Disk Performance:

The SATA read tests were conducted with a 74GB Western Digital Raptor using HD Tach 3.0.1.0's 8MB zone test. The USB 2.0 tests were done using an ATA133 160GB Maxtor DiamondMax 10 hard drive (model number: 6L160PO) using the same 8MB zone test enclosed in an Icy Box USB 2.0 hard drive caddy. We recorded the average read speeds in all cases.



Biostar's USB performance is better than the MSI 690G, but not quite up to the consistency of the Intel ICH8 southbridge on the MSI G965 motherboard. SATA performance is solid standard across the board at 64.3MB/s using a Western Digital Raptor hard drive.

Power Consumption

The power consumption provides an interesting result, with just a few watts difference between Nvidia 7050, AMD 690G and Intel G965 at idle, with different CPUs but all having a 65W TDP. All the chipsets are passively cooled and offer slightly different features but when the equipment used was kept the same there's not much between them. Loaded, the story is almost the same, with the Intel IGP offering a slightly lower value at 93W, but it does have fewer features. The Nvidia 7050 slightly outperforms the AMD 690G at 96W versus 101W, but both are still considerably lower power than using a discrete graphics card.