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 1333MHz 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 clockspeeds.

The MSI Z68-GB80 is right where is should be in terms of memory performance. With some of the hype surrounding the Z68 chipset we honestly thought we would have seen a little bit more, but we have to be honest there is nothing wrong with this level of performance.

AIDA64 confirms our Sandra testing with a little more detail to back things up.

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.

Now this is interesting; the Z68A-GD80 did not do so well with HDD performance. It was much slower than the rest of the pack when it came down to our SATA II testing (which is still what most people have).

As with our memory testing we use AIDA to back up our findings. What we are seeing is that the MCP on the board seems to drop off when we go into linear reads towards the end of the drive. This shows up on our SATA 3.0 testing as well. This issue could be fixed with nothing more than a BIOS tweak or a driver update as it seems to be more of a problem between the controller, the driver and the trim firmware on the drive.
HDD Performance

USB 3.0 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.

The Z68-GB80 B3 does well on power draw even when we have an HD5870 in the system with the CPU running at 4.888GHz.

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.  

These charts are interesting, although the legend says we take this at the Northbridge there really is not one of these anymore. We actually (as we say above) read this off of the Voltage regulation heatsinks. With the Z68A-GD80 we saw the heat buildup quickly once we dropped in the HD5870. This would seem to indicate that the power draw (current) increased across the board power system with this in play. We have to worry about how this board would handle multiple high-performance (read high current draw) GPUs.

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 MSI Z68A-GD80 was good. It was not what I would call great, even with the installation of the THX software. There was something that was just off about the sound. If I had to put my fingers on it I would say that is sounded over processed. There was an artificial quality about it that, while not unpleasant, did not make it as good as is possibly could have been. We also ran into a few very minor stutters while gaming. The two that we saw were during the school clearing in Modern Warfare 2 and in Farcry2 as you escape the hotel you are in and the barrel blows up near the window you exit.  We were able to repeat these during our testing and feel it could be due to the way the system resources are allocated to the audio CODEC.

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 dual network controllers on the Z68A-GD80 do a great job when running as individual LAN controllers or when you team them on the right equipment and with the right profile.  We did not have any issues with these two and the MSI teaming utility is a snap to get setup. Of course it is important to note that with many residential routers setting up teaming is not going to do you much good as the router will not link the ports into a single trunk. This means that you will not really get 2Gbs but 1Gps + 1Gbps. Each one will operate independently of the other (in the best cases as one up one down) and can cause disconnected if your router or switch does not have the proper support.