Showing posts with label dfi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dfi. Show all posts

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Tech Link (Motherboard): [First Look] DFI 680i LT NF-680i LT SLI

AndreYang of XS has gotten himself another unreleased product from DFI*. Seems like DFI is making up for their lost time and being late to the Intel Core party. They just released their DFI INFINITY P965 Dark Series, and now this board is in the very near horizon. Check out the pics....



I received from DFI one day ago. DFI told me this is retail box.

I share pics to everyone.
One
Two
Three
Four
Five

BOX and accessory
Six
Seven
Eight

Northbridge Heat Sink
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
TwentyOne

Motherboard pics
TwentyTwo

I/O
TwentyThree
TwentyFour

Chipset
TwentyFive

Network chipset
TwentySix

Northbridge
TwentyFour

Raid Chipset
TwentyFive

Install Northbridge Heat Sink
TwentySix
TwentySeven
TwentyEight
TwentyNine
Thirty

I will test later.


Source:[First Look] DFI 680i LT NF-680i LT SLI

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Press Release: DFI Launches the INFINITY P965, Providing the Ultimate C/P Solution

It's official boys and girls, DFI unveils their long overdue motherboard for the Conroe platform. Speculations abound that this is supposed to be a LANParty series, however, "degraded" to Infinity due to the timing of release. But hey, it should be all good and much better for all of us FanBoys. Check it out...



DFI Launches the INFINITY P965, Providing the Ultimate C/P Solution

As always DFI has always been known to push technology to its outer limits and the Infinity P965 is no exception. This Intel based motherboard provides users with a perfect solution that not only offers tremendously high performance and “ over-clockablity ” but also boosts an extremely attractive price. DFI has chosen to use the Intel P965 + ICH8R chipsets to allow the board to support the most advance processors (including Core 2 Quad), DDRII-800 and Crossfire functions. Although the motherboard is a bit late arriving to the market the motherboard and BIOS are brilliantly designed to offer users unsurpassed over-clocking that will not disappoint even the most advanced overclocker. In addition DFI has redesigned the packaging to further accent the fact that DFI's Infinity series have entered the next generation of gaming performance.

A chipset solution that adopts Intel P965 + ICH8R

DFI's INFINITY P965 motherboard adopted Intel's P965 chipset and did not miss a beat. The P965 is commonly regarded as “Conroe's sole platform” amongst the enthusiasts' community. The chipset embraces Intel's “Fast Memory Access Technology” to provide enhanced processing speed and supports Microsoft's newest operating system, Windows Vista. ICH8R is essentially an advanced and upgraded edition of ICH7R. It provides support for more USB and SATA slots, both in quantity and performance. Further it supports the newest technologies such as iAMT and QST. In addition the ICH8R is the most advance chipset in its family and provides enhanced RAID functionality and therefore it supports RAID 0, 1, 0+1, and 5 categories.

4 Phases Digital PWM

Obviously since DFI is never content to use inferior components they have chosen to use the advanced 4-phase digital PWM instead of the ordinary 3-phase PWM that is commonly seen in the market these days. A digital PWM supplies components with stabilized current which is a necessity for all enthusiasts and is extremely important when the time comes to select the right type of motherboard for gaming. In addition do to its design the digital PWM works without the worry of capacitor explosion and electrolyte leakage, it gives every enthusiast unlimited freedom from fear while he is overclocking or gaming.

Supports ATI Crossfire multi-rendering

It can not be denied that Crossfire technology has brought revolutionary changes to the way 3D technologies work. Nowadays, hardcore gamers largely choose to use Crossfire technologies to provide them with the ultimate in 3D rendering while gaming. Crossfire technology certainly differentiates advanced hardcore gamers from the beginners. And since the Infinity P965 supports 2 Crossfire VGA cards (one of the PCI slots runs with x16, while the other runs with x4) it allows users to utilize the best 3D rendering technology in the market.

