System setup and notes

Hardware and Software

Test Platforms

System	rockdirect Xtreme SL	ASUS A6JA laptop	Dell Inspiron XPS Gen 2	HEXUS Athlon 64 desktop
Processor(s)	AMD Turion 64 ML-42 (2.4GHz, 512KB L2 cache, 400MHz FSB, single-core)	Intel Centrino Duo T2500 (2.0GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 667MHz FSB, dual-core	Intel Pentium M 770 (2.13GHz, 2MB L2 cache, 533MHz FSB - single-core	AMD Athlon 64 4800+ (2.4GHz, 1MB L2 cache, 400MHz FSB, dual-core)
Mainboard	NVIDIA nForce4 SLI	Intel i945PM Napa	Intel i915GM Sonoma	ABIT Fatal1ty AN8 nForce4 Ultra
Memory	1GByte (2x512MB) Corsair PC3200 SODIMMs	2GBytes (2x1024MB) Samsung PC4200 DDR2 SODIMMs	1GByte (2x512MB) Samsung PC4200 DDR2 SODIMMs	1GByte (2x512MB) Corsair Xpert
Memory timings	3-3-3-8 @ DDR-400	4-4-4-12 @ DDR2-667	4-4-4-12 @ DDR2-533	2-2-2-5 1T @ DDR-400
Graphics Cards	NVIDIA GeForce 7800 Go GTX in SLI (400/1000)	ATI Mobility RADEON X1600 256MB	NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 Ultra	ATI Mobility RADEON X1800 XL 256MB
Graphics Card driver	NVIDIA ForceWare 83.92	ATI 8.183.4-051031a-027919C	NVIDIA ForceWare 71.89	ATI CATALTST 6.2
Disk drive(s)	Hitachi GST 100GB 7,200RPM	Hitachi 100GB 5,400RPM	Seagate 100GB 4,200RPM	Western Digital 160JB 160GB PATA
Screen	19-inch WSXGA (1680x1050)	15.4-inch WXGA (1280x800)	17-inch WUXGA (1920x1200)	20-inch WSXGA (1600x1200 - Dell 2005FW
Operating system	Windows XP Home SP2	Windows XP Professional SP2	Windows XP Home SP2	Windows XP Professional SP2

Benchmark Software

HEXUS.in-house Cryptography Benchmark
HEXUS Pifast Benchmark
ScienceMark 2.0 (21st March 2005)
Realstorm Raytracing 2004
DivX 6.1 encoding benchmark
CINEBENCH 2003 multi-CPU render
HEXUS.in-house MP3 Encoding Benchmark using LAME 3.97a (Intel HT compiler) - 701MB WAV
picCOLOR 32-bit v4.0 (b479)
KribiBench v1.1
Simpli Software's HDTach 3.0.1

DOOM 3 - HEXUS custom benchmark
3DMark05 b1.2.0
Far Cry - HEXUS custom benchmark

Notes

The rockdirect Xtreme SL purports to be the ultimate desktop-replacement laptop. In view of this, we'll be comparing it to a high-end Athlon 64-based (dual-core) desktop, tested with a discrete video card from ATI. We'll also throw in ASUS' Centrino Duo-based laptop, featuring an Intel dual-core CPU, that should do well in 2D benchmarks, especially multi-threaded applications. Dell's now replaced its Inspiron XPS Gen 2 desktop-replacement model with the revised M170. However, we've also added numbers from it to show the performance increases, if any, that a year has made since the introduction of the excellent 'Gen 2 model.

Issues