OPORTUNIDADES Y RETOS
2. Factores institucionales, financieros y regulatorios como retos para el sector
2.2.1. La potencialidad del Plan Juncker
A
fter a disappointing run with a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition and an ASUS 865G motherboard, we were anxious to move on and see just how far we could push this already speedy processor. This time we paired our 3.2GHz Extreme Edition with an 865PE chipset. The 865PE is more popular with enthusiasts because it offers excellent performance for the price.Motherboard
For this case study, we used the Soyo P4I865PE Plus Dragon 2. This board isn't to be confused with the Soyo P4I865PE Dragon 2 Plus. Both boards include an Intel 865PE chipset on the northbridge and an Intel ICH5 on the southbridge. Our motherboard, however, has just three memory slots. That means that although the motherboard supports dual-channel DDR SDRAM up to PC3200 speeds, you won't be able to take full advantage of dual-channel memory if you fill all slots. Both boards also include five PCI slots and one 4X/8X AGP slot.
The alternate board, however, includes a CNR slot that our board lacks.
The 865PE supports 400MHz, 533MHz, and 800MHz quad-pumped FSB speeds, and the motherboard itself is capable of supporting Prescott and Extreme Edition processors. The ICH5 on the southbridge supports two indepen-dent SATA RAID devices and as many as eight USB 2.0 devices. A CMI 9739A
integrated audio codec provides six-chan-nel audio and a Davicom DM9102 pro-vides 10/100 Ethernet connectivity.
Overclocking
We eventually got some first-rate results from the P4I865PE, but we had to play with some of the system settings in order to stabilize the system at higher FSB speeds. We started off, as always, by benchmarking the system with its default settings.
At 3.2GHz, our Extreme Edition processor managed a 6292 3Dmark03 score. This score was essentially the same as the 6286 3Dmark03 score we received with our 3.2GHz Prescott on a Shuttle AB60N 865PE motherboard and was slightly lower than the 6311 score we got in the last case study. The 5171 Overall PCMark04 score was about 131 points faster than the Overall PCMark04 score posted by the 3.2GHz Prescott on an 865PE motherboard, but it was down 128 points from our last article.
Compared to the CPU score posted by
our 3.2GHz Prescott chip, the Extreme Edition's CPU score was down 45 points to 4844. Once again, this score was sig-nificantly lower than in our last article as was the 4947 Memory score. The Memory score for our Extreme Edition processor was lower than the 3.2GHz Prescott's. The 5638 Graphics score, however, was on a par with the score from our last case study and was 205 points
3.2GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition Soyo SY-P4I865PE Plus Dragon 2
Stock
Processor, Motherboard & Drivers Processor 3.2GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition
Motherboard Soyo P4I865PE Plus Dragon 2 BIOS
Manufacturer Phoenix Award BIOS BIOS Version P4IP2_2BA1 Chipset Driver 5.0.1.1015 Common Components
RAM DDR SDRAM (2 x 512MB)
Video Gainward PowerPack! Ultra/
1800 XP Golden Sample (GeForce FX 5950 Ultra) Hard Drive 80GB Western Digital
WD800JD 7,200rpm SATA Heatsink Thermalright SLK-948U CPU Fan pcToys 92mm Tornado CD-ROM LiteOn Black 48X/24X/48X/16X
DVD/CD-RW Floppy Samsung 1.44MB Power Supply Antec 430W TruePower
Case Antec PLUS1080AMG
Temperature
Monitor MacPower Digital Doc 5
Frequency 1MHz Stepping entry from 200MHz to 210MHz. Unfortunately, the system refused to boot, so we returned to the system setup utility and decreased the FSB to 205MHz. Again the system refused to boot. Scaling back the FSB to 201MHz resulted in a 3.21GHz overclock and a 3Dmark03 score that was vir-tually unchanged at 6295, but at least we had a successful overclock. We moved the FSB up to 202MHz and managed to improve our 3Dmark03 score to 6300 with a 3.23GHz processor, but the results were pretty disappointing.
