MSI X99A Tomahawk Motherboard Review

X99 Motherboard Test System:

• Processor: Intel Core i7-6800K (3.6GHz all-core turbo).
• Memory: 16GB (4x4GB) Corsair Special Edition Dominator Platinum, 3200MHz 16-18-18-36 DDR4 @ 1.35V.
• Graphics Card: Nvidia GTX 980 Ti Reference.
• System Drive: Mushkin Chronos 120GB
• Storage Test Drive: OCZ Trion 150 480GB (with a USB 3.0 to SATA adapter for USB 3.0 testing.)
• CPU Cooler: Antec Kuhler H20 1200
• Power Supply: Seasonic Platinum 760W.
• Test Bench: Lian Li PC-T60B.
• Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit.

Comparison X99 Motherboards:

• MSI X99A Tomahawk
• ASRock X99 Taichi

Software:

• MSI UEFI v211 (26th August 2016)
• Nvidia GeForce 364.72 WHQL Driver

Tests:

• Cinebench R15 – all core CPU test and CPU power consumption figures.
• Handbrake – converting a short 720p movie file into a smartphone suitable format using the Android preset.
• SiSoft Sandra – processor arithmetic and memory bandwidth test sequences.
• AIDA 64 Engineer – memory and cache test.
• 3DMark – Firestrike (1080p) test.
• Ashes of the Singularity – built-in benchmark tool @ 1080p using the Crazy preset.
• Unigine Valley – built-in benchmark using the Extreme HD preset.
• Rightmark Audio Analyser – record and playback test using a line-in to line-out loopback on a high quality gold-plated 3.5mm cable.
• ATTO – default disk benchmark for SATA and USB testing

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