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 app provided test sounds and audio test tracks was clear and distortion free with the 7.1 speaker setup going through the integrated analogue audio ports.
Listening tests using the selected audio tracks were performed with a Kingston HyperX Cloud Gaming audio headset as well as a 5.1 speaker setup to exercise the subsystem's audio fidelity. In both cases, audio reproduction was clear, rich, and distortion-free with little quality difference between the listening sessions.
Microphone Port Testing
For testing the board's Microphone input port, the microphone from a Kingston HyperX Cloud Gaming 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.
Audio pickup was clear and distortion-free without Microphone Boost enabled, requiring a minimum recording volume of 50%. Pickup seemed best with recording volume set to 75%.
ATTO Disk Benchmark
To validate that the board’s device ports were functioning correctly, we connected an OCZ Vertex 460 240GB SATA III SSD to the system and ran the ATTO Disk Benchmark against the drive. The SSD was directly connected to the native SATA 3 ports, the SATA-Express device ports, the USB 3.0 ports, and USB 3.1 Gen2 ports. NGFF port testing was performed using an M.2 based Plextor PCIe M.2 2280 128GB SSD. The M.2 device was tested using the board's integrated M.2 slot. USB port testing performed using the SSD in a USB 3.1 Gen 2 compatible enclosure. 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 M.2 SSD selected for testing has a maximum read throughput of 770 MB/s and a write throughput of 335 MB/s over a PCI-Express x2 bus. The selected SSD has a maximum read throughput of 540 MB/s and a write throughput of 525 MB/s on a SATA III controller. The drive tests were repeated three times with the highest repeatable read and write speeds recorded.
All SSD's performed as expected with no performance difference seen when using the standalone and SATA Express SATA ports. In both cases, the Vertex drive pushed the limits of its rated throughput during the tests. The M.2 drive was the overall performance king, again as expected, with its performance also pushing the device's rated limits. The drives performance fell within expectations for the USB ports with the USB 3.1 Gen2 port performance matching that of the stock SATA III ports, while tha of the USB 3.0 port fell slightly behind (again, as expected).
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, the lowest repeatable average CPU utilization, and lowest repeatable performance spike percentages recorded.
Note that that theoretical maximum throughput for a Gigabit Ethernet adapter is 125 MB/s (1.0 Gbps).
The performance of the Intel I219-V network controller continues to impress with its solid transfer rate averaging around 117 MB/s for both the upload and download tests. The caveat to its impressive performance seemed to be with its CPU utilization, specifically that measured during download testing. The CPU utilization averaged just over 5% during the runs, but spiked to over 25% at several points during the download tests.
Am I reading the specs
Am I reading the specs correctly?
Multi-GPU Support :
– Supports NVIDIA® Quad-GPU SLI™ Technology
– Supports AMD Quad-GPU CrossFireX™ Technology
How can you get Quad-GPU SLI when there’s only 2x PCIe slot?
I am surprised about the price which is about $100 less than the ASUS X99-M WS.
Two dual-GPU cards in SLI.
Two dual-GPU cards in SLI. Like an AMD Radeon 295 x2, nVidia GTX 690, or nVidia Titan Z.
When you SLI/XFire two of those dual-GPU cards together, it is seen as four GPU’s that are SLI’ed / XFire’d together.
I suppose if you put it that
I suppose if you put it that way. 🙂
Still brings some confusion because a lot don’t think about the Titan Z as a Dual-GPU card. Those are just little things that tend to be overlooked.
Oh. And the Asus X99-M WS
Oh. And the Asus X99-M WS ($280) is an X99-based chipset workstation board, while this ASUS Maximus VIII is Z170-based chipset.
X99 boards (Haswell-E) are almost always more expensive than Z170 motherboards (Skylake), because the X99 chipset is just more expensive to source from Intel.
I thought the manufacturing
I thought the manufacturing cost of the X99 would be very close to the Z170.
By the way, I’m comparing the cost in Canadian Dollars – X99 (379.99) vs. Z170 (294.99)
It’s a $50 difference. The
It’s a $50 difference. The same amount the 6700K costs more than the 5820K.
Thanks Morry, even though I
Thanks Morry, even though I am not in the market for a new mobo, I always enjoy reading your write-ups. I like that you included the NHD 15 cooler for spacing demonstrations, I think it is an excellent idea as it helps really understand the layout distances and challenges with placement of fan headers, USB 3.0, etc.for large coolers.
PCPer: I think you need to
PCPer: I think you need to get one of the VII Gene, and one of the VIII Impact, and build them both inside that Phanteks Enthoo Mini XL Dual System case down below.
Of course, I understand if you guys are too busy for that. You’re welcome to send all the parts to me and I’ll do it for you. 😀
Looks somewhat tempting,
Looks somewhat tempting, except for the lack of a DVI video port. Hopefully, Gigabyte can produce one with similar features: mATX Z170 board with Intel I219-V LAN, Realtek ALC1150 audio, USB 3.1 & these 3 video ports: DVI, DP & HDMI (no VGA). Or: wait a year for the “Kaby Lake” boards to appear.
While in general I would
While in general I would prefer a DVI port over a VGA port, chances are pretty good that the people ASUS is targeting with this board are going to have a discrete GPU (or maybe two) and won’t be using the onboard graphics ports to begin with.
I’d also think chances are pretty good that, since HDMI and DVI are electrically compatible, and HDMI-DVI converters are plentiful and cheap, they chose to keep the HDMI and include the VGA port for compatibility. Or perhaps the VGA port is required per Intel specifications. I don’t know for sure.
(oops, my bad. Doesn’t have a
(oops, my bad. Doesn’t have a VGA port. I’ll stick with my theory on HDMI-DVI converters, then. lol)
Another mATX Z170 board, with
Another mATX Z170 board, with features similar to the Asus Maximus Gene VIII:
Supermicro C7Z170-M – $299.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA5EM3BS6230
Note: doesn’t show up via Newegg’s search engine, specifying “Intel motherboard – socket 1151” & “mATX”.
Currently OOS: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9873236
eBay has several listed as “New” for under $200:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/371503778313
http://www.ebay.com/itm/391336978484
Includes:
Realtek ALC1150
Single Gigabit Ethernet LAN port (Intel i219V)
1 DVI-D, 1 DP (Display Port), 1 HDMI <--the only Intel 100 series chipset mATX board with those three IGP video port types, that I'm aware of. 6x SATA3 (6Gbps); RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 Expansion slots: 1 PCI-E 3.0 x16, 1 PCI-E 3.0 x4, and 1 PCI-E 3.0 x1 1 PCIe M.2 (PCIe x4 2260/2280/22110) 6x USB 3.0 (4 rear + 2 via header), 4x USB 2.0 (2 rear + 2 via headers), 2x USB 3.1 (10Gbps) ports (headers) UEFI BIOS support Side note: "2x USB 3.1 (10Gbps) ports (headers)" would seem to imply requiring adding your own USB 3.1 2x port bracket, unless it might be included in the motherboard package.
Hello guys!
If I am allowed I
Hello guys!
If I am allowed I would like to make a (possible) stupid question:
does this motherboard allow to boot into Windows (10) with a NVMe M.2 SSD? Like Samsung 950/960 Pro.
I am looking to upgrade my PC and I do not find this kind of information online.
Thank you in advance.
EDIT 1:
I just went to Samsung 950 Pro video review. According to Ryan Intel Z170 chipset by default supports boot from NVMe M.2, since this is a Z170 motherboard I guess I already have my answer.
Still if someone can confirm that would be nice!