Intel Z97 Express: Five Enthusiast Motherboards, $120 To $160
Features
By
Thomas Soderstrom
Published
Tom’s Hardware readers set a higher bar for enthusiast-class motherboards, demanding overclocking capabilities and more robust feature sets. Priced from $120 to $160, we welcome the first five Z97 motherboards to our enhanced definition of mainstream!
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Test Hardware And Benchmark Configurations
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| Test System Configuration | |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i7-4790 (Haswell): 3.6 to 4 GHz, 8 MB Shared L3 Cache, LGA 1150 |
| CPU Cooler | Thermalright MUX-120 w/Zalman ZM-STG1 Paste |
| RAM | Patriot Viper 3 PV316G240C1K (16 GB) at DDR3-1600 C9 DefaultsCorsair CMY32GX3M4A2800C12R (32 GB) at XMP-2800 C12 Timings |
| Graphics | PowerColor PCS+ AXR9 290X 4GBD5-PPDHE: 1050 MHz GPU, 4 GB GDDR5-5400 |
| Hard Drive | Samsung 840 Pro MZ-7PD256, 256 GB SSD |
| Sound | Integrated HD Audio |
| Network | Integrated Gigabit Networking |
| Power | Corsair AX860i: ATX12V v2.3, EPS12V, 80 PLUS Platinum |
| Software | |
| OS | Microsoft Windows 8 Professional RTM x64 |
| Graphics | AMD Catalyst 14.4 |
| Chipset | Intel INF 10.0.13 |
After seeing a broad number of memory stability complaints surrounding a motherboard that previously won one of our awards, we decided to up the stress level of our overclocking test to include a four-pack of DDR3-2800 8 GB modules.
Those modules default to DDR3-1333 though, and enabling XMP still causes some boards to stealthily apply a CPU overclock at the same time. To keep things fair in benchmarks, we wanted to run those tests at our minimum-recommended DDR3-1600 CAS 9 default. The only 8 GB DIMMs we had that could do that came from Patriot’s PV332G240C1QK 32 GB DDR3-2400 kit.
That kit magically transforms into Patriot’s 16 GB dual-channel part number PV316G240C1K by simply removing two of its modules.
PowerColor’s overclocked PCS+ AXR9 290X provides all the performance we need to extract maximum performance from the rest of the platform.
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| Benchmark Settings | |
|---|---|
| 3D Games | |
| Battlefield 4 | Version 1.0.0.1, DirectX 11, 100-sec. Fraps "Tashgar" Test Set 1: Medium Quality Preset, No AA, 4X AF, SSAO Test Set 2: Ultra Quality Preset, 4X MSAA, 16X AF, HBAO |
| Grid 2 | Version 1.0.85.8679, Direct X 11, Built-in Benchmark Test Set 1: High Quality, No AA Test Set 2: Ultra Quality, 8x MSAA |
| Arma 3 | Version 1.08.113494, 30-sec. Fraps "Infantry Showcase" Test Set 1: Standard Preset, No AA, Standard AF Test Set 2: Ultra Preset, 8x FSAA, Ultra AF |
| Far Cry 3 | V. 1.04, DirectX 11, 50-sec. Fraps "Amanaki Outpost" Test Set 1: High Quality, No AA, Standard ATC, SSAO Test Set 2: Ultra Quality, 4x MSAA, Enhanced ATC, HDAO |
| Adobe Creative Suite | |
| Adobe After Effects CC | Version 12.0.0.404: Create Video which includes 3 Streams, 210 Frames, Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously |
| Adobe Photoshop CC | Version 14.0 x64: Filter 15.7 MB TIF Image: Radial Blur, Shape Blur, Median, Polar Coordinates |
| Adobe Premeire Pro CC | Version 7.0.0 (342), 6.61 GB MXF Project to H.264 to H.264 Blu-ray, Output 1920x1080, Maximum Quality |
| Audio/Video Encoding | |
| iTunes | Version 11.0.4.4 x64: Audio CD (Terminator II SE), 53 minutes, default AAC format |
| LAME MP3 | Version 3.98.3: Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min, convert WAV to MP3 audio format, Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kb/s) |
| HandBrake CLI | Version: 0.99: Video from Canon Eos 7D (1920x1080, 25 FPS) 1 Minutes 22 Seconds Audio: PCM-S16, 48,000 Hz, Two-channel, to Video: AVC1 Audio: AAC (High Profile) |
