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MSI K7D Master L (cont'd) Cinebench2000 v1.0 Raytracing Cinebench 2000 is a small benchmarking program based on the Cinema 4D application. Cinema 4D is a 3D modeling suite comparable to 3D Studio Max, Maya, etc, the main difference being that Cinebench is free for download ;-) The benchmark runs four basic tests on your system, two video dependent tests, and two raytracing tests, that spit out some comparison numbers. For this review I stuck with the raytracing tests. I ran the single CPU and multiple CPU tests so we could compare the scalability of each platform as well.
The Xeons still own Cinebench, not just in speed, but also in scalability. The 2100+ is getting closer though, so who knows... Maybe Hammer? TMPGEnc MPEG1 Encoding I added some video encoding benchmarks to the suite a few reviews ago and people have really seemed to dig them. So, back by poular demand, TMPGEnc MPEG1 (VCD) encoding! I am going to quote myself again (maybe I need therapy) regarding the setup for this test:
Just like in the MP3 encoding tests, the Athlons are creeping up on the Xeons, but the Xeons rule the roost in TMPGEnc. The highly optimized SIMD instructions in TMPGEnc really show what SSE2 can do, and the Xeons mop the floor nicely. DivX Pro v5.0.2 Encoding I'll be the first to admit that nobody, not even me, is perfect. I needed to get that off my chest because when it came time to run the DivX encoding tests, I screwed up. Yes, that's right. I didn't realize that I was using a newer, more optimized AVISynth with the K7D Master L than I had with the previous machines, so the numbers don't jive... Not at all. Not by a long shot. So to save us all the hassle and frustration I decided not to include them at all since I can't go back and rerun the tests on the other machines with the newer AVISynth. Suffice it to say that the Athlon MP 2100+ on the K7D can encode some DivX. Crazy fast. Never fear though, the full story will unfold in my first i860 review later this week when I pit the AMD's fastest workstation against Intel's fastest workstation, both with the new frame serving utility. Conclusions If you can't tell by now, I am really in love (not -that- way!) with the K7D Master L from MSI. The board has proven to be as stable or even more stable for me than any other board that has crossed my desk, it does it with more features than any of those other boards, and it does it with a bit of pizazz. The Master L carries just the right balance of integrated peripherals, "extra" add-on features, stability and tweakability for just about anyone's needs. For a production workstation, set everything to default and let it run without having to worry about stability issues. Home "hobbiest" machine? With multiplier, FSB and Vcore adjustments, push it as far as you can. In fact, I can't really think of a workstation role that the K7D Master L couldn't fill. If you're in the market for a well rounded, feature rich dual AMD motherboard, I couldn't recommend anything better than the K7D Master L. For a street price of $183USD, you'd be hard pressed to find any better value. If we had some sort of editor's choice award, I'd be breaking it out right now.
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