Best mobo for dual Xeon setup.

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xnoto

Weaksauce
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Jan 11, 2004
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Hey all, i've been lurking here for quite some time now and just recently decided to register. That aside, i'm planning to build my next machine with dual Xeon 2.4's(533fsb) but i'm torn as to which mb to choose. I'm looking for quality and stability at a decent price. I'm open to all suggestions.

I figure this would be my best source of advice for what i'm looking for.

Thanks.
 
If you're able to find a SuperMicro board for a good price, I'd snatch it up. They make some of the best server/workstation boards on the market, they are bulletproof stable.
 
Excellent, thanks for your input. What about Tyan, are they any good?
 
Tyan also makes good quality Xeon MOBO's. I'd also recommend you have a look at the IWill DPI533-SATA and ASUS PC-DL. Both are solid MOBO's and the IWill OC's very easily.
 
If you're after rock solid stability and nothing else, Supermicro and Tyan are the ones you should look at. If you're into a bit of overclocking and want to try your luck, Iwill and Asus both have boards that you can overclock... As usual, your mileage may vary. ;)
 
Thanks guys, I appreciate it a ton! I've pretty much narrowed my selections down to supermicro and tyan, but the price ranges are very broad.

Will a cheaper(200-300$) supermicro or tyan be good, or are there any specific models that outshine others within that price range?

Also what would you recommend for ram? I was planning on going with Corsair XMS.

I am going with the Xeon 2.4's with HT.
 
xnoto:

You'd be glad to hear that one of Supermicro's cheaper boards, the X5DAL-G is solid as a rock. There's nothing fancy on it, but has all the standard goodies you'd expect of a high quality workstation board - AGP Pro 4x/8x, 133MHz and 100MHz PCI-X (not PCI Express), 4 DIMMs (I think registered DIMMs are an requirement, but I can't be sure; ECC available. I run a pair of 512MB Cosair PC2100 Registered ECC DDR SDRAM (CAS 2))... Nothing overly fancy but fast and stable. :D
 
I've pretty much narrowed my selections down to supermicro and tyan
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Between these two I would go with the Supermicro. I have built many systems on both platforms and both are good. But the Tyan systems although very stable once configured properly, can be a tad finkiey at times and a bit harder to set up at first on some systems. The Supermicro's have always been a posative experience for me.
 
Originally posted by spikegifted
xnoto:

You'd be glad to hear that one of Supermicro's cheaper boards, the X5DAL-G is solid as a rock. There's nothing fancy on it, but has all the standard goodies you'd expect of a high quality workstation board - AGP Pro 4x/8x, 133MHz and 100MHz PCI-X (not PCI Express), 4 DIMMs (I think registered DIMMs are an requirement, but I can't be sure; ECC available. I run a pair of 512MB Cosair PC2100 Registered ECC DDR SDRAM (CAS 2))... Nothing overly fancy but fast and stable. :D
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Awesome, thanks man. If I go with PC2100, wont it bottleneck my system because it's only running at 266fsb?
 
Originally posted by xnoto
If I go with PC2100, wont it bottleneck my system because it's only running at 266fsb?
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One of the things you can't do with the X5DAL-G is to overclock the FSB, except from 400MHz FSB to 533MHz FSB. So no matter how fast your RAM is, you won't get your rig run any faster than PC2100 speed. But don't forget, the E7505 chipset has a dual channel DDR memory controller which means that it has 4.2GB/s of bandwidth, which is perfect for Xeons running with 533MHz FSB. Also, you should get high quality RAM, even DIMMs that are rated higher than PC2100, so to bring down the memory latency... You may as well make the most of this excellent platform. :)
 
Supermicro for sure. My next system will be based upon one of their boards too.
 
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