SATA and M.2 Performance

Website: CrystalDiskMark


We test SATA performance with a Samsung SSD 850 Pro, as this is one of the fastest SSDs we've ever tested, and it can saturate the bandwidth of SATA 6Gbps ports.

For M.2 port testing, we use a Samsung SSD 950 Pro. This is rated at 2200MB/sec read and 900MB/sec write speeds - not quite saturating the M.2 PCI-E 3.0 x4 interface but enough to give it a good workout. We use CystalDiskMark's 32QD sequential test.

Rightmark Audio Analyzer

Publisher: Rightmark


We use the Playback/Recording test, first adjusting levels so they're within the benchmark parameters and then using 24-bit 192KHz tracks, we connect the line-in to the speaker/line-out jack using a standard 3.5mm audio cable. Following feedback we felt it important to include some results given that on-board audio is a hotly fought-over area with motherboards at the moment.