Mini-ITX motherboard shootout

Testing Methods

With the exception of ATTO, which we use to measure the performance of a motherboard's SATA controllers, all of our benchmarks use real applications that give you a great idea of how well a product fares when performing the tasks for which you're likely to use it.

We test with our own Media Benchmarks suite, which can be downloaded so that you can test your own system. It uses a combination of Gimp image editing, H.264 encoding with Handbrake and multi-tasking with 7-Zip file compression combined with HD video playback. Finally, for our game testing we benchmark the board running Arma II, and record the minimum and average frame rates.

Our benchmarks include stable overclocked results too, so you can gauge how much performance potential there is in the motherboard, and how much value this adds to your purchase.

Test Setup:

Motherboards:

• ASRock Z77E-ITX
  
• Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe

Common Components:

• Intel Core i7-3770K
  
• 4GB DDR3 1,600MHz C9
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 2GB
  
• PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750W PSU
  
• 120GB Patriot Wildfire SSD
  
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Overclocked Settings:

• ASRock Z77E-ITX - 4.8GHz, 100MHz Base Clock, 48x multiplier, 1,600MHz RAM
  
• Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe - 4.8GHz, 100MHz Base Clock, 48x multiplier, 1,600MHz RAM