Drive and Audio Performance Results

Our drive and audio testing differs a bit from the rest of our testing, for several reasons. First of all, when it comes to drive performance comparison, nearly every platform on the market is very close to one another, as most do provide external drive controllers which means the numbers offered are very much platform agnostic. And finally, with audio, we do not list any numbers except for those reported by the product we are testing in order to provide the most information possible, as each audio CODEC will behave quite differently, and each board does not employ the same CODEC. As such, there is no standard we can use other than the numbers themselves. You can always check our other motherboard reviews in order to make direct comparisons to audio performance.

We've tested each drive interface separately in order to provide the most complete numbers possible. Employing HDTune Pro for all of the testing, we tested each drive outside of the OS environment, using a separate OS on a separate drive. However, we do use drives with a fair amount of data on them (60% full) to simulate performance in real-world situations.

HDTune Pro (SATA2)

In HDTune Pro SATA 3 Gb/s performance, we found the Biostar TX77XE4 way down near the bottom of the list, yet it was still 10 MB/s faster than the Gigabyte G1.SNiper M3.

HDTune Pro (SATA 6Gb/s)

SATA 6 Gb/s showed the Biostar TX77XE4 to be kind of slow here as well, although it did beat out one other Intel Z77 Express result.

HDTune Pro (USB3.0)

USB 3.0 drive performance failed to put the Biostar TX77XE4 on top, but it's only around 7.5 MB/s behind the best result, so nothing to worry about, either.

RightMark Audio Analyzer

The RMAA results given by the Biostar TX77XE4 are really exceptional. I do not think there has been another product with such an awesome result here. RMAA rates the Biostar TX77XE4's sound as "very good", which in real-world terms means it's bloody fantastic. It did not quite reach the 108 dB SNR that's noted on the board's surface, but given that the results are as good as they are, this is hardly of any concern. It makes me wonder how Biostar can get such good results here, but other, seemingly higher-rated onboard sound solutions pale in comparison.