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 i7-4770K (3.5GHz, 35 x 100MHz Base Clock) |
| Motherboards | EVGA Z97 Classified GIGABYTE Z97X-Gaming G1-WIFI-BK MSI Z97 Gaming 7 ASUS Z97-Deluxe MSI Z87 XPower |
| Memory | Stock Testing Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 modules (1600MHz, 9-10-9-27-1T, 1.525V) Z97 Overclock Testing Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 modules (2400MHz, 11-13-13-31-1T, 1.65V) |
| Hard Drive | Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA III HD |
| Sound Card | On-board sound |
| Video Card | NVIDIA GTX 570 1.25GB ASUS Poseidon GTX 780 3GB |
| CPU Cooling | Corsair Hydro Series™ H100i Extreme Performance CPU Cooler |
| Video Drivers | NVIDIA 335.23 |
| Power Supply | Corsair HX750 |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Ultimate x64 |
Test Setup Explanation
The 64-bit Windows 7 based test bench used for Intel Z87 LGA1150 board testing includes an Intel Core i7-4770K CPU, 16GB of DDR3-1866 memory, an NVIDIA GTX 570 1.25GB video card, and a Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD drive. For the Z97-based board testing, an ASUS Poseidon GTX 780 3GB video card was used for testing – both it and the GTX 570 had no effect on the benchmark tests run. 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
- LanBench v1.1.0
- ATTO Disk Benchmark v2.47
- SiSoft Sandra 2012
- LinX Intel Linpack Benchmark v0.6.4
- Maxon Cinebench 11.5
Can you please talk about
Can you please talk about motherboard support for DDR4?
Reports are that DDR4 is available in Japan now.
http://www.tweaktown.com/news/38609/ddr4-ram-hits-japan-retail-shelves-16gb-and-32gb-modules-available/index.html
I pretty much refuse to upgrade my mobo without DDR4 support.
DDR4 will require a new
DDR4 will require a new processor architecture and new chipset. That will not be occuring with the Z97 platform.
When will we see DDR4 on
When will we see DDR4 on mainstream boards.
Whenever Skylake comes out,
Whenever Skylake comes out, sometime in 2015 if the leaked roadmap holds up.
Haswell-E (X99 Chipset) will
Haswell-E (X99 Chipset) will have quad-channel DDR4 support. It is scheduled for release Q3 2014.
It seems that EVGA still has
It seems that EVGA still has a ways to go with its motherboards before it’s on Asus’ level.
Aesthetically-speaking, it is
Aesthetically-speaking, it is a nice looking board though. And it performs well once its dialed in…
Quite a few connectors
Quite a few connectors oriented 90 degrees to face the edge of the motherboard. This has to be one of the first implementations of 24pin ATX in this way.
The 90 Degree ATX came about
The 90 Degree ATX came about during a phone call between myself and Jacob while I was working at OCZ in their development labs. I had all sorts of motherboard ideas that OCZ would never get around to doing after we decided NOT to get into the motherboard-marketing game. I am glad Jacob ran with the 90 Degree ATX.
And the sideways connectors
And the sideways connectors has been around since their Z68 series of stuff. Z68 FTW was first with it.
“would have detrimental
“would have detrimental effects on the board’s long term health or use.”
Is that supposed to be (would not have) ?
Thanks for pointing that out,
Thanks for pointing that out, its been corrected…
You missed one strong point
You missed one strong point on this one.
There is only few boards that can do triple SLI with one space between cards; or triple SLI with three slot cards.
I have ASRock 3-Way-SLI 2S2S bridge.
So can this board do SLI with 1-3-6 PCI-e slots?
Next, Dolby Digital Live / DTS Connect.
I think that not all Core3D boards support this.
Manufacturers must pay for this option.
So can this board do Dolby Digital Live / DTS Connect?
Cheers
I don’t believe it can. I
I don’t believe it can. I have a board with a similar layout. Morry can correct me if I’m wrong, but on my board (a z77 board), the third PCI-e does not use the PLX chip, where as the 2,4,and 6 slots do. Once i put anything in those slots, the third slot is deactivated. This board may behave the same way.
Concerning the PCIe X16
Concerning the PCIe X16 ports, any of the five ports can be used with the following bandwidth constraints (per the product manual):
PCI-E Lane Distribution
PE1 – x16 (x8 if PE2 is used)
PE2 – x16 (x8 if PE3 is used)
PE3 – x8
PE4 – x16 (x8 if PE6 is used)
PE5 – x1
PE6 – x8
Thanks…
Just heard back from our
Just heard back from our corporate rep on this – the board does not support Dolby Digital Live / DTS unfortunately…
Hello,
By chance would you
Hello,
By chance would you still have around the ASRock 3-Way-SLI 2S2S bridge without using it? I have been looking for it for a while without success.
Thanks a lot in advance for your kind help.
Earlier in the thread it was
Earlier in the thread it was stated this board does Quad SLI but you really mean 4 way SLI correct? I was checking the spec sheet and there is no mention of Quad SLI ie two dual gpu cards in SLI only using two slots. I have two Asus Mars 760 dual gpu cards and want to use them on this board as you have a better layout for my needs with the 8 sata ports and msata port available. So my first question is QuadSLI supported?
Second question: Can the marvell se9220 controller be used for a bootable array? I need to run all 8 ports, 2 for os, 6 for a massive storage array/scratch disk, and the msata for temporary download storage. I currently only have 5 and need more space/throughput and will probably use at least one other expansion slot for an extra video card to run my television for the wife and kids, I don’t have cable so I stream and download everything. lol 🙂
Thank you!