Which 1156 MB to choose?

J

JonTa

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 29, 2008
Messages
109
Ok, I have narrowed it down to this two;

- Supermicro X8SIA-F
- Intel S3420GPLX

I will be running 4GB of DDR3 ECC ram with Xeon L3406 cpu. I need pcie slots for additional Gbit NIC, saslp card, hp expander, etc..

I can get both boards quite cheap, so I dont know which will be more stable/reliable for home server. Any input will be much appreciated.
 
For a home server, both will work fine. I just used the X8ST3-F in my new home server and love it! Quite scary that my home server is now consuming 8U, 8 lan ports, and two 1kw power supplies. :-/
 
very nice choices, please post your experience when you complete the system
 
I am looking for Supermicro X8SIA-F, But cant find it for sale anyway.


Supermicro X8SIA-F look like awasome card. My asus striker extreme is bad as serverboard :D
 
Thanks for the input guys. I know that I cant go wrong with either of the boards mentioned, but was just seeking from which one I will get most for the price (both can get for around 180€).

Im more leaned forward to intel one, but is just personal preference. Are there any other mentionable differences between two? Both use same chipset, same onboard nics, same number of pcie slots, etc
 
Supermicro X8SIA-F got 6x PCI-E and 1 PCI/ Intel Mb got 5 PCI-E and 1 PCI.
I like top PCI-E 1x slot. wich intel have no slot there.

Supermicro X8SIA-F layout:

PCI Express x1 slot (x1 mechanical)
PCI Express 2.0 x8 slot (x16 mechanical)
PCI Express 2.0 x8 slot (x8 mechanical)
PCI Express 2.0 x8 slot (x8 mechanical)
PCI Express x1 slot (x1 mechanical)
PCI Express x4 slot (x8 mechanical)
PCI

Intel S3420GPL layout:

empty
PCI Express 2.0 x8 slot (x16 mechanical)
PCI Express 2.0 x8 slot (x8 mechanical)
PCI Express 2.0 x8 slot (x8 mechanical)
PCI Express 2.0 x4 slot (x8 mechanical)
PCI Express x1 slot (x1 mechanical)
PCI
 
Ok, Im going with X8SIA-F, ordered today alongside Xeon L3406, 4GB of kingston DDR3 ECC and HP SAS expander card. Should be up and running in a few weeks.
 
out of interest ... why the xeon rather than say a core i3 or i5?

i have the SM X8SIL-F on order; when it'll arrive is anyone's guess! :(
 
because i3 & i5 does not support ECC + the L3406 is a sweet 24/7 cpu with 30w of tdp
 
i run a core i3 530 in my X8SIL-F and i am using 4 gig of ecc U dimms.

4444780776_e6794c6155.jpg
 
With Intel iCore family the ECC is not supported (disabled) on desktop processors (they can do this on the chip itself since the iCore family has bulit in memory controller).

From intel site; http://www.intel.com/support/processors/corei3/sb/CS-031175.htm

Does the Intel® Core™ i3 desktop processor support Error Correction Code (ECC) memory?

The Intel® Core™ i3 desktop processor does not support ECC memory. Typically ECC memory is used on servers and workstations, rather than on desktop platforms. This is due to the price premium and extremely low likelihood of a data error occurring even on memory not utilizing ECC.
Click to expand...

What that means is that the memory itself will work, but the ECC function is disabled. Xeons are the only new generation Intel processors that can use ECC, AFAIK.
 
I cannot say either way... I know the board required it and i had no other choice.

In the end i did and do no feel its worth the money to run a Xeon class chip in just about any home based application.

so i went with the I3 to save money and heat.

if you need the Xeon for something cool. Just not for me.

Even as intel states data errors are so unlikely that's it prob not worth the extra cost outside of Corp datacenters.

Either way you will be happy with your purchase :)
 
pjkenned said:
Certainly moot, but interesting to note that the i5-650 supports ECC. http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=43546&processor=i5-650&spec-codes=SLBLK

I'm fairly sure in a motherboard with onboard IPMI graphics (where you could shut off the i5's GPU) you'd have an interesting platform because you could keep stock i5-650 clocks or lower them (and probably undervolt) drastically for lower power consumption.
Click to expand...

It supports ECC memory as far as it doesn't not work. ECC functions don't work, but the memory does.

As for power savings, that gpu circuitry contains the chip's memory controller so can't be shut down completely so savings won't be as good as they could be.
 
Wow thanks for sharing. It is odd since, for example, the i7 920 doesn't support ECC memory and the Intel page lists it as such: http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=42915,37147,46473,46472,43546,

It makes 100% sense. On the GPU side, I'm fairly certain that the GPU has decent power gating since I experimented with underclocking/undervolting the i5's GPU and decided it just wasn't worth it. Odds are the GPU logic is fairly seperate from the memory controller even if they are on the same 45nm die.
 
As another Clarkdale aside, I saw that too -- playing with the i3 GPU clocks/voltage, at least for idle/light 2D usage had no real effect (>= 1W at socket) on power usage. Undervolting the i3 CPU had a VERY minor effect on idle power. The internal power mgmt seems excellent on the Clarkdales.
 
JonTa said:
Ok, Im going with X8SIA-F, ordered today alongside Xeon L3406, 4GB of kingston DDR3 ECC and HP SAS expander card. Should be up and running in a few weeks.
Click to expand...

I am looking at a similar setup. It sounds like the perfect low powered server.

Did you get yours put together yet? How much power does it use?
 
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