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 Z370-based systems
MSI Z370 Gaming Pro Carbon AC

Intel Z270-based systems
ASUS Prime Z270-A

Intel X299-based systems
GIGABYTE X299 AORUS Gaming 3

AMD X370-based systems
GIGABYTE AX370-Gaming 5
CPU Intel Z370-based system
Intel Core i7-8700K
(3.7GHz CPU and Ring Bus, 37 x 100MHz Base Clock)

Intel Z270-based system
Intel Core i7-7700K
(4.2GHz CPU and Ring Bus, 42 x 100MHz Base Clock)

Intel X299-based systems
Intel Core i7-7900X
(3.3GHz CPU and Ring Bus, 33 x 100MHz Base Clock)

AMD X370-based system
AMD Ryzen 7 1700X
(3.4GHz CPU, 34 x 100MHz FSB)
Memory Intel Z370-based system
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 modules
(2667MHz, 16-18-18-35-1T, 1.225V)

Intel Z270-based system
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 modules
(2400MHz, 16-18-18-35-1T, 1.225V)

Intel X299-based systems
Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 modules
(2666MHz, 15-17-17-35-1T, 1.225V)

AMD X370-based system
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 modules
(2400MHz, 16-18-18-35-1T, 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
Koolance CPU-390 water block
Video Drivers NVIDIA 376.33
Power Supply Corsair HX750
Operating System Windows 10 Pro x64 Anniversary Release (build 1607)

Test Setup Explanation

The 64-bit Windows 10 based test bench used for Intel Z370 LGA1151 board testing includes an Intel Core i7-8700K processor, 16GB of DDR4-2666 memory, an NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB video card, and an Intel 730 240GB SSD drive. For Intel Z270 LGA1151 board testing, an Intel Core i7-7700K processor, 16GB of DDR4-2666 memory, an NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB video card, and an Intel 730 240GB SSD drive were used in the test system. For Intel X299 board testing includes an Intel Core i9-7900X processor, 16GB of DDR4-2666 memory, an NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB video card, and an Intel 730 240GB SSD drive. For AMD X370 AM4 board testing, an AMD Ryzen 7 1700X processor, 16GB of DDR4-2666 memory, an NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB video card, and an Intel 730 240GB SSD drive were used in the test system. 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:

  • SiSoft Sandra 2017 SP2 (v2017.09.24.41)
  • Handbrake video transcoder v1.0.7
  • Maxon Cinebench R15
  • PCMark 8 v2.7.613
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