Gigabit Ethernet: On-Board Chips Reviewed
Test System
Processor | |
---|---|
Socket 478 | Intel Pentium 4 Northwood, 3.2 GHz, 512 kB Cache, FSB800 |
Socket 604 | Dual Intel Pentium 4 Xeon, 2.8 GHz, 512 kB Cache, FSB533 |
System Memory | |
DDR-SDRAM | 2x 512 MB PC3700OCZ Gold Edition Rev. 2 (2.5-3-3-7) |
Network/Motherboard | |
3COM / Marvell 940 | Asus P4C800, Rev. 1.03Intel 875P chipset & ICH5-R |
Broadcom BCM5705 | Epox EP-4PCA3+, Rev. 1.0Intel 875P chipset & ICH5-R |
Intel 82547EI (CSA) | DFI LanParty PRO875, Rev. AIntel 875P chipset & ICH5-R |
3COM 3C996B-TBroadcom BCM5701 | Asus PP-DLW, Rev. 1.03Intel E7505 chipset |
Realtek RTL8100S | Gigabyte GA-8S655TX Ultra, Rev. 1.0SiS655TX & SiS964 |
Other Hardware | |
Graphics card | nVIDIA GeForce FX 5900, 128 MB |
Controller | Client systems: ICH5-R or SiS964 for RAID 0Host system: Raidcore RC4000 für RAID 0 |
Hard drives (client systems) | System drive: Western Digital WD800JBTest drive: RAID-0 array consisting of2x Hitachi Deskstar 7K250, HDS722580VLSA80, 80 GB,7,200 rpm, 8 MB Cache |
Hard drives (server system) | System drive: Western Digital WD1000BBTest drive: RAID-0 array consisting of4x Western Digital WD360 Raptor, 36 GB,10,000 rpm, 8 MB Cache |
Software | |
Intel Chipset | Intel Chipset Installation Utility 5.1.1.1002Intel Application Accelerator RAID Edition Ver. 3.53 |
Network drivers | 3COM / Marvel 940Broadcom BCM5705 & BCM5701: Ver. 6.34.0.0Intel Pro/1000 CT&MT (82547EI & 82541GI): Ver. 7.3.13.0Realtek: Ver. 5.611.1231.2003 |
DirectX | 9.0b |
OS | Windows XP Professional Build 2600 Service Pack 1 |
Tests: A Detailed Look
Synthetic Benchmarks | |
---|---|
TCP Transfer performance | NetIO Ver. 1.23 from Kai Uwe Rommel |
TCP Transfer performance | Netperf Ver. 2.1 |
TCP Transfer performance | NetIQ Chariot 5.0 |
Application Benchmarks | |
Real Life Transfer Performance | xxcopy 2.85.3 von Pixelab, Inc. idf2002_master.avi - 1.17 GB |
Real Life Windows File Copy Performance | Windows Explorer Drag&Drop Test idf2002_master.avi - 1.17 GB |
During our benchmarks under real-life conditions, we copied the said file five times, doing so back to back. All tests were conducted five times in order to compensate for data dispersion while determining the mean.
To avoid a slowdown of the network adapter through an unnecessary bottleneck, we added a RAID 0 array (consisting of two current hard drives) to each system for this test. As a result, transfer rates von 110 MB/s were, therefore, no problem - that's more than most adapters manage as a net output.
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Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.