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Pentium 4 "Northwood" vs. Athlon XP 2000+
h..p://www.linuxhardware.org/article.pl?sid=02/01/23/1016241&mode=thread
posted by augustus on Wednesday January 23, @05:13AM
from the AMD-Still-King? dept.
The processor race continued on the 7th, as AMD and Intel released new processors, pushing the speed limit even higher on the PC highway. Intel released their much awaited "Northwood" Pentium 4 core at 2.0 GHz and 2.2 GHz while AMD simply pushed the Athlon XP core up to 1.67 GHz with the Athlon XP 2000+. In the past, we've seen AMD pretty much wipe the floor with Intel's Pentium 4 in almost every test. Will the new Pentium 4 core, with features to be discussed, be enough to dethrone the Athlon XP and if so, at what cost? We check out the latest from both companies while leveling the playing field with Intel's new DDR-based 845 chipset on two boards, the Intel D845BG and the MSI 845 Ultra-ARU.
"Northwood" and the 2000+
"Northwood" is simply Intel's codename for it's new, modified Pentium 4 processor. This chip sports two upgrades from the previous Pentium 4 that Intel hopes will not only increase performance but also extend the life of the chip. The first change is Intel's move to a 0.13u fab process from the "old" 0.18u process. With this new smaller fab process Intel can now lower the power requirements of the chip (now 1.5V instead of 1.75V), it will produce less heat, and they can get more chips per wafer. This should lead to higher speeds and lower costs in the long run. For the second improvement, Intel added an additional 256K of L2 cache to the chip which will hopefully greatly increase its overall processing capacity especially on cache intensive tasks such as compiling. The new chips are available now in 2.0 GHz and 2.2 GHz, keeping Intel on top as far as clock speed. Overall these are great improvements to a chip that needs some help especially under Linux.
The AMD Athlon 2000+ is simply a speed upgrade to AMD's high-end line, taking the actual core speed up to 1.67 GHz. Not much news here really, the chip is just clocked higher. For complete information on the Athlon XP processor check out our AMD Athlon XP Linux Tested review. In that review you will find our Athlon XP score card. This review we will be evaluating the chips relative speed but not doing any further analysis.
Pentium 4 "Northwood" Technology - 8/10
It's always nice to see chips go to a new fab size and Intel made it there first. The extra L2 cache is extremely nice and it will surely help in some of our speed trials.
The Boards
In this review we will also be evaluating two Intel 845 DDR boards: the MSI 845 Ultra -ARU and the Intel D845BG. These are two of the first boards to sport the new DDR chipset from Intel and should give us a nice level playing field when it comes to pure processor verses processor benchmarking.
MSI 845 Ultra-ARU
Intel D845BG
As usual, let's start with the features of the boards:
Motherboard
MSI 845 Ultra-ARU
Intel D845BG
Memory
Support 4 memory banks using three 184-pin DDR DIMM for up to 2 GB of memory
Two 184-pin DDR SDRAM DIMM sockets support up to 2 GB of memory
Onboard External Connectors
2 x USB, 2 x DB-9 (serial), 1x DB-25 (parallel), 1x PS/2 Mouse, 1 x PS/2 Keyboard, 1 x game/MIDI, 3 audio jacks (line in, line out, mic)
4 x USB, 1 x DB-9 (serial), 1x DB-25 (parallel), 1x PS/2 Mouse, 1 x PS/2 Keyboard, 1 x LAN, 3 audio jacks (line in, line out, mic)
Internal Connectors
1 x IrDA, 8 x USB headers, 2 x Intel IDE, 2 x Promise IDE, 1 x Floppy, 3 x fan, 1 x WOR, 1 x WOL, 3 x internal audio (CD-In, AUX-In, MDM-IN), 1 x Front Panel Audio Connector
1 x IrDA, 2 x USB headers, 2 x Intel IDE, 1 x DB-9 (serial), 1x Floppy, 3 x fan, 1 x WOL, 2 x internal audio (CD-In, AUX-In)
Expansion Slots
1 AGP slot, 5 PCI slots, 1 CNR slot
1 AGP slot, 6 PCI slots
Onboard Audio
C-Media CMI8738
AC`97 Digital Audio Controller
Onboard RAID
Promise PDC20265R Ultra ATA/133
N/A
Notable Extras
D-LED Error Reporting, USB 2.0, USB Smart Key Security
USB 2.0, Onboard LAN
As mentioned above, both of these boards are based on the Intel 845 DDR chipset and support up to 2 GB of DDR SDRAM with the Intel board having two memory slots and the MSI three. What you need to watch out for on the MSI is that there are still only 4 memory banks which means that you can only populate the board with up to two double-sided DIMMS or a combination or one double-sided and two single-sided. This is a chipset limitation and not MSI's fault.
