Pipe Dreams: Six P35-DDR3 Motherboards Compared

Test Setup

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System Hardware
Socket 775 ProcessorIntel Core 2 Duo E6700(Conroe 65 nm, 2.67 GHz, 4 MB L2 Cache)
RAMCorsair Dominator TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF2x 1024 MB DDR2-1111 (CL 4.0-4-4-12)
Hard DriveWestern Digital WD1500ADFD-00NLR1, Firmware : 20.07P20150 GB, 10,000 RPM, 16 MB cache, SATA/150
Graphics CardFoxconn GeForce 8800GTX, P/N : FV-N88XMAD2-ODNVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX - 768 MB
Power SupplyOCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI - 700W
System Software & Drivers
OSWindows XP Professional 5.10.2600, Service Pack 2
DirectX Version9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Platform DriversIntel INF 8.3.0.1013
Graphics DriverNVIDIA Forceware 158.19

With no other DDR3 chipsets to compare, P35 Express motherboards will stand against each other in this round. Anyone interested in seeing how its performance compares to nVidia’s directly-competitive DDR2 chipset can find an identical configuration in our recent 650i Roundup

New to this comparison is Corsair’s DDR3-1066 CAS7. Because DDR3 is still an early-development product, we don’t expect significantly lower latencies to reach the mass market for several weeks

Though the P35 Express chipset can support a limited-performance Crossfire configuration through an x16 and x4 slot, the high-performance Foxconn 8800GTX was instead chosen in a single-card configuration.

Hard drives don’t progress nearly as quickly as core logic, and Western Digital’s relatively-old 150 GB Raptor still represents pinnacle performance.

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Benchmarks and Settings
3D-Games
Call of Duty 2Version : 1.03Video Mode : 1024x768Anti-aliasing : offShadows : notimedemo demo2
F.E.A.RVersion : 1.0 RetailVideo Mode : 1024x768Computer : MediumGraphics : MediumTest Path : Options/Performance/Test Settings
Quake 4Version : 1.2 (Dual-Core Patch)Video Mode : 1024x768Video Quality : defaultTHG Timedemo waste.maptimedemo demo8.demo 1 (1 = load textures)
Audio
Lame MP3Version 3.97 Beta 2 (12-22-2005)Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 minwave to mp3160 kbps
OGGVersion 1.1.2 (Intel P4 MOD)Version 1.1.2 (Intel AMD MOD)Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 minwave to oggQuality : 5
Video
TMPEG 3.0 ExpressVersion : 3.0.4.24 (no Audio)fist 5 Minutes DVD Terminator 2 SE (704x576) 16:9Multithreading by rendering
DivX 6.1Profile : High Definition Profile1-pass, 3000 kbit/sEncoding mode : Insane QualityEnhanced multithreadingno Audio
XviD 1.1.0Version : 1.1.0 Beta 2Target qantizer : 1.00
Applications
Autodesk 3D Studio MaxVersion : 8.0Characters "Dragon_Charater_rig"rendering HTDV 1920x1080
Synthetics
PCMark05 ProVersion : 1.1.0System, CPU and Memory TestsWindows Media Player 10.00.00.3646Windows Media Encoder 9.00.00.2980
SiSoftware Sandra 2005Version 2005.7.10.60CPU Test = Arithmetic, Multimedia BenchmarksMemory Test = Bandwidth Benchmark
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
  • Dont get any biostar mobo, they all have capacitor problems in my experience.
    Reply
  • Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R support up to 4GB DDR3 memory. However, could 8GBs 2x4GB DDR3 modules be used as long as it is within the top 1333 limit on the board?
    Reply