Uses entirely solid aluminum capacitors (INFINITY P965-S Edition)

For an added level of performance DFI has implement the use of all solid aluminum capacitors on the INFINITY P965-S. Solid aluminum capacitors provide high reliability and durability even under the most demanding of circumstances. Enthusiasts prefer solid aluminum capacitors because they know that this will allow the motherboard to work impressively even during over-clocking and without the worry of problems such as capacitor explosion or electrolyte leakage.

8 Channels high-definition audio

Besides the realistic visual effect and fabulous 3D graphics, the sound performance is another factor that attracts gamers' attention. Just imagine yourself submerged in the dynamics of gaming with full 3D graphics and lifelike sound effects; if you're not careful you might not be able to tell reality from fantasy which only leads to the thrilling experience provide by this board. That's why the INFINITY P965 adopted the 8–channel Azalea audio CODEC which provides you with the most unforgettable gaming experience of your life.

Fully supports Windows Vista

The brand new Operation system Microsoft Vista, it provides faster graphic process ability. In addition, Vista also brings a fresh experience to users about on-line security, wireless resources sharing and entertainments. DFI INFINITY P965 is fully supports Microsoft Vista.

Other Features

Four years ago, DFI was the first-in-industry to offer EZ switches for users. Now INFINITY P965 still provides the same traditional EZ on & off to let an enthusiast enjoy over-clocking with or without a computer casing. Genie BIOS of DFI motherboard is versatile at various voltage levels and settings. It is an “all time favorite” feature for enthusiasts. Other special features include high speed DDRII-800 memory support. The capacity can go up to a gigantic 8GB.

To suit the needs of enthusiasts, DFI has prepared two editions of P965 at the press time. INFINITY P965-S fully adopts aluminum solid capacitors on it board while the INFINITY P965 is the cost/performance edition without solid capacitors.


Source:DFI Launches the INFINITY P965, Providing the Ultimate C/P Solution

Friday, March 23, 2007

Tech Link (Motherboard): CeBIT exclusive: DFI Infinity 965 board - overclocking party

While I don't like the website's theme, layout, and review style in general, I loved it-review's conclusion on DFI*'s upcoming Infinity board based on i965 chipset. They received a damaged board (missing capacitors) and yet this board still overclocks pretty well. And as per the author, this board is supposed to be a "LanParty" series (aka the expensive series) but to the delay to bring this out to market, it sunk down into an "Infinity" model. Anyway, expand to read their conclusion...



Though this board comes late in comparison to other manufacturers, we know where the extra time was spent. The board design and its performance justify the time spent, and its overclockability has pleasantly surprised us. We have a strong feeling this board was meant to be a part of Lan Party series because it has some features that don’t belong to Infinity series, but we guess it was introduced as Infinity because it arrived late. On the other hand, this is a Lan Party style board at Infinity price range, and that can only be good for end users. We believe there will be many enthusiasts that will go for this board, especially because it price performance ratio is high. Even damaged (3 capacitors were torn off), it still performed excellent, so with the 3 capacitors in place it can only get better. If you are in search of a good overclock platform and you don’t want to spend a huge amount of money, this is definitely the board for you. At the end of this article I would like to thank DFI for making this review happen. I would also like to thank King Car Food Ind. Co. Ltd. for their Mr. Brown Classic Coffee-Drink that kept our CeBIT IT-review Lab up and running all night. Yet again...


Source:CeBIT exclusive: DFI Infinity 965 board - overclocking party

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Tech Link (Processor): DFI Infinity i975x + Conroe Overclock

Note: I am supposed to post it last night, but Blogger had a problem and it's only now that I have time to post again. Anyway, you can see my reply in the thread (death metal) and made it yesterday. Sorry for the late posting.