We turned to our old stabil-ity standby fix, the CPU Voltage. We increased the voltage from 1.47V to 1.5V
and 1.6V, but the system refused to boot.
That's when we returned to the setup utility and noticed the Async AGP/PCI Clk was set to Disabled. This means the AGP and PCI clocks are trying to keep pace with the FSB, which can cause insta-bility. Locking the AGP and PCI bus at an appropriate speed will cost you a little in terms of performance, but it will go a long way toward increasing the systems stability and allow you to overclock the processor further. We set this option to 33/66MHz, returned our CPU Voltage to 1.47V, and increased our FSB speed to 205MHz. The system not only booted successfully, but it even completed 3Dmark03. Unfortunately, the score showed only a modest improvement to 6302, but at least we knew we were on the right track.
We increased the frontside bus to 210MHz resulting in a 3.36GHz proces-sor. This time we started seeing some sig-nificant improvements as the 3Dmark03 score increased to 6337. We pushed the frontside bus on the Extreme Edition fur-ther to 220MHz and the system remained stable with the processor running at 3.52GHz. At this speed, the 3Dmark03 score increased to 6374, and actually topped the 3Dmark03 score for our
3.2GHz Prescott chip running at the same speed.
Increasing the frontside bus to 230MHz prevented the system from booting, so we dropped the FSB down to 225MHz. Our 3.6GHz processor managed a 6379 3Dmark03 score. We were actually able to get the 3.2GHz Extreme Edition running slightly faster than our 3.2GHz Prescott processor on an 865PE motherboard.
Attempts to push the FSB speeds higher kept the system from booting and increasing the CPU voltage was little help, so we returned to 225MHz and ran PCMark04.
Scores showed dramatic improvement over the proces-sor's original scores. The Overall PCMark04 score increased 641 points to 5812 and the CPU score increased 221 points to 5065. The Memory score showed a dra-matic improvement up 630 points to 5577 while the Graphics score showed a more modest 20-point increase to 5658. The HDD score de-creased very slightly this time around to 4282.
The PCMark04 scores com-pared favorably to the PC-Mark04 scores we received from the 3.2GHz Prescott running at 3.58GHz.
The Prescott's Overall PCMark04 score was dramatically lower at 5578, but the Prescott enjoyed a higher 5438 CPU score. The Prescott lagged behind in the Memory score with a 5644 and the Graphics score was slightly lower at 5564.
The 4300 HDD score enjoyed a slight advantage over our more recent bench-mark score.
Final Word
The Soyo P4I865PE Plus Dragon 2 provides the first glimpse into what kind of overclocking performance we can expect from the 3.2GHz Extreme Edition with its Northwood core. We were surprised that the Extreme Edition, at least when paired with the Soyo board, offered a little more overclocking head-room than our 3.2GHz Prescott. Next, we'll slap our Intel 3.2GHz Extreme Edition into Chaintech's 875P mother-board and see just how well the Extreme Edition processor compares directly with our 3.2GHz Prescott.
by Chad Denton
Overclock Comparison 3Dmark03
Chaintech 9CJS Zenith
Stock Performance 6671
Overclocked Performance 6809
★
★ Soyo SY-P4I865PE Plus Dragon 2
Stock Performance 6292
Overclocked Performance 6379 ASUS P4G800-V
Stock Performance 6311
Overclocked Performance N/A Northbridge (865GPE)
ATX Power Connector
Ethernet Controller
BIOS
Southbridge (ICH5) SATA Connector Audio Codec
Edition compared to the 3.2GHz Prescott we looked at earlier. At default speeds, the 3.2GHz Extreme Edition seemed to have a slight advantage over the Prescott. The 6671 3Dmark03 score was 40 points faster than the 6631 score posted by our Prescott processor on the same motherboard.
PCMark04 scores also seemed to favor our 3.2GHz Extreme Edition. The 5384 Overall PCMark04 score was significantly faster than the 5102 score posted by Prescott. The 5043 CPU score also favored
our Extreme Edition by 112 points. We were initially impressed by the Chaintech board's Memory scores when we tested it with our Prescott, but we were even more impressed with the 5364 Memory score we got with our Extreme Edition processor.
