MSI Z270 Tomahawk / Tomahawk Arctic Review

Test Setup

We've updated our Skylake test software to include a couple of new tests and upgraded others to newer versions. For starters, we've used the new version 4 of Terragen, which has optimised code that can complete our benchmark a little quicker now. We've also updated to the latest version of PCMark 8 and added another Futuremark test for 3D performance - the Time Spy CPU test under 3DMark. We've also included Ashes of the Singularity's DirectX 12 CPU benchmark, which we added to our X99 test suite last year.


Other benchmarks include Cinebench R15, Unigine Valley, RightMark's Audio Analyzer software, and CrystalDiskMark to measure SATA 6Gbps and M.2 performance. We're also using a Core i7-7700K to test Z270 motherboards. To test at stock speed we load the XMP preset to match the memory's rated speed and timings, but leave all other settings at default.

• Memory: Corsair Vengeance LED 3,200MHz DDR4 RAM
  
• CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K
  
• GPU: XFX Radeon R9 390 DD 8GB
  
• PSU: Corsair RM850i
  
• SSD: Crucial MX100 512GB (SATA 6Gbps speed tests); Samsung 960 Evo 500GB (M.2 speed tests)
  
• CPU cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H100i GTX
  
• Operating system: Windows 10 64-bit

Thanks to Corsair for supplying the PSU, memory and CPU cooler, to Crucial and Samsung for the SSDs and Intel for the CPU.

Tests:

Content creation
• Cinebench R15
  
• PCMark 8 Video Editing
  
• PCMark 8 Photo Editing
  
• Terragen 4
  
  Gaming
  
• Ashes of the Singularity (CPU Test)
  
• 3DMark Time Spy (CPU Test)
  
• Unigine Valley 1.0
  
  SATA 6Gbps and M.2 Storage
  
• CrystalDiskMark
  
  Audio
  
• Rightmark Audio Analyzer
  
  Power
  
• Power Consumption
  
  Overclocking and EFI
  
• Overclocking discussion and EFI