The famous overclocker coolaler managed to snag another early motherboard based on i975 Express Chipset. The motherboard offers a solid punch when it comes to performance and overclocking settings. My only pet peeve is its really bland green look. But as is usual with DFI board, it comes with on-board easy reset and power on buttons. Really nifty, specially if you are like me that don't put their bench rig inside a chassis.


coolaler managed to overclock his Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6700 to 3.7GHz from its nominal value of 2.66GHz with a scary 1.61vCore and shocking 2.65vDimm. Those are really extreme voltage for these babies, and he is just running it on stock. The really neat thing is that, at this voltage, the CPU is cooler than the Northbridge!

Head on over at XS to catch the latest craze.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Review: DFI 852GME-MGF+, Intel Pentium M 730 (1.6Ghz)

This is an old article I made and posted at TPC, so some benchmark claims might not be true anymore. Nevertheless, if you're curious as to how this Pentium M and i852 chipset can perform, then read on...

Credits (parts provided by):
Motherboard and CPU: COOLTOYZ
AGP Videocard: jampax

I. Introduction


First and foremost, I'd like to thank COOLTOYZ for providing me with his expensive "toyz" to play with: DFI motherboard and Dothan CPU, and jampax for lending me his great eVGA FX5950Ultra 256MB videocard. Recently, reviews of Intel's Pentium M with Dothan core on the desktop have stirred up the interest of many enthusiasts. Where it used to be the major strength of laptop, the small, silent, low-heat, low-power but solid computing is now a reality on "regular" desktop platform. Among the motherboard manufacturers that took advantage of Intel's Pentium M acceptance at the desktop is DFI. Currently, DFI have two motherboard flavors, with their 855GME-MGF being released first and garner many recognitions, and their second one which we have in our test bed is the DFI 852GME-MGF.
Note: You can click all pictures of the motherboard
and CPU for larger image.




Motherboard Specifications


This motherboard's main marketing point against its older brother 855GME is the official support for 133Mhz FSB with it i852 MCH. Though the i852GME chipset is primarily targeted for Mobile Pentium 4, DFI's engineering prowess have led them to enable the chipset for use with Intel's Pentium M 7xx line of processors, enabling the full 133Mhz FSB. The motherboard also sports impressive features which are often offered on high end motherboards with its 6300ESB IOCH,  a rather powerful chipset for such a small package. The 6300ESB might not offer feature-rich connectors, but this Southbridge makes up for its PCI-X support, USB 2.0, SATA RAID and IDE channels. This baby comes with VIA's Firewire, Realtek 6channel audio with S/PDIF and 1Gbps NIC. And oh, the Northbridge supports up to DDR333 with ECC support. Now, this is one motherboard suitable for some heavy duty super mini file server system.

CPU

  • Intel® Pentium® M / Celeron® M processor - 400/533MHz system bus - Supports 64-bit host data bus and 32-bit addressing
  • Processor socket: mPGA479M

Chipset

  • Intel® 852GME chipset - Intel® 852GME Graphics Memory Controller Hub (GMCH) - Intel® 6300ESB I/O Controller Hub

Memory

  • Two 184-pin DDR SDRAM DIMM sockets

  • 2.5V unbuffered PC1600 (DDR200), PC2100 (DDR266) or PC2700 (DDR333) DDR
    SDRAM DIMM with ECC support

BIOS

  • Award BIOS
  • 4Mbit flash memory

Power Management

  • Supports ACPI specification and OS Directed Power Management
  • Supports ACPI STR (Suspend to RAM) function
  • Wake-On-Events include: - Wake-On-PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse - Wake-On-USB Keyboard
    - Wake-On-LAN - Wake-On-Ring - RTC timer to power-on the system
  • AC power failure recovery

Hardware Monitor

  • Monitors CPU/system temperature and overheat alarm
  • Monitors 5VSB(V)/VBAT(V)/1.5V/3.3V/5V/12V/CPU(V) voltages and failure alarm
  • Monitors CPU/chassis/2nd fan speed and failure alarm
  • Read back capability that displays temperature, voltage and fan speed

Graphics

  • Up to 64MB of dynamic video memory allocation
  • Display core frequency at 250MHz (default)
  • Render core frequency at 250MHz (default)
  • Intel® Dual-Frequency Graphics Technology
  • Supports 2D graphics engine
  • Supports 3D graphics engine
  • Supports Graphics Power Management

