[section_title title=Test Setup]
Testing Setup
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus VIII Hero
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K @ 4.2 GHz
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E
GPU: GALAX GTX 980 SOC @ 1228 (1329 boost)/1800
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-2666 2x8GB C14
PSU: Enermax MaxRevo 1350W 80PLUS Gold
OS: Windows 10 Professional x64
Previous motherboard reviews:
ASUS Z170 PRO GAMING
MSI Z170A GAMING M7
Methodology:
All benchmarks are done on a fresh install of Windows 10 Professional 64-bit that is fully up-to-date with Windows Updates to ensure that the performance reflects a real-world scenario and not that of a tweaked benchmarking system. Every benchmark runs for a total of three times and then an average is taken of those results.
2D Benchmarks:
AIDA64 – CPU Queen/CPU Photoworxx/CPU AES/Memory Read/Memory Write
Cinebench 11.5 – CPU
Cinebench R15 – CPU
SiSandra – Processor Arithmetic/Processor Multi-Core Efficiency/Cache & Memory Bandwidth
3D Benchmarks:
3DMark 11 – Performance
3DMark Fire Strike – Normal
Gaming Benchmarks:
Company of Heroes 2 – Maximum Settings 1080P/1440P
F1 2015 – Ultra Preset 1080P/1440P
Total War: ROME II – Extreme Preset 1080P/1440P
What do you mean it has no M2 port? Really? Ic can be seen from an airplane.
Of course it has one, just not in the place where you would traditionally see it on other boards. This is clearly stated on the first page of the review above the image which shows it alongside the SATA connections…
“So, what we have is a total of six SATA 6 Gbps ports (grey) and four ports which come from the two SATA Express ports. The other connectivity option is of course one of Z170’s big selling points – the M.2 PCI-E port.”