Supermicro X9SCM-IIF

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Limp Gawd
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Jan 29, 2011
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349
Hi,
does anybody know the Supermicro-Board "X9SCM-IIF"?
What is the difference to the current X9SCM-F?

It is explicitly mentioned here (among other new ones): http://www.supermicro.com/newsroom/pressreleases/2012/press120514_UP_IVB.cfm

And via google you find this PDF:
ftp://supermicro.com/CDR-X9-UP_1.11_for_Intel_X9_UP_platform/MANUALS/X9SCM_SCL-IIF/X9SCM_SCL-IIF.pdf

Wanting an E3-1230V2, shall I wait for the X9SCM-IIF (perhaps something PanterPoint?) or just buy the current X9SCM-F?

Any insight?
 
The X9SCM-iiF has "Intel® 82574L Dual port GbE LAN" while the X9SCM-F has "Intel® 82579LM and 82574L, 2x Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports," or so says Supermicro.

This thread should be in the Motherboard section though..
 
insaneirish said:
FYI these boards are now in stock at SuperBiiz. https://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=MB-X9SMII

I special ordered two from them and they may have just ordered extra for stocking. Mine are en route.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up.

Strangely, the X9SCM-iiF is still not "officially" listed on Supermicro's web page:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon3000/#1155

although it IS there, "hidden", but easy enough to guess the URL:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C202_C204/X9SCM-iiF.cfm

No one else seems to have that board in stock, except for a few people selling them for $400+ , which I assume are the "beta" boards that Supermicro sometimes pre-releases.

It will be interesting to see if superbiiz really does have them in stock.

By the way, for anyone looking to fully populate this board with 32GB of RAM, here is the least expensive 8GB module I have seen that are on Supermicro's memory compatibility list for the X9SCM-iiF :

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php...3b14d093fcd0163043bdb4a02f26b96af9e825d0a5e05
 
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JoeComp said:
By the way, for anyone looking to fully populate this board with 32GB of RAM, here is the least expensive 8GB modules I have seen that are on Supermicro's memory compatibility list:

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php...3b14d093fcd0163043bdb4a02f26b96af9e825d0a5e05
Click to expand...
Thanks! Bookmarked. This is not registered ECC, so it is unbuffered, yes?

I hope this will also work in the coming X9SAE mobo, which has an C216 chipset.


EDIT: found a similar ram stick. You found the
M391B1G73BH0-CK0
But I found a similar stick:
M391B1G73BH0-CH9
I wonder what the differences are?
 
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I was talking about RAM that was on Supermicro's memory compatibility list for the X9SCM-iiF. For the board you mentioned, I cannot find it on Supermicro's website, so I cannot check the memory compatibility list for it.

As for the difference in part numbers, it is the speed, 1600 MT/s vs. 1333 MT/s
 
Let me suggest an alternative, not on the QVL. The difference between the following is speed and voltage.

Mfr Part Number: M391B1G73BH0-YH9
Speed: PC10600 1333MHz
CL9, 1.35V

Mfr Part Number: M391B1G73BH0-CK0
Speed: PC12800 1600MHz
1.5 V

Common:
Type: DDR3
Capacity: 8GB
Size & Bit: 1G x 72
Pins: 240pin
ECC: Yes
Registered: No
Chip: Samsung
Rank: 2


They are both "30nm class" 1.35V DDR3 ECC Unbuffered DIMM ( http://www.samsung.com/global/busin.../Products/DDR3/DDR3_Lineup.html#prodMajorAppB )
with CK0 binned for 1600Mhz and YH9 binned for low voltage.
 
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JoeComp said:
Nope, he asked about -CH9, not -YH9. Only difference is speed.
Click to expand...

Isn't that obvious when I listed the part numbers?

Why would you even consider a slower/higher voltage module which costs >= compared to modules that are faster/lower voltage?

The only potential reason is QVL, but generally modules with the same chips and ASIC usually work (i.e. same manufacturer, model and batch are decent indicators but not guaranteed)
 
zeroARMY said:
This is way cheaper and works great: http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=W1333EB8GM

Running some in mine
Click to expand...

That is slower than the one I linked to, and it does not appear to be on the X9SCM-iiF memory compatibility list.

