Test System And Methodology
When reviewing Intel Z87 motherboards we use the following pre-defined test system – only the motherboard varies between reviews. We only compare results where consistent components have been used however the CPU will also vary between motherboard comparisons of different sockets as well as the motherboard.
Z87 Motherboard Test System
- Motherboard – Varies by review
- Processor – Intel Core i7 4770K at Stock With Turbo Disabled
- RAM – 16GB (2 X 8GB) Corsair Vengeance Pro Series 1866MHz at 9-10-9-27
- Graphics Card – XFX HD 7970 (Stock Clocks)
- CPU Cooler – Corsair H100i with Quiet Fan Profile and Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Paste
- Power Supply – Corsair HX1050W
- Main Storage Drive – Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD over SATA III interface
- Additional Storage Drive – Patriot Wildfire 120GB SSD over SATA III interface
- Chassis – Lian Li T60 Test Bench
- Display – Dell U2711 Ultra Sharp @ 1080p
- Operating System – Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
We would like to thank Asus, Intel, AMD, Corsair, Kingston, Lian Li, Dell, Noctua and all our other partners who supplied us with test equipment and hardware. Their generosity makes our testing possible and without them we wouldn’t be able to produce the reviews we do, so thank you!
For the testing procedures we use a variety of professional software and free to use programs which you can see below. The full details of each test will be available preceding the graphs if you are interested in the details for purposes of result replication or further enquiry.
Software used:
- 3DMark 11
- AIDA64
- Cinebench R11.5
- CPU-Z
- PCMark 7
- Super PI
- 3DMark 2013
- Rightmark Audio Analyser
I’ve really come to like Gigabyte mobo’s over the past couple of years and their UEFI BIOS software suite has improved dramatically to what I remember and although I don’t think it’s quite as polished as Asus’s, it’s not far off. My test bench & personal rig both currently use Gigabyte mobo’s.
“would of” should be “would have” in a few places. Good information though!
thanks. my Achilles heel. Always make that mistake X_X