$160 *New* Supermicro X8SI6-NI015 + Intel Xeon x3450 + 8GB ECC RAM

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TubaMT

Member
Jul 26, 2014
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New Super Micro X8SI6 ATX Motherboard Xeon X3450 2 66GHz 8GB Memory X8SI6 Ni | eBay

-Supermicro X8SI6-NI015 motherboard (OEM version of X8SI6-F with integrated LSI SAS 2008 but without the 3rd integrated ethernet port for IPMI)
-Intel Xeon x3450 with stock heatsink
-8GB (4GB x 2) DDR3 1333Mhz unregistered ECC RAM (it is Micron branded)
-241 MB USB Flash Drive with Netgear ReadyNAS RAIDiator Software on it (plugged into motherboard with a "Warranty Void if Removed" sticker)

This guy has been selling these for the past month. It seems like he keeps getting more stock or no one is buying them.

This is pretty much the same board as the Supermicro X8SI6-F but it is an OEM board without IPMI (could be OEM from Netgear as they come with Netgear's ReadyNAS RAIDiator software on a USB flash drive that is plugged into the board. I took flash drive out without issue). The X8SI6-F is reviewed here at: http://www.servethehome.com/supermi...ew-including-onboard-lsi-sas-2008-controller/

and almost the same processor was reviewed here as well: http://www.servethehome.com/intel-xeon-x3440-windows-home-server-minireview/

A I/O shield can also be bought from here or from multiple other ebay sellers ranging from $5-$8: Brand New Supermicro I O Shield for Various Boards MCP 260 00027 0N | eBay

It's an older board but I bought one already and it has been working great so far and really did look brand new. I thought it was a good deal but maybe I was wrong. It has a LSI SAS 2008 chip which is the same as the IBM M1015 which goes for around $100 or so on ebay. I was able to flash the onboard LSI SAS 2008 controller successfully to the newest P19 firmware and BIOS with the help of these tutorials and comments:
http://www.servethehome.com/howto-flash-supermicro-x8si6f-lsi-sas-2008-controller-lsi-firmware/
and
Flashing IT Firmware to the LSI SAS9211-8i HBA - brycv.com

The motherboard BIOS was a little gimped but I was able to successfully upgrade the BIOS to version 1.2a from the Supermicro's X8SI6-F BIOS update page without any problems or any sort of tweaks. I updated it using a bootable DOS USB stick and following Supermicro's instructions to update the BIOS. Now the BIOS has a ton of options that all work great.
Supermicro's main X8SI6-F page where you can find the 1.2a BIOS update is here:
Super Micro Computer, Inc. - Products | Motherboards | Xeon Boards | X8SI6-F

I also threw another 8 GB (4GB x 2) DDR3 1333 Mhz ECC RAM (Kingston KVR1333D3E9SK2/8G) for around $50.

So all in all I spent about $212.50 for a fully functioning server board with an integrated LSI SAS 2008 chip and 16GB ECC RAM. Admittedly, I have not tried to use the SAS connectors yet but I have been able to boot it up, run memtest86+ for many hours without error, and install and run Windows 8.1 for the past 2 weeks with no problem at all on it.

Now the only thing to check out is if this mobo really does not have the IPMI option or not. I emailed Supermicro support and got a response saying it was not on this board, but they also said that I couldn't update it with the X8SI6-F BIOS (which I totally did and it worked flawlessly) so maybe it can work on 1 of the 2 integrated NIC's? I'm thinking about trying to update the IPMI firmware but I'm not sure if I should or not because I'm worried it may brick my board. Also, I'm not even sure it has the BMC chip on this board as I added a few heatsink chips to the board and don't remember what chips were there. And to tell you the truth I don't even know how IPMI really even works haha!

I'm still brand new to all this awesome server stuff! I'm trying to figure out what SAS expander I should get (thinking the HP SAS expander but I don't want to waste one of the 2 PCIe slots on this board), adding a USB 3.0 PCIe card to it, a PCIe video card, and still trying to figure out what to do with the 3.3V PCI slot (an Intel PRO 1000 GT, wireless card, or TV Tuner maybe?).
 
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TubaMT

Member
Jul 26, 2014
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An update on the IPMI functionality:

This board does indeed have a Nuvoton BMC controller on it. I remember that's what I covered up with my heatsink I put on it. I think it may be the same one as this one:
Nuvoton WPCM450R IPMI Chip with ATEN-Software - Thomas-Krenn-Wiki

But it seems that the actual IPMI flash memory chip for the firmware was never soldered on even though there are connections for it. But IPMI may be able to be added if you can get a flash chip, solder it on, and flash the firmware on it. Also the "BMC Enable/Disable" Jumper is not on the actual board but the solder joints and outline are there and look like they can be added as well.

And still, this board only has 2 Intel 82574L GbE ports so IPMI would have to run through one of them if possible.

This guy seemed to have done just that on a X8SIL-F board, which is very similar (pretty much the same) in design to the X8SI6-NI015...though I really do not understand soldering and everything he did so I'm not going to do anything drastic.
Removing IPMI Flash Memory from a X8SIL-F
and
Reattaching IPMI Memory to a X8SIL-F

It may be just more hassle than it's worth and it would probably be easier to just pick up a second hand kvm-over-ip switch off ebay if that functionality is needed.
 
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AERuffy

Member
Dec 12, 2013
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Nice find, pretty decent specs, ddr3, VT-D, 1156 chip. Great for a NAS or home ESXi host.
 

TubaMT

Member
Jul 26, 2014
112
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+1

Nice find, OP.

Do you have any power consumption numbers you could share on this combo?

I don't unfortunately :'( I do not have a kill-a-watt or have it hooked up to a UPS battery backup to test draw from the wall. But one of the links I posted above (http://www.servethehome.com/intel-xeon-x3440-windows-home-server-minireview/) has a very similar motherboard (without the onboard LSI SAS 2008 chip which I think typically draws around 7-12 watts) and processor (Xeon x3440 vs. x3450).
 

ehorn

Active Member
Jun 21, 2012
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Yes, those published power numbers are spot on for this unit. and the LSI HBA works great.

Nice little kit for the price. Thanks again for the tip, OP.