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| Benchmarks
and Comparisons Continued... |
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The Winstones... |
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Our next round of tests will focus on how effectively the system executes today's popular business and multimedia applications. What better programs to do this than Business Winstone 2001, Content Creation 2001 and Content Creation 2002? We've opted to weigh the AK35GTR's performance against the results of a similar board we reviewed here a few weeks back, the Acorp 7KT266A motherboard. However, we have no comparison for the Content Creation 2002 test since this is the first time that I've used the new benchmark on a KT266A based motherboard. The AK35GTR will be the comparison board with Content Creation 2002 in future reviews.
Business Winstone 2001:
First up in our Winstone line of tests is Business Winstone 2001. This benchmark focuses on stressing a system's ability to handle some of the more popular Windows-based 32Bit applications on the market such as: Microsoft Office 2000 applications, Microsoft Project 98, Lotus Notes R5, NicoMak WinZip, Norton AntiVirus and Netscape Communicator.
Based on these results, we can see that both the 7KT266A and AK35GTR are capable of running the Business Winstone 2001 test applications quite effectively. However, the Shuttle had a clear lead in this round of tests, surpassing the Acorp by 12%. Next up is Content Creation 2001.
Content Creation 2001:
Both Content Creation 2001 and 2002 test a systems ability to process multimedia intensive 32-Bit Windows applications with various versions of the following: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, Macromedia Director, Macromedia Dreamweaver UltraDev, Netscape Navigator and Sonic Foundry Sound Forge.
Content Creation 2002:
Once again we see that both systems are more than capable of handling these CPU intensive applications. With Content Creation 2001 the Shuttle AK35GTR took the lead again, however the Acorp 7KT266A put up a better fight narrowing the Shuttle's lead to 4.8%. With Content Creation 2002 the AK35GTR performed respectably and will make for an excellent reference score in future reviews. This time around, the score will have to stand on its own.
As we bring this review to a close we are happy to report that we are not at a loss for words on this one. In all phases of testing, the AK35GTR excelled beyond any expectations we may have had. Once again the designers at Shuttle have come up with an impressive, high-quality product that can boast both excellent quality and performance. With its intelligent layout, abundant BIOS features, top-notch performance and impressive over clocking ability, the AK35GTR has really won this reviewer over. Although we have reported a few issues in the synthetic benchmarking section of this review, We will continue to press further and see if we can provide you with some more specifics. In the meantime, I am comfortable stating that these are technical issues that more than likely do not hinge on the design of this particular motherboard but rather the hard drives that were used. We will update this review with any other findings we come up with in the future in regards to this.
Our overall experience with the Shuttle AK35GTR was terrific, excelling in all aspects of this review. For its exceptional quality, performance and over clocking ability we give the Shuttle AK35GTR a Hot Hardware Heat Meter Rating of a 9 as well as Editor's Choice for its overall excellence.
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