ghz - VCORE 570Mhz - VRAM 1.4Ghz

3968 - 05 - 77.76 XG - CPU 2.3Ghz - VCORE 595Mhz - VRAM 1.14Ghz - DFI

See what a HUGE difference "good" drivers make!

[YegaDoyai]

4000 in 05 no probs.

<sick with jealousy>

:)

mind you when you consider that my £98 card gets 3300 it ain't all bad.

[Bluepixie]

4000 in 05 no probs.

<sick with jealousy>

:)

We shall see. I find that the OC don't make as big a difference in 2005. Will post again shortly.....

[Bluepixie]

God damn it!

3968 in 2005! 32 more marks! ARG!

[Phizz]

/me breaks down in a sniffling mess of non-l33tness

[YegaDoyai]

well, I'm now getting 3700 in 05. :) Cat 5.8 = +200 3dmarks!!!!

[YegaDoyai]

oh and I've increased my mem bench mark to 3500 some change from 2800 I was getting. CPU @ 2.24. I think I know how to push harder. I'm going to try for 350 on the FSB tonight. :twisted:

[YegaDoyai]

can now get my processor up to 2.6ghz. :)

325fsb is the best I've got. Will try harder.

[Bluepixie]

can now get my processor up to 2.6ghz. :)

325fsb is the best I've got. Will try harder.

Damn that's good. And it's still silent. :P Wonderful!

What sorta score you getting now in 2005?

[Phizz]

hmm... I'll let someone at the LAN help me work out what this bucket of crud can do. lol

[YegaDoyai]

well now mr pixie lets not be hasty. with 5 120mm fans going maximum chat (2500rpm) it is not 'silent'. Closer to a wind farm or jet engine. But considering the voltage hike I felt it was nesscesary to keep the temps down. Sadly due to norhbridge instability at these speeds 3dmark 05 runs but not like it should. I shall continue to try for a clean run.

[YegaDoyai]

In light of Sids latest post

BUMP

[Sid]

Shit - hadn't seen this thread. Never been much of a 3Dmark fan, mind you - in the past it was well known to give better marks to either ATI or nVidia (can't remember which one).

[YegaDoyai]

It is only really accurate to rate a system against another if you accept that in real life they will perform differently. the ATI/Nvidia thing is a issue but as I'm the only one with an ATI card in the entire world then it should not matter (not counting you Sideshow as you were unlikely to post your results anyway)