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Untitled Document
Performance
This is no gaming machine, it scored the lowest 3dmark 2001 score I have ever
seen. 712 3dmarks means that the onboard SiS graphics is a 3d accelerator by
name only. Still, what do you expect at that price? With a gig of ram installed,
the K7SOM+ gave these SYSmark 2002 scores:
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K7SOM+
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3.2ghz p4
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1.75ghz XP
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Internet Content Creation
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93
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423
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226
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Office Productivity
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92
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121
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143
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As you can see here, the K7SOM+ makes a perfectly capable office machine, and
for basic office tasks, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference from a 3.2ghz
P4 system. The Internet content creation benchmark involves a lot of image editing
and lots of shuffling around of big files, and here the 100mhz RAM becomes a
bit of a bottleneck. It is still quite competent at this sort of thing, and
offers hugely better value for money than the 3.2gig p4. Overclocking is really
out of the question with the K7SOM+. There are no BIOS options at all, and the
1.2gig Duron wouldn't go much faster than 1.4 even if you could overclock it.
Conclusion
Despite problems with the driver installer, the K7SOM+ is a very useful board.
I think that every computer enthusiast could put at least one of them to good
use. Sometimes we want things to be cheap and convenient, which is why mcdonalds
is so successful. ECS have made a motherboard that is certainly cheap and convenient,
but doesn't sacrifice any basic functionality, and is rather well built considering
its price of £60.
Looking around ebuyer.com
you can build a machine with 256mb/30gb and a 52x CD Writer in a case with Front
USB for around £150 - if you ask me, thats excellent. Will computers get
any cheaper?
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