ServeTheHome – Intel Xeon AMD Opteron RAID Controller Reviews

The ASUS P67 Sabertooth motherboard is part of ASUS’ TUF series, touting enhancements for improved stability and reliability. Many of this site’s users have, or are considering migrating to Intel’s new Sandy Bridge Core i5-2500K and Core i7-2600K CPUs that offer multiplier unlocked overclocking alongside a bit of base clock tweaking. This has made the Core i7-2600K the current uni-processor champion in speed, despite the Xeon E3-1280′s 100MHz stock clock speed advantage. With the fairly easy access to 4.0GHz or greater clock speeds, the UP Core i7-2600K at 4GHz can handily dispatch dual Xeon E5606 CPUs in raw compute power opening up the consumer targeted chips to more than just desktop and gaming use, but also for compute nodes. The P67 Sabertooth is a board that looks to both provide reliable desktop and gaming use, but also reliable long-term use for computationally intensive tasks. Continue Reading

Supermicro is well known for producing solid server motherboards, chassis, peripheral cards, and accessories. At the relatively lower-end of the market are uni-processor (UP) servers and workstations. Unlike dual and quad processor systems that oftentimes require specialized platforms, UP servers can tend to be very similar to higher-end consumer platforms. For example, Intel’s 5-series consumer chip sets were very similar to the 3400 series server chip sets, and in-fact, one could put a LGA 1156 Core i3-530 into a Intel 3400 series motherboard like the Supermicro X8SIL-F. Likewise, for a period of time I used an old Core i7 920 (later replaced by a Xeon W3550) in a Supermicro X8ST3-F which was basically the server version of a consumer X58 platform. As we have seen on this site, the next-generation Sandy Bridge Xeons such as the E3-1230 work in H67 consumer motherboards. Supermicro has taken its knowledge of UP server platforms and adapted it to the consumer market for Intel Sandy bridge platforms and has a new consumer offering, the C7P67 motherboard based on the P67 chip set. Continue Reading

The Supermicro X8DTH-6F motherboard is a substantial dual processor (DP) motherboard loaded with on board features and expansion possibilities. Users looking for a low-end server, or a simple 20 drive system accessed over a single Gigabit Ethernet port should avert their eyes because this board is about as feature packed as they come. For those looking to build a very expandable powerhouse of a server, this is probably a good starting point. I get asked about this board and the X8DT6-F (similar board with a single IOH and fewer PCIe slots) at least once a week so when Supermicro approached me about reviewing the board I decided, albeit daunting, I would check the board out. Continue Reading

After recently reviewing the ASUS P8H67-M EVO I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at a larger ATX motherboard, the ASUS P8P67 Pro. Based on the P67 chipset, the ATX board sacrifices being able to use Intel’s Sandy Bridge on-die GPU to provide video connectivity in favor of a few distinct advantages. The P67 chip set supports overclocking and splitting PCIe lines off of the GPU into two PCIe 2.0 x8 lanes. The net result is a pretty awesome feature set with one big caveat, a ton of Sandy Bridge transistors related to the onboard GPU, such as  Quick Sync cannot be used with the P67 chip set. Continue Reading

The ASUS P8H67-M EVO is a very interesting board with a lot of features for the HTPC enthusiast. Based on the H67 chipset, the mATX board utilizes Intel’s Sandy Bridge on-die GPU to provide video connectivity. With the P67 chip set supporting overclocking, split PCIe lines off of the GPU, but lacking the ability to utilize Intel’s on-die GPU, the H67 chip set found on the ASUS P8H67-M EVO positions the board for the HTPC market or others where 3D graphics performance is not required beyond Windows 7′s Aero interface. This particular board intrigued me because it has not just a PCIe x16 slot, but also includes a PCIe x4 slot (with AMD CrossFire support), a PCIe x1 slot, and a legacy PCI slot in the compact mATX form factor. Continue Reading

ASUS is known for a fairly solid set of workstation and server motherboards. Like many vendors, ASUS uses Intel NICs on its server motherboards, and there are options ranging from IPMI 2.0 with KVM-over-IP to SAS connectivity. The ASUS P7F-E server motherboard reviewed here uses a different design methodology than the Supermicro X8SI6-F recently reviewed whereby ASUS provides tons of configurability but a lower number of onboard features. ASUS’s value proposition is that an organization can qualify one board and select add-ins as needed which is something that works well in many IT organizations. Continue Reading

Oftentimes those building their own small business and home storage servers are looking to save considerable amounts of money. In the process, users oftentimes look to the lowest cost motherboard they can find, with the wisdom that add-in cards can get the features that they want. On the other end of the spectrum are server motherboards like the Supermicro X8SI6-F that have everything or almost everything users need onboard. The Supermicro X8SI6-F costs in the $300 range, which would be a turn-off for many users, but when one looks at the features, $300 looks like a relative bargain. Continue Reading

As one would gather from my previous Intel Atom D510 and NM10 post, I am not the biggest fan of the current D510 Atom platform with NM10 chipset. ZOTAC, to its credit, did take a rather mediocre platform and build a solid board around it. The most probable use case is a streaming media HTPC (non h.264) to a legacy 720p display. The nice thing about the ZOTAC offering is that it has quite a few expansion options for a D510/ NM10 based system, and it is ready to go out of the box. Unlike other Intel and AMD platforms, the Atom D510 and accompanying heatsink do not need to be installed by the user. One can literally plug in a display, mouse, keyboard, RAM, storage drive(s), and 20-pin power source and start using the system. As a preview, my end conclusion is that the ZOTAC board is a great choice given the platform, but the Intel platform leaves a lot to be desired. Continue Reading

Intel’s 3400 chipset for its socket 1156 platform accepts CPU’s from the cheap Intel Pentium G6950 and Core i3-530 to the higher end Xeon X3430 to X3470 CPUs. Both Clarkdale and Lynnfield based CPU’s offer outstanding power consumption (for early 2010) at relatively low costs. After reviewing the Supermicro X8SIL-F, I purchased a competing (price wise) Intel motherboard to review, the Intel S3420GPLC. As I soon found, Intel also makes a good board, however it lacks some of the Supermicro’s features.

Continue Reading

My main server, the Big WHS now houses over 60TB of storage, runs multiple VM’s, and has over 10 Gigabit NICs. At the heart of this server, is a Supermicro X8ST3-F. It was not the first motherboard I tried in the server, as I originally tried using an ASUS P6T7 WS Supercomputer in the Big WHS, but it has been running solidly since its first installation. Aside from its stability, it also comes with many PCIe slots, an onboard LSI 1068e based 8 port SATA/ SAS controller, dual Intel Gigabit NICs, onboard video, and IPMI 2.0 with KVM over IP.

Continue Reading