Testing Configuration and Benchmarks Used
We compared the X58A-UD3R against a couple comparable boards in the X58 chipset arena — the Gigabyte GA-X58-UD3R and MSI’s Eclipse. This is the first board we’ve ever tested with the X58A chipset so that’s why we had to evaluate it against the older X58 chipset-based boards. We also couldn’t test the board’s SATA 3.0 and USB 3.0 capabilities because we didn’t have any compatible hardware on hand to do it. Our storage editor Allyn tested a SATA 3.0 hard drive from Western Digital in April and also evaluated a USB 3.0 thumb drive from Super Talent around the same time frame to give you an inside look at these new technologies. We will upgrade our test bench to evaluate this new tech once they are more available for us and consumers to choose from.
Test System Setup |
|
CPU |
Intel i7-920 (running at 2.8GHz, 133×21) |
Motherboards |
Gigabyte X58A-UD3R
MSI Eclipse GA-X58-UD3R |
Memory |
OCZ 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Triple Channel |
Hard Drive |
Western Digital Raptor 150GB SATA 3GB/s |
Sound Card |
Onboard sound |
Video Card |
Gigabyte GTS 250 512MB |
Video Drivers |
NVIDIA: 197.45
|
Power Supply | PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750w |
DirectX Version |
DX10 / DX9c |
Operating System |
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit |
Our 64-bit test bench for Core i7 processors includes 6 GBs of DD3 RAM, a GTS 250 512MB graphics card, and a Western Digital Raptor 150GB SATA hard drive for storage. This configuration is based off a typical mid-range users i7 system.
Benchmarks used:
– SiSoft Sandra 2009 SP1
– CineBench 11.5
– Handbrake DVD compression
– 3DMark Vantage
– Crysis Warhead
– Far Cry 2
– PCMark Vantage