ASRock Rack EPC612D4U-2T8R (Intel C612) mATX Server Motherboard Review

The Test System and Test Software

As we’re trying to branch out with more relevant reviews for all of our readers, we’ve started this new section with server grade motherboards and we’ve also begun reviewing workstation systems such as the Boston Venom 3401-7T.

To test a server grade motherboard like this, we want to stress every component of the system to check stability and performance. While the benchmarks in themselves test the actual connected components such as CPU and memory instead of the motherboard itself, the results will give us comparable figures allowing you as the reader to pick the best.

To test a motherboard like this, we need a lot of extra components and we’ll be using the same each time. You can find a complete list of them below.

System components

• CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2695 v3
• RAM: Crucial DDR4 2133 MHz (4x 16GB)
• SSD: Micron M500DC 800GB System Drive
• PSU: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 1200W
• Case: CoolerMaster Lab Testbench
• Cooler: Noctua NH-U12DX i4

We use a wide variety of applications to gain a broad spectrum of results for comparing diverse aspects of the system performance.

Software

• Windows Server 2012 R2
• AIDA64 Engineer Edition
• Cinebench R11.5
• Cinebench R15.0
• Geekbench 3
• PCMark PerformanceTest 8.0
• SPECwpc
• SiSoftware Sandra
• SuperPi Mod 1.9 WP
• wPrime 2.10

There are more components needed such as a switch to connect the network ports to and storage drives to test the different connections that the motherboard has to offer.

Network components

• Netgear ProSafe GS724TPS Smart Switch

Storage Drives

• Angelbird SSD2go Pocket 512GB USB 3.0 SSD
• Intel 750 SSD 1.2TB PCIe NVMe SSD
• Toshiba HG6 512GB SATA3 SSD