Test Bed and Setup - Intel Xeon E Six-Core Review: E-2186G, E-2176G, E-2146G, and E-2136 Tested

Test Bed and Setup

As per our processor testing policy, we take a premium category motherboard suitable for the socket, and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the manufacturer's maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.

Test Setup
Intel XeonE-2186G
E-2176G
E-2146G
E-2136
Supermicro
X11SCA-W
v1TRUE CopperCorsair Ballistix
4x4GB
DDR4-2666
E3-1280 v5
E3-1275 v5
E3-1270 v5
GIGABYTE
X170-Extreme ECC
F21eSilverstone
AR10-115XS*
G.Skill RipjawsV
2x16GB
DDR4-2133
Inteli9-9900K
i9-9700K
i9-9600K
ASRock Z390
Gaming i7
P1.70TRUE CopperCrucial Ballistix
4x4GB
DDR4-2666
Inteli7-8086K
i7-8700K
i5-8600K
i5-8400
ASRock Z390
Gaming i7
P1.70TRUE CopperCrucial Ballistix
4x4 GB
DDR4-2666
AMDRyzen 7 2700X
Ryzen 5 2600X
ASRock X370
Gaming K4
P4.80Wraith Max*G.Skill SniperX
2x8GB
DDR4-2933
GPUSapphire RX 460 2GB (CPU Tests)
MSI GTX 1080 Gaming 8G (Gaming Tests)
PSUCorsair AX860i
Corsair AX1200i
SSDCrucial MX200 1TB
OSWindows 10 x64 RS3 1709
Spectre and Meltdown Patched
*VRM Supplimented with SST-FHP141-VF 173 CFM fans

Many thanks to...

We must thank the following companies for kindly providing hardware for our multiple test beds. Some of this hardware is not in this test bed specifically, but is used in other testing.

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