Audio

  • Realtek ALC655 6-channel audio
  • S/PDIF-out interface

LAN

  • RTL8110S Gigabit ethernet controller
  • Supports 10Mbps, 100Mbps and 1Gbps data transmission

IDE

  • Supports up to UltraDMA 100Mbps hard drives

Serial ATA with RAID

  • Supports two SATA (Serial ATA) interfaces which are compliant with SATA 1.0 specification (1.5Gbps interface)
  • Supports RAID 0 and RAID 1

IEEE 1394

  • VIA VT6307
  • Supports two 100/200/400 Mb/sec ports

AGP

  • Supports 1.5V AGP 4x data transfers and 2x/4x fast write protocol (3.3V AGP card is not supported)
  • AGP 2.0 compliant

Rear Panel I/O Ports

  • 1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 mouse port
  • 1 mini-DIN-6 PS/2 keyboard port
  • 1 DB-25 parallel port
  • 1 DB-9 serial port
  • 1 DB-15 VGA port
  • 1 IEEE 1394 port

  • 1 RJ45 LAN port
  • 4 USB 2.0/1.1 ports
  • Mic-in, line-in and line-out

I/O Connectors

  • 1 connector for an external serial port
  • 1 connector for 1 external IEEE 1394 port
  • 1 front audio connector for line-out and mic-in jacks
  • 1 CD-in internal audio connector
  • 1 S/PDIF-out connector
  • 1 connector for IrDA interface
  • 2 Serial ATA connectors
  • 2 40-pin IDE connectors
  • 1 floppy connector
  • 1 ATX power supply connector
  • 1 front panel connector
  • 3 fan connectors

Compatibility

  • PCI 2.2, Intel AGP 2.0, PCI-X 2.2 and AC ’97 compliant
    Expansion Slots

  • 1 AGP 4x slot
  • 1 PCI-X slot
  • 2 PCI slots

PCB

  • 4 layers, microATX form factor
  • 24.4cm (9.61") x 23cm (9.06")

Packaging


The DFI 852GME-MGF comes in a rather familiar way of packaging. With the box
adorned with 0's and 1's in limy green color, it is reminiscent of Matrix. The
packaging easily shows the features of the motherboard without having to flip it
backwards. You'll never miss the features of its touted strength of 533Mhz FSB (133Mhz QPB), as well as supported RAM, USB, AGP, Firewire, SATA, 6channel audio and PCI-X which are printed on the front left side of the box.











Opening the box reveals a bland set of goodies. It is rather surprising to see such limited loot inside the packaging when thinking of the price, and then comparing it with their LanParty series on the desktop scene. This motherboard contains only the bare necessities, which is really rather disappointing when you realize how much this motherboard costs. Below, you can see that DFI bundle this motherboard with the backplate, floppy and IDE cables, a SATA connector/adapter, the obligatory CD, floppy disk driver, manual, and (thank goodness) a customized CPU heatsink and fan for the processor since regular cooler won't fit on this board.











Regarding the bundled cooler, I found out that it is missing a screw. The three(3) screws are securely fastened to the backing plate and I believe it's a factory miss since it's a bit tough to wedge out the screw from the heatsink, it isn't loose, and the heatsink is inside its own carton box. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to find out if it has any impact on cooling our little Dothan =).








Layout


At such a small form factor, let's visit how DFI cram the features and components of this mainboard. This motherboard, aesthetically speaking, is simply attractive. The black color commands superiority and stability to the users. It would be great to display this on a window-based mini ATX chassis with some lighting effects.











 

The CPU socket is in the familiar beige color, and looks very familiar like a socket 478 ZIF model. However, this CPU socket uses socket 479, a screw-type-slide to lock-in the processor. There are four mounting holes around this socket which is where you can mount an exact fit stock HSF for the processor. There are some tall capacitors which may provide some concern to those who would like to use other than the stock cooler. The fan connector is the traditional three-pin one, located very near the CPU socket. Keep this in mind when looking for non-standard CPU cooler.










