Section 1 Subsystems
Memory -
Memory performance is very important on a motherboard, especially when you have a CPU with multiple cores and threads. If you have slow memory your cores and threads can become starved for data to execute. To test memory performance we run both Sisoft’s SANDRA and AIDA64. These two combine to not only give us accurate numbers but to validate each other. For testing at stock speeds the memory is hard set to 1600MHz while overclocking testing is done at the highest stable speed for the voltage of 1.65v this is due to the different memory dividers for each CPU. As such, the memory speeds will vary greatly. This means that the overclocked numbers are a little misleading and while they can show a trend are really only included to show if a board has a problem with memory performance at high clock speeds.

The A55M-DS2 is just a hair behind the A75 chipset here. This is not that big of a surprise though as the memory controller is on the CPU (APU) and not the board. The difference here can be put down to differences in the boards tracing layout and/or BIOS. Additionally the difference is so minor that realistically you would never see if you had these systems sitting side by side. Unfortunately our overclocked scores dropped because the board and CPU combination did not like memory running over 1333MHz. It simply refused to boot into Windows.

AIDA64 Memory Performance Stock	AIDA64 Memory Performance Overclocked

Drive performance -
Drive performance is also one of the major subsystems that goes to make up the performance of a motherboard.  For our testing we use Sandra and AIDA64 again.  We only test with single drives for each type of controller present on the motherboard (unless it is a professional product where we will use RIAD 5 and/or 10). We have also begun using a Seagate PS-110 USB 3 external HDD for our USB 3.0 performance.  As a side note, we include the overclocked numbers here to make sure  (again) that you are not going to see a major drop in performance due to minor instabilities at high clock speeds.

The HDD speeds on the A55M-DS2 are pretty good. I was more than a little surprised that they were as good as they ended up being. This is actually a good thing for the market that the A55M is aimed at. It means that it should be very good at running multi-media content stored directly on the HDD.

AIDA64 Stock HDD Performance	AIDA64 Overclocked HDD Performance

Power -
Power efficiency is another of those misnomers that we get caught up in. We hear about idle states and power gates. But what does that mean to you and I?  On the surface having power management that reduces idle power sounds great and can be a benefit to someone that leaves their system on for long periods of time (and inactive) but how a system handles power under load and the delta between the two states is often more important than the idle power usage numbers. We use only P3 Kill A Watt instruments for measuring power.

Not surprisingly the A55M-DS2 is a power efficient board.  I was surprised to see that the Gigabyte Z68 with the 2600K used less power under load, but I have a feeling that is due to the APU kicking in during our combined testing run.

Cooling (Board Level) -
Board level cooling is an important factor in product performance and longevity. Components like the chipset, VRM modules and even capacitors need to be kept relatively cool to prevent failure. As these parts are made of silicon, they have a thermal breakdown threshold; or melting point. At that temperature the actual transistors built into chip will begin to deform and break down. Granted, the threshold is often very high, but you still need to make sure that components stay away from this level of heat for longer product life.  

The cooling on the A55M-DS2 is not the best out there. In addition to seeing higher temps than we would have expected from a board like this, we also found that the voltage regulation module area was rather warm. We found temps around 50c even at idle. This does not bode well for component life, at least not for the voltage regulation area. This is even more true when you consider that this board will probably be put in a small case with little to no air flow.

Audio -
Audio is highly subjective. What we find pleasing may sound “off” to you. That is always going to the problem with testing audio; results will vary too widely depending on the tastes of the listener. However, there are ways of measuring the audio output with an objective ear. There is also the issue of audio causing performance issues in gaming and video playback. The reason this is a potential source of concern is that all onboard audio CODECs (Compression/Decompression) are CPU controlled. This means that while the audio chip controls the audio levels and effects of the audio the actual work is done on the CPU. Usually this will not be a problem with today’s powerful CPUs. Even the lower and consumer level products can handle high-end audio these days. But again there is the chance that a bad design or software will hinder your system and performance. On the other side the limits of board space, cost, etc will also prevent the level of audio quality you can get from an add-in board.  We test all audio parts with three media types, Movie (DVD), MP3 Music, and Gaming. These are pushed to our Tec On model 55 Tube Amp to see if we can detect any signal issues in the reproduction.

The audio on the A55M-DS2 was not world-class. It will get the job done, but do not expect to be stunned with its performance.

Networking -
This one is something that is a requirement anymore. If you have a computer, the chances are good (like 99%) that you are also connected to high-speed internet.  With this you need a good and solid LAN chip to make sure that your data flows properly out and back. The networking was also on par with what you should get from a Gbe (Gigabit Ethernet) chip. It will do what you need it to do including streaming media from a local share (like a NAS or home server) or from Netflix of Hulu.