That's 145 points higher than with the Prescott running at the same speed. We usually don't see much of a difference in the Graphics scores either, but the Extreme
3.2GH Z P ENTIUM 4 E XTREME E DITION &
C HAINTECH 9CJS Z ENITH
W
ith our 865PE-based Soyo P4I865PE Plus Dragon 2 motherboard, we were finally able to overclock our 3.2GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition. For our efforts we got some fairly impressive results. We added 400MHz to the processor's default speed and managed to get it running well at 3.6GHz, which was just slightly faster than the 3.58GHz speed we achieved with our 3.2GHz Prescott. Now we'll combine the Extreme Edition with a motherboard we've seen before, Chaintech's 9CJS Zenith.Motherboard
We first saw the Chaintech 9CJS Zenith when we looked at the 3.2E GHz Prescott. We used the Chaintech board to replace the AOpen AX4C motherboard, which lacked Prescott support. We had hoped that the AOpen would run our Extreme Edition with its older Northwood core. Unfortunately, the Extreme Edition has some of the same power requirements as Prescott. The motherboard's deficiencies
were apparent every time we tried to run 3Dmark03—the board simply crashed.
We ended up scraping the AX4C com-pletely. For this case study we opted to use the Chaintech 9CJS once again. This will give us an opportunity to directly compare the 3.2GHz Prescott to our 3.2GHz Extreme Edition.
This particular board is Chaintech's flagship product and it includes Intel's
flagship chipset, the 875P. Like the 865PE, the 875P includes support for up to 4GB of dual-channel memory (up to PC3200), 8X AGP, and FSB speeds as high as 800MHz (quad-pumped, of course). The 875P, however, supports Intel's PAT technology which provides more aggressive memory timings when using dual-channel PC3200 memory. The ICH5R supports RAID 0 or 1 on the two independent SATA connectors.
Like most motherboards, the Chaintech includes integrated audio, but unlike most boards, the audio codec supports 7.1 sur-round sound. Integrated Ethernet is also included, but rather than one Ethernet controller, Chaintech provides dual con-trollers. A Realtek RTL8101L provides standard 10/100 Ethernet connectivity, while an Intel PRO/100CT provides Gigabit Ethernet connectivity.
But Chaintech doesn't stop with those impressive motherboard features. The 9CJS Zenith also includes the CBOX3, which fits into an external 5.25-inch drive
bay and includes USB and FireWire ports in addition to a 6-in-1 card reader that handles a wide range of removable media from SD to Memory Stick. Chaintech includes assorted faceplates to make the CBOX3 match your case color.
Overclock
We were looking forward to seeing how far we could push the 3.2GHz Extreme
3.2GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition Chaintech 9CJS Zenith
Stock
Processor, Motherboard & Drivers Processor 3.2GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition Motherboard Chaintech 9CJS Zenith BIOS
Manufacturer Phoenix BIOS Version Ver. 6 Chipset Driver 5.0.2.1002 Common Components
RAM DDR SDRAM (2 x 512MB)
Video Gainward PowerPack!
Ultra/1800 XP Golden Sample (GeForce FX 5950 Ultra) Hard Drive 80GB Western Digital
WD800JD 7,200rpm SATA Heatsink Thermalright SLK-948U CPU Fan pcToys 92mm Tornado CD-ROM LiteOn Black
48X/24X/48X/16X DVD/CD-RW Floppy Samsung 1.44MB
Power Supply Antec 430W TruePower
Case Antec PLUS1080AMG
Temperature
Monitor MacPower Digital Doc 5
Edition managed to outscore our Prescott by 175 points with its 5630. The HDD scores were virtually identical with the Prescott posting 4301 and the Extreme Edition posting 4300.
Compared to the previous article, 3Dmark03 scores were up 379 points, which is a huge amount for this benchmark.
PCMark04's Overall, CPU, and Memory scores were also all up significantly. The Graphics and HDD scores, on the other hand, differed very slightly.
