LGA 1150 Haswell Motherboard with proper VT-d support

[RyC]

I contacted Superbiiz and they said September 24th: http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-X10SAT

 

[jbvertexx]

I picked up a used Radeon card off Ebay for my build with a Xeon 1230 v2. It's working well - saved a decent amount of money that I was able to put toward more memory and a Gold rated PSU.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300948137280?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

 

[rekd0514]

I picked up a used Radeon card off Ebay for my build with a Xeon 1230 v2. It's working well - saved a decent amount of money that I was able to put toward more memory and a Gold rated PSU.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/300948137280?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Are you sure that card is even worth using over the onboard graphics? lol It seems like it would be a downgrade even to that.

 

[zir_blazer]

What do you think about using one on the cheaper mATX Supermicro C222 or C224 boards and putting a low power 7750 with passive heatsink? The 7750 use only the PCIe slot for power and have very low idle power usage. This would use up a slot on the board, but would also allow you to use a cheaper Xeon with no IGP. Do you think IPMI would still work that way as well?

Looks like it is possible to have C226 + IPMI. Supermicro X10SLH-F and AsRock E3C226D2I do so. Both have only a VGA rear port, and according to X10SLH-F diagram it is connected to the ASPeed controller, not Haswell. So it seems it can be done, but you're forced to not be able to use Haswell GPU for video output but maybe only as a GPGPU coprocessor for OpenCL and QuickSync. I don't need IPMI, so I don't have to take that choice.

On your case, I would have spended a bit more and get a Xeon with IGP instead of purchasing a 8 generations old Video Card, as you're neither Chipset or IPMI limited. Ivy Bridge own IGP should be better than your new Video Card in almost every metric.
I don't know why, but most Xeons I saw were of the non-IGP version even on machines where having Haswell GPU would have been a wonderful choice. It doesn't make sense that people doesn't pay the relatively small 10-15 U$D difference between the non-IGP and IGP versions considering that currently on Haswell around 33% of the die is devoted to the GPU, then spend that difference on a discrete low end Video Card for a non-gaming machine.

 

[jbvertexx]

Are you sure that card is even worth using over the onboard graphics? lol It seems like it would be a downgrade even to that.

Yeah, I wasn't looking for good graphics, just trying to save $$. I'm running a headless home server on a consumer grade ASROC H61 motherboard that I payed $60 for. The motherboard supports the Xeon CPU with HW virtualization, but it won't boot if it doesn't detect graphics.

I picked up the E3-1230V2 at a Microcenter for $200. It's the cheapest 8-threaded CPU available. The next level up with onboard graphics was the 1245V2 at $42 more.

So, the video card is there pretty much to allow the mobo to boot, although it sounds like some of you guys might be able to modify the bios and stuff like that - I'm not anywhere near that level.

Money saved went to better memory and a certified Gold Seasonic PSU.

So far, it's worked well for what I wanted in a home server. I'm using Ubuntu Server and KVM (Kernel Virtual Machine) to run my VMs.

 

[rekd0514]

Looks like it is possible to have C226 + IPMI. Supermicro X10SLH-F and AsRock E3C226D2I do so. Both have only a VGA rear port, and according to X10SLH-F diagram it is connected to the ASPeed controller, not Haswell. So it seems it can be done, but you're forced to not be able to use Haswell GPU for video output but maybe only as a GPGPU coprocessor for OpenCL and QuickSync. I don't need IPMI, so I don't have to take that choice.

So do you think if I put a 7750 in a C222 or C224 chipset that IPMI will not work because it has to use the Aspeed controller? I may just go this route anyways to save the extra cost of the C226 motherboard and higher end Xeon even though I lose IPMI. As long as the vt-d is working properly then I'm OK with that.

 

[rekd0514]

I decided I am going to go with MBD-X10SLH-F-O and Intel Xeon E3-1245V3. The combo is $403 on Newegg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...=Combo.1426762

I just need to find out if it has a C2 stepping yet.

 

[RyC]

Look what I got from Superbiiz :O

http://imgur.com/a/0b3Oe

The motherboard is indeed blue, sorry for the bad photo. It also says "Use non-ECC RAM" on the board, but ECC RAM does work fine!

