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Introduction
In our review of the ABIT AW8-MAX motherboard, we compared it against the ASUS P5AD2 Premium motherboard. But during our tests, we noticed some significant differences between the results of the ASUS P5AD2 Premium motherboard and the ABIT AW8-MAX that we haven't noticed before.
Even though the P5AD2 Premium was based on the old i925X chipset while the ABIT AW8-MAX was based on the new i955X chipset, the P5AD2 consistently trashed the ABIT AW8-MAX. The benchmark results were significant enough to pique our curiosity.
So, we decided to take a closer look at both motherboards with CPU-Z.
Test Bed
| Processor | Intel Pentium 4 630 (3.0GHz) Socket 775 |
| Memory | Corsair TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO |
| Hard Drive | • 20GB Maxtor 541DX • 120GB Western Digital WD1200 |
| Chipset Drivers | Intel Chipset Driver 7.2.1.1003 |
| Graphics Card | NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT PCI Express |
| Graphics Card Driver | NVIDIA ForceWare 77.72 |
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2 |
| Power Supply | ACRyan RyanPower2 450W |
| Motherboards | • ABIT AW8-MAX (Intel 955X)
Socket 775 • ASUS P5AD2 Premium (Intel 925X) Socket 775 |
Testing Methodology
We set all the settings in the BIOS to Auto with the following exceptions :-
ABIT AW8-MAX
- The memory timings were set to 4-4-4-12.
- All onboard devices were disabled except for onboard LAN.
ASUS P5AD2 Premium
- Performance Mode was set to Normal.
- HyperPath 2 was Enabled.
- PEG Link Mode was set to Slower.
- The memory timings were set to 4-4-4-12.
- All onboard devices were disabled except for onboard LAN.
