Instead of an enthusiast motherboard, this time we will look at a workstation motherboard. Meanwhile it is not a entry level motherboard, Gigabyte provided us with their latest high end motherboard which features up to 512 GB of DDR3 memory running at 1600 MHz, two 8 core / 16 threads processor, a high end LSI SAS controller and more. This time we will not only review the motherboard but also benchmark this dual Xeon Octocore setup under real world workloads/situations. Feel the power!
On the following pages we're going to introduce you to the latest dual socket motherboard from Gigabyte that supports the latest and fastests octocore Xeon E5-2600 series from Intel.
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Specifications / Delivery
| CPU | Dual LGA2011 Socket Supports Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 product family |
| Chipset | Intel C602 |
| Memory | 16 x 1.5V DDR3 DIMM sockets supporting up to 128GB (UDIMM) and
512GB (RDIMM) of system memory 16 x 1.35V DDR3L DIMM sockets supporting up to 128 GB of system memory Quad channel memory architecture Support for 800/1066/1333/1600 memory modules Support for ECC RDIMM/ UDIMM memory modules |
| Multi-GPU | N/A |
| Slots |
1 x PCIe x16 (@ Gen3 x16 bus) slot 1 x PCIe x16 (@ Gen3 x8 bus) slot 2 x PCIe x8 (@ Gen3 x4 bus) slots 1 x PCIe x4 (@ Gen2 x1 bus) slot |
| Audio | No audio chip |
| Video | Integrated ASPEED AST2300More information on the manufacturer's website |
| Storage | 2 x SAS 6Gb/s ports (8 x SAS 6Gbs via LSI SAS200 1 x SAS 3Gb/s ports (4 x SATA II 3Gbs via LSI SAS200 2 x SATA III 6Gb/s ports Intel SW RAID 0/1/5/10 LSI IR RAID 0/1/1E/10 |
| LAN | 2 x Gigabit Ethernet LAN (Intel® I350 supports 10/100/1000 Mbps) 1 x KVM Server Management 10/100 LAN Port |
| I/O internal | |
| I/O external | |
| Formfactor | EATX (33.0 cm x 30.5 cm) |
| BIOS | 1 x 64 MB flash AMI BIOS |
| Warranty | 1 year |
| Bundle | 2x SATA II cables 1x Manual 1x CD Drivers 1x I/O Shield |
| On Manufacturer's Website | Gigabyte GA-7PESH1 |
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Layout
The Gigabyte GA-7PESH1 comes on a blue PCB and black expansion slots. Even if it is a workstation motherboard, Gigabyte seems to have spent some time on the design and didn't make a cheap looking motherboard but indeed a very good looking one. The layout itself has been well thought and there is for example plenty of space around the CPU socket to install even todays largest CPU coolers as we managed to mount two Noctua NH-D14 on it without any problems.
Gigabyte equipped his workstation motherboard so each cpu are powered by six digital power phases. Furthermore each set of four DIMM memory slots benefit of their own two digital power phases. With a total of 4x 2 digital power phases for the memory and 2x 6 for the processors to provide maximum stability.
Totally you'll find four sets of four DIMM-slots on the GA-7PESH1 which means there are no less than sixteen memory slots for an amount of total memory up to 512GB. Officially supported are the following clock speeds: 1600 / 1333 / 1066 MHz. Memory slots are quite close to the cpu socket so you won't be able to fit enthusiasts memory on it but that's not a problem because this motherboard is designed for workstation use and worksation memory doesn't have high memory heatspreaders luckily.
Southbridge as well as current converters are being held at adequate temperatures via a passive cooling blocks. But not only, also the LSI chip and the LAN chip have heatsinks on them to feel more fresh.
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Connectors and I/O
Overall, there is on this board just two SATA ports that are attached to the bottom board. There are also three SAS headers that provide up to twelve additional ports available. The SAS ports are provided on an LSI controller, who was tied with eight lanes to the chipset. This gives enough bandwidth available, so that high-performance RAID array can be set up. On this motherboard you will find two full PCIe x16 slots spaced by one slot to mount a dual graphics card setup for computing. Further, there are two PCI Express x8 ports and one PCI Express x4 expansion slot. For the PCI Express x16 slots as well as in the x8 slots Gigabyte releases by this server board PCI Express Gen 3. Also useful are the two PCI Express x8 ports that provide more than enough bandwidth, so even the latest high-end SSDs in these slots can fit.
Totally you'll find three fan headers on the Gigabyte GA-7PESH1 which is more than enough for a workstation motherboard because usually workstation fans are directly connected to the power supply. Anyway you will find one cpu0_fan as well as one cpu1_fan located not far at the right of each cpu's power design and a sys_fan located next to the LSI SAS Controller.
Looking at the external connectors directly at the back-panel, Gigabyte equipped their worksation motherboard with four USB2.0 ports, no less than three Ethernet LAN ports, a COM connector and of course the video out (VGA) for the ASPEED integrated graphic chip AST2300.
