MSI X99S XPOWER AC (LGA 2011-3) Motherboard Review

The Test System and Test Software

Before we delve into any testing we would like to take this opportunity to review our test system and thank those sponsors who kindly provided us with test equipment to make our work possible.

Test System

• Motherboard: varies by review
• CPU: Intel Core i7 5960X Processor
• GPU: Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X graphics card
• RAM: Crucial 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4 2133MHz memory Kit (CL15)
• Cooling: Corsair H100i with Noctua NT-H1 Thermal Compound
• Case: Lian Li PC-T60A test bench
• Storage Drives: Kingston 240GB Hyper X 3K SSD for the boot drive, Patriot SuperSonic Magnum 256GB USB 3.0 flash drive for USB 3.0 testing, SanDisk Extreme Pro 240GB SSD for SATA testing and the Plextor 256GB M6e M.2 SSD for M.2 testing
• PSU: Be Quiet Power Zone 1000W Power Supply
• Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit SP1
• Networking: ASUS RT-AC68U router for LAN/WLAN testing

Test Software

• SiSoft Sandra Engineer – available here.
• WPrime – available here.
• Cinebench – available here.
• 3DMark – available here.
• Bioshock Infinite – available here.
• Tomb Raider – available here.
• AIDA 64 Engineer – available here.
• DPC Latency Analyser – available here.
• Rightmark Audio Analyser – available here.
• LAN Speed Test Lite – available here.
• Passmark – available here.