| TotalCode Studio 2.5 | Version: 2.5.0.10677: MPEG-2 to H.264, MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG-2), Audio: MPEG-2 (44.1 kHz, 2 Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s), Codec: H.264 Pro, Mode: PAL 50i (25 FPS), Profile: H.264 BD HDMV |
| Productivity | |
| ABBYY FineReader | Version 10.0.102.95: Read PDF save to Doc, Source: Political Economy (J. Broadhurst 1842) 111 Pages |
| Adobe Acrobat 11 | Version 11.0.0.379: Print PDF from 115 Page PowerPoint, 128-bit RC4 Encryption |
| Autodesk 3ds Max 2013 | Version 15.0 x64: Space Flyby Mentalray, 248 Frames, 1440x1080 |
| Blender | Version: 2.68A, Cycles Engine, Syntax blender -b thg.blend -f 1, 1920x1080, 8x Anti-Aliasing, Render THG.blend frame 1 |
| Visual Studio 2010 | Version 10.0, Compile Google Chrome, Scripted |
| File Compression | |
| WinZip | Version 18.0 Pro: THG-Workload (1.3 GB) to ZIP, command line switches "-a -ez -p -r" |
| WinRAR | Version 5.0: THG-Workload (1.3 GB) to RAR, command line switches "winrar a -r -m3" |
| 7-Zip | Version 9.30 alpha (64-bit): THG-Workload (1.3 GB) to .7z, command line switches "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=5" |
| Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings | |
| 3DMark 11 | Version: 1.0.5.0, Benchmark Only |
| 3DMark Professional | Version: 1.2.250.0 (64-bit), Fire Strike Benchmark |
| PCMark 8 | Version: 1.0.0 x64, Full Test |
| SiSoftware Sandra | Version 2014.02.20.10, CPU Test = CPU Arithmetic / Multimedia / Cryptography, Memory Bandwidth Benchmarks |
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Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
67 Comments
Comment from the forums
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onover The table detailing the motherboard features on page 1 ... Is it just me, or is the text a bit small?Reply -
makishima ReplyThe table detailing the motherboard features on page 1 ... Is it just me, or is the text a bit small?
I find it small -
Someone Somewhere I'd like to see a review on the significance of the 'killer' NICs... I highly doubt they have any difference besides branding.Reply -
SteelCity1981 so intel it seems doesn't have much faith in their own thunderbolt considering there is no thunderbolt ports on this new chipset!Reply -
H4X3R The Asrock one is better. Not everyone will be using XSplit, and as tradesman1 (a moderator on this site) said "I myself won't touch MSI mobos due to the poor QC".Reply -
Crashman Reply
READ PAGE ONE to find out why this chipset has the same features as the previous chipset.13285086 said:so intel it seems doesn't have much faith in their own thunderbolt considering there is no thunderbolt ports on this new chipset!
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H4X3R Good review :) I am looking forward to the best price:features motherboard review though (extreme6). I have a quick question crashman: Do asrock still use Capxxon caps (or just crappy caps in general). I would like to know the company of the caps if possible, once again, thank you :)Reply -
Crashman Reply
I wish I knew. It appears that they get their caps custom-wrapped to get the gold color, and that the custom wrapping only has specifications (no branding).13285142 said:Good review :) I am looking forward to the best price:features motherboard review though (extreme6). I have a quick question crashman: Do asrock still use Capxxon caps (or just crappy caps in general). I would like to know the company of the caps if possible, once again, thank you :)
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tarkhein ReplyI'd like to see a review on the significance of the 'killer' NICs... I highly doubt they have any difference besides branding.
Not exactly the most comprehensive review, but here is Asus' take on NICs: http://rog.asus.com/312772014/labels/guides/tried-and-tested-why-intel-ethernet-is-still-better-for-gaming/ -
Someone Somewhere Of course, they're testing throughput, and latency is what is generally considered to matter.Reply