AMD 1.4GHz vs 1.2GHz performance

[Stephen Gibson]

Hi,
   I have two new AMD systems, 1.4GHz and 1.2GHz, purchased in June and July
respectively. They have similar configurations (see below), but differ in
CPU, motherboard and RAM.  Both run RedHat 7.1 and 2.4.x kernels.  
I am puzzled that the 1.2GHz system can outperform the 1.4GHz system.  
For example, here is a benchmark test
from the ccmath-2.2.0 package:

1.4GHz-
$ccmath-2.2.0/benchmk/timmiv 500
     Time Matrix Inverse
 dimension: 500 x 500
 time= 2.800 sec.
 matrix inverted

1.2GHz-
     Time Matrix Inverse
 dimension: 500 x 500
 time= 2.500 sec.
 matrix inverted

My own codes reflect a similar discrepancy.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can improve the 1.4GHz system
performance or is it simply a reflection of a poor motherboard/RAM from MSI?
Note, the 1.4 system has 512Mb DDR RAM cf 256Mb for the 1.2 system
(the applications are not memory intensive, but I read somewhere
that 2.4.x kernels may be slower for systems with "large" memory).

The default RH7.1 2.4.2 kernel appears to behave the same, with
respect to execution speed,  as the latest 2.4.9 kernel.

I don't particularly want to mess with the hardware (swap CPUs, memory etc.),
just tweak bios/setup parameters if possible.

Thanks,

Steve.


1.4GHz system------------------------------------------------------------
Motherboard:     MSI K7T266-Pro 
CPU:             AMD Althlon C series  1.4GHz
RAM:             2x256MB Micron PC2100 CAS 2.5 DDR SDRAM
HD:              IBM 40GB 7200RPM ATA100 2MB IDE
Video:           ASUS V7100 32MB AGP MX GeForce2

$cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor	: 0
vendor_id	: AuthenticAMD
cpu family	: 6
model		: 4
model name	: AMD Athlon(tm) Processor
stepping	: 4
cpu MHz		: 1399.763
cache size	: 256 KB
fdiv_bug	: no
hlt_bug		: no
f00f_bug	: no
coma_bug	: no
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 1
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr syscall mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow
bogomips	: 2791.83

$cat /proc/meminfo
        total:    used:    free:  shared: buffers:  cached:
Mem:  525651968 522522624  3129344        0 38252544 418361344
Swap: 1052794880        0 1052794880
MemTotal:       513332 kB
MemFree:          3056 kB
MemShared:           0 kB
Buffers:         37356 kB
Cached:         408556 kB
SwapCached:          0 kB
Active:          58280 kB
Inact_dirty:    385960 kB
Inact_clean:      1672 kB
Inact_target:     3376 kB
HighTotal:           0 kB
HighFree:            0 kB
LowTotal:       513332 kB
LowFree:          3056 kB
SwapTotal:     1028120 kB
SwapFree:      1028120 kB

$hdparm -Tt /dev/hda
/dev/hda:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  0.61 seconds =209.84 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  1.72 seconds = 37.21 MB/sec


1.2GHz system--------------------------------------------------------------
Motherboard:     Epox 8K7A+ 
CPU:             AMD Althlon C series  1.2GHz
RAM:             1x256MB Apacer PC266 DDR SDRAM
HD:              IBM 20GB 7200RPM ATA100 2MB IDE
Video:           Asus V7100M 32MB AGP Geforce2 MX 200

$cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor	: 0
vendor_id	: AuthenticAMD
cpu family	: 6
model		: 4
model name	: AMD Athlon(tm) processor
stepping	: 2
cpu MHz		: 1196.614
cache size	: 256 KB
fdiv_bug	: no
hlt_bug		: no
f00f_bug	: no
coma_bug	: no
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 1
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr syscall mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow
bogomips	: 2385.51

$cat /proc/meminfo
        total:    used:    free:  shared: buffers:  cached:
Mem:  261660672 238911488 22749184        0 90042368 25812992
Swap: 271425536 39129088 232296448
MemTotal:       255528 kB
MemFree:         22216 kB
MemShared:           0 kB
Buffers:         87932 kB
Cached:          25208 kB
Active:         105568 kB
Inact_dirty:      6656 kB
Inact_clean:       916 kB
Inact_target:     1248 kB
HighTotal:           0 kB
HighFree:            0 kB
LowTotal:       255528 kB
LowFree:         22216 kB
SwapTotal:      265064 kB
SwapFree:       226852 kB

$ hdparm -Tt /dev/hda
/dev/hda:
 Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  0.61 seconds =209.84 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  3.41 seconds = 18.77 MB/sec