Each advance in hardware and software technology poses new challenges to evaluation techniques. In previous evaluations Intertek was able to apply common test methodologies across all categories of the NMSO. Except for some minor variations to reflect the category, desktop systems, and notebooks were each subjected to the same suite of tests for Performance, Compatibility and Features/Usability. Since it became increasingly difficult to differentiate between the products in the server categories using results produced by methodologies that were designed for standalone categories Intertek utilized a test suite specifically targeted at the server products. In addition, the methodologies for the standalone system categories have been upgraded to reflect environments that are current in the industry.
All test suites for standalone systems were executed with (currently in a Windows 7 OS environment). The network environment of Windows 2000 Advanced Server was utilized. All network related aspects of the benchmark methodologies were conducted in a 10BaseT Ethernet environment (Desktops and Notebooks).