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BIOS
Here are the BIOS Settings we used for the testing. The only changes we made from those settings pictured are enable/disable Turbo and HyperThreading.
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Test setup
Hardware |
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| Motherboard |
|
| Processor | 2 x Intel Xeon E5-2690 (8C/16T) Turbo: 3'800 MHz (1 Core) 3'600 MHz (2-3 Core) 3'400 MHz (4-5 Core) 3'300 MHz (6+ Core) |
| Memory | 4 x 4 GB G.Skill RipJawsZ F3-19200CL9Q @ 1'333 MHz CL9-9-9-24 |
| Graphic card | ASUS Radeon HD 7970 Direct CU II |
| Driver | Catalyst 12.4 |
| Hard disk | OCZ RevoDrive 3 |
| Power supply | Seasonic Platinum SS-1000XP |
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WPrime 1024
wPrime is a leading multithreaded benchmark for x86 processors that tests your processor performance by calculating square roots with a recursive call of Newton's method for estimating functions. The less time it takes the faster is your processor.
UCBench 2011
UnRAR-crack is a free RAR password cracker. It employs various techniques to maximize cracking speed (e.g. using SSE2, SSSE3, etc. to test more passwords at once, and using multithreading to take advantage of multi-core/hyperthreaded processors).
UnRAR-crack benchmark uses the password cracking core of UnRAR-crack to test the performance of your system. It works by launching several thousand password checks and measuring the average testing speed, in passwords per second. It repeats the same procedure for different number of threads (up to the max your system can utilize), and using different crypto functions (SSE2-optimized, SSSE3-optimized, etc.). Using it, you can measure the SMP boost, the SSE unit performance, etc.
The higher is the number the faster is your processor.
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CineBench
The test scenario uses all of your system's processing power to render a photorealistic 3D scene (from the viral "No Keyframes" animation by AixSponza). This scene makes use of various algorithms to stress all available processor cores. In fact, CINEBENCH can measure systems with up to 64 processor threads. This test scene contains approximately 2,000 objects which in turn contain more than 300,000 polygons in total, and uses sharp and blurred reflections, area lights, shadows, procedural shaders, antialiasing, and much more. The result is displayed in points (pts). The higher the number, the faster your processor.
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SiSoftware Sandra - Memory Bandwidth
Measures the streaming performance of the memory systems. Higher is faster.
SiSoftware Sandra - Memory Latency
Measures the access time of the cache and memory systems. Lower is faster.
SiSoftware Sandra - Cache Bandwidth
Measures the performance of the cache and memory systems. Higher is faster.
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SiSoftware Sandra - Cryptography
Measures the cryptographic performance (encrypt/decrypt, hash, sign) of the processors. Higher is faster.
SiSoftware Sandra - Processor Arithmetic
Measures the arithmetic and floating-point performance of processors. Higher is faster.
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SiSoftware Sandra - Processor Multi-Media
Measures the multi-media and media processing performance of processors. Higher is faster.
SiSoftware Sandra - Mutli-Core Efficiency
Measures the efficiency of inter-core, inter-module and inter-package communication of processors. Higher is faster.
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Office Productivity
The Office Productivity scenario models productivity usage including word processing, spreadsheet data manipulation, email creation/management and web browsing.
SYSmark 2012 measures system performance by measuring the response time of tasks on a PC using real applications and simulated user input. In the SYSmark 2012 scoring methodology, task response times are used to generate a performance rating that reflects the user experience. The faster a PC responds to the application workloads in SYSmark 2012, the higher its SYSmark 2012 performance ratings will be.
Read, create and search for emails. Create and execute a rule on email inbox. Use multiple browsers to browse a blog, online shopping site, wiki site and social networking site. Check web mail in a private browser session. Combine multiple scanned pages from a complex document into an encrypted PDF document using optical character recognition (OCR). Create a PDF with fillable form fields from scanned pages. Archive a diverse set of files into an a single encrypted file. Use an advanced OCR program to convert scanned pages of complex and simple documents into editable word documents. Create a blog post and do a mail merge. Use a spreadsheet program to do data analysis. Create and view complex presentations that include clip art and video. Some of these activities are performed concurrently to model typical multitasking behavior.
Data / Financial Analysis
The Data/Financial Analysis scenario creates financial models to review, evaluate and forecast business expenses. In addition, the performance and viability of financial investments is analyzed using past and projected performance data.
SYSmark 2012 measures system performance by measuring the response time of tasks on a PC using real applications and simulated user input. In the SYSmark 2012 scoring methodology, task response times are used to generate a performance rating that reflects the user experience. The faster a PC responds to the application workloads in SYSmark 2012, the higher its SYSmark 2012 performance ratings will be.
Generate sales forecasts by region and currency based on historical data, and produce summary graphs and pivot tables using a spreadsheet application.
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System Management
The System Management scenario models the creation of data backup sets and the compression, and decompression of various file types. Updates to installed software are also performed.