As you can see here, this is where the WinBond hardware monitor is located. It is interesting to note that where this area of the motherboard shows the common 4pin Pentium 4 connector, this connector is not present in this motherboard. The low-power nature of the Pentium M just don't need that much power.

This motherboard is equipped with single channel MCH, and supports upto 2Gb maximum RAM. The two RAM slots just below the CPU is very easy to "use", not very stiff and yet, not too loose for comfort. Along the sides of the RAM slots are the IDE and FDD headers. Far to the bottom corner portion is another fan header. User of "older" generation 20pin PSU will not be dissatisfied with motherboard as this one still uses the 20pin standard. This ATX connector is conveniently located at the edge of the motherboard, and not in the middle as can be seen being done by other manufacturers on some desktop machines. There is also a red LED in here that lights up when the PC is powered on.

The Northbridge is passively cooled by an aluminum heatsink. This heatsink is clamped by the usual two wire clips, much to the dislike of some users who prefers mounting holes for some kind of customize cooling solution. Nevertheless, this heatsink proves just more than enough as this never gets warmer than 38c at full load.

Moving on to the peripheral card connectors, we can see the AGP 4x slot here, the single PCI-X, and two PCI card slots. Note that using monster AGP cards will occupy the adjacent PCI slot rendering it unusable. This is not a fault though, as the sheer small size of the motherboard is the limiting factor. Another noticeable thing to consider is that any monster sized videocard will provide some challenge when adding or removing RAM. But with such just two RAM slots, just fill both up before adding any video card and problem solved :). This area of the motherboard also shows the CD analog header, the Realtec and VIA chip, and clock generator. Another red LED is installed in here that lights up when the motherboard detects the presence of power even when the PC is still turned off. This is a very nice indicator to notify users assembling their rig to completely remove all power from the motherboard so as to prevent any accidental short circuit.

Next is the Southbridge area. I love the black passive cooler on the Southbridge, it's comfortably taller than some passive coolers I've seen before placed on Southbridge. This is the area where the SATA RAID headers are connected, and that all too important CMOS clear jumper. Notice that this jumper is just besides the Southbridge, I strongly suggest to overclock this motherboard outside of the chassis if you have a microATX chassis. Off to the far lower left is the front panel connector, and another fan header for your convenience.

The rear connectors of this motherboard shows just enough IOs. The VGA port is in here so you can instantly connect your monitor without adding additional video card. You'll also find some of the legacy connectors such as the parallel printer and serial port. There are four(4) USB and one(1) firewire connector available for use. The NIC and audio connectors are also in their familiar location.








BIOS


I'll not bore you with too many BIOS bla, suffice it to say that the BIOS offers options for Overclockers for tweaking the following:
* RAM Timing (CAS-Active to Precharge-RAS to CAS-RAS Precharge)
* FSB in 1Mhz increment
* RAM dividers (Auto, 1:1 DDR200, 4:3 DDR266, 5:3 DDR333, 1:1 (Low GFX), 4:3 (Low GFX))
* PCI/AGP lock
* Clock Multiplier and Core Voltage (FID/VID) (1.308 max)
DFI's BIOS also offers stability testing options (MEMTest and CPUTest) right from the BIOS without booting off any software or operating system. Pretty nifty and useful for quick test.

Benchmarking


Ahh, now we enter the fun part, at least for me :)....but before the figures, let me just layout the test bed.
* Intel Pentium M 730 (1.6Ghz/2M/533Mhz SL86G) with stock cooler
* DFI 852GME-GMF (latest BIOS as of Dec. 2004)
* eVGA GeForce FX5950 Ultra (500/650)
* Geil Ultra Platinum PC4000 2x256Mb CL2-2-2-5@DDR266
* 1x80Gb Seagate Barracuda IDE
* 1xFDD
* 1x Optical Drive Samsung DVD Combo
* Enermax EG465VE ATX v1.3
* Thermaltake LANFire Midtower Chassis

Subsystem Testing


Sandra


Sandra's score is pretty interesting :), with the old chipset showing its age already by giving out a "normal" bandwidth score for a single-channel DDR266 system.