From the chart above, you can see that Intel provided their usual conservative motherboard but this time added a couple of nice features such as an onboard NIC and USB 2.0 support. The onboard sound is AC`97 audio as usual but it is marketed as "AC`97 with SoundMAX with SPX and Microphone Pre-amplifier." Reading through the material, it seems as if this is an improvement over traditional Intel AC`97 but only the compatibility tests will prove whether Linux cares.
MSI Components
The MSI board is about as feature rich as they come, providing USB 2.0, Promise IDE RAID with Ultra ATA/133 support, and C-Media onboard audio. All of these are great features and the only thing that is really missing is the onboard Intel NIC found on the Intel board. Also with this board you will find the usual MSI D-LED error reporting LEDs and a USB keychain device for security. The D-LED on this board is available on a convenient card insert with two USB ports and the board also comes with an addition insert containing four more USB ports. These are great as long as you don't mind loosing two PCI slots. The Smart Key USB keychain is a device that you attach to any USB port to allow the system to boot. This feature comes disabled but it can be enabled through a simple boot-up screen in which you set a password associated with the keychain. Once enabled the system must have the keychain in order to boot but can be removed at anytime while the system is running.
MSI 845 Ultra-ARU Features - 9/10
Intel D845BG Features - 8/10
Support
The support for the Pentium 4 "Northwood" is identical to that of the previous Pentium 4 under Linux. For that coverage please visit our original Pentium 4 Linux Review. The score will remain the same from the last review as nothing has progressed much since then.
As for our motherboards, both boards are extremely well supported including the onboard audio and RAID of the MSI board and the USB 2.0 of both boards. Actually the only incompatibility that we ran into was the support of the onboard AC`97 audio of the Intel D845BG. While the sound functioned perfectly under XMMS and Quake 3, we did run into problems under Unreal Tournament in which we received no sound at all. This is never a good sign and who knows what other software may have issues. The C-Media chip of the MSI 845 Ultra-ARU is the same as on our top pick SOYO Dragon Plus! board and is an excellent audio processor with full Linux support for all its features. IDE RAID support for the Promise controller is now available in the kernel but still has not made it into any major distribution.
All tests were conducted with kernel 2.4.17 and were not verified with any specific distribution. Note: The USB 2.0 support on the MSI board is provided by an NEC USB controller which is supported by the OHCI driver and not the usual UHCI driver.
Pentium 4 "Northwood" Support - 7/10
SSE2 support is available for those interested in writing assembly. Not many Pentium 4 specific optimizations are currently available at the kernel level or in GCC but the prospect of full optimizations is promising and should be just around the corner.
MSI 845 Ultra-ARU Support - 9/10
Intel D845BG Support - 8/10
Layout + Manual and Package Contents
The layout of the MSI board is fairly clean and is pretty standard. The Intel IDE ports and the floppy port are above the halfway point on the board for easy access in even full-tower configurations and the RAID ports are near the bottom of the board in the traditional location. The chipset heatsink/fan is ample and connects to a standard 3-pin fan header which would make swapping it out, for whatever reason, quite simple. A big plus on this board are the color coded USB headers that make connecting the two rear USB panels easy. The Intel board also has a clean layout with similar positioning of IDE and floppy ports. Intel opted not to include a chipset fan as they always make sure through their BIOS design that no overclocking will be performed on their hardware. The layout of the rear external connectors are definitely not standard but they do include the necessary I/O back panel so it's a non-issue. There is only one problem with these boards and that's the placement of their power connectors. The ATX connector is on the far right of the board which makes the ATX cable have to stretch a bit which also make the wires go over the DIMM slots. The 4-pin Pentium 4 connector is also in the way as it is placed all the way in the center of the board above the AGP slot.
The D845BG comes with only the very basic in manual and extras. A small 20-page manual only includes the basics in hardware setup and schematics. The only components included with the board are a driver CD, IDE cable, I/O back panel, and floppy cable. As we've explored already, the 845 Ultra-ARU is packed with extras which include the two USB/D-LED back panels, the Smart Key, two IDE cables, and one floppy cable. The manual is very complete, outlining features, hardware setup, BIOS setup, audio setup, and Smart Key configuration and usage. MSI did a fine job of giving you everything you'll need to get setup and a lot more.
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