System setup and notes
Here's a quick rundown of the test system should you wish to compare benchmark results with your own.- AMD Barton XP3
Other components
- ATi Radeon 9
Software
- Windows XP Professional Build 2600.xpclient.010817-1148
- DirectX9
Notes
It's a shootout at the 200FSB corral. We don't expect the KT600-powered board to overhaul the dual-channel nForce2 Ultra 400 or, for that matter, the 3.2GHz P4 on the performance DFI 875 Canterwood motherboard.
The MSI KT6 Delta would not unlock a standard XP3000 or XP3200 Barton. Further, in consultation with MSI U.K, it transpired that MSI had no plans to release an unlocking BIOS. Now considering just how bold the BIOS voltages are, and taking into account the impressive strides made by MSI with respect to overclocking, we're a little bit miffed on this count. Surely a motherboard that fully unlocked the CPU would be viewed in a positive light by enthusiasts.
The board had no problems with initial setting up and booting. Its slightly thinner PCB size caused a few problems in a Lian Li PC60 test case. The standard mounting holes, measured to 245mm, were 10mm too wide. That left the right-hand side of the KT6 Delta a little non-secure. All features and functions installed correctly, and Windows XP installed without a hitch. The new Hyperion 4.48 driver set was used to for benchmarking purposes.
As always, benchmarks were carried out 3 times and the lowest and highest results were discarded. We'll explicitly state the speeds of the three comparison motherboards, for some manufacturers attempt to steal a march by over-inflating its boards' FSB speeds.
3207.5MHz - DFI 875 LP (P4)
2205.1MHz - MSI KT6 Delta FIS2R
2205.0MHz - DFI NFII ULTRA LP
2205.0MHz - EPoX 8KRA2+
As you can see, there's very little discrepancy between the Socket A motherboard's speeds. It'll all come down to bandwidth and memory controller efficiency. A quick note regarding the EPoX KT600. That board was a very early sample and was benchmarked with the 4.46 Hyperion driver set. It's only included to show just how far, if at all, the KT600 chipset has come in the last month or so. We urge you not to consider its results as the last word on EPoX's KT600 motherboard.
Overclocking
The test board became a little flaky at anything much over 212FSB. We're adamant that VIA and its motherboard partners have not engineered a PCI-locking feature into this chipset. We'll know for sure as we test a greater number of examples from different manufacturers. The bottom line here is that the board was perfectly stable at 200FSB; just as it should be.