PCMark


Unlike Sandra, PCMark, on the other hand, has a pretty good outcome:




SuperPi 1M


SuperPi 1M is also very impressive considering this baby runs at a mere 1.6Ghz, single channel memory, and 533Mhz FSB.

Everest RAM Read/Write


Like the Sandra results, values here are nothing to write home about. This is mainly due to single channel nature of the memory controller and low RAM frequency.


Gaming


Note: Aquamark03 and 3DMark benches are run on their stock "configuration" and settings.

Aqumark03


It is nice to see that this little CPU and motherboard combo can score that high.

3DMark01SE


3DMark01SE is a good benchmark to test not only the GPU but also the CPU. With a stock GeForce FX5950, this 1.6Ghz Pentium M on a 533Mhz motherboard produce a decent score.


3DMark03


Unlike it's older brother 3DMark01SE, it's performance measurement is moving more on the GPU than CPU. The results is not too high, but not too low either.


3DMark05


3DMark05 is the latest incarnation of FutureMark's famous 3DMark benchmarks. This software is the most reliant on GPU compared to older 3DMark benchmarks.


As some may argue that 3DMark isn't reflective of real-world gaming experience, I decided to add more graphics gaming benchmarks: GunMetal and Doom3.

GunMetal


The score shown here is the average of two(2) runs of benchmark options 1 and 2, with the following settings: 1024x768, 32bit, 2xAA, High, On


Doom3


This benchmark is run on High Quality, 1024x768, 32bit, Full Screen. Breaking 50FPS on Doom3 is really an impressive feat here.

Running the Pentium M on the DFI board is really fun on stock settings, with tweaking here and there. However, I decided to play with it even more and see how this combo performs, and check the motherboard and CPU limitation.

Overclocking


I will not delve into analyzing the benchmark results here, but suffice it to say that a 2Ghz Pentium M/533Mhz/2Mb is a force to be reckoned with. It can match more expensive and more full-featured CPU available today. The CPU's multiplier is reduced to 11x, while the FSB is set to 202, giving a very good 804FSB and 2.222Ghz CPU frequency, and DDR404@CL2-3-3-7.

Sandra










PCMark2002




PCMark04




SuperPi 1M



Everest RAM Read/Write




Aqumark03



3DMark01SE




3DMark03




3DMark05




GunMetal




DOOM3



Temperature Reading:


I used Prime95 to push the CPU on it's full load for 4hours, during the hottest time of the day between 11am and 3pm. Idle reading is taken 30mins after the machine is booted up. Ambient chassis temperature reading shows 33c. Motherboard Monitor is used to record temperature readings.
On idle, the CPU is reporting 26c!!! While full load just reached 42c!!! Noise is not a problem with this baby!

Thoughts:


I won't be able to share my "conclusion" on this baby since I haven't really fully utilized this combo in a span of two weeks. However, I'd like to share, beyond numbers and graphs, my personal experience.

The DFI 852GME and Pentium M is a very powerful combination. This combo will make a very good HTPC, gaming PC, or even a file server for it's PCI-X support and Gigabit LAN uplink. The motherboard is very stable, and the whole system is very quiet I can't hear it running every time I power it on. The chassis and PSU fan are noisier than the CPU and the system never get that hot. The motherboard offers good features and ample connectivity, has integrated graphics which is useful even for light gaming, and ample storage options.

Overclocking the motherboard was fun as well. As you can see from the benchmarks, I have been able to reach 202FSB. Thru testing and burn-in, I found that this is the motherboard's highest stable FSB. While I can take screenshot at 208FSB, it's not that stable to even do anything than run CPU-Z and take screenshots. I believe that with just a minor chipset tweak, this mobo can do beyond 202FSB. Would have been nice to voltmod the chipset too :).

