Supermicro X10DRG-Q (Intel C612) Workstation Motherboard Review

1. Introduction
2. Specifications and Layout
3. BIOS, Remote Management, and Software
4. Test System Setup
5. CPU Benchmarks
6. Memory & System Benchmarks
7. UnixBench and SPEC CPU2006v1.2
8. Power Consumption & Final Thoughts

TweakTown's Rating: 96%

The Bottom Line

HPC GPU systems can use as many expansion devices as they can get in enterprise applications. To handle this need, Supermicro designed the X10DRG-Q motherboard which can run four devices such as GPU's, Quadra, Telsa, GRID or Intel Xeon Phi co-processor cards, and they did a great job.

Introduction

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The Supermicro X10DRG-Q workstation motherboard is a special built motherboard designed to handle a large number of PCIe devices, namely GPU's Quadra, Telsa, GRID, or Intel Xeon Phi Co-Processor's cards.

The X10DRG-Q supports dual Intel E5-2600 v3 processors (Socket R3 Narrow) based on new Intel Microarchitecture 22nm process technology. These features deliver high system performance, and power efficiency. The X10DRG-Q also features the PCH C612 chipset, which supports Hybrid-clock, Intel's Node Manager 3.0, Intel Management Engine, and new DDR4 with speeds up to 2133MHz.

The key features of the X10DRG-Q server motherboard are:

• Dual HSW EP E5-2600 v3 (Socket R3 Narrow up to 160W), QPI up to 9.6GT/s
• Intel C612 chipset
• 16 DIMM, 1TB Reg. ECC DDR4 up to 2133 MHz
• Four PCIe 3.0 x16, one PCIe 2.0 x4 in x8 slot with TBT Support (Thunderbolt Add-On Card support)
• Intel i350 Gigabit (10/100/1000 Mb/s) for LAN 1/LAN 2 ports
• Ten SATA3, nine USB ports (five USB 3.0, four USB 2.0)
• Proprietary Dimensions 15.2" x 13.2" (38.6cm x 33.5cm)

This motherboard can handle up to 160W processors, which allows it to run the E5-2699 v3 (18 core) CPUs. The ten SATA ports also support RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 for storage needs. The X10DRG-Q motherboard was designed to be used with a Supermicro proprietary chassis as an integrated server platform like the GPU SuperWorkstation 7048GR-TR.

PRICING: You can find the Supermicro X10DRG-Q for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing, but can change at any time. Click the link to see the very latest pricing for the best deal.

United States: The Supermicro X10DRG-Q retails for $559.95 at Amazon.

Specifications and Layout

Specifications

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We only received the X10DRG-Q motherboard for our tests. The retail package should contain:

• Two (2) SATA Cables - 57.5cm flat S-S PBF
• One (1) I/O Shield
• One (1) Quick Reference Guide

Optional accessories are:

• Heat Sinks - Socket 2011-3 Narrow
• TPM security module - TPM module with Infineon 9655, RoHS/REACH, PBF; Vertical or Horizontal depending on the server layout and expansion cards used
• SuperDOM - Supermicro SATA DOM Solutions
• AOC-TBT-DSL5320 Thunderbolt Add-On Card

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Here we get a look at the block diagram, which shows how all the input and output devices connect to the C612 Chipset which uses new Intel microarchitecture 22nm process technology.

The PCH C612 chip provides Enterprise SMbus support and includes the following features:

• DDR4 288-pin memory support on Socket R3
• Hybrid clock support capable of extending to most 2S platforms
• Support for Management Engine (ME)
• Support of SMBus speeds of up to 400KHz for BMC connectivity
• Improved I/O capabilities to high-storage-capacity configurations
• SPI Enhancements
• Intel Node Manager 3.0 for advanced power monitoring; capping and management for BMC enhancement (See the note below)
• BMC supports remote management, virtualization, and the security package for enterprise platforms

Layout

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Here we get our first look at the X10DRG-Q workstation motherboard. This is a very large motherboard, with a size of 15.2" x 13.2" proprietary form factor, and it was designed to be used with a Supermicro proprietary chassis as an integrated server platform.

The overall layout of the X10DRG-Q is clean, not cluttered, and the CPU sockets are staggered to offer better airflow to the processor heat sinks.

