AnandTech's Hardware Leaderboard

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

Originally posted by: Rand
Only one comment.... remember that what equals a good product for one person could very well be terrible for another.
Needs and requirements vary considerably between individuals so specify precisely whom your recommendations are targeted for.

I agree. I think Anandtech should stick to the Buyer's Guides for each respective pricepoint. They are far more informative than a simple "cutting edge" list.

Speaking of which, the Buyer's Guide articles haven't been updated since September 2002. What gives?

 

[Idontcare]

Originally posted by: Evan Lieb

Originally posted by: Duvie
I know you are showing some good performing boards there but how about a top 3 overclockers boards based on its controls and high stable fsb...The sis655 sucks for much of an oc above 160's and therefore thGB mobos are much better for dCDDR ocing....

There have been many users getting 190MHz + FSB out of their SiS 655 boards with 1.7M processors. Specifically the Gigabyte SiS 655 boards, which we used in the 800MHz FSB review that will be out tonight.

Evan, where's that review? I keep checking, maybe I'm looking in wrong location (AT homepage)??

 

[First]

Originally posted by: Idontcare

Originally posted by: Evan Lieb

Originally posted by: Duvie
I know you are showing some good performing boards there but how about a top 3 overclockers boards based on its controls and high stable fsb...The sis655 sucks for much of an oc above 160's and therefore thGB mobos are much better for dCDDR ocing....

There have been many users getting 190MHz + FSB out of their SiS 655 boards with 1.7M processors. Specifically the Gigabyte SiS 655 boards, which we used in the 800MHz FSB review that will be out tonight.

Evan, where's that review? I keep checking, maybe I'm looking in wrong location (AT homepage)??

Anand was supposed to post it a couple days ago. I don't know what happened. Hopefully he'll post it on Monday.

 

[billyjak]

How about listing 3 different catagories, the performance gaming rigs ( high end , cost no problem, speed freaks)

One on Feature rich boards (bang for the buck for a lower price, value at it's best.)

The last on Multimedia Boards (such as DVD,Photoshop, editing, best suited boards, that need more ram requirements, possibly a Dual processor setup and the difference in processors and how they handle it, to run more efficient).

Most don't know that different needs, require different requirements, buying something for speed maybe only to find out it's not what you needed for your useage could be very disappointing.

A thought to kick around?

 

[JungleMan1]

Where's Twinmos RAM?

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: billyjak
How about listing 3 different catagories, the performance gaming rigs ( high end , cost no problem, speed freaks)

One on Feature rich boards (bang for the buck for a lower price, value at it's best.)

The last on Multimedia Boards (such as DVD,Photoshop, editing, best suited boards, that need more ram requirements, possibly a Dual processor setup and the difference in processors and how they handle it, to run more efficient).

Most don't know that different needs, require different requirements, buying something for speed maybe only to find out it's not what you needed for your useage could be very disappointing.

A thought to kick around?

I agree with billyjak but make sure to still keep the categories for them from earlier times. You might want to even have a thing where they are updated by one of the staff members whenever a faster part comes in the price range of the category. That way, they would always be up-to-date.

 

[Dan]

It's nice to see new forums, the leaderboard, etc. Expansion is a good thing.

 

[S4M33R]

This is sweet. An overall performance leader for each consumer PC component is a great idea!

A suggestion I would make is tell us from what pool of products you choose leaders from. In addition, links to catagories taken into consideration when choosing leaders and star values each product scores in each area would be nice. Just one off topic question from a noob, have you guys looked at TwinMos memory when making the comparison? If you could let me know why they are not there that would be a bonus for me. Thanks, sorry for my ignorance.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: S4M33R
This is sweet. An overall performance leader for each consumer PC component is a great idea!

A suggestion I would make is tell us from what pool of products you choose leaders from. In addition, links to catagories taken into consideration when choosing leaders and star values each product scores in each area would be nice. Just one off topic question from a noob, have you guys looked at TwinMos memory when making the comparison? If you could let me know why they are not there that would be a bonus for me. Thanks, sorry for my ignorance.

Yeah, I'd like to see what parts were taken into consideration as well.

 

[First]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

As far as which brands we take into consideration...we take all brands into consideration with no expection. For example, we aren't going to exclude Rambus or OCZ memory from our memory reviews just because these companies are unpopular. The reason Twinmos wasn't included in the Top 3 was simply because there were three memory manufacturers that we thought did a better overall job than Twinmos, that's all.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: Evan Lieb

Originally posted by: Duvie
I know you are showing some good performing boards there but how about a top 3 overclockers boards based on its controls and high stable fsb...The sis655 sucks for much of an oc above 160's and therefore thGB mobos are much better for dCDDR ocing....

There have been many users getting 190MHz + FSB out of their SiS 655 boards with 1.7M processors. Specifically the Gigabyte SiS 655 boards, which we used in the 800MHz FSB review that will be out tonight.

Where is that review? I've been waiting and waiting for it... I'm going to get my hands on a 2.4 or 2.6ghz chip with the 800mhz FSB and HT if it performs as well as I hope it will

 

[DaveSimmons]

Hard drives note: there are three different "performance" metrics that are important to buyers (besides capacity):
* speed
* noise (idle, seek, IBM's periodic "cricket chirp" seek)
* heat

Someone choosing without regard to noise or heat would want a WD, someone seeking quiet would want a Seagate 'cuda IV or V.

