The tested all-atom force elds captured the most important general eects of CHOL on membrane properties: increased acyl chain ordering, concomitant increase in bilayer thickness, and reduced lateral diusion rate of phospholipids. However, quantitative comparison reveals dierences between force elds and their qualities evaluated against NMR and X-ray scattering data. Comparison with NMR order parameters and X-ray scattering form factors proposes that simulations reproduce experimental results until up to 20 mol-% of CHOL, but overestimate the acyl chain ordering and membrane thickness after further addition of CHOL. An apparent exception to this is the Lipid17 force eld, yet its seemingly better agreement with experiments results from compensation of the initially (at low CHOL concentrations) underestimated acyl chain order by the overly strong response to CHOL addition.