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Here we see the PCIe slots, which are:

• 4x PCI-E 3.0 x16 (double-width) slots
• 2x PCI-E 3.0 x8 (one in x16) slots
• 1x PCI-E 2.0 x4 (in x8) slot

The first PCIe slot is in line with the RAM slots of CPU#1, so make sure that your expansion card will fit into this slot.

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Now we are looking at the lower left side of the motherboard. There are ten SATA ports seen here. The Intel SCU controls the top four S-SATA Ports (0-3). The remaining six I-SATA Ports (0-5) are controlled by Intel PCH C612 chipset. These SATA ports support RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10.

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Here we are looking at the upper right section of the motherboard. There are only four fan headers located here, and an additional four pin power connector. The manual says the four pin power connector is required for proper operation.

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The lower right side of the motherboard has its main power connectors over on the right edge on the motherboard. There are also four fan headers located on the edge of the motherboard.

Here we also see a close up of the new Socket 2011 R3. The X10DRG-Q uses the narrow version of Socket 2011-3. As you can see, it looks very much like the normal Socket 2011 that we have seen on past boards. However, last gen processors will not fit this new socket because it has a different pin configuration, and notches inside the socket will only work on the new Haswell-EP E5-2600 v3 processors.

The mounting holes for heat sinks are the same compared to those used on Socket 2011 systems, so you should have no problems using those heat sinks.

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Now we are looking at the back I/O ports. At the left, we see the COM port. Next, we find two USB 3.0 ports, and an IPMI Dedicated LAN port. Two USB 2.0 ports follow. Then we find two RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports. Finally, we have the video out port supported by ASPEED AST2400 BMC.

BIOS, Remote Management, and Software

BIOS

The BIOS for this motherboard is standard for server motherboards, so we will only show a few BIOS screens, and go over new menu options.

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This is the main BIOS screen, which shows basic system information.

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The Advanced tab brings you to the main advanced screen.

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This is the advanced Boot Feature menu. There are many options in this area, most work just fine with default settings.

Hardware Prefetcher (available when supported by the CPU):

If set to Enable, the Hardware Prefetcher will prefetch streams of data and instructions from the main memory to the L2 cache to improve CPU performance.

Adjacent Cache Prefetch (Available when supported by the CPU):

Select Enable and the CPU will prefetch both cache lines for 128 bytes as comprised.

DCU (Data Cache Unit) Streamer Prefetcher (available when supported by the CPU):

The DCU Streamer Prefetcher will prefetch data streams from the cache memory to the DCU (Data Cache Unit) to speed up data accessing and processing to enhance CPU performance.

Direct Cache Access (DCA):

Intel DCA (Direct Cache Access) Technology will improve the efficiency of data transferring and accessing.

X2APIC (Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller):

Based on Intel's Hyper-Threading architecture, each logical processor (thread) is assigned 256 APIC IDs (APIDs) in 8-bit bandwidth. When this feature is set to Enable, the APIC ID will be expanded from 8-bit (X2) to 16 bit to provide 512 APIDs to each thread to enhance CPU performance.

AES-NI:

Select Enable to use the Intel Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) New Instructions (NI) to ensure data security.

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This is the CPU Advanced Power Management Configuration screen.

CPU P-State Control (available when Power Technology is set to Custom):

This includes EIST (P-States), Turbo Mode, and P-State Control.

This feature is used to change the P-State (Power-Performance State) coordination type. P-State is also known as "SpeedStep" for Intel processors. Select HW_ALL to change the P-State coordination type for hardware components only. Select SW_ALL to change the P-State coordination type for all software installed in the system. Select SW_ANY to change the P-State coordination type for a software program in the system.

CPU C-State Control (available when Power Technology is set to Custom):

This includes CPU C3 Report and Enhanced Halt State (C1E).

CPU T-State Control (available when Power Technology is set to Custom):

This includes ACPI (Advanced Configuration Power Interface) T-States.

CPU T-States supports CPU throttling by the operating system to reduce power consumption.

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Now we are looking at the North Bridge IIO configuration menu.

EV DFX (Device Function On-Hide) Feature:

When this feature is set to Enable, the EV_DFX Lock Bits that are located on a processor will always remain clear during electric tuning.

IIO0 Configuration:

IIO1 Port 1A, 2A, and 3A Link Speed.

Use this item to configure the link speed of a PCI-E device installed on the PCIE slot specified by the user. The options are Gen1 (2.5 GT/s), Gen2 (5 GT/s), and Gen3 (8 GT/s).

