Z77 mITX Round-Up: Five of the Best – MSI, Zotac, ASRock, EVGA and ASUS
by Ian Cutress on December 31, 2012 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- MSI
- ASRock
- EVGA
- ZOTAC
- Asus
- Ivy Bridge
- Z77
- mITX
Many thanks to...
We must thank the following companies for kindly donating hardware for our test bed:
OCZ for donating the USB testing SSD
Micron for donating our SATA testing SSD
G.Skill for donating our memory kits
ASUS for donating AMD GPUs
ECS for donating NVIDIA GPUs
Rosewill for donating the 500W Platinum Power Supply
Test Setup
| Test Bed | |
| Processor |
Intel Core i3-3225 @ 3.3 GHz 2 Cores, 4 Threads |
| Motherboards |
Gigabyte H77N-WiFi MSI Z77IA-E53 Zotac Z77-ITX WiFi ASRock Z77E-ITX EVGA Z77 Stinger ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe |
| Cooling | Intel Stock CPU Cooler |
| Power Supply | Rosewill SilentNight 500W Platinum |
| Memory | GSkill RipjawsX 2x4 GB DDR3-1600 9-9-9 |
| Memory Settings | XMP |
| Video Cards |
ASUS HD7970 3GB ECS GTX 580 1536MB |
| Video Drivers |
Catalyst 12.3 NVIDIA Drivers 296.10 WHQL |
| Hard Drive | OCZ Vertex 3 240GB |
| Optical Drive | LG GH22NS50 |
| Case | Open Test Bed - CoolerMaster Lab V1.0 |
| Operating System | Windows 7 64-bit |
| SATA Testing | OCZ Vertex 3 128GB |
| USB 2/3 Testing | OCZ Vertex 3 240GB with SATA->USB Adaptor |
Power Consumption
Power consumption was tested on the system as a whole with a wall meter connected to the Rosewill SilentNight 500W Platinum power supply, while using a single 7970 GPU. This power supply is Platinum rated, and as I am in the UK on a 230-240 V supply, leads to ~90% efficiency > 100W, and 94%+ efficiency at 250W, which is suitable for both idle and GPU loading. This method of power reading allows us to compare the power management of the UEFI and the board to supply components with power under load, and includes typical PSU losses due to efficiency. These are the real world values that consumers may expect from a typical system (minus the monitor) using this motherboard.
For a mITX board, 500W is potentially a little overkill, even with the efficiency values listed. As each of the motherboards tested are in the same environment, the qualitative differences between them are more important than the quantitative values themselves. Thus the board that is using the least power in our setup should also use the least power if a 120W pico PSU is used.
Out of the boards tested today, the ASUS uses the least power during loading, whereas the ASRock draws a little more than others while using a discrete GPU.
POST Time
Different motherboards have different POST sequences before an operating system is initialized. A lot of this is dependent on the board itself, and POST boot time is determined by the controllers on board (and the sequence of how those extras are organized). As part of our testing, we are now going to look at the POST Boot Time - this is the time from pressing the ON button on the computer to when Windows starts loading. (We discount Windows loading as it is highly variable given Windows specific features.) These results are subject to human error, so please allow +/- 1 second in these results.
All motherboards hit under the 12 second mark which is great to see.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
54 Comments
View All Comments
Etern205 - Saturday, January 5, 2013 - link
Here is another model, that supports WiDihttp://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155...
zilexa - Friday, January 11, 2013 - link
Will the upcoming Intel CPUs with integrated GTe graphics chip fit on these mobo's? If so these mITX mobos are VERY futureproof and ideal for an HTPC.doubledd - Wednesday, April 10, 2013 - link
I recently built a mini itx with the MSI Z77IA-53, Cooler Master Elite 120, Antec Kuhler 620, 16gb 1.35V ballistic memory, a 690GTX, a 3570k, default timings and a msata plextor SSD. Except the video card, the system was dirt cheap. With the card, 3D Mark 11 score of X6037.Removal of the HDD cage was all that was required to make room for the radiator to mount to the existing front fan on this $45 case. Folding 100% load processor is 64 degrees....not great, but manageable for this BEAST.
While I consider Anandtech to be one of my trusted sources in reviews, I find it disappointing that they could be reviewing mini itx systems and yet be so out of touch with what people actually use these for. These are lan boxes or HTPCs and are supposed to be small and quiet. Why anyone would want a 8" tall by 8" diameter fan is beyond me. These boards are hardly bigger than a post card. Things are gonna be tight. Think out of the box a bit huh? There are quite a few mini-itx cases that can run or be modded with little effort to run, quiet liquid cooling.
It reminds me of the Consumer reports worst cars of 2013. Half of them are off road vehicles. The complaints are about suspension, shifting and road noise......no kidding?
castl3bravo - Sunday, June 23, 2013 - link
I have found the Asus BIOS for my P8Z77-I Deluxe to be an abysmal mess. My CPU ratio is permanently stuck at 42. During some change of a setting or an upgrade to the latest BIOS, ASUS shoved a "hidden" ME upgrade as well. This process somehow corrupted my BIOS so now I can't overclock beyond ratio of 42.There are other ASUS P8Z77 based m/b's having the same issue. I would suggest Anand have his team research the forums first before writing such glowing reviews of the BIOS for a vendor. I bought this board based on, what appears to be, an inexperienced review last year. Reading this followup on the BIOS is laughable--perhaps even negligent.
Here is but one example of the drama people are going through with this messed up BIOS.:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=23143...