ECS “Black Series” P45T-A

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by Rob Williams on August 15, 2008 in Motherboards

Need to build a new rig on the cheap? Need modest Crossfire support, and a decent feature-set? The ECS P45T-A might be worthy of your consideration, as it packs in a good amount of functionality, solid performance, a cool color scheme and of course, a good price tag, of around $110.

Page 6 – System: HD Tach RW/3 & Sandra Memory Tests

Simpli Software HD Tach RW 3

To test the storage subsystem, we rely on Simpli Software’s HD Tach, a superb storage benchmarking tool that’s now free for everyone to use. It excels at benchmarking a variety of internal and external storage devices, and produces consistent data and information-rich reports.

For this review, HD Tach will be used to test the internal hard drive’s data transfer rates. Since the main system drive is being tested, which contains the operating system software, we will only be performing read tests, not write tests (which might cause data corruption.) Also, since we’re not specifically interested in the drive’s performance per se, we won’t be running any access time testing.

While the P45T-A kept in line with the other boards where average MB/s was concerned, it fell far behind in the burst speed. This downside won’t likely show up in real-world use, and if it does, then you’d be hard-pressed to notice.

SiSoftware Sandra XII 2008 SP2

SiSoft’s Sandra benchmarking package has long been one of our favorite tools, because of its comprehensive set of specific hardware benchmarks. It delivers excellent consistency, and offers a variety of tests devoted to the memory subsystem. Here, we’ll use it to test memory bandwidth and latency.

Given the fact that the motherboard forces DDR2-800 speeds, it’s no surprise to see both a low bandwidth and high latency result. This is not for the enthusiast, under any circumstances.

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Rob Williams

Rob founded Techgage in 2005 to be an 'Advocate of the consumer', focusing on fair reviews and keeping people apprised of news in the tech world. Catering to both enthusiasts and businesses alike; from desktop gaming to professional workstations, and all the supporting software.

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