Test Setup:

For the purposes of the testing the systems were built from scratch, then a clean Windows XP Professional operating system installed, all updates were applied. All test results were ran four times during the course of this review to ensure no abnormalities could creep into the end figures.

AGP System:
Pentium 4 478 Extreme Edition 3.4ghz - courtesy of INTEL
Abit IC7 MAX3 motherboard
1 gig of Corsair DDR pc3200 Pro ram (SPD) - courtesy of CORSAIR
Western Digital Raptors 2x36 gig in raid 0
Globalwin Sapphire 520w 19db PSU
ATI X800XT PE - courtesy of ATI Technologies special thanks as always to Chris Hook and Andrzej Bania
NEC 1300a DVD

PCIe System:
Pentium 4 775 Extreme Edition 3.4ghz - courtesy of INTEL
Intel D925XCV Motherboard - courtesy of INTEL
1 gig of Micron DDRII 533mhz ram - courtesy of INTEL and MICRON
ATI X800XT Pcie (R423) - courtesy of ATI Technologies special thanks as always to Chris Hook and Andrzej Bania
OCZ Powerstream 470w PSU - courtesty of OCZtechnology
Samsung 7200 160 gig hard drive
Philips cd writer

For the purposes of the review due to the core and ram timing differences between the AGP X800XTPE 520/560 and the PCIe (non PE) 500/500, the AGP counterpart was underclocked to match.

CATALYST VERSION: 6451 (all games ran with high texture and mipmap quality)

 

Some pictures of the new Driverheaven PCIe rig

Id like to put out a special thank you to OCZ for supplying me the 470w model of their new and incredible Powerstream range of PSU's at such short notice. I have reviewed its smaller brother the 420w over here if you want to check out OCZs new power supplies.