Testing

To test the processing power of this AMD Athlon "Thunderbird" CPU we used SiSoft Sandra 2000 Standard. We did not even attempted running gaming (such as Q3A) benchmarks because of the AMD Irongate Chipset + AGP1x and all. Forcing this FIC SD11 board to do AGP2x (or higher) is not worth it because it would be more then likely to fall down and crash before even performing a full Q3A loop or 3DMark test. So we will just stick with some SiSoft Sandra 2000 CPU testage for this review...

Test System Specs:

AMD Athlon "Thunderbird" 700MHz

ASUS K7V Motherboard

256MB PC133 Hyundai

ASUS V6800DPro (64MB RAM)

Windows 2000

Above is Cameron Johnson's PC specs... The reason behind this is, because when I tried testing our Thunderbird 700MHz on our FIC SD11 review board we only got around 100MIPS in SiSoft Sandra 2000 - Something is obviously wrong. So, Cameron (the other Cameron here @ TT who runs the AMD Division) has done some testing for this review. Because the testing was done on an excellent ASUS K7V and AGP4x graphics card, the results will identify exactly how well the AMD Athlon "Thunderbird" 700MHz really performs compared to testing on our FIC SD11 "Irongate" board... here's the benchmark screenshots:

- CPU Benchmark

- CPU Multimedia Benchmark

Conclusion

The AMD Athlon "Thunderbird" bread of CPU's are by far the fastest x86 CPU this planet has ever seen... This applies for more then just raw MHz speed. For example, the value for money is absolutely sensational; A Tbird 700 compared to a higher priced Intel PIII 700 will kick the PIII's backside (easy). The Thunderbird is beefed up with huge features such as MMX, 3Dnow! and 3DNow!+, combined with its full speed ondie L2 Cache this things is BATMAN and really fly's at amazing speeds. By reviewing a unit such as this CPU it's easy to see why AMD are giving Intel a real run for their money. If AMD keep this up, Intel are REALLY going to run into trouble. IMHO the AMD Athlon "Thunderbird" is truly sensational and the overclockability and ease is unbelievable. If your on the market for a new system, without doubt go with a AMD Athlon "Thunderbird" CPU with a ASUS K7V which sports the amazing KX133 Northbridge chipset. AMD, congrats on a excellent CPU!

Rating - 9/10 and TweakTown's Editors Choice Award