Again, CPU and case tem-peratures were similar to what we've seen in the last two arti-cles. The processor tempera-ture under load reached 38.4 degrees Celsius and the ambi-ent case temperature reached 30.4 C. Previous 3.2GHz
Extreme Edition temperatures were all around 38 C and ambient case tempera-tures were around 29 C.
After recording the default information, we started overclocking the Extreme Edition. During POST, we pressed the DELETE key to enter the system setup utility. From here, we selected Freq-uency/Voltage Control and then Select CPU Clock. We used PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN to change the value from the default 200MHz to 210MHz. This increased our processor speed from the default 3.2GHz to 3.41GHz and resulted in a significant 3Dmark03 improvement to 6729. We were easily able to increase the processor's clock speed to 3.57GHz by increasing the FSB to 220MHz. This yield-ed a 6768 3Dmark03 score.
Earlier we were able to reach 3.65GHz with our Prescott processor without increasing the processor's core voltage. At 3.65GHz, however, our system was unable to boot. We decreased the FSB from 225MHz to 223MHz and managed a 6793 3Dmark03 score. Increasing the FSB to 224MHz increased our processor's clock speed from 3.62GHz to 3.63GHz and increased 3Dmark03 scores to 6810.
We increased our CPU Voltage from the default 1.5V to 1.6V and then increased
the FSB back to 225MHz. This time, the system proved stable at 3.65GHz and we managed a 6814 3Dmark03 score.
Increasing the FSB to 226MHz caused Windows to reboot. We were able to get the system stable at 3.68GHz by increasing the CPU Voltage to 1.675V, but our 3Dmark03 score began to fall with the FSB at 227MHz. We had seen this earlier with our Prescott processor. Subsequent attempts to overclock the motherboard proved unsuccessful.
We returned to the 225MHz FSB speed that had provided us with our best 3D-mark03 score.
Interestingly enough, this is the same speed at which our Prescott provided its best per-formance. PCMark-04 scores showed significant improve-ments as the Overall PC-Mark03 score rose 536 points to 5920. The CPU score saw a similar improvement of 434 points to 5477. Most dramatic, however, was the 670 point increase in our Memory score as it topped the 6000 mark to 6034. The Graphics and HDD scores, on the other hand, were largely unchanged. The Graphics score increased 18 points to 5648 and the HDD score fell 7 to 4293.
Once again, most scores were up dramatically compared to the 3.2GHz Prescott on the same motherboard and run-ning at the same 3.65GHz speed. The Extreme Edition's 6814 3Dmark03 score was 40 points higher than the Prescott's.
The Extreme Edition's PCMark04 Overall and Memory scores were all significantly higher than the Prescott's. The Overall PCMark04 score was 161 points higher, while the Memory score was up 169 points.
Interestingly enough, however, the Prescott managed a slight advantage in the CPU score as Prescott proved almost 65 points faster. The Extreme Edition did manage a 46 point higher Graphics score, while the HDD scores were virtually identical.
Final Word
Comparing the Chaintech 9CJS Zenith to the Soyo and ASUS boards we examined earlier makes it clear that Chaintech's 875P board not only provides a number of high-end features, but also delivers on perfor-mance and stability. Being able to compare the 3.2GHz versions of Prescott and Extreme Edition also proved interesting.
We were able to get our best scores from both CPUs at 3.65GHz, but the Extreme Edition won most of the benchmarks.
by Chad Denton
Overclock Comparison 3Dmark03
★
★ Chaintech 9CJS Zenith
Stock Performance 6671
Overclocked Performance 6809 Soyo SY-P4I865PE Plus Dragon 2
Stock Performance 6292
Overclocked Performance 6379 ASUS P4G800-V
Stock Performance 6311
Overclocked Performance N/A Northbridge (875P)
ATX PSU Connectors
Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Southbridge (Intel ICH5R) Ethernet Controller
SATA Connectors
BIOS Audio Codec
Overclock
Of course, what good is all that chrome if the engine itself is lacking. Although we've been pleasantly surprised by the per-formance of some 865G boards, we've been consistently disappointed by their over-clocking performance. Before we even begin to look at overclocking the GA-8IG1000 Pro-G, however, we need to take some preliminary benchmarks.
