AnandTech's Hardware Leaderboard

[Chadder007]

What are all these going to be based on??? Sales of products, reviews, user ratings? How are they ranked and by whom?

 

[bupkus]

This could be a massive undertaking unless the input is from the consumer/member. I constantly use Amazon for feedback about books and Newegg for feedback about computer components. Unfortunately with NE it's too highly moderated and if a product is dropped from their line, so is the input comments about it.

 

[MangoX]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
*waiting for memory review*

Yah I know! I just picked up a NF7-S 2.0 recently and need a pair of FAST memory to do me 210+ FSB in SYNC at aggressive settings!

 

[RIGorous1]

I think its time for the mod to update this thread .... march is long gone and april is almost over.

 

[S4M33R]

Links to the best deals for these products such as Hot Deal posts or sales from other reccomended distributers like newegg would be nice to have also. Especially if they were updated regularly. But maybe that is making things too easy

-Sameer

 

[DragonReborn]

Yeah, we need to know the latest and greatest! =) Question: is the 800 fsb 2.8 ghz gonna be worth waiting for? Building a new dream box and I can decide whether to go AMD or Intel this time...decisions, decisions...

 

[piasabird]

When I was looking at www.newegg.com there was a newer version of the A7N8X. Might want to mention The version of the motherboard.

 

[piasabird]

I think the rating process might be difficult. At www.motherboards.org they rate by the motherboard brand. If you had a way of collecting data on manufacturers that might be nice. I am a little reluctant to totally trust testing sites. I think the manufacturer sends the motherboards for free. It is obvious to me that the manufacturer will not normally send a bad motherboard to be tested. It is hard to tell how many motherboards are even sold by brand and model number. I think stores should keep records for the public of how many motherboard of each brand/model are sold so people can track the popularity. Another way of checking for bad motherboards is to look on Ebay. Often the lemons of the group are for sale on ebay.

 

[S4M33R]

Originally posted by: piasabird
Another way of checking for bad motherboards is to look on Ebay. Often the lemons of the group are for sale on ebay.

lol, you speak from experiance? Yeah, it is nice if u guys have a way to get a representative sample of what is out in the market and not what manufacturers send you. I think Anandtech does review hardware which is supplied not from the manufacturers but vendors (newegg) who are relatively unbiased. Does anyone know?

-Sameer

 

[Curley]

If this leaderboard would go by performance and not what Intel wants, the I850E would be in this list. Or is the I850E considered a server board like the Granite Bay. This is anand's statement on the review of the 875P which is touted as the best board available. Go Figure! BTY, I am running a barton on an 8RDA.

"The performance improvement that the 875P offers over the 850E is negligible, assuming you're not transitioning to one of the newer 800MHz FSB CPUs. If you are making the transition to an 800MHz FSB CPU with Hyper Threading support, then the 875P migration makes the most logical sense, however upgrading from an 850E to an 875P with anything other than an 800MHz FSB CPU wouldn't be worth it".

 

[BOBDN]

1. Gigabyte SINXP1394 (SiS 655 chipset)
2. MSI 655 Max (SiS 655 chipset)
3. ABIT IT7 MAX2 V.2 (845PE chipset)

Update - my picks:

1. MSI 875 Neo FIS2R
2. Intel 875PBZ
3. Gigabyte GA-8KNXP Ultra


I didn't include the ASUS P4C800 due to lack of CSA support.

Limited to boards currently available for retail sale.

 

[Thegonagle]

I would love to see something like that. I'm facing a few necessary hardware upgrades between me and my family, but I haven't kept up on the latest, greatest hardware since around the time that Intel first got with the DDR program, so it's been a little while.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

When will we actually start seeing a hardware leaderboard?

 

[Curley]

I just read Tom's review on the 875P chipset and this is a great board and I can't wait to get one. One thing I did notice was the 875 chipset is still not a clearly decisive victor over the I850 board even with a Pentium 4 @ 3.06 HT.

Anand's review may prove to be true even at 800 FSB/Canterwood/DDR, when he concluded,
"The performance improvement that the 875P offers over the 850E is negligible, assuming you're not transitioning to one of the newer 800MHz FSB CPUs. If you are making the transition to an 800MHz FSB CPU with Hyper Threading support, then the 875P migration makes the most logical sense, however upgrading from an 850E to an 875P with anything other than an 800MHz FSB CPU wouldn't be worth it". statement

A clear victor in performance is one that is better in every benchmark than the previous best.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: Curley
A clear victor in performance is one that is better in every benchmark than the previous best.