IIO1 Configuration:

IIO2 Port 1A, 2A and 3A Link Speed.

Use this item to configure the link speed of a PCI-E device installed on the PCIE slot specified by the user. The options are Gen1 (2.5 GT/s), Gen2 (5 GT/s), and Gen3 (8 GT/s).

IOAT (Intel® IO Acceleration) Configuration:

Enable IOAT

Select Enable to enable Intel I/OAT (I/O Acceleration Technology) support, which will significantly reduce CPU overhead by leveraging CPU architectural improvements and freeing the system resource for other tasks.

Intel VT for Directed I/O (VT-d):

Select Enable to use Intel Virtualization Technology support for Direct I/O VT-d support by reporting the I/O device assignments to the VMM (Virtual Machine Monitor) through the DMAR ACPI tables. This feature offers fully-protected I/O resource sharing across Intel platforms, providing greater reliability, security, and availability in networking and data-sharing.

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Here we are looking at the QPI General Configuration menu.

Link Frequency Select:

Use this item to select the desired frequency for QPI Link connections. The options are 6.4GB/s, 8.0GB/s, and 9.6GB/s.

Isoc Mode:

Select Enable for Isochronous support to meet QoS (Quality of Service) requirements. This feature is especially important for Virtualization Technology.

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Here we are looking at the Memory Configuration menu.

Data Scrambling:

Select Enabled to enable data scrambling to enhance system performance and data integrity.

DRAM RAPL (Running Average Power Limit) Baseline:

Use this feature to set the run-time, power-limit baseline for the DRAM modules.

Set Throttling Mode:

Throttling improves reliability, and reduces power consumption in processors via automatic voltage control during processor idle states.

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Here we are looking at the Memory RAS Configuration menu.

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Now we are looking at the PCH SATA Configuration menu.

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Now we are looking at the PCH SATA Configuration menu.

Configure SATA as:

Select IDE to configure a SATA drive (specified by the user) as an IDE drive. Select AHCI to configure a SATA drive (specified by the user) as an AHCI drive. Select RAID to configure a SATA drive (specified by the user) as a RAID drive.

Support Aggressive Link Power Management:

When this item is set to Enabled, the SATA AHCI controller manages the power usage of the SATA link. The controller will put the link into a low power state when the I/O is inactive for an extended period of time, and the power state will return to normal when the I/O becomes active.

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The last menu is the Boot Options menu.

Remote Management

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We find our remote access IP address located in the BIOS under the IPMI Tab. In our case, this was 192.182.1.11. Enter that into your browser, and you will see the login screen.

To login use:

Username: ADMIN

Password: ADMIN

As a best practice, Administrative users should change factory default Username/Password logins before connecting any new server to their network.

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After logging in, we come to the home screen and see system information displayed.

There is also a remote control option for iKVM.

Please note that when video cards are installed iKVM will not be available.

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The next tab is the Sensor Readings menu.

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The Configuration menu allows you to change many features on the server, Active Directory settings, DNS, LDAP, and much more.

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The Power Control and Status menu allows you to power on, shut down, restart, and cycle the server.

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The Virtual Media menu allows you to mount or share virtual media such as Floppy Disks and CD-ROM images.

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The Maintenance menu allows you to update the firmware, and restore factory defaults.

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The Miscellaneous menu allows post snooping, SMC RAKP enable/disable, UID control, and BIOS recovery.

Software

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Here we see the Drivers and Tools menu. We are happy to see that Supermicro has included a driver ISO file that we can download to install drivers and tools.

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The Supermicro SuperDoctor 5 is a hardware-monitoring program that functions in a command-line or web-based interface in Windows and Linux operating systems. The program monitors system health information such as CPU temperature, system voltages, system power consumption, fan speed, and provides alerts via email, or Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).

SuperDoctor 5 comes in local and remote management versions, and can be used with Nagios to maximize your system monitoring needs. With SuperDoctor 5 Management Server (SSM Server), you can remotely control power on/off, and reset chassis intrusion for multiple systems with SuperDoctor 5, or IPMI. SD5 Management Server monitors HTTP, FTP, and SMTP services to optimize the efficiency of your operation.

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IPMIView is a GUI-based software application that allows administrators to manage multiple server systems through BMC. IPMIView monitors and reports on the status of servers, and also supports remote KVM and Virtual Media.

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Supermicro Power Manager (SPM) is a power management tool that allows you to improve system power utilization. Administrators can configure policies by data center, room, row, rack, target machine, or logical groups, and can be triggered by condition, power, or temperature thresholds.

