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ATTO Disk Benchmark
The ATTO disk benchmark is a Windows-based utility for testing storage performance of any storage drive or controller. We use the default benchmark setup.
M.2 PCIe Performance
For M.2 testing we use a Toshiba OCZ RD400 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD.
M.2 performance is without limits, provided sufficient cooling is delivered to the SSD. Bandwidth sharing means that the lower M.2 slot should be used first but the caveat is that it receives less incidental airflow from a CPU cooler and can cause thermal throttling on the SSD.
Good chassis ventilation should help to reduce the effect of M.2 SSD thermal throttling but if you are throwing a sustained heavy workload at your drive, Gigabyte takes no measures to help prevent it thermal throttling. This is disappointing.
USB 3.1 Performance
We test USB 3.1 performance using a pair of Corsair Force LE 120GB SSDs in RAID 0 connected to an Icy Box RD2253-U31 2-bay USB 3.1 enclosure powered by an ASMedia ASM1352R controller.
Performance from the Intel-based USB 3.1 Gen 2 controller is very good, hovering around the 1GBps level. The ASMedia ports used on ASRock and ASUS competitors are slightly faster, based on our testing. But the greater total bandwidth for Gigabyte's Intel USB 3.1 Gen 2 controller means that it will better retain its speed when a second fast storage device is connected.
The Type-C port also doubles as a 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 connector which is king of the hill when it comes to external transfer speeds for consumers. Unfortunately, we do not have Thunderbolt 3 testing capability.
SATA 6Gbps Performance
For SATA 6Gbps testing we use a SK Hynix SE3010 960GB SSD.
SATA performance from the Z270 ports is as expected.
Audio
Rightmark Audio Analyser is a freeware benchmarking utility designed to objectively test the performance characteristics of audio solutions. We setup a line-in line-out loop and execute the record/playback test before generating the results report you see below. A sampling mode of 24-bit, 192 kHz was tested.
The individual audio results should be interpreted with care due to the difference in RightMark Audio Analyzer's reaction to the Creative-based solution used on Gigabyte's board versus the Realtek codec of its competitors.
Overall, RMAA rates the Aorus Z270X-Gaming 7's audio system as Very Good. If you want to improve a certain performance metric, the upgradable op-amp slot may permit such a move.
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