Compared to the 3.2GHz Extreme Edition on the ASUS P4G800-V, the GA-8IG1000 Pro-G motherboard flat out smokes. At the default speed of 3.4GHz, our Extreme Edition managed a 3Dmark03 score of 6654, 343 points high-er than the 3.2GHz on the ASUS board.
The faster processor, of course, makes up some of that performance increase.
Nonetheless, a 343-point increase in
3.4GH Z P ENTIUM 4 E XTREME E DITION & G IGABYTE
GA-8IG1000 P RO -G
A
bout the time Intel officially released its new Prescott core, it announced a newer, faster Pentium 4 Extreme Edition. Like the ear-lier Extreme Edition, the new processor was based on a Northwood core with a 13-micron fabrication process and 512KB L2 cache. Like its predecessor, the new chip also featured a massive 2MB L3 cache. The new chip, however, ran at a slightly higher clock speed of 3.4GHz.Since that time, Intel has announced an updated LGA-based 3.4GHz Extreme Edition. Unfortunately, that announce-ment came much too close to press time for us to procure the latest Extreme Edi-tion. Regardless, we were able to take a look at the original 3.4GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, which is still one of the fastest processors on the market.
Motherboard
We've been pretty down on 802.11G motherboards with good reason. Over-clocking results on 865G motherboards
have been lackluster at best and, on at least one occasion, we were completely unable to overclock the motherboard at all.
Again, we think you have to go back to the inclusion of an integrated graphics chip with the 865G board. Enthusiasts and overclockers simply aren't going to be happy with an integrated video chip, so why drive up motherboard costs by using high-end components?
Gigabyte has elected to follow a different path. Its GA-8IG1000 Pro-G motherboard includes components and features com-monly found on higher-end models. The integrated Realtek ALC850 audio codec, for instance, provides 7.1 surround sound and the Marvell Gigabit Ethernet controller goes far beyond the 10/100 Ethernet con-trollers found on most other 865G boards.
Another interesting feature is Giga-byte's MIB (Memory Intelligent Booster).
According to Gigabyte, MIB reduces mem-ory latency and increases memmem-ory band-width by as much as 10%. Is it just us or does that sound strangely similar to Intel's PAT (Performance Acceleration Technology)? PAT, of course, is only offi-cially supported on 875P chipsets, but we've seen some motherboard manufactur-ers enabling PAT on 865PE chipsets.
The 865G, of course, includes support for Intel's Extreme Graphics Engine 2 video chip. If you prefer to use something more powerful, the GA-8IG1000 Pro-G motherboard also includes a 4X/8X AGP
slot. Like the 865PE and 875P, the 865G supports FSB speeds as high as 800MHz and up to 4GB of dual channel PC3200 DDR SDRAM.
Gigabyte paired the 865G with an Intel ICH5 on the southbridge. The ICH5, of course, doesn't support SATA RAID 0 or 1 the way the ICH5R does. We missed the RAID options all the more considering all the other high-end features on this board.
3.4GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition Gigabyte GA-8IG1000 Pro-G
Stock
Processor, Motherboard & Drivers Processor 3.4GHz Pentium 4 Extreme
Edition
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-8IG1000 Pro-G BIOS
Manufacturer Award BIOS BIOS Version F3 Chipset Driver 5.1.1.1002 Common Components
RAM DDR SDRAM (2 x 512MB)
Video Gainward PowerPack!
Ultra/1800 XP Golden Sample (GeForce FX 5950 Ultra) Hard Drive 80GB Western Digital
WD800JD 7,200rpm SATA Heatsink Thermalright SLK-948U CPU Fan pcToys 92mm Tornado CD-ROM LiteOn Black
48X/24X/48X/16X DVD/CD-RW Floppy Samsung 1.44MB Power Supply Antec 430W TruePower
48X/24X/48X/16X DVD/CD-RW Floppy Samsung 1.44MB Power Supply Antec 430W TruePower