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Supermicro Update Manager (SUM) remotely updates the BIOS and BMC/IPMI firmware, and system settings. The X10 based machines through in-band and OOB (out-of-band) BMC/IPMI communication channels.

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Supermicro Server Manager (SSM) provides capabilities to monitor the health of servers, and many other features.

Test System Setup

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We would like to thank Supermicro, Crucial, SanDisk, Yokogawa, Thermaltake, Noctua, SPEC, Passmark, Primate Labs, and AIDA64 for their support in providing parts for our test system.

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The platform that the X10DRG-Q uses is the Wellsburg (Intel C612) and new Haswell-EP processors. The processor we will be using is the Intel Xeon E5-2698 v3, which features 16 cores with hyper-threading used on these tests.

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The Wellsburg Platform (Intel C612) will have support provided for four to 18 cores with dual socket capability. TDP ranges from 55W to 160W for workstations.

Memory is now DDR4, and can gave a frequency of up to 2133 MHz. The E5-2600 v3 processors use 2x QPI 1.1 channels with up to 9.6 GT/s. These processors support PCIe 3.0 with up to 8 GT/s and 40 lanes. The chipset will be Wellsburg PCH. This gives support for ten SATA ports. A large number of USB devices can be used with six USB 3.0, and eight USB 2.0 ports. Wellsburg (C612) also supports DMI2 with four lanes.

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In our tests, we will be using the new Crucial DDR4 memory, which has a speed of 2133 MHz, and a rating of CL15. We have already taken a look at these memory kits, which you can find here: Crucial DDR4-2133 DRx4 RDIMM Memory Review - Testing up to 256GB.

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Here we can see the timings of the Crucial DDR4 memory that we will be using in our tests.

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Here we see how memory in slot /DIMMs per channel can affect memory speed.

In the test lab, we found many new systems we are testing with multiple video cards and other expansion devices were starting to have larger power supply needs. We have now upgraded our test bed with a new Thermaltake Toughpower 1500W Gold PSU. We have already pushed this PSU to near max loads in the lab, and it has performed flawlessly. Even with max loads under full stress, the Toughpower 1500W Gold PSU hardly makes any noise at all during testing, which we really like.

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Here we see the Thermaltake Toughpower 1500W Gold PSU with its retail box. We like this power supply, as it can handle fully loaded Dual CPU systems and 4x workstation video cards, and a whole host of other expansion devices.

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Here are just a few specifications for the Toughpower 1500W Gold PSU. We have also added a few more benchmarks to our tests, and they are mostly geared toward memory testing. So, let's see how well the X10DRG-Q performs.

CPU Benchmarks

CINEBENCH 11.5

CINEBENCH is a real-world, cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer's performance capabilities. The test scenario uses all of your system's processing power to render a photorealistic 3D scene. This scene makes use of various different algorithms to stress all available processor cores. You can also run this test with a single-core mode to give a single-core rating.

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Here we are looking at our CINEBENCH 11.5 tests; the X10DRG-Q shows a good score here. X10DRG-Q has good BIOS optimization for performance in this test. All motherboards using the new C612 chipset and Haswell-EP processors are performing similarly.

CINEBENCH R15

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The X10DRG-Q has an average score in CINEBENCH R15; it still shows very good performance optimization.

wPrime

wPrime is a leading multi-threaded benchmark for x86 processors that tests your processor performance. This is a great test to use to rate the system speed; it also works as a stress test to see how well the system's cooling is performing.

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In wPrime, the X10DRG-Q has a slightly slower score. As we said before, these small score adjustments are not much to be concerned about with these tests.

Memory & System Benchmarks

AIDA64

AIDA64 memory bandwidth benchmarks (Memory Read, Memory Write, and Memory Copy) measure the maximum achievable memory data transfer bandwidth.

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Memory bandwidth for the X10DRG-Q is looking very good. All though these are not huge increases of bandwidth, the X10DRG-Q is showing strong bandwidth numbers.

Again, we see all motherboards using the new C612 chipset and Haswell-EP processors are performing very close to each other.

LINPACK

Intel Optimized LINPACK Benchmark is a generalization of the LINPACK 1000 benchmark. It solves a dense (real*8) system of linear equations (Ax=b), measures the amount of time it takes to factor and solve the system, converts that time into a performance rate, and tests the results for accuracy.

