Intel Sandy Bridge E Review

Testing

To evaluate the Sandy Bridge E processors we used the Asus Sabertooth X79, one of several LGA2011 motherboards we are putting through their paces in the bit-tech lab right now.

To test the AMD FX-8150 we used the Asus Crosshair V Formula motherboard which is based on the AMD 990FX chipset and Socket AM3+ CPU socket.

For the Intel LGA1155 processors, we used the Asus Maximus IV Gene-Z and for the LGA1336 processors, we used the Asus Sabertooth X58.

You'll also find benchmark results and power consumption figures for several workstation and server CPUs in this article, because we believe that Sandy Bridge E is a good match for this market. The pair of Opteron 6174s was tested in a Supermicro H8DGU-F motherboard while the two pairs of Xeon processors were tested in an EVGA Classified SR-2 motherboard.

All six motherboards have proved to be excellent performers, and so are great options for testing CPUs.

Test Setup

Software

Below is a list of the applications we've used for our testing - most of them are available free for public consumption, although some are popular professional software applications.

• Shogun 2: Total War (CPU test only)
  
• Arma II: Operation Arrowhead
  
• WPrime v2.05
  
• Our own Media Benchmarks v2007.235
  
• Maxon Cinebench 11.5R (x64)
  
• Euler3D
  
• FlamMap
  
• LightWave 9.6
  
• Terragen 2

We've used Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1, as this is the most flexible and reliable 64-bit OS for testing the applications above.

Test Hardware

• Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 3GB graphics card (GeForce driver 280.26 WHQL)
  
• 120GB Patriot Wildfire SSD
  
• Enermax Revolution 85+ 1.05kW power supply
  
• Asus Crosshair V Formula motherboard
  
• Asus Maximus IV Gene-Z motherboard
  
• Asus Sabertooth X58 motherboard
  
• Supermicro H8DGU-F motherboard
  
• EVGA Classified SR-2 motherboard
  
• 4/6GB (2GB DIMMs) Corsair 1,600MHz DDR3 memory (CL9)
  
• 16GB (4GB DIMMs) G.Skill 2,133MHz DDR3 memory (CL9)
  
• Corsair H80 CPU cooler for LGA2011 processors; Thermaltake Frio CPU cooler for AMD processors; Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro cooler for Intel LGA1155 processors and the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Advanced for Intel LGA1366 processors.

The table below lists how we overclocked each CPU that we benchmarked that is included in this article: