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ATTO Disk Benchmark
The ATTO disk benchmark is a Windows-based utility for testing storage performance of any storage drive or controller. We use the default benchmark setup.
M.2 PCIe Performance
For M.2 testing we use a Toshiba OCZ RD400 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD.
M.2 PCIe performance is good. Maximum transfer rates were only bested by MSI's Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon and its M.2 Shield cooling solution.
We didn't observe any major thermal throttling for our OCZ RD400 test SSD although there is a sign for the potential onset of throttling at the 12MB and 48MB test points. A more sustained heavy write operation would likely push the SSD into a thermal throttling situation due to the lack of cooling measures provided by Gigabyte.
USB 3.1 Performance
We test USB 3.1 performance using a pair of Corsair Force LE 120GB SSDs in RAID 0 connected to an Icy Box RD2253-U31 2-bay USB 3.1 enclosure powered by an ASMedia ASM1352R controller.
USB 3.1 performance from the ASMedia ASM2142 chipset is very strong. The more cost-effective solution actually outpaces the Intel alternative on Gigabyte's higher-end Z270X-Gaming 7 but the latter is fed with greater bandwidth that would see it pulling ahead if two USB 3.1 devices are transferring data simultaneously.
SATA 6Gbps Performance
For SATA 6Gbps testing we use a SK Hynix SE3010 960GB SSD.
SATA performance is where one would expect for Z270-based ports.
Audio
Rightmark Audio Analyser is a freeware benchmarking utility designed to objectively test the performance characteristics of audio solutions. We setup a line-in line-out loop and execute the record/playback test before generating the results report you see below. A sampling mode of 24-bit, 192 kHz was tested.
Audio performance from the Realtek ALC1220 solution is good but not chart-topping. MSI has the lead in this regard but Gigabyte's Gaming K5 puts in a solid show and is rated as Very Good overall by RMAA.
