The Test System and Comments -

Our test system is built on an open bench. This has two effects on testing. First it allows us to see everything and also to setup and disassemble the test rigs quickly. Second it means that we cannot gauge the potential air flow found in a normal case. The air is pretty stagnant; some may say this is a great neutral testing method and it can be. However, it does mean that the temperature reading taken off of the components are not accurate to what an average consumer would see. This means that your thermal performance will vary from what we see here.

In addition to the raw performance numbers there are other items that go to make up a motherboard. One of these is always going to be ease of use and installation. As far as installation most of the products on the market today are going to be very simple to install. This is a good thing and in many ways is intended to bring more people into the DIY fold. I have to say that after showing people the advantages of building their own system, most will get hooked very quickly and almost never go back to pre-built boxes again. Gigabyte has been working to make things smoother for a while now and with their auto-installers you can get the drivers and utilities you need installed very quickly.

Unlike a few other companies Gigabyte has not started to force things down your throat like Chrome which is nice and will honestly attract more buyers (even those that already do custom installs).

Performance testing overview -
Our testing is a little different than most. We combine both synthetic and real-world applications to simulate the types of performance common to the individual products. For motherboards this means that we run roughly six synthetic tests and two real-world. We will be expanding the real-world testing in the near future.  But there is more to performance than just the raw numbers. As there are multiple components and sub-components on a motherboard there each item can have a distinct impact on the way the product will perform once you get it in your system. It is important to note not only the actual results but what they mean to you as a potential consumer. We will try to give this information to you.
But we do not just cover the performance aspects that are measurable. We also talk about the components that might not have a direct benchmark. These are items like Audio Quality, ease of use and installation.