WHS Mobo

you don't necessarily have to have a server motherboard for WHS, i'm running an abit P9 pro in my WHS as a matter of fact
 
My advice is buy something with as many sata ports as you think you'll need. Don't worry about buying a "server" grade motherboard, HPs prebuilts certainly don't have them.
 
Not worried about server grade, my current WHS board is a GB P35 DS3L. Worried about PCI-x and dual GB. I've already got one SM SAT card and I'll be getting a second. With the above board I can almost completely populate a Norco 4020. I've got a spare 4 port promise PCI card to finish populating and leave a few spare ports for esata.

My only real issue with this board is that it doesn't seem to support any CPU's that I have on hand, and I have problems with buying a CPU that is 3 or 4 generations old.
 
I want at least 2 PCI-x slots, the third is just gravy. I realize that the SM card works in a standard PCI slot, but it will work better (and faster) in a PCI-X slot.

This is the board I was considering before I saw the sale on the Tyan:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182144

The benifit here is the ICH9 (6 onboard sata == no promise card needed) and C2D support. I've currently got a E2180 unused and a E5200 I can pull from a system.
 
Speed can matter, I cap out my single gigabit link regularly when moving files. Thus I am moving to dual gigabit (after I get a switch). Pretty much any decent server board will have dual intel gigabit onboard, a PCI-e dual port card starts around $150.

The PCI-x just makes things easier. Don't have to worry about overhang and other similar things. My current mobo only supports a single pci-x card because of where the onboard sata ports are, and various other junk on the board (ide port, etc...). In addition, with the server mobo I know I will have onboard video, there really aren't that many (good) atx consumer boards which have that.

My main questions were a) whether the tyan board was any good, and b) just how bad would a P4 suck (compared to the E2180 or E5200) for heat, power, and performance. I really don't like buying CPU's that are that out of date.
 
ND40oz said:
Speed isn't going to matter with WHS, but if you want PCI-X for your cards, then go for it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182142

I'd take a Supermicro over a Tyan personally.
Click to expand...

I agree with Supermicro over Tyan, but damn, that's quite a big price difference from what drgnfang linked originally. I've got an Asus P5BV/SAS in my WHS with one SM SAT2-MV8 card. I'm getting ready to put in the second soon. Had I seen this Tyan board before I bought my Asus, I would have picked it up. I've got dual Braodcom gigabit, but I'm not real thrilled with it. Dual Intel will be much better.
 
WHS certainly isn't going to be a problem for a Pentium D to run, of course it's going to run hotter then a core 2 duo, but it'll definitely serve it's purpose.

As for the board price, it all depends on what options you want and if you're cool with buying boards that have been EOL'd.
 
It just seems insane that the board wouldn't work with a newer CPU... Would that just be bios related? That price almost makes it worth testing out.

EOL - that probably explains the dirt cheap price. I didn't see that. Thanks.
 
Well, that board was released in May of 2006, before the Core 2 release. The E7230 chipset was never meant for core 2 support. So the board was released toward the end of the Pentium D cycle and then never updated for core 2, Tyan just released new boards based on the newer 3000 and then 3200 series chipsets.

http://www.tyan.com/product_board_detail.aspx?pid=337
 
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