 

[vailr]

@RyC: does that Supermicro X10SAT board have a "dual bios" such as Gigabyte boards have? I'm guessing that it does not.
Also: have you verified (via running CPU-Z) that the chipset includes the revised C2 version?

 

[RyC]

No dual BIOS that I can tell. I'm running ESXi so I can't get the chipset version...I think I have a USB boot drive that has CPU-Z that I can fire up and see real quick. Its been running straight since I set it up and no problems that I can see so far.

 

[jRpthlpk]

Intel has this page where they claim that you only need Processor and BIOS support to use VT-d, they don't mention Chipset.

I read the information on this page (http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/cs-030922.htm) like this:

Intel® Desktop Boards require the following components to support Intel® VT or Intel® VT-d:

• Intel® Processor that supports Intel VT
• BIOS with Intel VT or VT-d support (found on the Security menu in BIOS setup)
• A third party VMM (virtual machine manager) may also be required

This information says what the Board requires from the components. It says nothing about the chipset of the Board.

Intel also has other pages:

Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d): Enhancing Intel platforms for efficient virtualization of I/O devices

[FONT=&quot]Submitted by TW Burger on Mon, 03/05/2012 - 23:16[/FONT]

http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-virtualization-technology-for-directed-io-vt-d-enhancing-intel-platforms-for-efficient-virtualization-of-io-devices

Intel® VT-d requirements

VT-d will be available on Intel Client, Workstation and select Server products in second half of 2007.

Hardware

• A platform that has a chipset with VT-d support

Software enabling required for VT-d

• A VMM (or Hypervisor) with the support required for VT-d features in the virtualization environment. No changes are required for guests running over the VMM.
• OS enabling is required for the OS to take advantage of VT-d protection features in native OS environment or non-virtualization environment.

BIOS requirements for the platform

• BIOS enabling is required for VT-d use. The BIOS needs to expose VT-d capabilities (e.g. # of DMA remap engines etc) to the VMM through the ACPI table.

In http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/intelligent-systems/intel-technology/vt-directed-io-spec.html you can read in chapter 1 Introduction:

This document describes the Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O ("Intel® VT for Directed I/O"); specifically, it describes the components supporting I/O virtualization as it applies to platforms that use Intel® processors and core logic chipsets complying with Intel® platform specification.

Chances are that pretty much it works on any Haswell Chipset, don't recall hearing anywhere that it is artificially limited.

If I read http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/datasheets/8-series-chipset-pch-datasheet.pdf I can find no restrictions regarding VT-d.

Chapter 1.2.1 Capability Overview, page 52 of 992:

Whenever there are restrictions you can read: See Section 1.3 for details on SKU feature availability. In the section Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (Intel® VT-d) you can not find this restrictive hint.

If you go to chapter 1.3 Intel® 8 Series / 220 Series Chipset Family SKU Definition, page 54 of 992 you will not find a restriction for Q87, Q85, B85, Z87 or H87 regarding Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (Intel® VT-d).

Chapter 5, Functional Description, page 302 of 992:

5.29 Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT): There are no restrictions described.
5.29.1 Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) for Directed I/O (Intel® VT-d) Objectives: There are no restrictions described.


If I look at http://ark.intel.com/compare/75013,75007,75004 (Compare: Intel® DH82Z87 PCH, Intel® DH82Q87 PCH, Intel® DH82H87 PCH) I get the following result:

Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) ‡

Intel® DH82Z87 PCH: No
Intel® DH82Q87 PCH: Yes
Intel® DH82H87 PCH: No
Intel® DH82B85 PCH: No


If I look at http://www.servethehome.com/intel-z87-q87-q85-h87-b85-pch-differences-explored/ I get the following information:

Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) ‡

Intel® DH82Z87 PCH: No
Intel® DH82Q87 PCH: Yes
Intel® DH82H87 PCH: No
Intel® DH82B85 PCH: No


If I look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Series_8_chipset I get the following information:

Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) ‡

Intel® DH82Z87 PCH: No
Intel® DH82Q87 PCH: Yes
Intel® DH82H87 PCH: No
Intel® DH82B85 PCH: No

 

[Kougar]

Taking what you've discussed here, it looks like virtualized gaming may be possible:

Intel 4770 (Vt-d support)
ASRock Z87M Pro4 (confirmed VTd support)
AMD 7970HD (tested working with VGA passthrough)

The GB Z87-UD5H has a UEFI option specifically for VT-d support, as well as a secondary VT/x setting. I can't modify the VT-d setting because I have a "K" chip that has the functionality disabled, but the VT-d option is there and documented.

