Benchmark Marathon: 65 CPUs from 100 MHz to 3066 MHz

Three Hundred Hours Of Benchmark Testing

Before some overly critical observers voice their opinions, we would like to explain more about the benchmark tests we carried out at the Tom's Hardware lab - the biggest test we have ever undertaken. For our comparison of 65 processors we used 13 CPU platforms configured as they would have been at the time of their introduction. We looked at the following platforms in detail:

Socket 7: Intel Pentium 100/166MMX/233MMX

Board: DFI K6XV3+/66 Rev. B2 with 2 MB L3 cache (VIA MVP3)
RAM: 66/100 MHz SDRAM

The legendary Socket 7: the DFI K6XV3+/66 with VIA MVP3 chipset and Ultra-DMA/66.

Socket 7: AMD K6-2/500, K6-2+/500, K6-III/450

Board: DFI K6XV3+/66 Rev. B2 with 2 MB L3 cache (VIA MVP3)
RAM: 66/100 MHz SDRAM

Socket 370: Intel Celeron 400/500

Board: Epox EP-BX7+ Rev. 1.0 (Intel 440BX)
RAM: 66 MHz SDRAM

Intel's best chipset ever: Epox EP-BX7+ with 440BX and Socket 370.

Socket 370: Intel Pentium III/1000, Celeron 1100

Board: Asus TUSL2 Rev. 1.03 (Intel 815E)
RAM: 100/133 MHz SDRAM

Socket 370: Intel Pentium III-S/1400, Celeron 1300

Board: Asus TUSL2-C Rev. 1.04 (Intel 815 EPT)
RAM: 100/133 MHz SDRAM

Last upgrade level for Socket 370: Asus TUSL2-C with Intel 815 EPT chipset.