MSI Big Bang-XPower II X79 Review – A World of Novelty Heatsinks
by Ian Cutress on February 25, 2012 3:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- MSI
- X79
USB Speed
For this benchmark, we run CrystalDiskMark to determine the ideal sequential read and write speeds for the USB port using our 64GB Patriot SuperSpeed USB 3.0 drive. Then we transfer a set size of files from the SSD to the USB drive, and monitor the time taken to transfer. The files transferred are a 1.52 GB set of 2867 files across 320 folders – 95% of these files are small typical website files, and the rest (90% of the size) are the videos used in the Sorenson Squeeze test.
USB 2.0 performance is unfortunately nothing to shout about.
USB 3.0 performance however is the best BOT protocol performance we've seen (compared to ASRock's XFast and ASUS' USB Boost).
SATA Testing
We also use CrystalDiskMark for SATA port testing. The operating system is installed on the SSD, and the sequential test is run at the 5 x 1000 MB level. This test probes the efficiency of the data delivery system between the chipset and the drive, or in the case of additional SATA ports provided by a third party controller, the efficiency between the controller, the chipset and the drive.
SATA performance seems nothing special when talking about sequential performance.
DPC Latency
Deferred Procedure Call latency is a way in which Windows handles interrupt servicing. In order to wait for a processor to acknowledge the request, the system will queue all interrupt requests by priority. Critical interrupts will be handled as soon as possible, whereas lesser priority requests, such as audio, will be further down the line. So if the audio device requires data, it will have to wait until the request is processed before the buffer is filled. If the device drivers of higher priority components in a system are poorly implemented, this can cause delays in request scheduling and process time, resulting in an empty audio buffer – this leads to characteristic audible pauses, pops and clicks. Having a bigger buffer and correctly implemented system drivers obviously helps in this regard. The DPC latency checker measures how much time is processing DPCs from driver invocation – the lower the value will result in better audio transfer at smaller buffer sizes. Results are measured in microseconds and taken as the peak latency while cycling through a series of short HD videos - under 500 microseconds usually gets the green light, but the lower the better.
DPC performance is some of the best we've ever had, coming in at 88 microseconds.
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cjs150 - Monday, February 27, 2012 - link
What Market were MSI thinking of?If extreme overclockers then first thing they will do is rip the silly themed heatsinks off board and stick something that delivers better cooling (probably water cooling blocks).
If not extreme overclockers then why have so many PCI slots - what are people going to fill them with. Can understand 2x GPU, maybe a sound card and a RAID Card, then what?
vectorm12 - Monday, February 27, 2012 - link
Going by probability I'd rather have 7x PCIe slots than 4x PCIe + 2/3 PCI.Your point is partly valid though as the slots aren't properly multiplexed for scenarios where all seven slots would be occupied(GPGPU, storage, etc).
In any case I'd be the last person to mourn the death of PCI, but Intel needs to get more lanes into the CPUs to reduce the amount of multiplexing in order for this amount of slots to make real sense.
pramodhdrift - Tuesday, February 28, 2012 - link
Hi friends i am from bangalorei need a asus motherboard under 7k for my i5 2500K Processor
and also the motherboard should support in HD Graphics 3000.
I5 Comes with an 1.5 intell GPU, i am going to buy Graphic card in next 4 moths.
SO PLEASE SUGGEST ME AN BUDGET AND GOOD MOTHERBOARD WITH SUPPORTING
INTELL HD GRAPHICS.
JohnyGhzs - Thursday, April 19, 2012 - link
this board is the best out thier and this is from an loyal evga owner their power for cpu is unmatched on this board with Great psu for ocing and sli/crossfireset ups is world class her
do not like gat gun and ammo remove them i will to be putting on water blocks anyways!
love the black and layout is as close to perfect !
JohnyGhzs - Thursday, April 19, 2012 - link
ps from someone that is buying one becacuase your not going to be in my house so who really cares how it looks in anyways !