California Graphics Photon 100 HC

In recent times, choosing a motherboard cannot be completely determined by a Winstone score. Now, many boards come within one Winstone point of each other and therefore the need to benchmark boards against each other falls. Therefore you shouldn't base your decision entirely on the benchmarks you see here, but also on the technical features and advantages of this particular board, seeing as that will probably make the greatest difference in your overall experience.

How I Tested

• Each benchmark was run a minimum of 2 times and a maximum of 5 times, if the motherboard failed to complete a single test within the 5 allocated test runs the OS/Software was re-installed on a freshly formatted Hard Drive and the BIOS settings were adjusted to prevent the test from failing again.  All such encounters were noted at the exact time of their occurrence.

• Business Winstone 98 was run at each individually tested clock speed, if reliable scores were achieved with the first two test runs of the suite an average of the two was taken and recorded as the final score at that clock speed.  If the test system displayed erratic behavior while the tests were running or the results were incredibly low/high the tests were re-run up to 5 times and an average of all the test runs was taken and recorded at the final score at that clock speed

• After each motherboard was tested a complete format of the test hard drive was initiated and the OS/benchmarking software was re-installed afterwards a defragment was initiated using Windows 95's Disk Defragmentation Utility

• Tests using AGP Video cards were only run under Winstone 97, as the AGP Millennium II does not affect the Business Winstone 98 score when compared to the PCI Millennium II used in the tests.

• No foreign drivers were present in the test system other than those required for the system to function to the best of its ability

• All foreign installation files were moved to a separate partition during the test as to prevent them from effecting the test results

• All tests were conducted at 800 x 600 x 16-bit color depth

NOTE: Do not compare these scores to older benchmarks results at AnandTech as the configuration of these tests differs (HDD and Video Mode)

The Final Decision

Graciously stepping aside, TMC moves down to number two on this hardware junkie's Super7 list as the California Graphics Photon 100 HC rightfully takes its place as being the closest thing to the Ultimate Super7 Motherboard on the market.  If you can get your hands on one of these bad boys, don't hesitate...however keep in mind that things may change drastically in the coming months, at least one big name is looking for a comeback with a motherboard that supports the 95MHz FSB setting required by the upcoming K6-2 333...as well as two "additional" settings for fun.  The choice is yours, the best things come to those that wait, however for those you that have been waiting for months looking for the best Super7 motherboard, the wait is over as the Photon 100 HC will make a wonderful addition to any system.  Congratulations to California Graphics on a job well done.