![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Wednesday, October 31, 2007
- Author:
- Morry Teitelman
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
ASUS P5E3 Deluxe
ASUS boldly steps in to the ring with their latest Deluxe series motherboard offering support for the newly introduced Intel X38 chipset and DDR3 memory. The board holds a lot of promise, but will it be enough to fend off the current top performers.
Subsystem Testing
NOTE: For all Subsystem Testing, an Intel LGA 775 E6300 Core2 Duo CPU with a 1066MHz FSB and 2 x 1GB Corsair DDR3 XMS3-1800 memory modules running at 800MHz were used in testing.
Audio – Subjective Listening
One of the easiest ways to determine the quality of the audio subsystem is via a subjective sound test. Ideally, a sound test requires audio covering the entire spectrum, from subtle to intense. For this test, I chose to listen to the self-title Flyleaf album.
The audio listening session was enjoyable, with no detectable distortion heard whatsoever.
Audio – Microphone Port Testing
The MIC-IN input was tested using both our standard Labtec Desk Mic 524 testing microphone. Spoken words were recorded and played back using Microsoft Sound Recorder, with the Microphone Boost option disabled and enabled. The Microphone Boost option is found within the Advanced menu under the Microphone section within the Volume Control menu.
In both scenarios, no audio distortion was detected. Amazingly enough, the microphone boost setting did little to improve the already outstanding audio pickup capabilities of the audio chipset.
Drive Performance
To adequately test the capabilities of the on board USB 2.0 and IEEE 1394 connections, we chose to use an ACOMDATA HD060U2FE-72-USB 2.0/FireWire HDD connected to both ports. SATA and IDE drive tests were performed using Maxtor 40Gb ATA 133 model 6E040L0 hard drives on the IDE headers and Samsung 40GB SATA II hard drives on the SATA headers. The SATA drives were used for testing in a RAID 0 16k block size configuration and in a standalone mode on the Intel ICH9R controller. Testing was also conducted using an IDE drive in a primary slave configuration with the JMicron controller only. All drive benchmarks were done using the open source Iometer program
As expected, the RAID 0 array performed best out of all drive configurations, with the standalone SATA device coming in a close second. The IEEE 1394 and USB 2.0 devices performed similarly with the IEEE 1394 device having a slightly better CPU utilization overall.
Network Utilization Tests
Hagel Technologies’ DU Meter software was used in conjunction with Windows Task Manager to measure the performance of the Marvell Yukon GigE NIC, the Realtek GigE NIC, and the Realtek 802.11g wireless NIC. DU meter was used to measure bandwidth with Windows Task Manager to monitor the CPU utilization on the test system. For the test itself, a 750MB archive file containing various sized .WMA audio files for the large file transfer test and a 750MB worth of various sized .WMA audio files for the small file transfer test were used in conjunction with an integrated Gigabit NIC on the host system and a crossover cable to connect the host system to the test system. A crossover cable was used to rule out any possible bandwidth losses due to hub or switch passage. The wireless testing was done by connecting to the host system though a configured 802.11g capable router due to the lack of availability of a faster 802.11n capable router. Due to the bandwidth limitations of wireless, there was no concern of bandwidth loss due to router interference.
Marvell Yukon GigE controller
The large file transfer results were extremely impressive, with the download speed almost doubling that of upload coming in at almost 42 MB/s. During both tests, the CPU utilization remained at or below 20%.
While not as impressive as the large file transfer tests, the small file transfer results were on par with expectations. The average upload speed bested that of the download tests by 7 MB/s, with the CPU utilization again remaining below 20% during both tests.
Realtek GigE controller
The large file transaction results on the Realtek controller were almost as good as those seen with the Marvell controller with the average download coming in at just over 37 MB/s. That equates to an impressive 17 MB/s faster than the observed upload speed. The performance came with a CPU utilization cost though, with average utilization remaining between 20-30% during both tests.
The small file transfer results rivaled those seen on the Marvell controller, with the average upload speed besting that of download by almost 8 MB/s. However, CPU utilization was a bit higher, remaining at or above 20%.
ASUS 802.11n wireless controller
While I expected higher bandwidth capabilities because of the dual antenna configuration of the 802.11n controller, the large file results remain impressive and within spec for an 802.11g type connection speed. The upload speed actually bested that of download by almost 0.5 MB/s, coming in just under 2.5 MB/s. CPU utilization remained under 20% for the test duration.
The small file transfer results mimicked those of the large file transfer tests, with the average upload speed besting that of download again by almost 0.5 MB/s. CPU utilization also remained under 20% during these tests.