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 put a fair amount of data on both the Crucial M4 drives(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)

The MSI Z97 GAMING's drive performance was one of the best I have seen lately, beaten only by another MSI board. Both SATA 6 Gb/s and USB 3.0 drive performance numbers were quite obviously ahead of all other boards.

RightMark Audio Analyzer

Testing the audio with the MSI Z97 GAMING 5's Audio Boost functionality meant that I had to run more tests than I normally do, and I started with the rear ports. The first example above is with the Audio Boost function disabled, while the second is with it enabled. There are minor differences RMAA picks up on, and my ears decided the same. The audio was just too good to begin with for Audio Boost to make much of a difference.


I used the front-panel audio plugs next, and I noticed much the same as above since there was little or no difference, although volume levels were much higher to my my ears, and the dynamic range somehow seemed a bit fuller. While not the huge difference I expected, there was some to my ears, and it was good.