GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD Motherboard Review

SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Performance Testing

There are a number of different Super Speed USB 3.0 host controllers out there. In order to know which ones perform the best we run a series of tests that will put the controller through the ringer and see how it comes out on the other side. Each of our motherboards uses a different Super Speed USB 3.0 controller and you can find the below.

• GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD – 2 x Etron EJ168 chips
• GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3 – 2 x Renesas D720200 chips
• ASUS P8Z68-V Pro – ASMedia ASM1042 USB 3.0

HD Tach is a low level hardware benchmark for random access read/write storage devices such as hard drives, removable drives (ZIP/JAZZ), flash devices, and RAID arrays. HD Tach uses custom device drivers and other low level Windows interfaces to bypass as many layers of software as possible and get as close to the physical performance of the device possible.

Testing of the USB3 was done using the SUNBEAMTECH Airbox USB3.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure. The drive used was a Crucial Technology RealSSD C300 SSD.

Benchmark Results: The GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD was able to edge out our other Intel Z68 motherboards, at least in the average read rates. The Z68XP-UD3-iSSD hit an average read of 119.7MB/s which is .5MB/s faster than the GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3. The average write was 3MB/s slower than the Z68X-UD7-B3.

HD Tune Pro 4.01 is an extended version of HD Tune which includes
many new features such as write benchmark, secure erasing, AAM setting,
folder usage view, disk monitor, command line parameters and file
benchmark.

Our testing of the USB 3.0 performance was done using the SUNBEAMTECH Airbox USB3.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure. The drive used was a Crucial Technology RealSSD C300 SSD.

Benchmark Results: In HD Tune we can see a 3.3MB/s difference between the GIGABYTE Z68XP-UD3-iSSD and the leading Z68X-UD7-B3. The Z68XP-UD3-iSSD pulled an average read of 111.1MB/s compared to the 114.4MB/s while the average write speeds were 110.6MB/s and 111.1MB/s respectively. The average writes only show a .5MB/s difference between the two boards..