Integrated Device Testing

Audio Subsystem Testing

Audio Playback Testing

Using a selection of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal music tracks and Windows 10 Groove Music applet, 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. Note that the Line-In audio port is used for side speaker connection in a 7.1 configuration.

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 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 10 second spoken phrase with the assistance of the Microsoft Voice Recorder application. The resulting audio file was saved to the desktop and played back using Windows Media Player.

Audio pickup was distortion free, requiring minimal tweaking of the recording volume for optimal operation. Further, Microphone Boost was not required for pickup. Audio pickup quality did not change when the provided software audio tools where activated, including Noise Suppression and Acoustic Echo Cancellation.

ATTO Disk Benchmark

To validate that the board’s device ports were functioning correctly, we connected an Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SATA III SSD to the system and ran the ATTO Disk Benchmark against the drive. The SSD was directly connected to the native SATA III ports, the native USB 3.0 ports (USB 3.1 Gen1) and the ASMedia USB 3.1 Gen2 ports. NGFF port testing was performed using an M.2 based Samsung 950 Pro PCIe M.2 2280 256GB SSD. The M.2 device was tested using the board's integrated M.2 slots. 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 2200 MB/s and a write throughput of 900 MB/s over a PCI-Express x4 bus. The selected SSD has a maximum read throughput of 540 MB/s and a write throughput of 520 MB/s on a SATA III controller. The drive tests were repeated three times with the highest repeatable read and write speeds recorded.

Drives connected to all integrated ports performed well within expectations with respect to the device rated specs. There was little difference between the performance of the SATA drive on the native SATA or the ASMedia USB 3.1 ports. Similarly, the M.2 drive performance did not different significantly when used in either of the on-board ports. For devices connected to the Intel Z370 chipset controlled USB 3.0 ports, performance fell just above 460 MB/s.

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 GigE and WiFi-based 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 theoretical maximum throughput for the integrated wireless AC controller is 108 MB/s (867 Mbps).

The integrated Intel I219-V controller performed well within expectations, averaging 117 MB/s for both upload and download tests. The Intel 8265 802.11ac wireless controller performance was significantly lower with download speeds averaging 80 MB/s and upload averaging a bit lower at just under 65 MB/s. The wireless controller performance suffers in comparison to the wired controller because of packet loss and transfer overhead inherent to over-the-air transmission. The CPU utilization remained strong during all testing, averaging well below 10% with spikes not breaking the 10% mark.

MSI M.2 Sheild Cooler Test

To best gage the quality of the MSI M.2 cooler, M.2 device temperatures were taken with the device idle and under load. To replicate device idle conditions, the system was rebooted and allowed to sit idle for 10 minutes with no drive reads or writes done to the device. To replicate a stress system load, ATTO Disk Benchmark was run against the device with the same settings used as with the previous performance benchmarks. After each run, the system was shut down and allowed to rest for 10 minutes to cool down.

Temperature measurements were taken directly from the on-device thermistors using HWiNFO v5.56. For both idle load temperatures, the highest recorded values were used for the run. To adequately measure the performance of the m.2 cooler, performance testing was done using two different configurations – with the m.2 device naked and with the device covered by the M.2 Shield cooler.

Note that the temperature values are reported as deltas rather than absolute temperatures with the delta value reported calculated as CPU temperature – ambient temperature. For all tests, room ambient temperature was maintained between 23-27C.

Using the ATTO Disk Benchmark to provide sustained load on the Samsung 950 Pro PCIe M.2 2280 256GB M.2 device, the MSI M.2 cooler lowered device temps by an impressive 10C in comparison to the temperatures recorded without the cooler. The device idle temps remained the same during both test runs. Note that devices were run without active cooling applied. With a fan cooling the naked drive or the heat sink cooled drives, temperatures would be significantly lower.

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