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- Date:
- Thursday , November 07, 2002
- Author:
- Steve Lynch
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
MSI 648-MAX Review
Want to have your Pentium 4 riding the 333MHz bus instead of the short bus. MSI and SiS step up to the plate and deliver the 648MAX sporting AGP8X.
Test Platforms:
MSI 648 MAX Mainboard; Pentium 4 2.53B CPU; Stock HSF; PNY GF4 Ti4600 (29.42); 1x Corsair 512MB XMS3200 DDR; NetGear FA311 10/100 PCI; Maxtor 40GB ATA/133 7200RPM HD; Windows XP Professional; SiS AGP driver v1.10.03. (133 CPU bus, 166 & 200MHz Memory Bus tested)
ASUS P4S8X Mainboard; Pentium 4 2.53B CPU; Stock HSF; PNY GF4 Ti4600 (29.42); 1x Corsair 512MB XMS3200 DDR; NetGear FA311 10/100 PCI; Maxtor 40GB ATA/133 7200RPM HD; Windows XP Professional; SiS IDE Driver 2.00.01; AGP Driver 1.10.03; BIOS 1003A. (133 CPU bus, 166 & 200MHz Memory Bus tested)
SiS 648 Reference Mainboard; Pentium 4 2.53B CPU; Stock HSF; VisionTek GF4 Ti4600 (29.42); 2x Corsair XMS3000 DDR; NetGear FA311 10/100 PCI; Maxtor 40GB ATA/133 7200RPM HD; Windows XP Professional; SiS IDE driver v1.01.13; SiS AGP driver v1.10.03. (133 CPU bus, 166 & 200MHz Memory Bus tested)
For benchmark purposes the MSI 648 MAX was run at the stock 2.53GHz with the memory bus set at 333MHz DDR for testing as well as the highest possible BIOS settings of 400MHz DDR. The 648 MAX supports 333MHz DDR speeds of 266MHz, 333MHz, and 400MHz at a FSB of 133MHz.
Memory Bandwidth:
SiSoft Sandra has been a staple around our workbench for many a year now. SiSoft's memory benchmark is valuable, especially for those of you that want to get the most bandwidth between your CPU and RAM. Quick, accurate, repeatable results you can rely on.
Overall memory bandwidth scores for the 648 MAX are good, certainly in line with other leading SiS648 based mainboards. SiS 648 based boards have traditionally put forth strong memory bandwidth scores comparatively, and the 648 MAX is no exception.
Content & Biz Benchmarks:
Business Winstone measures a PC's overall performance by running today's top-selling Windows-based 32-bit applications. Latest release: Business Winstone 2001 version 1.0 (11/07/2000). The Business Winstone tests are "market-centered" tests. Business applications are the popular applications employed by most users every day. Their final list of ten business productivity applications includes: Five Microsoft Office 2000 applications (Access, Excel, FrontPage, PowerPoint, and Word); Microsoft Project 98; Lotus Notes R5; NicoMak WinZip; Norton AntiVirus; and Netscape Communicator.
Business Winstone show better results than all other boards in this roundup, and some of the highest scores we have seen to date from SiS648 based mainboards.
Content Creation Winstone 2002 is a system-level, application-based benchmark that measures a PC's overall performance when running top, Windows-based, 32-bit, content creation applications on Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, or Windows XP. Content Creation Winstone 2002 uses the following applications: Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1, Adobe Premiere 6.0, Macromedia Director 8.5, Macromedia Dreamweaver UltraDev 4, Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 7.01.00.3055, Netscape Navigator 6/6.01, Sonic Foundry Sound Forge 5.0c (build 184).
Content Creation show scores solidly in the middle of the expected range for these boards. There is certainly no clear leader among these boards at either 333 DDR or the unofficial 400 DDR.
SysMark 2002 incorporates the following Internet Content Creation and Office Productivity applications.
Office Productivity: Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2002, Microsoft Access 2002, Netscape Communicator® 6.0, Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred v.5, WinZip 8.0, and McAfee VirusScan 5.13.
SysMark, in both Content Creation as well as Office productivity post identical strong scores that rank solidly in the middle of the scores posted by other leading SIS 648 based boards we see here, although a small lead can be given to our MSI board in both categories.
Internet Content Generation: Adobe Photoshop® 6.01, Adobe Premiere® 6.0, Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 7.1, Macromedia Dreamweaver 4, and Macromedia Flash 5.
Repeatedly consistent scores, ones that sometimes even edge out their competition, are simply a testament to the stability and consistency of a mainboard more than they attest to outright “performance”.