I wouldn't agree with that entirely because there is more to benchmarks. Take for example, the 9600 Pro and the 9500 Pro dillema. While the 9500 can perform on par or slightly better than the 9600 Pro, when it comes to AA and AF, the 9600 Pro takes a lower performance hit.

You can translate that to the new 875P motherboards, they are designed with different needs in mind as well as different circumstances. Intel must have spent more time ensuring it works very well with 800mhz FSB cpus because that is a large reason why they are releasing these new chipsets. (875 and the 865 due on May 11)

Performance doesn't have to always be increased to make it a better product because there are many other factors which people choose buy. Its kind of like a person with a case and 5 fans all loud but his system is overclocked in every place he could, compared to a person with something slower but only 1 or 2 case fans. People would have a better 'work enviroment' with the one slightly slower because who prefers more noise?

 

[bupkus]

...People would have a better 'work enviroment' with the one slightly slower because who prefers more noise?

Amen to that, brother.

Uhh... what were we talking about?

 

[S4M33R]

I am pretty sure the 9600 pro rapes the 9500 when you OC both cards to the limit. But, I am just going on my leaky memory so...

-Sameer

 

[imported_Pablo]

Bump for the hardware leaderboard!!! What happened? No more sticky?

 

[Curley]

Originally posted by: S4M33R
I am pretty sure the 9600 pro rapes the 9500 when you OC both cards to the limit. But, I am just going on my leaky memory so...

-Sameer

I think the 9500 Pro does in fact beat the 9600 Pro in Anand's and HardOCP reviews. They recommend that if you can get your hands on a 9500 Pro, you should get one.

 

[S4M33R]

hmm, if u say so

-Sameer

 

[Curley]

Originally posted by: S4M33R
hmm, if u say so

-Sameer

"Given the specifications of the GPU, the Radeon 9600 Pro performed quite in line with what we expected. If you recall our conclusion to the GeForce FX 5600 Ultra piece we stated:

"One thing is for sure, current Radeon 9500 Pro owners should stick with their cards, and if you can find one, it's not a bad buy."

The Radeon 9500 Pro is still the best performing solution out there in this price range, however the production run was quite limited and you won't be able to find those cards to be too available in the future so grab them while you can. "


Anand's article clearly shows that with AA on, the 9500 PRO is the better performer. There are a number of other reviews that show the same result.

I'm sorry I forgot the golden rule to include links to statements made about hardware.

 

[Curley]

"Unfortunately, the new Radeon 9600 Pro managed to carry on the Radeon 9500 Pro's tradition of initial difficulties with overclocking. Being made on a .13u process and only needed a modest heatsink assembly, it seemed certain that this cool-running graphics core would prove to be an incredible overclocker. Unfortunately, no overclocking utility could successfully raise the core frequency even by 1MHz! Everything from the latest versions of Rage3D Tweak, RivaTuner, RadTweak, and Powerstrip were tried to no avail. Only PowerStrip even recognized the stock operating frequencies of the card, though no amount of praying could will the frequencies upwards. "

"The Radeon 9500 Pro had incredible overclocking potential and performance. Once enthusiasts began discovering methods to advance their 9500 Pro cards, sometimes to flagship 9700 levels, the folks at ATI had to realize that their own product was cannibalizing 9700 sales. In the end, the Radeon 9500 Pro was a dream card for consumers and a pricey investment for ATI."

"Those who can still find the 9500 Pro for sale would do well to pick one up while they can. As we have seen throughout this review, the Radeon 9500 Pro offers the best overall performance in its category. With no real sacrifices in features, performance, or functionality it seems to be the ideal choice at this time. But what about tomorrow when they are all sold out of stock?"

HardOCP

 

[cowsclaw]

Originally posted by: PabloMartinez
Bump for the hardware leaderboard!!! What happened? No more sticky?

 

[S4M33R]

HardOCP posted their followup to the intial 9600 review Curly, http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDY0. This is what I read before.

-Sameer

 

[Curley]

Moot point now, ATI has removed the 9500Pro from thier inventory.