Performance Analysis (con't.)

SiSoft Sandra 2001te Pro
AMD761 + PC-2100 DDR
SIS735 + PC-1600 DDR
SIS735 + PC-133 SDR

Memory performance is exceptional when operating in PC-1600 DDR mode.  While the SD-RAM scores are within acceptable performance ranges, the advantages of DDR is clearly visible.  The AMD761 board represents the performance leader, though remember this board is operating with PC-2100 memory.  Increasing the SIS735's system bus speed should offset this difference, so on to the overclocking results.

Overclocking

The K7S5A offers moderate overclocking potential through processor bus overclocking.  Supported system bus speeds include 100, 112, 124, 133, 150, and 166 MHz.  The utilized Thunderbird 1.2 GHz AXIA has been tested upto 148 MHz (112 x 12) at 1.85v with average cooling.  The K7S5A offers no voltage modification capabilities, thus the processor is auto-detected to be 1.80v.  The maximum stable overclock at this voltage level proved to be 1344 MHz (112 x 12).  Core temperatures reached an average maximum of 51 degrees Celsius while utilizing a standard SuperORB heatsink with Radio Shack thermal gel applied.  This new gel lowered temperatures by 3-5 degrees as compared to the older RS thermal paste.

SiSoft Sandra 2001te Pro
AMD761 + PC-2100 DDR
SIS735 + PC-1792 DDR

A mere 12 MHz system bus overclock leads to a substantial 102+ MB per second performance increase.  Even when factoring in the processor speed difference, it can be determined that a SIS735 system operating at 133 MHz will easily surpass an equivalent AMD 761 system for memory throughput.  SIS has definitely been doing its homework here, as these numbers severely contrast to the rather poor results obtained during SysOpt's previous SIS730 chipset preview.  The K7S5A not only offers excellent overclock performance, but stability proved equally as impressive.  Even while overclocked, the test system did not suffer a single hardware crash during several days of continuous usage.