System setup and notes
| Motherboard | Foxconn Bloodrage X58 | Intel DS58X0 Smackover X58 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ||
| Chipset | Intel X58 + ICH10R | |
| CPU | Intel Core i7 920 Engineering Sample (2.67GHz, 1MB L2 cache, LGA1366) | |
| Actual CPU frequency | 2660.1MHz | 2667.1MHz |
| BIOS revision | P03 (11/06/2008) | SOX5810J.86A.2786.EB.EXE (12/11/2008) |
| Memory | 6GB (3 x 2GB) Crucial DDR3-1,066 CL7 | |
| Memory timings and speed | 7-7-7-20 1T @ DDR3-1,066 | |
| Graphics card | Force3D Radeon HD 4870 512MB | |
| Graphics driver | Catalyst 8.12 | |
| Chipset driver | Intel Inf 9.1.0.1007 + Intel Matrix Storage Manager 8.6.0.1007 | |
| Disk drive(s) | Seagate 500GB SATAII (ST3500320AS) | |
| Operating system | Windows Vista Business x64 SP1 | |
Tests
| Benchmarks |
ScienceMark 2.0 memory latency HD Tach 3.0.4.0 - SATA average read speed Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, v1.5 - 1,024x768 low-detail
settings and 1,680x1,050 high-detail |
|---|
Testing notes
We're comparing the Foxconn Bloodrage's performance against the retail interpretation of the X58 chipset from Intel, in the form of the DS58XO, or Smackover, as it's more commonly known in enthusiast circles. It's a cut-price X58, if £215 can be thought of as cheap, and it lacks many of the value-adding features found on the Bloodrage, but an X58 is still an X58, right.The choice of £230 Core i7 920 is deliberate, because even though we have 965 Extreme Editions in the labs, we wonder how many people can afford a £800 processor on top of a £300 motherboard. Keeping it somewhat real is the almost-as-potent 2.67GHz part.
6GB of memory is provided by Crucial, and it runs at 7-7-7-20-1T on both boards.
Please note that the Foxconn Bloodrage slightly underclocks the 920 CPU, which runs some 7MHz slower than on the Intel X58.
Lastly, the test board passed our basic stability test, which involves running Prime95 on all eight cores whilst playing the Enemy Territory benchmark, for a total of six hours.
Issues
We noted that the updated BIOS highlighted speed of 6.4GT/s for a Core i7 920, which should be limited to 4.8GT/s. Clearing the BIOS solved this issue. Foxconn is aware of this issue.
More pressingly, whilst the board worked just fine with memory set to DDR3-1,066MHz, changing the speed, via the multitude of ratios, had no effect when setting a multiplier above the native 8x. Setting it to x6 worked just fine. This, though, is a problem inherent in our use of an engineering-sample Core i7 920 CPU, and retesting with a retail processor allowed the necessary adjustment. We'll be changing over to full-retail CPUs forthwith.