LINPACK is a measure of a computer's floating-point rate of execution ability, measured in GFLOPS (Floating-point Operations per Second); ten-billion FLOPS = ten GFLOPS.

LINPACK is a very heavy compute application that can take advantage of the new AVX2 instruction. Since it puts a very high load on the system, it is also a good stress test program.

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LINPACK shows strong bandwidth numbers, and is comparable to other motherboards we have tested. These results are almost twice as fast as our Ivy Bridge-EP tests, and show just how well the new Haswell-EP platforms perform. These speeds, coupled with fast DDR4, should give a real boost to application performance.

PCMark8

PCMark 8 is the latest version in the series of PC benchmarking tools by Futuremark. It is fully compatible with Windows 8, and can be run under Windows 7.

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Our PCMark 8 tests were completed on a basic system; we used only one NVIDIA Quadro K5000 here. Using more video cards would increase this score a great deal, so this is only for reference.

Sony Vegas Pro 13

Sony Vegas Pro 13 is a leading video editor that is used by many people. In Vegas Pro 12, Sony introduced a benchmark that renders a Mercedes convertible like one you might see in a commercial. Even though Sony has removed this test, you can still find it on the internet.

We will be using this benchmark to render in Sony Vegas 13 Pro in 720p, 1080p, and 4K resolutions with our NVIDIA Quadro K5000.

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Just like our PCMark 8 tests, our Sony Video Pro benchmark was completed on a basic system. We used only one NVIDIA Quadro K5000 here; using more video cards would increase this score a great deal, so this is only for reference.

SPECwpc

SPECwpc_v1.0.2 is a workstation benchmark that measures key aspects of workstation applications.

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These tests do put a huge load on the system, and take approximately eight hours to run on this system. SPECwpc puts a heavy load on the GPU.

Even small increases in scores show a big improvement in performance. Certain parts of this test rely on storage, so using setups with SSDs and RAID 0 would increase those scores.

Geekbench - Stream

Geekbench 3 is Primate Labs' cross-platform processor benchmark with a new scoring system that separates single-core and multi-core performance, and new workloads that simulate real-world scenarios. It also includes STREAM based memory tests, which we will include in our reviews.

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Here we are looking at the single-core STREAM memory tests. Bandwidth is about where it's expected to be for single-core applications.

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Now we are looking at multi-core STREAM tests. The speeds we are seeing are a little faster than advertised bandwidths for our Crucial Memory kits, which shows these new X10 platforms from Supermicro can squeeze out fast memory bandwidth.

Passmark - PerformanceTest 8 - Memory

We will also start using Passmark Performance Memory tests on our reviews.

According to Passmark:

This memory test suite contains a number of tests that exercise the memory sub-system of the computer (RAM). All tests use a combination of 32-bit and 64-bit data when reading or writing from or to RAM.

Memory - Allocate Small Block:

This test measures the time taken to allocate and free small zeroed memory blocks (around 100KB block size).

Memory - Cached:

This test measures the time taken to read a small block of memory. The block is small enough to be held entirely in cache (if one is present).

Memory - UnCached:

This test measures the time taken to read a large block of memory. The block is too large to be held in cache.

Memory - Write:

This test measures the time taken to write information into memory.

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Just like in Geekbench STREAM Memory tests, we see very good speeds in our tests with Passmark 8. We have noticed that the X10DRG-Q is a little bit slower in memory benchmarks; its BIOS is optimized for PCIe/Graphics card use.

UnixBench and SPEC CPU2006v1.2

UnixBench 5.1.3

UnixBench has been around for a long time now, and is a good general-purpose bench to test on Linux based systems. This is a system benchmark, and it shows the performance of single-threaded and multi-threaded tasks.

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Synthetic benchmarks only show part of the performance of a motherboard. When using tests that are more complex, we will start to see a different trend in the scores. UnixBench starts to show what the X10DRG-Q can really do well, and that is multi-threaded workloads.

SPEC CPU2006 v1.2

SPEC CPU2006v1.2 measures compute intensive performance across the system using realistic benchmarks to rate real performance.

In our testing with SPEC CPU2006, we use the following basic commands to run these tests:

" Runspec --tune=base --config=tweaktown.cfg ," then " int " or " fp "

To do multi-threaded, we add in " --rate=64 ."