 

[Asmith89]

Interesting that the appear user chiral for X10SAT states that alone unbuffered, non-ECC anamnesis is accurate and says annihilation about

 

[zir_blazer]

I left this Thread a bit in the dust.

@ jRpthlpk
The info you posted is something we've already talked about in this Thread. Basically, there is conflicting info - its possible to use VT-d in a non-Q87 Chipset, yet still no one knows the pros and cons of doing so.



I sent an E-Mail to Supermicro support some months ago. The first one got unanswered, but the second one (Resend it three weeks later) was.

Subject: Questions on X10SAT/C7Z87-OCE and a feature request‏

Please see comments inline.

I'm resending this E-Mail which I sent around one month ago but never received a reply. I would like, if possible, that Supermicro answers at least some of these questions, as it will make both my purchase, and some other people that are interested in the same product for use for both virtualization and overclocking, much easier.

Some months ago I sent a mail asking a few questions regarding these two Motherboards and got answers for most of these questions, but I prefer for confirmation, along with some new questions.

1 - I was told during July that X10SAT uses only the C2 Stepping Chipset. I can see that some eRetailers already have it. Can I buy this model with confidence that it is C2?

2 - C7Z87-OCE was launched with the C1 Chipsets. I suppose that sooner or later it will receive the new C2 Chipsets. As I'm still waiting to do my purchase because I specifically want the Motherboard to have a C2 Chipset, I need to know if there is any way to identify what Chipset it is before purchasing. Is there any sticker or label in the box of the Motherboard, different PCB Revision, or anything for that purpose?

For (1) and (2) - from the board itself, user will not be able to tell if C2 stepping is used. If you can get the S/N for the board and provide it to tech support, we can try to cross check the number to see if the board has the C2 stepping.

3 - The Manual of both Motherboards ask for a Power Supply with the 8-Pin EPS 12V or 4 + 4 ATX12V auxiliary power connector for the Processor. However, at the moment I have a rather old Power Supply that only has the old 4 Pin ATX 12V connector. I know that many Motherboards that does have a 8 Pin Socket for CPU power works finely with only the 4 Pin one connected, through there are others where the full 8 Pin connector is required.
Will either Motherboard work with an old ATX power supply, or I need to buy an adapter like this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812119267

4-pin 12V should work fine. You can try it first.

(The next questions are quite long and complex, due to the fact that I prefer to explain what I want to do, before making the question)


4 - I want to build a new system intended to be used as a virtualization lab. This system needs to have VT-d support because I'm going to use a VGA passthrough feature than the Hypervisor Software (Xen) can only do if VT-d is working. VT-d support needs Processor support, so K series Processors like the Core i7 4770K are discarded, as Intel disables VT-d on those. I through that I also needed to have specific Chipset support like Q87 or C226, that according to Intel are the ones that supports VT-d, but I have seen VT-d working on other Chipsets like Z87 that technically shouldn't support it. Supermicro support told me that on Z87, VT-d support can be workarounded by using a PCIe card on the PCIe slots connected to the Processor.
However, when comparing VT-d on a Motherboard with Z87 Chipset against one with C226, is there any compatibility or performance difference between them that may justify C226 over Z87? Do I am missing anything if I use VT-d on a Z87 Motherboard? I simply can't find any info regarding this.

The support of VT-d is based on Intel specifications. We have never done any performance comparison between C226 and Z87. Please consult Intel for VT-d performance comparison between the two.