It may still be a good option, but I wonder whether you truly have an X9SCM-iiF, or whether you actually have the older X9SCM-F. If it works in one, it is likely to work in the other, but for someone who wants the guarantee that Supermicro has tested it with the specific motherboard, it may be worth it to pay extra. Also the added speed may be worth it to some people.
 
JoeComp said:
Isn't what obvious? That you made a mistake and answered a question that was not asked? That you seem confused about the subject being discussed?
Click to expand...

Lol. Read past the first line, they answer your next set of questions. If I had made a mistake I would have said so.

Depending on your constraints, some people stick to QVL, it seems you are one of those people. I am providing an alternative solution for those who would like to be a bit more efficient.
 
encore2097 said:
Lol. Read past the first line, they answer your next set of questions. If I had made a mistake I would have said so.
Click to expand...

I read every word in your post. You answered the wrong question. The answer to the question that was asked is "the difference is speed". The difference is NOT voltage.

Why would he be asking about $400+ DIMMs in a discussion about sub-$100 DIMMs?
 
JoeComp said:
I read every word in your post. You answered the wrong question. The answer to the question that was asked is "the difference is speed". The difference is NOT voltage.

Why would he be asking about $400+ DIMMs in a discussion about sub-$100 DIMMs?
Click to expand...

Lol again. Who's talking about $400+ DIMMs?

M391B1G73BH0-CH900 - $78.99
M391B1G73BH0-YH9 - $80.99
M391B1G73BH0-CK0 - $92.99

You can find these at the sites YOU provided.

At this point I'm not sure if you are trolling or just willfully ignorant?
 
encore2097 said:
They are pretty new, so I doubt they are on any QVL. SuperMicro boards allow you to set the memory speed. I have these at 1600Mhz... obviously no guarantees since you are "overclocking".
Click to expand...

But are you sure they are running at 1.35V? I don't know how much control the X9SCM-iiF BIOS (or similar SM BIOS for other boards) gives you over DRAM voltage. If it does not display the actual voltage that it is running at, you may be running at 1.5V.
 
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I'm almost certain they are running @ 1.5v

I didn't find any DRAM voltage settings but I'm on an older BIOS. I'll be able to check for sure next time I can take the system down.
 
JoeComp said:
That is slower than the one I linked to, and it does not appear to be on the X9SCM-iiF memory compatibility list.

It may still be a good option, but I wonder whether you truly have an X9SCM-iiF, or whether you actually have the older X9SCM-F. If it works in one, it is likely to work in the other, but for someone who wants the guarantee that Supermicro has tested it with the specific motherboard, it may be worth it to pay extra. Also the added speed may be worth it to some people.
Click to expand...

Mid next week I will have an X9SCM-IIF, an E3-1230v2, and the aforementioned RAM (Super Talent W1333EB8GM) on hand. Once I get everything, I will put it together, and (assuming it POSTs), run memtest86 on it for a while and report back.
 
insaneirish said:
Mid next week I will have an X9SCM-IIF, an E3-1230v2, and the aforementioned RAM (Super Talent W1333EB8GM) on hand. Once I get everything, I will put it together, and (assuming it POSTs), run memtest86 on it for a while and report back.
Click to expand...

So I have everything. Naturally it won't boot. Memory or no memory, I get no video from the board, no IPMI DHCP requests, and no beep codes. CPU fan spins, LEDs on board are on, just seems dead.

Waiting for a response from SuperMicro.
 
insaneirish said:
So I have everything. Naturally it won't boot. Memory or no memory, I get no video from the board, no IPMI DHCP requests, and no beep codes. CPU fan spins, LEDs on board are on, just seems dead.

Waiting for a response from SuperMicro.
Click to expand...

I'd double check this at the bottom of the motherboard product page:

*** BIOS rev. 2.0 or above is needed to support new E3-1200 v2 CPUs, which supports PCI-E 3.0 & DDR3 1600.
 
I think dogbait is onto something based on the symptoms of no-boot. It may be a catch 22 where you'd need an older and supported CPU to be able to boot it up in order to flash it to support the new CPU.

On the Sandy Bridge / Ivy Bridge side of things this has been a classic problem for people with Z68 motherboards where the motherboard vendor released an Ivy Bridge compatibility firmware update and if it wasn't performed before seating an IB CPU then no boot. You need an SB CPU to flash it first basically, and you know how it goes with motherboards sitting in retail inventory where they're always a few revs behind. This was a headache for people that sold their SB CPU too quickly before flashing the mobo, or people that bought an SB mobo and IB CPU at the same time since SB mobos dropped in price.

