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 Maximus VIII Impact ASUS Maximus VIII Extreme MSI 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 (1600MHz, 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 | NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB |
| CPU Cooling | XSPC Raystorm water block Koolance CPU-360i water block |
| 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 NVIDIA 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 NVIDIA 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 NVIDIA 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 v2.4.304
I can’t understand why, in
I can’t understand why, in this day and age, when there still is available place on the back panel, they still cram 4 usb ports in that small of a place.
Doesn’t Z270 come out
Doesn’t Z270 come out tomorrow? 😛
+1
This review is a waste of
+1
This review is a waste of time. Maybe six months ago this board was interesting, but it’s replacement will be out in weeks if not days.
I don’t think motherboard
I don’t think motherboard reviews are ever completely out of date, as motherboards fail a lot more often than CPUs, so someone in the future may be looking for replacement motherboards for their still-working CPU on an older platform. Intel’s lack of progress since sandy bridge also makes staying on the absolute latest platform unnecessary – it’s not a bad idea to buy an older platform in the future if you can find a good deal on it.
You can still buy the Impact
You can still buy the Impact VII.
Your comment is a retread, though.
Any modern motherboard
Any modern motherboard without M.2 is a complete fail.
agreed…. even my Z97
agreed…. even my Z97 Maximus Formula does.
I am also pretty confident the Z170 ASUS Pro Gaming has M.2 as well.
It has m.2, which is
It has m.2, which is populated by the WiFi adapter. That can be removed, or one can get a sled for an m.2 and plug that into the u.2.
Nothing else to add your
Nothing else to add your honor.
This board was aanounced in
This board was aanounced in October 2015 so this review is far too late, unless it was a new board revision or something.
BUT! My next build should be an Maximus IX IMPACT wirh Z270 so glad this board can still show up the world ATX motherboard are so 1995. Time to at least move to microATX.
Morry,
Just an FYI that your
Morry,
Just an FYI that your OC section states you used 4 x 4gb of Corsair RAM.
Ahh, writing reviews from a
Ahh, writing reviews from a template, we see.
Thanks for pointing that out.
Thanks for pointing that out. Fixed…