test system specs:
computer hardware:
processor:	intel 2.0ghz pentium 4
clock speed:	2.00GHz
Motherboard:	VIA P4XB-RA
Chipset:	VIA P4X266A
Videocard:	MSI GeForce 3 Ti500 (MS-8850)
Sound Card:	C-Media 8738 (onboard)
Network Card:	DLink DE-528CT
Memory:	256MB Corsair PC2400 CAS2 DDR
Hard Drive:	Samsung SV6004H 5400RPM UDMA100 60GB
CDROM:	Panasonic 48x CD-ROM CR-594-B
Floppy:	Panasonic 1.44MB Floppy Drive
Heatsink:	AVC Sunflower
PowerSupply:	Enermax 431Watt
Software Setup	Windows 2000 Pro + SP2 VIA 4in1 4.37V DetonatorXP 22.80 DirectX 8.1
Benchmarks	SysMark 2001 Business Winstone 2001 Content Creation 2001 Winbench 99 SiSoft Sandra 2002 Pro 3DMark2001 SE Quake III Arena

BAPCO Sysmark 2001	Source:MadOnion / BAPco

SYSmark2001 uses real world applications concurrently as an accurate way to test the system by following patterns that reflect the way real users work. SYSmark2001's workloads accurately represent today's updated business usage model. The benchmark runs at a realistic execution speed, with think times between application interactions, in order to emulate a desktop user's interaction with the operating system and applications.

Higher numbers denote better performance.

BapCo SysMark 2001 Benchmark Results
	VIA P4XB-RA	Sysmarks	Ranking
1.	Internet Content Creation - 100 MHz	210
2	Internet Content Creation - 110 MHz	228
1	Office Productivity - 100 MHz	132
2.	Office Productivity - 110 MHz	154

The VIA P4XB-RA does fairly well here. The numbers are similar to the whole slew of i845D boards we tested a little earlier. Unfortunately, our Office Productivity scores are rather low, it's not the fault of the system, rather, something in our testing method is wrong. We have yet to figure out what that is. = (

Winstone 2001	Source: Zdnet

Content Creation Winstone 2001 keeps multiple applications open at once and switches among those applications. Content Creation Winstone 2001's activities focus on what we call "hot spots," periods of activity that make your PC really work--the times where you're likely to see an hourglass or a progress bar.

Business Winstone is a system-level, application-based benchmark that measures a PC's overall performance when running today's Windows-based 32-bit applications on Windows 98 ME, Windows NT 4.0 (SP6 or later), Windows 2000, Windows Me, or Windows XP which runs real applications through a series of scripted activities and uses the time a PC takes to complete those activities to produce its performance scores.

Winstone 2001 Benchmark Results
	VIA P4XB-RA	Scores	Ranking
1.	Content Creation - 100 MHz	62.4
1a.	Content Creation - 110 MHz	65
2.	Business Winstone - 100 MHz	41.8
2a.	Business Winstone - 110 MHz	42.8

While the P4XB-RA produces similar numbers to the other P4 boards we've tested in the last few months, one thing is for certain, you don't need a Pentium 4 with DDR RAM to do office work.

Winbench 99 V1.2	Source: e-Testinglabs.com

WinBench 99 is a subsystem-level benchmark that measures the performance of a PC's graphics, disk, and video subsystems in a Windows environment. WinBench 99's tests can run on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows Me systems.

WinBench 99 v1.2 Benchmark Results
	VIA P4XB-RA	Score	Ranking
1.	Business Disk - 100 MHz	6190
1a.	Business Disk - 110 MHz	5420
2.	High-End Disk - 100 MHz	16800
2a.	High-End Disk - 110 MHz	14600
3.	Business Graphics - 100 MHz	577
3a.	Business Graphics - 110 MHz	635
4.	High-End Graphics - 100 MHz	979
4a.	High-End Graphics - 110 MHz	1080

The HDD portion of the Winbench scores show a similar trend that seems to follow our other P4 boards performance. As for the AGP/graphics portion, it seems that the P4XB-RA's drivers are quite mature, they perform about as well as Intel's i845D.