5 - While X10SAT seems the safest choice if what I want is just VT-d, I also like to tweak my system, and that requires a BIOS with options to allow me to do so. C7Z87-OCE and X10SAT are near identical, but last time that I asked, due to X10SAT being a Workstation Motherboard, Supermicro said that there will be no overclocking options on it, through the C7Z87-OCE is full featured as it is intended as an Enthusiast Motherboard. So I have to choose between full VT-d support with C226, or overclocking with Z87. Indeed, not being able to use a K series Processors greatly limits any overclock as I would not be able to freely raise the Multiplier on any Processor supporting VT-d, but I was expecting to at least be able to force TurboBoost Frequency to always be the maximum via a feature that others manufacturers calls Multi Core Enchament:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6214/multicore-enhancement-the-debate-about-free-mhz

And, I also was expecting to be able to manually undervolt the Processor to reduce power consumption, something that on Haswell is easy to do if the BIOS allows you to manually adjust Processor voltage:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2330764

Due to the fact that neither Motherboard does 100% what I want, I'm forced to choose between those two feature kits. So I would like to know if Supermicro could add at least support for some extra options with a custom BIOS for the X10SAT (Forcing Turbo Frequency to maximum always, manual Processor Voltage control, and possibily manual Processor Multiplier in case that C226 allows you to use a lower-than-stock Multiplier). This will solve my Motherboard choice dilemma between your two models by making the X10SAT a hybrid with the BIOS options I want from the C7Z87-OCE (Or better yet if you can add most of them, or anything that is not Chipset-bound)
There are some other people that is also interesed in this:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2326402

While I know that Supermicro mostly doesn't gives BIOS options that allows to run out-of-spec your Workstation Motherboards, I suppose that you may want to consider allowing so as I'm not the only one that wants to do this on the X10SAT.

Every user has his/her own set of system requirements and Supermicro sometimes cannot offer solution that can meet 100% of the requirements. In this case user will have to look at the tradeoff of selecting one over the other and finalize the selection which will benefit him the most. We do value your suggestion/comment and certainly will consider them in planning for our next generation products.

6 - Due to the fact that either Motherboard could end up running 3 Video Cards, I have been recently reading about limitations on current Motherboards and Power Supplies power delivering capabilites:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/power-supply-specifications-atx-reference,3061-8.html
http://www.reddit.com/r/litecoinmin...he_powered_riser_problem_is_there_a_hardware/

I saw several setups that were used for Bitcoin mining with all the PCIe 16x slots filled with Video Cards, and also the PCI and PCIe 1x slots via risers. As each PCIe 16x slot should be capable of delivery 75W, with 3 cards there should be at the very least a 225W load on the 12V cables of the 24 Pin ATX connector. According to the first link, the maximum that can be safely delivered using high-end standarized components is 264W, so basically, there are only a surplus of 39W to deal with any Motherboard component that depends on the 12V coming from the ATX connector, plus anything that is on the other 3 PCIe 1x slots.
When the ATX connector is overloaded, catastrophes like these melted cables and terminals happen:

http://i.imgur.com/rR2YnaU.jpg
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=102890.0

The solution that some people found is modding the PCIe risers to avoid placing such loads on the Motherboard, like this:

http://blog.zorinaq.com/?e=44

Is there any official guideline from Supermicro to know how many power draw from add on cards is reliabily supported before suffering the ATX overload issue I described, so I know what to do in order to avoid damage if I want to fill all PCIe slots with a combination like 3 Video Cards, a Sound Card, an extra SATA/SAS Controller and an extra NIC?


Our design of PCIe slots are compliant to the PCIe standard and its specs. So please follow the PCIe specs for the max wattage supported for the slots.


Many thanks in advance in case someone takes the time to answer all them.

The only answer that left me unsatisfied was the last one. I think they didn't understanded that the problem isn't the PCIe Slot itself, but that you overload the ATX power connector if you have too many PCIe Cards, and how would they deal with that issue.
I expect that Supermicro could do extremely well on the prosumer, power user and enthusiasts market (Enthusiast =! overclockers or gamers) if they were to get closer to that 100% of features with their Workstation Motherboards.



I still didn't have made my purchase. After waiting several months, Newegg still does not have the X10SAT, they just provide a link to a third party shop that sell it much more expensive than AcmeMicro. AcmeMicro has it for 256 U$D, but they kill me with the international shipping cost. eBay vendors seems to have mostly the bulk version of the X10SAT (X10SAT-B), not the retail one (X10SAT-O). I'm trying to get it shipped directly to me so I save the cost of using a middleman for importation, but looks like I will have to fork more money to do it that way.

 

[vailr]

@ zir_blazer: what country are you located, that you need to import to?

The only features that the Supermicro X10SAT-O board seems to lack are:
1. Dual bios
2. 3D UEFI bios
Gigabyte has those features as standard on their current line-up, but AFAIK (unfortunately) they've not yet released an ATX board with competitive hardware specifications: C226 chipset, as well as the other Supermicro X10SAT-O board features.

 

[RyC]

That's what I've seemed to gather. For me at least, a 3D BIOS isn't necessary for a workstation/server board. For the Supermicro CZ87-OCE board though, perhaps. The ASUS P9D WS turned out to have several issues. It wouldn't POST with a Supermicro power supply, nor would it boot ESXi. I had to install ESXi using "formatmbr" to get it to boot.

 

[zir_blazer]

@ zir_blazer: what country are you located, that you need to import to?

Argentina.

There is an official Supermicro dealer here which I talked to 4 months ago, but their prices are nearly twice than what on the USA, plus one month wait because they have to actually bring it. It seems that they import on request and have no stock. Most regular Hardware vendors are around 30-40% over Newegg prices for common and popular parts, so their price is scary. There are a whole bunch of issues regarding importation. First, custom taxes are 50% of the item value, add international shipping to that which is 60-80 U$D. This means that it is a HUGE price difference. Why most vendors can sell it to end users at the price range I said earlier, its not my problem, but I guess they know how to bypass customs.
Secondly, currency exchange is restricted from a year ago or so. Basically, I can't purchase US dollars unless I'm a tourist and present papers that I'm going to go outside of the country. Obviously you have a dollar black market, which is between 50%-75% above the official price - absolutely no. This means I can't do wire transfers, unless someone is willing to take argentinian pesos and transform them to US dollars at their side (Which I don't know at what currency exchange values work).
Exception is that I can actually use an international Credit Card to purchase at 20% higher than the official value (Which worked on eBay when I purchased my Memory Modules, and I think I can use it with Paypal assuming its charging me with a purchase and not depositing money into an account, if I recall correctly), but there are many vendors like Newegg which do not accept international Credit Cards unless it has been issued in the US.
There seems to be some professional sites that acts as middleman with warehouses like Shipito, which I hear most people had good experience with and accept international Credit Cards. If I were to purchase something in a retailer like Newegg which doesn't ship internationally, I can ship it to them, then them to me, and they can also accept my international Credit Card while simultaneously making such purchase on Newegg themselves. Seems to be the best bet.

As you see, all this importation stuff is hard to do right. The problem is that with SOO MANY variables, I don't even know what the actual final price will be. So I don't know how many money I will have to fork to get what I want. The idea is, obviously, getting it for the less possible final price.

The only features that the Supermicro X10SAT-O board seems to lack are:
1. Dual bios
2. 3D UEFI bios

Neither of those are important to me. What it is missing, is a wide array of BIOS options to allow you to run it out-of-spec (Aka under/overclocking, under/overvolting, Timmings, etc). Compare C7Z87-OCE and X10SAT Manuals and you will see that there is a BIG difference in that area.
The only thing which I'm aware that is Chipset limited and you need an Z87 for, is making use of the Unlocked Multiplier of a K series Processor, so I suppose a C226 based Motherboard could potentially have everything but that, which isn't the case here.

 

[vailr]

Argentina.

There's a poster on another forum called "andressergio" who lives in Montevideo, Uruguay. He may have some advice for obtaining and importing motherboards and other PC products into that part of South America.
His most recent post:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums...a-(M)-Thread&p=5214184&viewfull=1#post5214184
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/AndressergioUruguayOC

 

[zir_blazer]

There's a poster on another forum called "andressergio" who lives in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Uruguay is totally different to Argentina in this regard. Whatever it works for him, for me will not - they don't have the restrictions we have here.
Actually, its common that argentinians go there as they can freely purchase dollars in banks to store savings.


I think I will do it via Shipito or a know middleman, which is the popular method here. Problem is that I don't know the final cost of this will be - which is what doesn't convince me.

 

[Versus13]

No dual BIOS that I can tell. I'm running ESXi so I can't get the chipset version...I think I have a USB boot drive that has CPU-Z that I can fire up and see real quick. Its been running straight since I set it up and no problems that I can see so far.

Hey RyC,

How do you like the mobo so far? Have you tried vPro?

