The Test & General Performance

October 2024 ยท 2 minute read

The Test-

Standard Test Bed - Intel Configuration
ProcessorIntel Core 2 Quad - Q9300
RAMPatriot PUS24G6400LLK - 4GB DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 (DDR2-800)
G.Skill F2-8800CL5Q-8GBPI 4GB DDR2-1150 5-5-5-18 (DDR2-1066)
Corsair CM3X2G1600ZC9DHXNV 4GB DDR3 6-6-6-18 (DDR3-1333)
Hard DriveWestern Digital Caviar SE16 640GB
System Platform DriversIntel - 9.0.0.1011
Storage DriversIntel - 8.5.0.1032
Video DriversIntel - 15.11.2.1554
CPU CoolingIntel - Retail
Power SupplyCorsair - HX-520W
Optical DrivesSony BDU-X10S, LG GGC-H20L
CaseThermaltake Bach Media Lab VB8000BNS, stock case fans
MotherboardsASUS P5E-VM HDMI (Intel G35) - BIOS 0604
ASUS P5Q-EM (G45) - BIOS 0402
Gigabyte GA-EG45M-DS2H (G45) - BIOS F3F
Super Micro Super-C2SEA (G45 DDR3) - BIOS R1.0a
Intel DG45ID (G45) - BIOS 079
Operating SystemWindows Vista 32-bit Ultimate (Benchmarks), Vista 64-bit Memory Compatibility Testing
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Our test bed today features the Q9300 quad-core processor. This is a processor that we believe offers terrific performance with very good power consumption and thermals for the cost. We will have results in the next article with the E1200, E5200, E7200, and Q8200 processors to compare against several AMD processors in the same price and speed ranges. Our Patriot DDR2-800 Viper 4GB memory kit has served us well for the past few months and we highly recommend it. We chose Corsair for our XMS2 DDR3 4GB kit and the HX-520W power supply. Our favorite mid-range HD continues to be the Western Digital SE16 640GB that provides the near perfect balance of price, performance, and capacity.

General Performance-

We ran all of our tests with a Core 2 Quad Q9300, however the Mini ITX G45 board from Intel doesn't support quad-core processors so we included E5200 scores from Intel's own micro-ATX and mini-ITX boards for comparison.

You'll notice that these boards all perform about the same, which is to be expected these days with same-chipset performance. In Part 2 of this series we'll compare the equivalent AMD offerings along with several different processors, but if you're looking for an Intel platform you'll find that G45 boards are on equal performance footing.

PCMark Vantage - Total Score

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