Desktop Build- Supermicro board? (fan control) or asus ROG

[james23]

Im starting to price out parts for a new workstation build as my primary/daily pc-

Im ok with getting another (latest gen) asus ROG (republic of gamers) motherboard, while i dont do ANY gaming on this machine, i do like the build quality of these boards, and more importantly that they have great fan control options via the bios/uefi.

however i am leaning towards a supermicro board for my daily pc- i use supermicro everywhere (servers), and they are reliable. + i also would love to have IPMI on my workstation (not for vKVM as ill run gpus, but mainly for remote power control and event logs/ remote parameter monitoring via prtg, remote bios settings)

core requirements/needs:
- will run 2 or 3x GPUs so i can drive my current 8x monitors (no gaming at all, so even crappy gpus)
- fan control so i can make it quiet (near silent! , will use my existing noctura fans, so this is more about having bios control over the fan RPMs or fan curves, i dont like using fan APPs or any non essential windows apps/services)
- intel (not amd, for now)
- (not a requirement): would love to have IPMI on my workstation (not for vKVM as i use gpus)
- single cpu (not dual)

use case / usage:
- lots of chrome / firefox (ie 100+ tabs generally)
- 128g ram or more
- large networks management + many servers management (vmware consoles/ssh / rdp) / minor coding / the occasional Photoshop or adobe premiere edit (is pretty rare though)
- (no overclocking, at all)

what i have currently:
(its not silent, but is very quiet, id say almost silent)
+Asus ROG Rampage IV black (x79)
+Socket 2011 (v0) Ivy-Bridge-E i7-4930k Hexa-Core 3.4ghz/3.9ghz Turbo (13065m / 1997 cpu score)
+GPUs (2x gpus total): AMD XFX 295x2 (4 GB x2 = 8GB) (4 x mDP + 2x DVI-D) + AMD Saphire 290x Tri-Fire (4GB) (HDMI + DP + 2x DVI-D )
+64g ram (d3 i think)
+nvme intel p3700 800gb (boot / apps- 340g free space now) + ~500g of sata ssd raid1 (win SW raid) + most of files/data i use is via NAS
+win10

What im planning on getting:
+MB- supermicro X11SPA-TF-O (new)
+CPU- 2nd gen: Intel® Xeon® Silver 4210 Processor 10c 3.2g / 2.2g -- 15898 / 1727s (ebay)
+optane 480gb pcie as boot- $400 - optane 480g for OS

im looking for any input from others who run supermicro in their daily PC.

ive read these great threads (and a few others related):
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/advice-on-building-xeon-workstation.25525/
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/supermicro-workstation-motherboard.5795/
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/workstation-motherboard.14189/

 

[KarelG]

Im starting to price out parts for a new workstation build as my primary/daily pc-

[...]

What im planning on getting:
+MB- supermicro X11SPA-TF-O (new)
+CPU- 2nd gen: Intel® Xeon® Silver 4210 Processor 10c 3.2g / 2.2g -- 15898 / 1727s (ebay)
+optane 480gb pcie as boot- $400 - optane 480g for OS

im looking for any input from others who run supermicro in their daily PC.

Your relatively low-performance CPU leads to questions:

(1) why not Epyc -- which would be cheaper and more performant
or
(2) why not Xeon-W which will have more solid single-thread perf. which is *also* needed for *workstation*.

I can understand X11SPA in this setup only if you plan to go with RAM over 1TB limit of let say X11SRA(-F). Otherwise I think you pay more and get less for your money...

 

[TXAG26]

I know my built went against a lot of recommendations as to what a "proper" desktop build should look like, but I've been very pleased with it.
More details here:
https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...-nc-workstation-build-follow-up-report.27263/

While SM boards do have bios controlled fans and most have 2-3 different modes/profiles, it does not allow fine-tuning of the rpms/temps.
I have been happy with a Noctua 4-pin PWM fan controller for the one fan that ran a little louder than I wanted.
Noctua NA-FC1

The recent price changes on Intel/Xeon CPU's may change some of the assumptions/points in the post I linked to. I have not gone back to update it in the light of the Intel price cuts.

 

[james23]

excellent replies, thank you all very much.

(1) why not Epyc -- which would be cheaper and more performant
or
(2) why not Xeon-W which will have more solid single-thread perf. which is *also* needed for *workstation*.

1- this may sound dumb / old (ie old AMD Opteron vs Xeon days) , but i dont have any experience with AMD (desktop or server) as of yet, and im not sure of compatibility or other issues. that said, this is not the box i want to test/experiment on (as this pc is critical to my daily work), so i do want to stick to intel for now.

2- i havent been looking at xeonW 32XX processors because even the lowest end 32xx is 1800$ new, and there are no w32XX cpus on ebay at all, so as far as i can tell, i can save $ by going with a used Silver (im trying to spend less than 800$ on the cpu itself, not 800$ on the entire build).

however (based on your reply), i may now be looking at running this MB (which is the same as the X11SPA-TF-O i had spec'd but it ALSO supports Xeon® W-32xx Processors , in addition to 1st and 2nd get xeon Scalable s)

X11SPA-T | Motherboards | Products | Super Micro Computer, Inc.
(specs say it DOES have IPMI even though no -F in the model number, which worries me a bit)

awesome cpu (but too expensive and no used/ebay options):
Xeon W-3235 -12c 3.3ghz/4.5gTurbo (23658m / 2635s cpu score)

(also in reply to your 1tb ram, i plan on starting with 128gb ram, and will never, ever go above 256gb, so i dont really need 12x ram slots, its more about having those many PCIe slots (and the spacing / size of board, as i will be running 2 or 3x low end GPUs + a 10g SFP card, and a pcie optane card)

KarelG, in light of my $$ point in reguards to the xeon W32XX line (and my >256gb ram pont), what is your opinion now, please?

I know my built went against a lot of recommendations as to what a "proper" desktop build should look like, but I've been very pleased with it.
More details here:
https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...-nc-workstation-build-follow-up-report.27263/

thanks TXAG26, i will look very closely at your build/specs and consider going the AMD direction. In regards to your SM / Fan speed point, i too had planned on getting some kind of physical fan controller if needed, as i do want this machine to be QUIET! (i will be using 8x noctura fans from my current PC , in this new build).

edit: DAMN TXAG26- 39,000 multicore CPU passmark score on a $900 cpu! ($900 new, not ebay used!) i may have to reconsider the sticking with INTEL premise of my new build...

TXAG26- i am reading through your entire thread, but have you had any issues re: going with AMD vs intel? thanks

 

[KarelG]

James23: I've not been talking about Xeon W-32xx but in fact about Xeon W-22xx. For $800 I'm sure you can find CPU which may be more powerful and more suitable for workstation need than Silver although their availability in common market is still quite limited.
Anyway, your chosen silver is 10c so 10c Xeon W is W-2255 and it should definitely be under $800. Also this part is quite common and available. What's not available is 8c W-2245 and 4c W-2225 etc. At least here in EU.
Just checked Provantage and they have 123 in stock and just a bit under $800 so I'm sure it's available to you...

 

[KarelG]

James23: board for Xeon W-22xx line made by Supermicro is X11SRA(-F). I'm also looking into this line, but somehow lost trust in smicro hence purchased Fujitsu/Kontron D3598-B -- this is w/o IPMI but semi-industrial version which may be even better for my purpose...