On the other hand I guess we should be grateful that forward-compatibility is even a possibility versus the motherboard simply being obsolete and being forced to buy a new gen.
 
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Thank you both for your comments. If this is the case, I am going to be quite annoyed. This board wasn't even announced until after Ivy Bridge was launched. If it has an old BIOS revision, it pretty much sums up my opinion that SuperMicro is a careless, amateur company.

I deal with their prebuilt servers at work on occasion (a lot of vendors who ship "appliances" use them) and they are absolute nightmares. The only reason I buy them for home is that they are the most used boards that support ECC, IPMi, etc.
 
We're just speculating though, it could have nothing to do with bios firmware. And I thought that the v2 board was supposed to come with IVB support out of the box -- is there a way to confirm its a v2 board? The label on the Supermicro box sometimes has this if not on the board itself.

In any case I'd try to get it going before throwing the baby out with the bathwater and writing off Supermicro -- their server boards are absolutely solid in my experience, have running various combinations of different generation boards for the past 6 years for home storage and will only buy Supermicro going forward.

Once you get it going you will not regret it and it should last forever. This is just an unfortunate SNAFU due to this CPU generational changeover. Maybe you could borrow an older gen CPU from someone, or figure out the minimum CPU the board will take and look if amazon has a 'warehouse deal' on one and just buy that temporarily, since it would already be opened you wouldn't have to feel bad about returning it.
 
I ordered an X9SCM-iiF from superbiiz, and I just received it. The sticker on the motherboard box clearly identifies it as "MBD-X9SCM-IIF-O", and the sticker on the motherboard itself is "X9SCM-IIF".

I installed a Xeon E3-1270 V2 and 32GB of Samsung 1600MT/s RAM, connected the IPMI port to my LAN, and powered it on. All seems well:

mBN8r.png


FQXFa.png
 
insaneirish said:
So I have everything. Naturally it won't boot. Memory or no memory, I get no video from the board, no IPMI DHCP requests, and no beep codes. CPU fan spins, LEDs on board are on, just seems dead.
Click to expand...

I'd lay long odds on a wager that the problem is one of two issues:

(1) Bad PSU or incompatible PSU

(2) Bad motherboard

I've seen some motherboards that are quite finicky about the PSU. In my case, it was an Asus server motherboard that had problems with a particular PSU (two MBs had the same problem, so it was not just a defective board), but when I switched to a Supermicro MB with the same PSU, no problem. I'm not sure what causes these sorts of incompatibilities, but they definitely can happen.

If you have another (known good) PSU you can swap in, that would be the first thing I would try.

If that doesn't work, I'd say the MB is defective. Unless my understanding of the BMC chip operation on SM motherboards is wrong, IPMI access does not use either the CPU or RAM on your MB -- it has everything it needs on its BMC chip. So if IPMI is not working, I would think that the problem cannot be blamed on the CPU or RAM.

EDIT:
BTW, when I say the IPMI does not need the CPU or RAM, I mean it should be able to accept commands like to power on/off the computer and so forth. Obviously to boot the machine and see the screens that I included in my previous post, the CPU and RAM must be operational.
 
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By the way, if anyone is looking for a CPU cooler (rather than the stock Intel cooler) that will fit in a 4U rackmount chassis and not block the PCIe slot on this board, I am quite happy with the Xigmatek LOKI SD963. It fastens on securely with screws and a backplate (rather than the annoying plastic pins of the Intel heatsink), it is capable of blowing "east to west" to match the airflow in a rackmount type chassis, and unlike the Noctua equivalent (NH-U9B that costs nearly triple the Xigmatek), the fan fasteners do not stick out to block the PCIe slot.
 
JoeComp said:
I'd lay long odds on a wager that the problem is one of two issues:

(1) Bad PSU or incompatible PSU
Click to expand...

Bingo! Thank you for the suggestion.

SuperMicro told me I likely received a 1.x BIOS board and to RMA. I took this as somewhat of confirmation that they were shipping the new IIF board with the old BIOS. However, I wanted to rule out the PSU. I didn't think I had anything that would work (I recycled much of my parts bin when I last moved), but then I remembered my router is an Atom based SuperMicro chassis, motherboard, PSU, etc.