 

[Macro2]

SOunds great but you need to do a lot more reviews. I'd buy a Soltek board before a Chaintech or Abit or...

 

[StormRider]

How about rating boards based on compatibility at standard settings? I'm not an overclocker but I do tend to max out my computers. For example, I've heard of many motherboards that have problems if you fill all RAM slots. Why put 3 or 4 RAM slots on a motherboard if you can't fill them all at the same time?

You guys should test for the motherboards that have no problems filling up all the RAM slots.

Also, you should test the same thing with PCI slots. Which motherboards have the least problems when you fill up all PCI slots? You should test the following PCI cards with different motherboards:

1) Dazzle DVC-II MPEG1/2 Hardware encoder and capture card (this has problems with SIS 735 based boards -- on the two boards that I've tried, if you plug it into any PCI slot, the 2nd IDE port dissappears!)

2) Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250

3) Creative Labs Digital VCR

4) Any SCSI cards

5) Any additional ATAPI/ATA100/133 cards (some motherboards have problems when you have both SCSI and ATAPI/ATA100/133 cards in the same system)

6) Firewire and USB1/2 and Firewire/USB2 combo cards.

7) Sound cards like the Hercules Digifire 7.1 (comes with Firewire) soundcards.

Basically, stuff all the PCI slots with all these different PCI cards and see which motherboards have no problems. That's the kind of motherboard that I'm looking for.

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: Evan Lieb

Originally posted by: Duvie
I know you are showing some good performing boards there but how about a top 3 overclockers boards based on its controls and high stable fsb...The sis655 sucks for much of an oc above 160's and therefore thGB mobos are much better for dCDDR ocing....

There have been many users getting 190MHz + FSB out of their SiS 655 boards with 1.7M processors. Specifically the Gigabyte SiS 655 boards, which we used in the 800MHz FSB review that will be out tonight.

The review still failed to show a p4 not p4m being oc'd to that high of fsb levels on a sis655...if I missed please point me to the spot in the review......As far as I can tell the sis655 while a great board at default does not perform up to the level of some of the e7205 granite bay mobos...

I have been to asusboards.com and I am not impressed...most are running high multi chips and have not even tested fsb that high..The few I found state about bios mods by some guy, using windows based fsb tuners cause bios would not allow them to run at those levels.....

Sounds like same old sis chipsets to be when it comes to ocing...

 

[Lonyo]

I second TwinMOS on the memory stakes!

 

[First]

Originally posted by: Duvie

Originally posted by: Evan Lieb

Originally posted by: Duvie
I know you are showing some good performing boards there but how about a top 3 overclockers boards based on its controls and high stable fsb...The sis655 sucks for much of an oc above 160's and therefore thGB mobos are much better for dCDDR ocing....

There have been many users getting 190MHz + FSB out of their SiS 655 boards with 1.7M processors. Specifically the Gigabyte SiS 655 boards, which we used in the 800MHz FSB review that will be out tonight.

The review still failed to show a p4 not p4m being oc'd to that high of fsb levels on a sis655...if I missed please point me to the spot in the review......As far as I can tell the sis655 while a great board at default does not perform up to the level of some of the e7205 granite bay mobos...

I have been to asusboards.com and I am not impressed...most are running high multi chips and have not even tested fsb that high..The few I found state about bios mods by some guy, using windows based fsb tuners cause bios would not allow them to run at those levels.....

Sounds like same old sis chipsets to be when it comes to ocing...

I'm not sure what you're saying? Why would getting over 190MHz FSB on Gigabyte's SiS 655 board with the 1.7M (in our case we barely got 200MHz FSB) not be indicative of how high Gigabyte's SiS 655 can overclock? If I could find a C1 2.26GHz CPU, I would probably get up to 180MHz FSB or higher on a good SiS 655 board. Any higher than that and the CPU would start to be the limiting factor of my overclock.

EDIT: For an example, see this thread.

 

[Insidious]

Hopefully, I am not repeating a suggestion

I think catagorizing by intended usage would be very helpful. such as (Business, Gaming, Video editing, Serving..... )

When a board is chosen, it seems like the first question asked is 'what will you use it for' even before 'how much can you spend'

-Sid

(GREAT IDEA! thank you AT)

 

[Mani]

Definitely a great idea. More sites need leaderboards.

 

[moonshinemadness]

As long as my parts are at the top of the catergory im not bothered

 

[scotoma]

Evan,

This post could go forever. Have you ever designed a web site with five or more people. Its a friggen mess. Everyone is going to have an idea about what should be included, how it should be formatted, where the links should go, what colors to use, etc... Whats that saying...too many cooks in the kitchen or too many hands in the cookie jar. Anyway, I want to be a cook too, so I say stick you your original format, but expand it to the areas anandtech does reviews. I wouldn't set a format in stone. Perhaps, let evolve with time.

 

[ArtemisE]

Thanks a lot! I wanna upgrade my pc soon, so the info is very useful.

 

[ElFenix]

*waiting for memory review*

 

[jhites]

Evan
Links to AT reviews or others would be of great value to the Leaderboard.

If not able to do a link, maybe a brief one sentence statement as to what
rationale was used to select the particular item in that category.

• Looking forward to Springdale or Caterwood reviews and comparison
  to the SIS 655 / e7205 chipsets on the next leaderboard update.

 

[PushHands]

this is a superb idea since I don't always keep up to date with the latest technology. now I know where to go when I need to build a rig.