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How We Tested
As before, this motherboard was set up on an open-bed test case. All components were the same as those used in our recent reviews.
Test System Configuration
| CPU Cooler | Boxed Cooler |
|---|---|
| Sound | Integrated HD Audio |
| Network | Integrated Gigabit Networking |
Software
For comparison purposes, our results are compared to those from the recent three-board mini-ITX review, which you can read here.
Benchmark Suite
| PCMark 8 | Version: 2.3.293, Work, Home, and Creative Benchmarks |
|---|---|
| SiSoftware Sandra | Version: 2015.01.21.15, Memory Bandwidth |
| Crystal DiskMark 3.03 | Sequential Read |
| Unigine Heaven 4.0 | Version 4.0, Built-in Benchmark DirectX 9, Low Detail, 1280x720, 2xAA, No Tessellation |
As before, stock and overclocked settings are needed to generate comparative data. Spoiler: they're fairly bland. We used a Kill A Watt meter rather than the readout of the UPS. With the system off, the UPS on its own draws about 6W.
We're only running the sequential test in CrystalDiskMark because we're interested in testing the chipset's SATA interface and USB 3.0 throughput, not the attached drives. Similarly, we looked for bandwidth differences in the RAM only. This time, we did throw in the additional custom Heaven setting we used before. While it's not explicitly relevant to motherboards, we decided it was useful enough to show that even minimal tweaking can be worthwhile.
