Intel Desktop Extreme DX58SO2 Motherboard Review

SATA III 6Gbps Performance Testing

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.

The SATA6 Testing was done using Crucial RealSSD C300 256Gb SATA6 SSD drive.

Benchmark Results: The Intel X58 chipset doesn’t support SATA 6 Gb/s natively, therefore the Intel DX58S02 features a Marvell 88SE9128 SATA 6Gb/s controller. In this case the performance of the Intel DX58S02 was less than stellar in HD Tach. With an average read speed of only 244.4MB/s it was the slowest we have seen to date. The average write speeds averaged across three runs was only 145.6MB/s. The Sapphire Pure Black X58 motherboard also uses the Marvell 88SE9128 controller while the GIGABYTE G1 Assassin which had an average read of 318MB/s and an average write of 202.63MB/s, uses the Marvell 88SE9182 controller. The different controllers made a significant difference in the SATA 6 Gb/s performance.

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.

Benchmark Results: HD Tune tells a very similar tale to HD Tach. The Intel DX58S02 X58 motherboard had an average read rate of 232.2MB/s compared the the 306.8MB/s average read of the GIGABYTE G1 Assassin. The average write of the Intel DX58S02 was 147.8MB/s while the GIGABYTE G1 Assassin took the top spot of 221.43MB/s.