PowerSystem Viri:
Athlon64 3200+ : Clawhammer
CPU Clock Speed : 2002.6
HTT Bus Frequency : 200.3 Mhz
Thermaltake Silent Boost K8
DFI Lanparty UT : Nvidia Nforce 250gb
Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb : Sapphire Black PCB
Artic Cooling VGA Silencer
1 gig 400mhz Ram : 2.5, 3, 3, 6
Chaintech Via Envy
HT-S : output to home theater system
Sony 52x CD Rom
Liteon Dual Layer DVD Burner
Plusdeck
19” HP f1903 LCD : Shared with GameCube
14” CRT
160 gig Hitachi SATA-150
60 gig Maxtor ATA-100
Sharkboard
Nyko AirFlow Mouse
ATi RemoteWonder
Scores:
FFXI
3dmark 2k3
3dmark 2k1
Aquamark
Gfx:
Cpu:
Overall:
Pcmark 2k4
Ut2k4 Official Benchmark
Flyby:
Botmatch:
Viri is the central powerhouse system, used mainly for audio work and
gaming. Viri tends to receive the highest performing equipment at any
given time, but is rarely used to test new equipment.
Changelog 1.3: The motherboard has been replaced with a new DFI
LanParty Board. The DVD drive has also been replaced with a DVD Burner
from Liteon.
Changelog 1.2: Fustrated with constant digital audio drops by the
Creative Audigy2, the card got dropped for a Via Envy from
Chaintech. The Via sound quality, is, IMO, better than than the
Audigy2 and the surround is perfect.
PowerSystems Viron
Athlon64 2800+ : NewCastle
CPU Clock Speed : 1800 MHz
HTT Bus Frequency : 200.3 Mhz
Thermaltake Silent Boost K8
Asus K8V Deluxe : VIA K8T800
Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb: ATi All in Wonder
Artic Cooling VGA Silencer Revision 3
1 gig Dual Channel 400mhz Ram : 3,
3, 3, 8
Realtek Sound Controller
Sony 12x DVD
19” CRT : Shared with PS2 and X-box
80 gig Hitachi SATA-150
60 gig Seagate 8mb Buffer ATA-100
Datel PowerBoard
Nyko AirFlow Mouse
Win2k Pro
SP4
DX 9.0c
Scores:
FFXI
3dmark 2k5
3dmark 2k3
3dmark 2k1
Aguamark
GPU:
CPU:
Overall:
Pcmark 2k4
PC:
CPU:
Memory:
GPU:
HDD:
Ut2k4 Official Benchmark
Flyby:
Botmatch: |
WinXp 64
V.2
DX 9.0c
Scores:
FFXI
3dmark 2k5
3dmark 2k3
3dmark 2k1
Aguamark
GPU:
CPU:
Overall:
Pcmark 2k4
PC:
CPU:
Memory:
GPU:
HDD:
Ut2k4 Official Benchmark
Flyby:
Botmatch: |
Viron is a test bed unit. New parts are run through Viron first to
ensure fitness for Viri. Viron is typically used an additional Audio
Workstation, mostly in manipulation at this point. Viron also seconds
Viri as the prime game system.
Changelog 1.3 : Moved the Asus board into the system
PowerSystems Virple
Intel Pentium4 2.6ghz HT : Northwood
CPU Clock Speed : 2594.0 MHz
FSB Speed : 798.1 MHz
Thermaltake Fanless P4/A64 heatsink
Asus P4R-800 VM : Radeon 9100 IGP
Radeon 9600 XT 256mb : Sapphire
1 gig Dual Channel 333mhz Ram : memory
spd not shown
Creative Audigy2 : output to Creative Inspire 5.1
Sony DVD
14” CRT
14” CRT
14” CRT (surround view is functional
on current bios)
60 gig Seagate ATA-100
Datel PowerBoard
Nyko AirFlow Mouse
Scores:
FFXI
3550
3dmark 2k3
3492
3dmark 2k1
10574
Aquamark
Gfx: 3,700
Cpu: 5,357
Overall: 27,315
HalfLife 2 Source Demo
52.20
Pcmark 2k4
3568
Ut2k4 Official Benchmark
Flyby: 137.49
Botmatch: 59.40
Virple is the odd computer out, housing the single active Pentium
systems. The reasons to forgo Pentium are obvious. More
heat, cost, etc. Anyways, the cooling case originally chosen for
the P4 system turned out to have enough circulation to use a fanless
heatsink. At this point, there are no plans to add additional
Pentium systems to the lineup, and it is likely that the RS300 or RS400
launch supporting K8 will see this Pentium system sold off.
It should also be noted that Surround View was disabled in the Bios
during the testing as Surround View robs system memory to power the
9100 core.
Changelog 1.2: The integrated Radeon 9100 IGP audio controller was
disabled for the Creative Audigy2 card.
PowerSystem Li-Virus:
AthlonXP 2500+ : Barton
CPU Clock Speed : 2200 MHz
FSB Speed : 400.9 Mhz
Thermaltake Silent Boost
Abit NF7-S : Nforce2 MCP-T
Chaintech Special Edition Geforce4 TI 4200 128meg
1 gig Dual Channel 333mhz Ram
Hercules GameTheater XP : Output to headphones
Sony DVD
Plextor CDR
17" Sony E200
20gig WD ATA 100
Kensington Mouse in a box
Turbo Track Keyboard
Li-Virus used to be the TV system. However, a desire to run a
functional Linux box outside of Li-Viri resulted in the creation of
this beast.