When SPEC CPU first came out, these tests could take up to a week to run, but as computers become faster, our tests now take up to four days for a full run, and even less on some systems. The user can do many things to effect the results of CPU2006 runs, including compiler optimizations, add-ons like Smartheap, and different commands used to start the tests.

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This benchmark has many different commands to use depending on what the user is looking for. For our tests, we used basic commands that run a full test with a base tune. Here you can see the SPEC scores after full runs for Integer (int) and Floating Point (fp) tests. Single-core runs show how fast (speed) a CPU can perform a given task. In the multi-core runs, we set SPEC CPU2006v1.2 to use all thread to measure the throughput of the system.

The additional cores/threads of this system have a huge impact on performance in these tests, and really show the amount of horsepower that a dual-socket system has over a single-socket board. Single-threaded results are still very important, but when you need many single-threaded apps to run, moving to a CPU with more cores is the way to go. This is where the X10DRG-Q starts to shine, multi-threaded integer workloads.

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Looking at the results of single-threaded integer runs, we can get an idea of speed at which the E5-2698 v3's can crunch through the different integer tests. Not all CPUs are equal here, and ones that have a higher speed will perform these tests faster. Naturally, using an overclocked system or CPUs with a higher stock speed will generate higher results.

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Now we run the test using all 32 cores/64 threads cores on the E5-2698 v3 processors to measure the throughput of the system. In this test, more cores/threads will have a greater effect on the outcome.

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Just like the integer tests, we now run the floating-point tests in single-threaded (speed) mode.

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Here we see the results of the multi-core floating-point run that uses all 32 cores/64 threads cores on the E5-2698 v3 processors. Like the multi-threaded integer test, more cores/threads will have a greater impact on the test. Just like the integer multi-threaded tests, the X10DRG-Q really takes off here.

Power Consumption & Final Thoughts

Power Consumption

We have upgraded our power testing equipment, and now use a Yokogawa WT310 power meter for testing. The Yokogawa WT310 feeds its data through a USB cable to another machine where we can capture the test results.

To test total system power use, we used AIDA64 Stability test to load the CPU, and then recorded the results. We also now add in the power use for a server from off state, to hitting the power button to turn it on, and take it all the way to the desktop. This gives us data on power consumption during the boot up process.

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The X10DRG-Q uses ~100 watts at idle on the desktop, which is about 45 watts less than Ivy Bridge-EP setups we have run. The max power use is also very good. We find this system to be energy efficient, which will save on power bills over time. The power use is slightly higher than regular server motherboards because we have the extra NVIDIA Quadro K5000 installed on our motherboard.

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With the X10DRG-Q, we see only peak power use of ~250 watts during the boot up process. The system then settles down to ~100 watts after the boot up is completed.

Final Thoughts

We looked at the Supermicro X10DAi workstation motherboard with three PCIe slots, which you can see here. The X10DAi can handle three workstation video cards; we thought we had reviewed the most powerful workstation motherboard Supermicro had to offer.

However, we were wrong; the X10DRG-Q weighs in with four PCIe slots, which gives it huge computational capabilities.

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The Supermicro X10DRG-Q has the ability to run four PCIe expansion cards, which can be either GPU's, Quadro, Tesla, GRID, or Intel Xeon Phi co-processor cards. All of this is on one motherboard powered by dual Intel E5-2600 v3 processors, and up to 1TB of new DDR4 memory. The X10DRG-Q is a massive motherboard designed for HPC applications, or high-end workstation uses. Supermicro included all the bells and whistles on this motherboard, including storage options that can be run in RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 configurations.

The focus of this motherboard is its use on the Supermicro GPU SuperWorkstation 7048GR-TR. We have the building blocks for a 7048GR-TR here in the lab, and we will be getting one up and running soon.

We recommend getting the AOC-TBT-DSL5320 Thunderbolt Add-On Card for this motherboard because it will allow remote running of the machine, so it can be installed in a location separate from the user. These machines do make a fair amount of noise, so it is a good idea to install it in a separate room to keep the workplace less noisy.

Overall, this is a fantastic motherboard that has huge potential for HPC applications. One of the things we were not crazy about was the lack of iKVM when GPUs are installed, but the optional AOC-TBT-DSL5320 Thunderbolt Add-On Card takes care of this.

PRICING: You can find the Supermicro X10DRG-Q for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing, but can change at any time. Click the link to see the very latest pricing for the best deal.

United States: The Supermicro X10DRG-Q retails for $559.95 at Amazon.