Supermicro X10DRi-T (Intel C612) Server Motherboard Review

AIDA64

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

Memory bandwidth for the X10DRi-T is looking very good. Although there are no huge increases of bandwidth, the X10DRi-T is showing good strong bandwidth numbers.

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

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.

Linpack shows strong bandwidth numbers and is comparable to other motherboards we have tested. These results are almost 2x's faster than our Ivy Bridge-EP tests and shows just how well the new Haswell-EP platforms perform. These speeds coupled with fast DDR4 should give a real boost to application performance.

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 on our reviews.

According to Primate Labs', the STREAM memory tests perform these functions:

- STREAM copy: The stream copy workload tests how fast your computer can copy large amounts of data in memory. It executes a value-by-value copy of a large list of floating point numbers.

- STREAM scale: This workload is similar to stream copy, but each value is multiplied by a constant during the copy.

- STREAM add: The stream add workload reads two large lists of floating point numbers value-by-value, adds corresponding values, and stores the result in a third list.

- STREAM triad: This workload combines stream add and stream scale. It reads two lists of floating point numbers value-by-value, multiplies one of the numbers by a constant, adds the result to the other number, and writes that result to a third list.

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

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.

Just like in Geekbench STREAM Memory tests, we see very good speeds in our tests with Passmark 8 memory test.