Asus PC-DL Deluxe: 875 with Dual Xeons
by Wesley Fink on September 6, 2003 12:06 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Final Words
The Asus PC-DL is a product that both excites and disappoints. As the first in what will likely be a long line of Xeon 875 boards, we are very excited about where this branch of development is headed. There is a lot of promise in the prospect of Dual 800FSB Xeons. It is also easy to get excited about the idea of a future PC-DL BIOS upgrade with the full range of tweaking and overclocking options we have today on another Asus Canterwood board — the P4C800-E. When we see how well the Dual-Xeon is executed and how stable the current PC-DL is with two Xeon 3.06 1Mb Cache processors, it makes us hopeful about what is coming.On the other hand, if we take a close look at the current PC-DL as it exists today, it is hard not to be disappointed. Overclocking options consist of only a very modest FSB adjustment and multipliers that can only be adjusted down on 3.06 processors. There is no PCI/AGP lock, so even these modest options perform poorly. Perhaps worst of all, the modest overclocking options are turned off when any SATA drive is attached to the PC-DL and SATA is enabled in the BIOS.
We also have reservations about where Dual Xeon will really go in the competition with Opteron and Athlon64. There are things that could be better in the execution of Opteron/Athlon64, but one area no one questions is that Opteron scales much better than Xeon. As Anand Shimpi showed in his April launch review of the Opteron, the Opteron CPU gains almost 24% in performance in the move from 1 to 2 CPUs while Xeon gains just 11.4%.
With a single Opteron 2.0GHz already very competitive in most areas with this Dual-Xeon setup, we would expect Dual Opteron to dramatically out-perform this Dual-Xeon setup as we move ahead.
In the things it does very well — Media Encoding and Multimedia Content Creation — the Asus PC-DL is easy to recommend. Also, as a fast workstation or a cost-effective SOHO server, the PC-DL would be a very good choice. However, as a gaming platform or Computer Enthusiasts “brag” box, the Asus PC-DL has a long way to go. The promise is certainly there, but the hardware needs to evolve with Xeons competitive with current Pentium 4 processors. Asus also needs to work on the tweaking and overclocking options, to bring them to the level that will genuinely excite gamers and enthusiasts. Perhaps they can do that with a BIOS upgrade. We certainly hope so.
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Anonymous User - Saturday, September 6, 2003 - link
This review makes, me wonder...is it possible to use two P4 2400/800 CPU's on this board, maybe with some kind of adapter. Those P4's would likely outperform this Xeon setup and possibly also the Opteron, with a very interesting price tag, even if these adaptors would cost $50 each.And if anyone should see an Intel engineer, just tell him we want a 1000 MHZ FSB for those Xeons, as the i875 would surely pass all validation test at this speed, and the PC4000 memory is already available.
Wesley Fink - Saturday, September 6, 2003 - link
The 3200+ Athlon we use for testing AMD IS a Barton core. The 3.0 is the Intel CPU we have been using for benchmarking Intel.Anonymous User - Saturday, September 6, 2003 - link
Why not just make a dual 800FSB P4 system. With HT activated you'd get 4 virtual processors, something that XP Pro can handle.Anonymous User - Saturday, September 6, 2003 - link
i see commens like like its they use thw 3.2Hz p4 but what performance they all expect? 80% from 3.0 to 3.2Ghz?>Lonyo - Saturday, September 6, 2003 - link
"we are reviewing the PC-DL, and comparing it to the performance from the current top Pentium 4, Barton, and Opteron/Athlon64 boards that we have tested"Performance Test Configuration
Processor(s): Intel Dual Xeon 3.06 (1 Mb Cache) 533FSB
AMD Opteron Socket 940 at 2.0GHz (9x222) 444FSB
Intel Pentium 4 at 3.0GHz (800FSB)
No Barton in there, the top Opteron (or so I thought) was the 1.8GHz, and the top P4 is the 3.2 as far as I'm aware.
Anonymous User - Saturday, September 6, 2003 - link
Dual Xeons is a joke. The P4 is starved for bandwidth in a SINGLE processor configuration at 533Mhz FSB. What makes anyone think TWO processors can handle being that starved? It's like eating spaghetti through a straw -- you can get a few noodles, but it's faster to go buy a fork. And, last I heard, Intel wasn't planning on bring a 800Mhz FSB to the Xeon, just a stopgap 667Mhz FSB. Almost any task can be performed better by a single P4 3.0Ghz processor then dual Xeons of any speed on any platform. Xeons make no sense as a consumer platform all. And, with Opteron here, they make no sense as a server platform, either.When can I see my Athlon64 vs. Pentium 4 benchies? I hardly think an overclocked Opteron counts. After all, the 2.0Ghz Athlon64 isn't going to run with dual-channel memory, anyway. Can you say Socket 754? Luckily, AMD is already moving to Socket 940/939 for future releases. Mmm. 64-bit goodness.
Anonymous User - Saturday, September 6, 2003 - link
I'm always dissapointed in dual cpu system reviews, as they never show how the systems multitask. I would like to see the FPS in UT3 while encoding a movie at the same time. Can you play games while burning a DVD? I would like to see the performance while performing multiple tasks at the same time.Anonymous User - Saturday, September 6, 2003 - link
Yea, I'll bet Intel thought they could Spin dual Xeons as a viable filler until Prescott arrives some day. Reality shows there is no way the P4 or dual-Xeons are gonna hold a candle to a single Opteron/A64 let alone a dual system. Intel is hurting as their 90 nano stuff is gonna be too little, too late, and the suckers draw a pile of current = a ton of heat. Who wants that in a system thats' too expensive and that under performs??? They should just scrap the Prescott and work on something worth releasing to the market before it's obsolete.Anonymous User - Saturday, September 6, 2003 - link
Somehow this review looks eerily familiar. Hrm, wonder why :P.