Test Settings
This isn’t a motherboard roundup, but a test of ASRock’s USB 3.0 front-panel implementation. By limiting ourselves to that evaluation, we can assuage fears of bias that might result from differing CPU technologies.
| Test System Configuration | |
|---|---|
| Socket AM3 CPU | AMD Phenom II X4 965 (3.40 GHz, 6 MB L3 Cache) Overclocked to 3.84 GHz at 240 MHz, 1.4875 V |
| LGA-1156 CPU | Intel Core i7-870 (2.93 GHz, 8MB L3 Cache) Overclocked to 4.00 GHz at 200 MHz, 1.375 V |
| LGA-1366 CPU | Intel Core i7-920 (2.66 GHz, 8 MB L3 Cache) Overclocked to 3.80 GHz at 200 MHz, 1.350 V |
| 890FX Motherboard | ASRock 890FX Deluxe4 BIOS 1.10 (08/25/2010) AMD 890FX Northbridge, SB850 Southbridge |
| P55 Motherboard | ASRock P55 Extreme4 BIOS 1.42 (08/20/2010) Intel P55 Express PCH |
| X58 Motherboard | ASRock X58 Extreme6 BIOS 1.00 (08/31/2010) Intel X58 Express Northbridge, ICH10R Southbridge |
| Comparison Motherboard | Gigabyte X58A-UD3R BIOS FB (08/24/2010) Intel X58 Express Northbridge, ICH10R Southbridge |
| RAM | Kingston KHX16000D3ULT1K3/6GX (6 GB) DDR3-2000 at DDR3-1600 CAS 7-7-7-21 |
| Graphics | Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1 GB 725 MHz GPU, GDDR5-4000 |
| OS Hard Drive | Western Digital RE3 WD1002FBYS 1 TB, 7200 RPM, SATA 3Gb/s, 32 MB Cache |
| Test Drive | OCZ Enyo 128 GB USB 3.0 SSD |
| USB 3.0 Adapter | Integrated NEC D720200F1 PCIe 2.0 Two ports, onboard 5.0 Gb/s PCIe interface |
| Sound | Integrated HD Audio |
| Network | Integrated Gigabit Networking |
| Power | Corsair CMPSU-850HX 850 W Modular ATX12V v2.2, EPS12V, 80 PLUS Gold |
| Comparison | System Builder Marathon: TH's $2000 Hand-Picked Build |
| Software | |
| OS | Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 |
| Graphics | AMD Catalyst 10.8 |
| Chipset | Intel INF 9.1.2.1007 |
| Benchmarks | |
| h2benchw 3.13 | Sequential and Sustained Reads, Writes (KB/s) Interface Bandwidth (MB/s), Access Times (ms) |
| Iometer 2006.07.27 | Database, File Server, Web Server, Workstation Patterns (IOPS) |
Comparing the performance of each front-panel USB 3.0 implementation to that of each motherboard’s rear-panel controller wouldn’t have made this a complete test, since ASRock’s USB 3.0 controllers use a PCIe 2.0 bridge on its X58 Extreme6 and a PCIe 1.1 connection on its P55 Extreme4. While ASRock’s AMD solution appears to be well-optimized, we needed an Intel system with its USB 3.0 controlled connected directly to the X58 northbridge to set a baseline for the other two motherboards. For that we called upon our recent System Builder Marathon alternative $2000 configuration.
Because all of ASRock’s motherboards were overclocked to the limit, we left the comparison PC at its limit as well. A full rundown of its configuration can be found on its test settings page.
