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 | ECS Z97-PK ECS Z97-Machine ASUS Maximus VII Formula MSI Z97 XPower GIGABYTE Z97X-Gaming G1-WIFI-BK ASUS Maximus VI Formula |
| Memory | Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 modules (1600MHz, 9-10-9-27-1T, 1.525V) |
| Hard Drive | Intel 730 240GB SSD 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 includes an Intel Core i7-4770K CPU, 16GB of DDR3-1866 memory, an NVIDIA GTX 570 1.25GB video card or an ASUS Poseidon GTX 780 3GB video card, and a Samsung 840 EVO 250GB or an Intel 730 240GB SSD drive. The differing video cards and SSDs exhibited similar performance across all benchmarks run, having negligible effects on the results numbers reported. 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
$80 for a Z97 board is
$80 for a Z97 board is killer. Don’t really need H97 boards if Z97 can be so cheap (and it’s not alone, with the PCMate from MSI being a nicer board for $20 more). The layout is weird, though – what’s with the Ghost of PCI Past? If they were going to leave any of the slots without an actual slot, it should have been the one below the primary x16 slot, since it’s always blocked by a dual-wide cooler anyway.
Also, typo on page 2 – you identified the CMOS battery as being to the left of the primary slot when it’s to the right.
Thanks for pointing out that
Thanks for pointing out that oversight. Fixed…
Lack of M.2 or Sata-express
Lack of M.2 or Sata-express on a value oriented Z97 motherboard cannot be a con at all. Most of the people purchasing these motherboards dont really care for the additional connectivity of storage devices in form of m.2 or Sata express. They are more than happy with 6 Sata ports available to connect 1SSD/HDD they will be using in their PC.
Lol i7@4.7GHz with that vrm,
Lol i7@4.7GHz with that vrm, I don’t think that would work very long before those fets are fried(what is that 2 or 3-phase anyway?)… maybe decent mobo for pentium g3258, but I would not oc i5 or i7 on that.
Nice review but honestly,
Nice review but honestly, who’s gonna buy this? 3 Phase power and a 4 pin? No heatsink for mosfets?
Yeah price is nice but for who?
You want to overclock the G3258, you grab something like the H81M-P33 which is 45 bucks. You want to overclock an i5 or i7, you grab something more suitable.
This is honestly a garbage product. I don’t care how inexpensive it is. There is a limit to how much you can skimp. I would pay 20 dollars more for something like the Gigabyte Z97-HD3 for piece of mind.
I wouldn’t put an I-7 on this
I wouldn’t put an I-7 on this board, no sirree!
At the most I’d put in an I-5, but not a K series as overclocking makes the TDP go higher than what the bare minimum VRM can handle.
Probably ideal for a budget gamer who wants intel over AMD and wants a z97 chipset…
I agree, but a $330 CPU on an
I agree, but a $330 CPU on an $80 mobo doesn’t make much sense anyway. The motherboard is like the cardiac system. Too big a brain (CPU) would result in cardiac arrest. 😆