10. System Performance

PCMark2005

PCMark05 includes an overall system test suite, along with test suites for individual system components including: CPU, RAM, graphics, and hard disk(s). If one part of the test suite won't run or fails during execution, that portion of the test contributes an overall PCMark05 score is not calculated.

Scores for PCMark scale in a range from 1,200 to 5,500 points. Both the lower (1,200) and upper (5,500) ends of this scale are based on results obtained from actual reference systems. Nevertheless, it's possible for a test system to score less than 1,200 or more than 5,500 points by under- or over-performing with respect to those reference systems.

Next, we present charts from all four of our test systems. You'll find our analysis of these results follows in the next section.

Analysis Of Results

Based on the overall system test, as well as all the individual component tests, the Aurora M7700 stands out clearly as the fastest system. If you configure its two hard disks into a RAID 0 array, you can boost this performance just a bit more. Second place in the graphics processor rating goes to the Asus A7J, because its video memory and graphic processor clock rates are set higher than on the HP Compaq nx9240. This notebook takes the edge in the CPU test, because of its faster T2600 Core Duo processor. But compared to the performance from the dual core FX-60 in the Alienware notebook, it pales somewhat. The Acer Aspire 5672WLMi takes up last place, as usual. It even holds the rear position in the memory benchmark. This stems from its use of shared memory, which means that the graphics card and system must divvy up RAM for their uses. Up to 384 Mb of video memory may be borrowed for other users. ATI calls this shared memory architecture Hypermemory.