However, the power supply only has a 20 pin connector. Figured I'd try it anyway. Sure enough, it booted right up!

Now to find a power supply that the X9SCM-IIF likes. The SeaSonic M12II 620 is not doing the trick. Glad I bought it from Amazon, though. Should be a hassle free return.
 
insaneirish said:
Bingo! Thank you for the suggestion.

SuperMicro told me I likely received a 1.x BIOS board and to RMA. I took this as somewhat of confirmation that they were shipping the new IIF board with the old BIOS.
Click to expand...

Wow, that is the second instance of bad Supermicro support that I have heard this month (someone posted that SM told them that their 24-pin ATX power supply probably has a different pinout). I wonder if they are that bad year round, or if it is just that their good support people are on vacation this month.

I'm glad to hear that you found the solution to your problem. I've generally had good luck with Seasonic PSUs, but I have only used gold or platinum for the past few years. I ran my boot test on the X9SCM-iiF with a Kingwin STR-500 Platinum (with the board just sitting on my workbench), but I was planning on installing it in a server with a Seasonic X750 Gold that I have. Hopefully the X750 works with the X9SCM-iiF (I'll post again later if it does NOT work, otherwise you can assume it worked for me).
 
Was there any confirmation that these boards are shipping with the correct BIOS for IVB? Or is it still up in the air to possibly get an older BIOS on them?

Thanks.
 
Regardless of what BIOS Supermicro is shipping from their warehouse, unless you are ordering directly from them you are going to get whatever is left in the channel first. The same problem is cropping up with people buying older Z68 stock and an IB processor. If you need to be sure, but it from a local B&M like Microcenter who will pop a store SB CPU in and flash the board for you to the latest.
 
Well I went ahead and pulled the trigger on it from SuperBiiz. We'll see how it goes. If all else fails, I think I should be able to drop by the local Fry's and borrow an SB CPU to flash with. I guess I'll let you guys know in a week or so when all my new toys come in.
 
SatanSkin said:
Was there any confirmation that these boards are shipping with the correct BIOS for IVB? Or is it still up in the air to possibly get an older BIOS on them?
Click to expand...

If you order the X9SCM-iiF, you will definitely get a BIOS compatible with the E3v2 CPUs.

If you order the X9SCM-F, you might get an older BIOS.
 
JoeComp said:
If you order the X9SCM-iiF, you will definitely get a BIOS compatible with the E3v2 CPUs.

If you order the X9SCM-F, you might get an older BIOS.
Click to expand...

Joe -
That is not correct. If you read the bottom of the product page you will see the *** BIOS rev. 2.0 or above is needed to support new E3-1200 v2 CPUs, which supports PCI-E 3.0 & DDR3 1600. I just got an iiF last week, which had a pre-2.0 BIOS on the board
 
mwroobel said:
Joe -
That is not correct. If you read the bottom of the product page you will see the *** BIOS rev. 2.0 or above is needed to support new E3-1200 v2 CPUs, which supports PCI-E 3.0 & DDR3 1600. I just got an iiF last week, which had a pre-2.0 BIOS on the board
Click to expand...

My post is correct. The note you reference is misleading (SM obviously just copied it from the X9SCM-F webpage). There is no way a NON-beta X9SCM-iiF can come with pre-2.0 BIOS, since the X9SCM-iiF board only went to retail sale in July 2012. The board you got must not have been -iiF (or you bought one of the beta boards, which is never a good idea).
 
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JoeComp said:
My post is correct. The note you reference is misleading (SM obviously just copied it from the X9SCM-F webpage). There is no way a NON-beta X9SCM-iiF can come with pre-2.0 BIOS, since the X9SCM-iiF board only went to retail sale in July 2012. The board you got must not have been -iiF (or you bought one of the beta boards, which is never a good idea).
Click to expand...

It was from the first run of the boards, we got in this week 2 X9SCM-iiF and two X9SPU-F. The iif's that we got shipped with 1.86. We are a Supermicro advanced release site, but these boards were final release boards but the 2.0 BIOS was probably not ready in the beginning of the first manufacture run. There was a CD enclosed with the 2.0 BIOS and a sheet which noted that the installed BIOS wouldn't run an IB without update.
 
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