Functional Games:
Quake 3
Doom 3
Enemy Territory
Unreal Tournament 2004
Unreal Tournament
I will eventually benchmark these with the help of Anandtech's Frame
Getter program.
VISFF (Virimedia Version 1.3)
The most radical shakeup to the Viri systems was the change in system
types. On a whim I decided to try Soltek's Qbic series of Small
Form Factor computers just because of the boards Purple color.
I've been impressed enough with the Soltek Qbic that I've already
decided to make my next system a Qbic as well after this one.
Athlon64 2800+ : Newcastle
CPU Clock Speed : 1800 MHz
HTT Bus Frequency : 200.3 Mhz
Thermaltake Silent Boost K8
Soltek EQ3801 : Nvidia Nforce 250gb
Radeon 8500 128mb: ATi All in Wonder
1 gig Dual Channel 400mhz Ram : 3,
3, 3, 8
Realtek Sound Controller
Sony 12x DVD
19” CRT : Shared with PS2 and X-box
80 gig Hitachi SATA-150
60 gig Seagate 8mb Buffer ATA-100
Datel PowerBoard
Nyko AirFlow Mouse
LiViri (the mobile threat):
Athlon4 : 1ghz
HP N5470
256megs 133 SDRAM
8meg Trident CyberbladeXp
Unknown audio:: output to headphones
20gig 4200rpm ATA 66
CD-RW/DVD
15” LCD
Internal Mousepad.
LiViri is an active Linux desktop among the ViroTech projects.
For a computer approaching 4 years old, LiViri shows the wear and tear
badly. Lots of dead pixels, entire display line corruption, it's
a wonder the machine still runs. But, it makes for a good Linux
testing ground. If a Linux OS can figure out all of LiViri's
quirks, then it's ready to be ran on Viron or Virimedia as a candidate
for a custom system.
LiViri currently runs the MEPIS distribution of Debian, and is often
used to show off the OS in a hostile environment. Nothing like
taking out a battered old laptop that Windows refuses to install on,
and showing it surfing the web through wireless or wired
connections. And no. I do not want emails telling me to
switch to one distribution or another. If I change distro's it
will be to GenStep.
Explantation of Benchmarks:
FFXI:
High Resolution benchmark set
to Loop and no demonstration. The score after 5 passes is taken
FFXI is one of the more popular MMORPG's and the benchmark uses an
in-use game engine to derive scores. FFXI is also used to
determine system stability, and is often left running for hours on end.
3DMark 2k3:
Default Benchmark set to one
pass
Ideology Questions aside, 3DMark 2k3 has scores that are near
universal. 3dMark 2k3 also serves a stability tester, with each
test set to run 30 times.
3DMark 2k1:
Default Benchmark set to loop
each test 10 times
3Dmark 2k1 serves more as a stability test than a benchmark now. It is
retained due to use of other low end parts like Nvidia GeforceFX,
Volari, Xabre, and integrated graphic systems. Looping the test
10 times also prevents artificially high scores as the system has to
average the continue impact of the benchmark on the entire
system.
Stability is tested further by looping 3dmark 2k1 for 30 times, with 6X
AA and 16X AF set by the application.
Aquamark:
Default Benchmark
While Aquamark's source Aquanox is next to unheard of, Aquamark
provides
a real world benchmark of actual gameplay.
Pcmark and UT2k4:
Pcmark: set to default with all tests.
Ut2k4: Set to DX9 codepath for DX9 systems, DX8
Codepath for DX8 systems
Pcmark and UT2k4 were added to the benchmark suite when Viron was able
to repeat outperforming Viri in FFXI and 3Dmark 2k3. Concerned that
something was wrong with Viri, the two benchmarks were added to the
suite. This however, brought it's own anomoly. Virple, despite being
hampered by the Radeon 9100's Memory Controller, 333mhz Ram, and 4 less
pixel pipes, is able to outrun all but Viri in the flyby mode. It is
probably due to the high clock rates that Virple is so fast, as the
score drops dramatically once bots are introduced. Keep in mind
that these scores are not reflective of real world game usage, nor of
real world performance.
Stable/Unstable:
As the AXP systems tend to be in the middle of overclocks, the highest
stable speed is recorded, and these are the speeds at which benchmarks
are taken. A system must pass the stress tests listed in order to
have the score accepted.
Driver Sets:
Via Chipsets: Latest Hyperion
Drivers
Radeon GPU: Catalyst 4.8
Geforce GPU: 45.33 / 61.77
Nforce Chipset: 3.13 / 4.27
SiS Chipset: Latest
Reference Drivers
Radeon 9100 IGP: Latest Reference
driver from ATi
Linux: Nvidia-Glx and Forceware drivers
Credits: I need to
thank C for having helped clear the junk up and
showing me the table function, and LocoLuis for aid on the formatting
structure of the page. Without these 2, you'd still be looking at
the old page.
email the jerk who wrote this and took the time to benchmark it: je
(dot) saist (at) gmail (dot) com
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