Motherboard Reviews
MSI Z170A Gaming Pro Carbon Motherboard Review
« Bundled Software | System Benchmarks (CPU, Memory, Compression, Multimedia) »
Test System and Testing Procedures
| Item | Name | Provided by: |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-6700K (Retail) | – |
| CPU Cooler |
Noctua NH-D15S with NT-H1 Thermal Compound | Noctua |
| Power Supply |
InWin Commander 1500W | InWin |
| Memory | Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4 2x8GB @ 2666MHz 15-17-17-35 2T (XMP) | Kingston |
| Storage | Samsung Evo 840 240GB SSD (OS) | Samsung |
| Graphics | Integrated CPU Graphics, Zotac GTX 690 | Zotac |
| Drivers | Intel 10.1.1.7 (Z170), Intel 10.0.2.1 (Z97), NVIDIA 361.91 WHQL (Discrete) | – |
| Router | Cisco Catalyst 2960 with 2x 6ft Cat5E cables for network testing. Asus RT-AC87U configured as wireless access point. | – |
| Motherboard(s) | EVGA Z170 FTW (BIOS v1.03), ASRock Z170 Gaming-ITX/AC |
– |
| Operating System | Windows 10 | – |
Latest working BIOS, updates and drivers were used at the time of the review. Each test was conducted at least three times for accuracy with the exception of PCMark 8 which already does three sets per benchmark run. *All performance benchmarks in this review and all reviews going forward will be using the Windows 10 operating system. **Thanks to our sponsors who provided hardware for the test system.
System Benchmarks
- Aida64 Engineer 5.30
- CineBench R15
- PCMark 8 v2.4.304
- WinRAR 5.01
- x.264 FHD 1.0.1
Subsystem Testing
- CrystalDiskMark 5.0.3 for Storage tests
- LatencyMon for DPC monitoring
- Rightmark Audio Analyzer 6.4.1
- Passmark Performance Test 8.0 – Network Speed Graph
Gaming Benchmarks
- 3DMark Firestrike (Default)
- Unigine Heaven 4.0 (Max Settings, 1920 x 1080)
- Bioshock Infinite (Lowest Settings @ 640 x 480, Max Settings @ 1920 x 1080)
