Testing Configuration and Benchmarks Used
To verify that the motherboard works as advertised, the board was run through our standard benchmark suite. In most cases, the results are presented for the motherboard under review as well as a different similar-class motherboard for performance comparison purposes. The benchmark tests used should give you a good understanding of the board’s capabilities for both office and gaming use so that you, the reader, can make a more informed purchasing decision.
Test System Setup |
|
CPU |
Intel Core i5-3570K (3.4GHz, 34 x 100MHz Base Clock) |
Motherboards |
ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe EVGA Z77 Stinger GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7 |
Memory |
G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 modules (1600MHz, 11-11-11-30-1T) |
Hard Drive |
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA III HD |
Sound Card |
Onboard sound |
Video Card |
AMD Radeon HD 5870 1GB |
CPU Cooling |
Laing DDC pump with EK-DDC X-TOP Rev 2 Plexi Swiftech MCR320-QP Radiator Swiftech Apogee HD water block |
Video Drivers |
AMD ATI Catalyst 13.1 |
Power Supply |
Corsair 650w |
Operating System |
Windows 7 Ultimate x64 |
The 64-bit Windows 7 based test bench used for LGA1155 board testing includes an Intel Core i5-3570K CPU, 8GB of DDR3-2133 memory, an AMD Radeon 5870 1GB video card, and a Western Digital Black 1TB SATA hard drive. Using the selected components gives us the ability to demonstrate the motherboard’s capabilities rather than that of the components themselves.
Benchmark Tests used for evaluation:
- SoftPerfect Research NetWorx Speed Test
- ATTO Disk Benchmark v2.47
- SiSoft Sandra 2012
- LinX Intel Linpack Benchmark v0.6.4
- 7-Zip v9.20
- Handbrake video transcoder v0.9.8
- Maxon Cinebench 11.5
- Tech ARP's x264 HD Benchmark v5.01
- FutureMark PCMark 7
- FutureMark 3DMark 11
- Hitman: Absolution
- Batman: Arkham City
- Hard Reset
Well done. It is so rare that
Well done. It is so rare that a reviewer actually lists all the bios settings used to attain a stable overclock. Thanks so much for that.
More Sata ports and I would
More Sata ports and I would have been sold!
Good work Morry! I have this
Good work Morry! I have this motherboard and I have to agree with your assessment. I’ll be water cooling it this summer including the VRM daughter board. I’m excited to see what the overclock will be and I think your review will be helpful.
Love the review. Solid
Love the review. Solid performer. What I think is the most feature packed mini-itx mobo. Looking to throw together this motherboard inside a prodigy case.
Does this have clearance for
Does this have clearance for a Noctua DH14 heatsink? It’s the big air cooler.
I’m considering a mini-itx gaming build and would love to stick with this cooler :).
You should not have a problem
You should not have a problem with the Noctua coolers and that board – the socket has a massive amount of space around it (the pictures don't do that justice unfortunately).
Also, more information about the fit of the Noctua cooler in this thread:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1281628/plan-on-new-rig
Nice review, I am planning on
Nice review, I am planning on getting this to use with my NCASE M1 case when it launches this summer!
Lol. I ran across this
Lol. I ran across this review while searching for mATX reviews. This seems to be the best MOBO in the class. I too am watching the NCASE M1 develop and will be buying it when it releases. Such a sleek case. Really can’t wait to get my hands on it.
The ASUS BIOS process, from
The ASUS BIOS process, from my experience, isn’t rock solid. It has a tendancy to get corrupted which, in my case, caused the on board Intel GPU to disappear and the CPU ratio to get stuck at 42.
Here is some of the drama people are going through.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2314371&page=1
If your ASUS BIOS starts going sideways you’ll want to start google someone named Coderush.
Is it still possible to buy
Is it still possible to buy this card?