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

GIGABYTE Z77N-WiFi
ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe
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
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