The CPU's highest stable frequency is 2.304Ghz, on a stock multiplier of 12 and 192FSB. It's 704Mhz above stock or 44% overclock without even tweaking any voltage settings. I have been tempted to voltmod the CPU to push it even higher, but I figure that the motherboard's 202FSB ceiling (even with lowest clock multiplier of 6) will be the limiting factor, and I can only reach 2.4Ghz, besides, this combo isn't mine so I'd rather not fiddle it to the point of breaking it :).
However, even with lots of pros, I still encountered some problem with the board.

First, the motherboard didn't detect the CPU's FSB settings automatically. It still use 100FSB and thus, produce really slow and sluggish performance. I have to set the settings manually on the BIOS.

Second, some RAM dividers are flaky. I can sometimes make it work, use the PC and then after shutting down and rebooting, it'll hang. It turned out that it's picky on RAM timing and type of RAM. I tried async options, trying to push beyond DDR400 for the RAM, but everytime, I am stalled at around 150FSB 3:4 (DDR400 for the RAM).

Third, it has a lot of shortcoming for serious overclocking options. The lack of vCore options above the CPU's stock vCore, lack of vDimm options, lack of Northbridge voltage settings severely limit this motherboard to low-voltage system or to those parts that can overclock well on their stock voltage settings. Fourth, this motherboard hates CL2.5. For some reason, I can't tweak it to boot at CL2.5, not that CL2 isn't better than CL2.5, but for better compatibility with DDR that aren't rated CL2.

I also used it as a gaming rig for about three(3) to four(4) days, and I found out that this combo has that smooth gaming experience. Choppy gameplay on Doom3 did occur when there are a lot of actions and "physics calculation" is tracking all those explosions, particle movement, etc. It doesn't appear too often though, and it can be very well attributed to my 512Mb RAM.

Audio quality, subjectively speaking from my point of view, is enjoyable. I played MP3, Audio CD, and Windows Media Audio and I have no complaints. I never experienced stalling when watching video on this combo using VCD, WMV, DVD and
DivX enconding, even when using the integrated graphics.

In Closing...


I'd like to share my thanks to the people who made this review possible:
* Cooltoyz, who provided the Pentium M 730/1.6Ghz/533Mhz/2Mb CPU and DFI
852GME-MGF/533Mhz/AGP 4x

* Jampax, who lend me his eVGA FX5950Ultra AGP Video Card
Without these guys, my last two weeks would have been revolving around watching episodes of Lost on my laptop =). Without them, I would have not made the following (Pentium M 730@2.2222Ghz@804FSB) achievements:
* World Record Highest FSB on an unmodded motherboard of same chipset and CPU, running on air
for hitting 202FSB full stable (all these benchmarks), 205 SPi 1M stable (http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=11917)
and 208FSB screenshot stable (http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=11909).

* Reach Top 5, ranked #4 at PCMark2004 at Pentium M category:

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?pcm04=2923273


* Reach Top 15, ranked #11 at 3DMark2001 at CPU clocked between 2.000Ghz to
2.400Ghz and same video card:

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=8540816


* Reach Top 5, ranked #1 at 3DMark2003 at CPU clocked between 2.000Ghz to
2.400Ghz, same video card and WHQL driver (too bad, I forgot to use a FutureMark
approved driver):
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=3913730


* Reach Top 5, ranked #1 at 3DMark2005 at CPU clocked between 2.000Ghz to
2.400Ghz, same video card and FutureMark approved and WHQL drivers:

http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=791277


* Reach Top 10, ranked #6 at Aquamark03 at CPU clocked between 2.000Ghz to
2.400Ghz, same video card (has the highest CPU score on the Top 10):

http://arc.aquamark3.com/arc/arc_view.php?run=489145297

Image Gallery


Enjoy some of my vain attempt to bring you good quality pictures :)


















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by dm - All rights reserved. Reproduction by permission only
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