Asus P5WDG2-WS: Intel 975X goes to Work
by Gary Key on December 6, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Ethernet Performance
The current motherboard test suite includes LAN performance measurements. All of these boards utilize PCI Express controllers with the only difference being the supplier of the core logic.
The Windows 2000 Driver Development Kit (DDK) includes a useful LAN testing utility called NTttcp. We used the NTttcp tool to test Ethernet throughput and the CPU utilization of the various Ethernet Controllers used on the Intel 975x motherboards.
We set up one machine as the server; in this test, an Intel system with an Intel CSA Gigabit LAN connection. Intel CSA has a reputation for providing fast throughput and this seemed a reasonable choice to serve our Gigabit LAN clients.
At the server side, we used the following Command Line as suggested by the VIA whitepaper on LAN testing:
All standard Ethernet tests were performed with standard frames and the NVIDIA Active Armor suite disabled unless otherwise noted. Gigabit Ethernet supports Jumbo frames as well and provides a further reduction in CPU overhead. We added a further test scenario in which ActiveArmor and Jumbo frames were enabled on the Asus P5N32-SLI Deluxe board via the new 6.82 WHQL platform driver set. This is shown for illustrative purposes and shows the favorable impact of this technology.
We witnessed one anomaly that has been reported to Asus. The Ethernet ports are only available if the Intel PCI-X chipset is enabled in the BIOS.
The current motherboard test suite includes LAN performance measurements. All of these boards utilize PCI Express controllers with the only difference being the supplier of the core logic.
The Windows 2000 Driver Development Kit (DDK) includes a useful LAN testing utility called NTttcp. We used the NTttcp tool to test Ethernet throughput and the CPU utilization of the various Ethernet Controllers used on the Intel 975x motherboards.
We set up one machine as the server; in this test, an Intel system with an Intel CSA Gigabit LAN connection. Intel CSA has a reputation for providing fast throughput and this seemed a reasonable choice to serve our Gigabit LAN clients.
At the server side, we used the following Command Line as suggested by the VIA whitepaper on LAN testing:
Ntttcpr -m 4,0,‹server IP› -a 4 -l 256000 -n 30000On the client side (the motherboard under test), we used the following Command Line:
Ntttcps -m 4,0,‹client IP› -a 4 -l 256000 -n 30000At the conclusion of the test, we captured the throughput and CPU utilization figures from the client screen.
All standard Ethernet tests were performed with standard frames and the NVIDIA Active Armor suite disabled unless otherwise noted. Gigabit Ethernet supports Jumbo frames as well and provides a further reduction in CPU overhead. We added a further test scenario in which ActiveArmor and Jumbo frames were enabled on the Asus P5N32-SLI Deluxe board via the new 6.82 WHQL platform driver set. This is shown for illustrative purposes and shows the favorable impact of this technology.
We witnessed one anomaly that has been reported to Asus. The Ethernet ports are only available if the Intel PCI-X chipset is enabled in the BIOS.
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Tujan - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
Can you tell us what power supply was used on this Asus multi-layered board ? What kind of power muscle did get used. ? [ ]Thanks.Didn't see it right off in table of 'Setup.
Gary Key - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
We used the OCZ Power Stream 520. It is our standard power supply for testing. I have listed in the overclocking setup but not in the regular test setup. I will add that line in the next article.Thank you.
Kensei - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link
Cool quote from the man often referred to as the first US psychologist. The psychology building at Harvard, where he was a professor, is also named after him. And I'm pretty sure he got that honor without giving them a ton of money.Kensei
Saist - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link
just wondering how the board would compare using the Via Envy HT-S sound chip...Gary Key - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link
Would a Chaintech AV710 satisfy your question? ;->Hikari - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link
I have some horrible 945G board (don't ask, I use a 7800GT lol), and I can't even run PC2-6400 over 667, nor will the computer not crash if I put the bus over 205. :(So when are the 975x boards supposed to come out? I see some of the Intel boxes listed now in froogle (not usually in stock though), but not from Gigabyte, Asus, or anyone else yet. :) I'd be happy if it is before the 21st (my birthday). This Asus board looks like it'll be exceedingly expensive, though.
rrcn - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link
Boards featuring the 975X chipset should hit retail stores sometime this week. We'll see...Gary Key - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link
The 975x boards should be shipping in volume by the end of the year. We expect to see a small sampling of boards in the retail channel as early as next week but as always that could change.IntelUser2000 - Tuesday, December 6, 2005 - link
Right... I am gonna overclock my workstation system by 30%...."I'll overclock my server by 20% when 4 million people depend on it NOT TO CRASH!!"
Gary Key - Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - link
:->I know the overclock testing was a bit much for a "workstation" board but it does give an indication to the quality of the components used on the board.