Test Setup and Procedures
First off, here’s the rig I’ll be using to test out this motherboard:
| Processor | Intel i7 3930K |
| Motherboard |
MSI X79-GD65 (8D) |
| Ram | 8gb Corsair Dominator GT |
| Graphics Card | Gigabyte Radeon 7970 |
| Hard Drive | Adata 120GB Pyro SSD |
| Optical Drive | Samsung 8X DVD-RW |
| CPU Cooler | Water Loop |
| Power Supply | Antec 1200w |
| Chassis | Navig Benching Station |
| Network | Asus wireless |
| Monitor | 24″ Samsung T240HD |
| OS | Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit |
For performance testing, I’ll be using the following benchmarks and test programs:
| Program Name |
Use |
| CPUID CPUz | CPU, RAM and Motherboard speeds and information |
| Wprime 1024m | Multi-threaded CPU benchmark |
| 3Dmark Vantage | Only CPU test heavily threaded |
| Cinebench 11.5 | CPU benchmark |
| MaxxMem | Memory benchmark |
The first round of testing was done at 100% stock speeds, I loaded “Optimized Defaults” in the BIOS and set the memory to 1866mhz with 9–9-9 timings, everything else was left untouched aside from disabled sound and NIC.
CPUz CPU and Motherboard Tabs
Just a standard Intel 3930K, turbo seemed to be enabled though. Since all other boards have this enabled standard, I might as well leave it on.
Here we have the motherboard tab. It lists useful information such as the bios revision and board revision as well as the chipset information as well as the board information.
Lastly are the settings for the memory that will be used in this review.
Now, onward to the benchmarks!
