Asus P9X79 WS

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sotech

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Jul 13, 2011
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I didn't see a thread on this motherboard after the review - if there is already one please point me that way :)

Picked up this board to replace our P8B WS with and we've hit a snag installing ESXi 5.0 where it hangs loading megaraid_sas. We've updated to BIOS 0802 and the system is running three IT-mode M1015s and one IR M1015. I have to go through and check that all of the cards are as up to date as they can be but before I do that - has anyone else set up ESXi on this board and ran into similar issues? Time-wise I'm hoping not to have to un-rack the server but that's what I get for doing that too soon, I suppose. Patrick, any input here since you have one of these in-house?
 
Patrick

Patrick

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Hey sotech,

Sorry, been hectic here. Good to see you found it. The change to UEFI is a big one.

Cheers,
Patrick
 
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sotech

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There's a BIOS update for this board; 0904. Doesn't look like there's anything relevant to servers on the description but I'll install it over the weekend and see if anything else has changed. I'm looking forward to having more ECC options like they brought into the P8B WS over time.

Have had this board for two months now in the server and it's been rock-solid - I'm not sure if we've even rebooted it in that time.
 
Patrick

Patrick

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Have not tried the BIOS yet, let me know what you find. My board has been great also. I'm only rebooting due to Windows.
 
MiniKnight

MiniKnight

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is there going to be a review of the asus z9pe-d8 ws? would like to see your thoughts on that board also.
 
Patrick

Patrick

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MiniKnight said:
is there going to be a review of the asus z9pe-d8 ws? would like to see your thoughts on that board also.
Click to expand...
MK: ASUS contacted me today about a few things. Looks like there is a good chance that the Z9PE-D8 WS will be in the list of items to review.
 
Patrick

Patrick

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Patrick said:
MK: ASUS contacted me today about a few things. Looks like there is a good chance that the Z9PE-D8 WS will be in the list of items to review.
Click to expand...
Z9PE-D8 WS is here and a few other goodies. Going to be a busy week or two.
 
MiniKnight

MiniKnight

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Z9PE-D8 WS = expensive motherboard. Same price as a real server board. Why not just get that and have onboard video?
 
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sotech

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Skipped 0904 and updated to 1001; no dramas, took me a minute or two to set the BIOS up again to where it was but otherwise it's business as usual.
 
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ehorn

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Jun 21, 2012
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Thanks for starting a thread sotech...

Just picked up this board today... Love it...

This is a new platform for me (X79) so I am putting the pieces in slowly and examining behavior.



Just keep adding components and testing... It has been rock solid stable so far.

Taking a break today though... I spent the last week wrestling with the P8Z77-WS... Finally it went back and this replaced it... Asus has done a nice job with the BIOS (or should I say UEFI) on this board. Very stable thus far...

peace,
 
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Patrick

Patrick

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Been using the P9X79 WS for months now as my daily driver. It is an absolutely great board.
 
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ehorn

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Last HBA arrived and along with some new cables to try out... The CBL-SFF8087SB-06M's (These are LSI branded Amphenol cables).



I like them better than the bulky ones I was using, tighter package and better airflow through the chassis... Just ordered a couple more to finish off the cabling.

Just need more drives now... :) A recent order from Adorama is taking a long time to arrive...



(11) in the chassis at present and they seem to be scaling well...

1MB Seq Read @ 64QD


4K Seq Reads @ 64QD



On a side note, the 3930K is really somthing else... Not even breaking a sweat. The CPU utilization in IOMeter screenies is misleading... Speedstep is not even kicking turbo mode in on this processor (yet)...

Measured 160W @ load from the wall. I suspect the PSU and fans are not helping matters with efficiency here though. I have work to do in this area once the array is finalized.

Nevertheless, alot of power in this proc, for sure. Having alot of fun with this new platform.

peace,
 
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Andreas

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Aug 21, 2012
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Hi ehorn,
isn't the LGA2011 a nice system :)
600k iops @4k has only one drawback - going back to a HDD based system will be very hard .....
Enjoy your new rig,
Andy
 
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ehorn

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Hi guys,

The Chassis is a Chenbro RM23424 and the drives are Sandisk Extreme 240's.

No doubt about that Andy... this MB/CPU combo is no slouch... neither the HBA/drives :)

The plan was/is to shake down stuff on this platform and to gather metrics then repurpose this MB/CPU to do compute stuff. Once I get the array sorted, I intend to test the IB fabric. I will pull out 1 HBA and swap in 2 NICs and examine throughput. This will let me examine performance capabilities on a scaled down version.

But the next phase of this SAN intends to be the following:



But this is an X79-WS thread and I add my humble vote of recommendation with high marks for this board.

peace,
 
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