What's the significance between the Supermicro X9DRi-F and the X9DRH-iF?

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hippyhappo

Member
Oct 3, 2016
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The X9DRi-F is here:
Supermicro | Products | Motherboards | Xeon® Boards | X9DRi-F

The X9DRH-iF is here:
Supermicro | Products | Motherboards | Xeon® Boards | X9DRH-iF

I checked out Supermicro's chart on the model name and didn't see anything regarding the "H" in the 5th character. I looked over all the specs and the only difference I saw between the two models is the PCI-E configuration (the X9DRi-F has 3 16x and 3 8x slots, while the X9DRH-iF has a single 16x and 6 8x slots).

I'm just curious. If this is indeed the only difference between the two models, what purpose does the X9DRH-iF serve? Why would anybody prefer 8x PCI-E slots over 16x PCI-E slots?

Thanks
 

PigLover

Moderator
Jan 26, 2011
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The X9DRi-F is here:
Supermicro | Products | Motherboards | Xeon® Boards | X9DRi-F

The X9DRH-iF is here:
Supermicro | Products | Motherboards | Xeon® Boards | X9DRH-iF

I checked out Supermicro's chart on the model name and didn't see anything regarding the "H" in the 5th character. I looked over all the specs and the only difference I saw between the two models is the PCI-E configuration (the X9DRi-F has 3 16x and 3 8x slots, while the X9DRH-iF has a single 16x and 6 8x slots).

I'm just curious. If this is indeed the only difference between the two models, what purpose does the X9DRH-iF serve? Why would anybody prefer 8x PCI-E slots over 16x PCI-E slots?

Thanks
I don't know of a reason to prefer x8 ports over x16 - but I do know of a lot of reasons to prefer having a total of 7 slots instead of just having 6...even if that means splitting one of the x16 slots into 2 x8's.
 

hippyhappo

Member
Oct 3, 2016
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I don't know of a reason to prefer x8 ports over x16 - but I do know of a lot of reasons to prefer having a total of 7 slots instead of just having 6...even if that means splitting one of the x16 slots into 2 x8's.
Thanks. I did notice the extra slot it provided, but just didn't think Supermicro would create a completely different model solely for that (seems like a pretty niche thing / people would just have multiple systems if they needed more than the six slots in the X9DRi-F). I'm far from an expert though, so maybe it does make a significant difference for a big company / at volume.
 

PigLover

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Jan 26, 2011
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Think of stuffing a system full of GPUs...for machine learning or mining or whatever.

Later systems with PCIe switch and single-root designs got even more niche. But if people will buy enough of them then SuperMicro will build them.
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
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Yes it’s kind of odd in dual CPU where it all comes from CPU, in the single cpu boards often although boards look similar there can be large differences how the PCIe slots are provided, some off PCH for example.
 

hippyhappo

Member
Oct 3, 2016
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Think of stuffing a system full of GPUs...for machine learning or mining or whatever.

Later systems with PCIe switch and single-root designs got even more niche. But if people will buy enough of them then SuperMicro will build them.
Yeah, that makes sense. Supermicro makes over 70 DP X9 boards, so with all those boards, I guess the differences between some will be pretty small.