SYSmark 2012 measures system performance by measuring the response time of tasks on a PC using real applications and simulated user input. In the SYSmark 2012 scoring methodology, task response times are used to generate a performance rating that reflects the user experience. The faster a PC responds to the application workloads in SYSmark 2012, the higher its SYSmark 2012 performance ratings will be.
Install and then upgrade an application using a complete application installer and patch installers. Perform a (simulated) full system backup using encryption, then after making changes to the initial backup dataset, perform two encrypted incremental backups. Restore both backups. Create an encrypted archive of various sensitive files for transfer across unsecured communications, and another unencrypted archive of various files. Decompress the initial backup and two incremental backups. Decompress the encrypted and unencrypted archive files.
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MediaCreation
The Media Creation scenario models using digital photos and digital video to create, preview, and render a video advertisement for a fictional business.
SYSmark 2012 measures system performance by measuring the response time of tasks on a PC using real applications and simulated user input. In the SYSmark 2012 scoring methodology, task response times are used to generate a performance rating that reflects the user experience. The faster a PC responds to the application workloads in SYSmark 2012, the higher its SYSmark 2012 performance ratings will be.
Create a panoramic image using an image editing application, combine a set of photos into one high dynamic range (HDR) image, and adjust and prepare both images for print. Preview and encode a complex video project using a video compositing application. Here, OpenGL is used for all video previews and a software render is used for maximum video quality upon final output as recommended by software vendor documentation. Transcode the video to a format suitable for web publishing using a video editing application.
3DModeling
The 3D Modeling scenario focuses on creating, rendering, and previewing 3D objects and/or environments suitable for use in still imagery. The creation of 3D architectural models/landscapes and rendering of 2D images and video of models are also included.
SYSmark 2012 measures system performance by measuring the response time of tasks on a PC using real applications and simulated user input. In the SYSmark 2012 scoring methodology, task response times are used to generate a performance rating that reflects the user experience. The faster a PC responds to the application workloads in SYSmark 2012, the higher its SYSmark 2012 performance ratings will be.
Create components for a 3D scene, including a panoramic image and texture images, using an image editing application. Create and render views of an architectural model using realistic materials in an architectural modeling application. Add visual features to an existing architectural model, and render "sketch" style views using an architectural modeling application. Create a 3D scene, rendering views and a fly-through animation of the scene's progression through development, using a 3D modeling application.
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Conclusion
| Allgemein | + | - | |
| At a first glance we were surprised that the Gigabyte GA-7PESH1 comes with quite a nice color scheme. We really wouldn't have expected this from a workstation motherbooard. Furhtermore it was possible to install large CPU coolers, which is really usfull if you want to build a high-end workstation that operates at low noise level. Another nice addition is the LSI RAID Controller which is capable of managing up to twelve drives. Therefore it is also worth mentioning that the RAID Controller has been connected via eight lanes. Like there there should be plenty of bandwidth. | - Design - LSI RAID Controller - Spacious around CPU Sockets |
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| Layout | + | - | |
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Looking at the DIMM slots showed that they have been placed very close to the CPU sockets. Like this Gigabyte has been able to save some space which they needed because of the expansion slots. In fact there is a good mix. What you get is two PCI Express x16 Gen3 slots, two PCI Express x8 Gen3 slots as well as another PCI Express x4 Gen2 slot. If you for example want to install a high performance PCI Express SSD then you'll be happy about the PCI Express x8 Gen3 Slots. |
- Location of DIMM Slots - Expansion Slots - PCI Express Gen3 | ||
| Performance | + | - | |
| The performance when using synthetic and theorical benchmarks is just impressive. Performance is really up to twice as high when using two instead of only one processor. But sadly you won't see the same for real world workloads. Simply because todays software isn't ready for that many threads. Of course you will see benefits with such a machine if you require heavy computing workload or a virtual machine. We also noticed a huge performance drop regarding the memory and cache bandwidth when enabling the HyperThreading technology. Maybe this came due to a too young BIOS. We will report that to Gigabyte and let you know. | - Synthetic Benchmarks | - Memory and Cache Bandwidth when HyperThreading is enabled. | |
| BIOS | + | - | |
| The BIOS is of course well furnished for a server use. But only in this case. As we said already this motherboard is not designed for the enthusiast market so that's normal. But anyway we would have liked to have a BIOS with more configuration settings for clock frequency and memory timings for exemple. | - Lots of WorkSation/server settings | - Free of enthusiasts settings | |
| Recommendation | + | - | |
| I guess you already heard it too many times for whom this motherboard has been designed. So we recommend this motherboard for a server that is powering several virtual mahines. Furhtermore it's also very suitable for a high performance workstation. | -
Worksation - Server - Running several virtual machines |
- Overclocking - Gaming - Desktop |
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| Rating | |||
| We give the Gigabyte GA-7PESH1 four out of five stars. | |||
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Author: c.ney@ocaholic.ch Copy edited and translated: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch c.ney@ocaholic.ch