ECS KN1 Extreme AMD Athlon 64 Motherboard

Test Setup

Test Systems

Both AMD systems will use identical hardware which will include the following

• AMD X2 3800+ CPU
• 1 GB Corsair XMS 3200XL memory @ 2-3-2-5
• ATI Radeon X850 XT video card
• Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300GB HDD
• Antec NEOPower 480

*All testing was done using a fresh install of Windows XP Profeessional with SP 2, NVidia’s 6.66 Chipset Drivers, ATI’s Cat 5.8 Driver. the ECS KN1 Extreme is using BIOS version 6-2, while the DFI NF4 Ultra is using the 623-3.

I’m currently testing out a new testbench, this is the HSPC Tech Station from HighSpeedPC, it works really well for switching out components quickly and easily while maintaining a stable and safe work enviroment. The cooling system is Cooler Master’s new Aquagate Mini-120, which fits perfectly in the testbench and provides some very good cooling results. I’ll be writing a lot more about both of these items in the not too distant future. (These picks were taken before any testing was done, so don’t worry if you see components that are not listed in the test setup, or you don’t see components that are lsited in the test setup.)

Testing consisted of the following benchmarking programs:

• 3DMark05 (CPU Test)
• 3DMark03 (CPU Test)
• Aquamark 3 (CPU Test)
• PCMark05
• Sisoft Sandra 2005 (CPU Arithmetic)
• Sciencemark
• Super Pi Mod 1.4
• Cinebench 2003
• Far Cry
• Doom 3