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 comparisons, nearly every platform on the market is very close to all the others because most provide external drive-controllers, making the numbers offered very platform agnostic. And finally, with audio, we do not list any numbers except for those reported by the product we are testing. This is to provide the most information possible, as each audio CODEC will behave quite differently. Many boards also employ a different CODEC. As such, there is no standard we can use other than the numbers themselves. You can always check our other motherboard reviews to make direct comparisons in audio performance.

We tested each drive interface separately in order to provide you with numbers that are as complete as possible. Employing HDTune Pro for all of the testing, we tested each drive outside of the OS environment through a separate OS on a separate drive. However, we do use drives with a fair amount of data on both the Corsair ForceGT and the Corsair F60 (60% full) to simulate performance in real-world situations. Also new is that all USB 3.0 testing is done via the provided front-panel ports rather than the ports on the rear of the board since front-panel ports are more likely to be used. I also no longer test SATA interfaces using a SATA 3 Gb/s drive since SATA 3 Gb/s functionality is now a legacy item.

HDTune Pro (SATA 6Gb/s)

HDTune Pro (USB3.0 Front Panel)

Overall drive performance with the MSI Z87 MPOWER MAX is exactly as expected: decent but nothing to brag about.

RightMark Audio Analyzer

Since we've seen MSI's recent Realtek ALC1150 designs a few times now, there was nothing groundbreaking here. The audio is pretty good in general, close to the equivalent of many discrete cards of the past. On-board audio of the last few generations exceeds most expectations, and the Realtek ALC1150 only takes audio further, beating out many past Realtek designs.