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 motherboards 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 | |
Motherboards | Intel Z170-based systems ASUS Sabertooth Z170 Mark 1 Z170A-XPower Gaming Titanium Edition ASUS Z170-A Intel Z97-based system ASUS Z97-Pro Intel X99-based systems ASUS X99-A |
CPU | Intel Z170-based system Intel Core i7-6700K (4.0GHz CPU and Ring Bus, 40 x 100MHz Base Clock) Intel Z97-based system Intel Core i7-4770K (3.5GHz CPU and Ring Bus, 35 x 100MHz Base Clock) Intel X99-based systems Intel Core i7-5960X (3.0GHz CPU and Ring Bus, 30 x 100MHz Base Clock) |
Memory | Intel Z170-based system Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 modules (2133MHz, 16-18-18-35-1T, 1.225V) Intel Z97-based system Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 modules (1600MHz, 9-10-9-27-1T, 1.525V) Intel X99-based systems Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 modules (2133MHz, 15-17-17-35-1T, 1.225V) |
Hard Drive | Intel 730 240GB SSD Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA III HD |
Sound Card | On-board sound |
Video Card | ASUS Poseidon GTX 780 3GB |
CPU Cooling | XSPC Raystorm D5 Photon RX480 V3 WaterCooling Kit |
Video Drivers | NVIDIA 353.62 |
Power Supply | Corsair HX750 |
Operating System | Windows 10 Pro x64 |
Test Setup Explanation
The 64-bit Windows 10 based test bench used For Intel Z170 LGA1151 board testing includes an Intel Core i7-6700K processor, 16GB of DDR4-2666 memory, an ASUS Poseidon GTX 780 3GB video card, and an Intel 730 240GB SSD drive. For the Z97-based board testing, an Intel Core i7-4770K CPU, 16GB of DDR3-2400 memory, an ASUS Poseidon GTX 780 3GB video card, and an Intel 730 240GB SSD drive were used in the test system. For Intel X99 LGA2011-V3 board testing includes an Intel Core i7-5960X CPU, 32GB of DDR4-2666 memory, an ASUS Poseidon GTX 780 3GB video card, and an Intel 730 240GB SSD 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 v5.41
- LanBench v1.1.0
- ATTO Disk Benchmark v3.05
- SiSoft Sandra 2015 SP2b (v2015.07.21.42)
- Intel Linpack Benchmark v11.3.0.004
- Maxon Cinebench R15
- PCMark 8 v2.5.419
two additional Weaknesses:
two additional Weaknesses: disgusting sli bridge and two small fans 😉
On my Z77 Sabertooth I had to
On my Z77 Sabertooth I had to force the fans off (horribly whiny things even on lowest speed), and the ONLY way was with the Asus fan software (BIOS settings won’t turn off).
Then I upgraded past Windows 7 and discovered no fan software! Luckily the W7 software worked for W8 and W10.
Now I don’t know how quiet the fans are but if at all noisy they need to rethink things.
Slower, quiet Assist fans would be a LOT better than the only two choices:
1. ON – annoying noise, or
2. OFF – no air flow
*I did set my fans to come on if temp goes above 50degC for the chipset (which for me is rarely), as well as 1 minute after turn off, but MOST people probably wouldn’t figure that out easily.
AH but did morry bend the
AH but did morry bend the pins?
Bend the pins on what? I
Bend the pins on what? I don't do that on purpose 😉
How can it say it has quad
How can it say it has quad SLi/CFX support with only 3 PCIE Slots
quad support = 2 x dual GPU
quad support = 2 x dual GPU cards…
I expect Star Citizen to
I expect Star Citizen to eventually support four GPU’s via DX12 fairly efficiently.
Maybe a Pascal card similar to 2xGTX980Ti each, with DX12 using four GPU’s for each frame.
(8GB VRAM per GPU would mean 8GB usable for AFR or up to 32GB usable for SFR)
There must be bins filled
There must be bins filled with SATA Express connectors at their manufacturing facilities they’re just trying to get rid of.
just trying to remind people
just trying to remind people about RAID
The led light on my mouse
The led light on my mouse continues to stay on when I shut down my computer. I tried going in to my BIOS and Ai Tweaker and turn the EPU Power Saving Mode to disabled to Enabled, but that didn’t help. How can I fix this issue?