This is a high-end motherboard for Intel socket 1156
processors, Core i5 and Core i7. It has SATA-III ports which means an increase
in data transfer speed by four times over the previous SATA-II. It also has two
USB 3.0 ports and six DDR3 RAM sockets. Gamers would be delighted that it
supports SLI and CrossFireX. It also has a 24-phase voltage regulator on board.
The motherboard scored an impressive 11,933 in 3DMarks 06, which means a great
graphics performance. In PCMark 05, the score was 10,300, so it is no mean
performer when it comes to basic office apps. In CineBench, the scores were 9132
CB-CPU, while in POV-Ray, the motherboard scored a rendered average of 97,697
over 2.01 secs; which means a more than decent display. It gave 60.75 FPS in
Unreal Tournament benchmark, which ensures a smooth gaming experience. All these
results make the motherboard ideal for power users and gamers. These scores
suggest a great performance, but the other gaming motherboard reviewed in this
issue, Asus Maximus III Gene, achieved similar performance and has a lesser
price tag.
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Bottomline: Great performance and support for the
latest tech give this board an edge over competition.
* Test Bed: Intel Core i5 661 (3.33 GHz) processor, Seagate Barracuda XT 2TB hard disk, 2GB (1800MHz) Patriot DDR3 RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT graphics card, Windows 7 Ultimate. |