Test System Setup

Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 (Supplied by Intel)

Motherboard: Gigabyte P965-DQ6 (Supplied by Gigabyte)

Memory: 2x 1GB DDR2-1066 Corsair (Supplied by Corsair)

Hard Disk: 2x 160GB Seagate 7200.9 (Supplied by Seagate)

Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 7800GT

Cooling: Gigabyte Neon775 (Supplied by Gigabyte)

Power Supply Unit: Corsair HX620W (Supplied by Corsair)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2

Drivers: Intel INF 8.1.1.1002, nVidia ForceWare 91.31 and DX9c

In this review we will be comparing the PCI based HP 1740 controller against the Intel ICH8R controller on the Gigabyte DQ6 motherboard along with against a couple of onboard Silicon Image controllers all of which are connected to the PCI Express bus.

Will the limited bandwidth of PCI Express affect the performance of the HP 1740 controller? Let's take a look!

PCMark

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.1.0

Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com

Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/pcmark04/

Buy It Here

PCMark is a multipurpose benchmark, suited for benchmarking all kinds of PCs, from laptops to workstations, as well as across multiple Windows operating systems. This easy-to-use benchmark makes professional strength benchmarking software available even to novice users. PCMark consists of a series of tests that represent common tasks in home and office programs. PCMark also covers many additional areas outside the scope of other MadOnion.com benchmarks.

Here we can see that the Highpoint controller does fall slightly behind the PCI Express 3132 and the ICH8R Southbridge setup but with its NCQ and SATA-II support it manages to keep ahead of the 3114 PCI controller.