Integrated Device Testing

Audio Subsystem Testing

Audio Playback Testing

Using a selection of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal music tracks and Windows Media Player, the audio subsystem playback performance was tested for playback accuracy and fidelity.

Playback using the audio test tracks using the ROG-branded audio configuration software was distortion free using a 5.1 speaker setup through the SupremeFX Impact add-on card analogue audio ports.

The audio listening session using the on-board analogue audio ports was also distortion-free, again proving the fidelity of the on-board audio subsystem.

Microphone Port Testing

For testing the board's Microphone input port, the microphone from a Razer Carcharias audio headset was used to capture a 30 second spoken phrase with the assistance of the Microsoft Sound Recorder application. The resulting audio file was saved to the desktop and played back using Windows Media Player.

The recorded audio test was crystal clear and distortion-free. However, audio pickup through the microphone was barely audible without Microphone Boost set to full (+30dB) and input volume set to 50% to 75%.

ATTO Disk Benchmark

To validate that the board’s device ports were functioning correctly, we connected an OCZ Vertex 3 90GB SATA III SSD to the system and ran the ATTO Disk Benchmark against the drive. NGFF port testing was performed using an M.2 to SATA III device adapter mPCIe card. ATTO was configured to test against transfer sizes from 0.5 to 8192 KB with Total Length set to 512 MB and Queue Depth set to 10. The SSD selected for testing has a maximum read throughput of 550 MB/s and a write throughput of 500 MB/s on a SATA III controller. The drive tests were repeated three times with the highest repeatable read and write speeds recorded.

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The Intel Z87 chipset controlled ports performed as expected. Drives connected to both the SATA and NGFF ports pushed the limits of the drive's internal capabilities for both read and write tests.

SoftPerfect Research NetWorx Speed Test

In conjunction with Windows Performance Monitor, SoftPerfect Research NetWorx Speed Meter application was used to measure the upload and download performance of the motherboards integrated network controllers. Speed Meter was used to measure average network throughput in MB/s with Windows Performance Monitor used to measure average CPU utilization during the tests.

The LanBench network benchmarking software was used to generate send and receive traffic between the local and remote systems over a five minute period with packet size set to 4096 and connection count set to 20. A LanBench server was set up on the remote system to generate or receive traffic for the tests performed. The upload and download tests were repeated three times with the highest repeatable average throughput and the lowest repeatable average CPU utilization percentage recorded.

Note that that theoretical maximum throughput for a gigabit Ethernet adapter is 125 MB/s (1.0 Gbps).

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As expected, the Intel GigE controller performed very well over the duration of the transfer tests. Both upload and download speeds approached the theoretical maximum throughput rate for the port (at 125 MB/s). The CPU utilization remained at or under 10% during all test runs.

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