I'm torn between the X10SAT and the X10SL7 and can't make up my mind. One has a lot of PCIe connectivity potencial while the other is quite limited in that remark but has IPMI (something i would like to have considering i spend a lot of time away from home) and lots of SATA ports. The latter isn't essencial for me considering i have a spare M1015 lying around, but would still be nice to have.

vPro could do the trick, but i'm yet to find anyone praising their features, especially when compared to IPMI.

Btw, are all SATA ports recognized under ESXi? Did you try to passthough the C226 SATA ports to a VM?

Choices, choices...

I would appreciate if anyone could shed some light on this. Thanks in advance!

 

[irTwit]

zir_blazer, your posts have been a great source of information. I would buy the X10SAT but I'm fretting over not having some extra spacing between the x16 PCIe slots in case I ever go to dual GPU.

Does anyone have any opinions on the ASRock C226 WS?

http://www.asrock.com/server/overview.asp?cat=Specifications&Model=C226%20WS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157409

 

[dac7nco]

zir_blazer, your posts have been a great source of information. I would buy the X10SAT but I'm fretting over not having some extra spacing between the x16 PCIe slots in case I ever go to dual GPU.

Does anyone have any opinions on the ASRock C226 WS?

http://www.asrock.com/server/overview.asp?cat=Specifications&Model=C226 WS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157409

It's basically a Z87 board with ECC support. I know ASRock is entering the server market (I looked over their dual 2011 boards awhile back), but Supermicro and Tyan are the only boards I'll look at for a long time... because they've been solid for a long time.

The only time I've strayed is with Intel and Gigabyte, on the server side...

Intel server boards make it IMPOSSIBLE to DIY. Chassis, RAID, 10Gb-E... are ALL Intel only, which means you spend close to 10 grand for MB/IO/Chassis/CPUs/Certified memory etc. with no discs and no PCIe additions.

The Gigabyte server boards I've dealt with are pretty good, but for some reason they have flaky IPMI... Supermicro's IPMI (And ASUS/Tyan) is truly outstanding... RDP on a Supermicro board is flawless; you can deal with BIOS, windows, everything in a window on your screen anywhere in the world.

Supermicro has the worst customer service ever, aside from Lian-Li. The boards come basically bullet-proof, so that eases some strain.

You want this: http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C220/X10SAE.cfm

 

[Versus13]

zir_blazer, your posts have been a great source of information. I would buy the X10SAT but I'm fretting over not having some extra spacing between the x16 PCIe slots in case I ever go to dual GPU.

Does anyone have any opinions on the ASRock C226 WS?

http://www.asrock.com/server/overview.asp?cat=Specifications&Model=C226%20WS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157409

Regarding the ASRock C226 WS, you might want to read this first:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=29906.0
http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=28665.msg269435#msg269435
http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=30001.0

 

[RyC]

Hey RyC,

How do you like the mobo so far? Have you tried vPro?

I'm torn between the X10SAT and the X10SL7 and can't make up my mind. One has a lot of PCIe connectivity potencial while the other is quite limited in that remark but has IPMI (something i would like to have considering i spend a lot of time away from home) and lots of SATA ports. The latter isn't essencial for me considering i have a spare M1015 lying around, but would still be nice to have.

vPro could do the trick, but i'm yet to find anyone praising their features, especially when compared to IPMI.

Btw, are all SATA ports recognized under ESXi? Did you try to passthough the C226 SATA ports to a VM?

Choices, choices...

I would appreciate if anyone could shed some light on this. Thanks in advance!

I have not tried vPro, I am going to shut down the server to install a NIC and I'll have the chance to dig through the BIOS and enable it and try it out (and also confirm C2 stepping). I'm curious too, I've never dealt with vPro before.

Good question about the SATA ports. There are 2 SATA ports that go through the ASM1061 instead of the C226. They are the rightmost 2 ports I believe and they are the same color as the other ports! Those 2 ports are NOT recognized in ESXi. Other than that, the C226 ports are natively recognized and I've got RDM setup to a few VMs. I haven't tried passthrough on the onboard SATA, but 2 M1015's are being passed through successfully. Overall, I'm pretty happy. It's doing everything I expected it to do just fine. I personally wanted more PCIe slots over IPMI, which is why I went with the X10SAT.

 

[RyC]

By the way for anyone wondering, these boards do seem to come with C2 revision!