Intel C202, C204, C206 Xeon E3 Bromolow Motherboards Thread

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meatincereal

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Jul 20, 2011
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I can confirm that the P8B WS supports vmDirectPath on all 4 of the x16 (x8,x8,x4,x4) pci-e slots. I currently have 2 IBM BR-10i (flashed to LSI 1068e IT firmware), 1 Supermicro 2 port Intel Gig LAN card & 1 ATI 5670 video card (passes through but doesn't actually work in a guest)). No problems in ESXi 4.1 or 5.0 so far.

Good luck on your build!
Good stuff! Did you try to pass through all those cards at the same time? Also, any chance you could post your dmidecode output? There's been some discussion on ECC with this board.

Refering to my post at hardforum: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1037757870#post1037757870
 

emc

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Sep 15, 2011
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Yes ... all slots were passed through ... 2 - BR-10i & Supermicro 2 port LAN to Solaris 11 - ATI video to Win 7 x64. The pci-e x1 slot was also populated (Realtek NIC) but not passed through. I am not familiar with dmidecode.
 

syndrome

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Sep 18, 2011
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Anybody have more info about these boards? 8 DIMM slots would be nice for an easy 32GB now, and 64 later when the 8GB sticks come out at a reasonable price. The dual board is promising, too. I see it showing up on some sites, possibly available for purchase soon.

Are there mid-tower sized cases that can accomodate an extended ATX?

X9DR6 (-F/i-F)
EATX, dual Sandy Bridge EP (Socket R). 16 DDR3 slots for up to 256 GB of REG ECC ram. 4 PCI-E 3.0 x 16, 1 PCI-E 3.0 x8 in x16, 1 PCI-E x4 in X8, 8 port SAS2. Also includes USB type A connector on motherboard.

X9SRE-6 (-F/-LN4/-T)
ATX board, uni proc Sandy Bridge EP (Socket R). 8 DIMM slots for up to 256 gb of REG ECC ram. 1 PCI-E 3.0 x16, 1 PCI-E 3.0 x8 in x16. 1 PCI-E 2.0 x4 in x16. 3 PCI-X slots. two USB type A connectors. 8 SAS2/SATA ports.

X9SRi-6 (-F/-LN4/-T)
Same as SRE-6 except it only has a PCI-E 3.0 x16 and a PCI-E 3.0 x8 in x16, and no PCI-X ports.
 

PigLover

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Jan 26, 2011
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Those are Sandy Bridge EP motherboards. The EP chips are the next generation of Sandy Bridge Xeon's and have not been released or priced yet. They are not for the current generation Xeons.
 

syndrome

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Sep 18, 2011
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Ooooh, good call. Alright then, I guess I'll pull the trigger on the X9SCM-F-O and wait patiently for 8GB modules. Thanks!
 

groove

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Sep 21, 2011
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Hello all,

This is my first post on this forum (noobie). I have a quick question regarding CPUs supported by the new C20X series chipset. Do these chipsets support Intel Pentium G6XX series Dual Core CPUs? I don't need the Xeon level performance so I'm trying to keep the cost down. But I would like to use a C20X series chiptset (e.g. C206 based Asus P8B WS or C204 based Supermicro X9SCL) based motherboard. Both these board's websites indicate that the 'Intel ®Pentium®' family processors are supported. But I just want to confirm that these will indeed work together before I take the plunge.

Thanks
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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Hi groove, the Pentium G620, G620T, G840 and G850 should work in the C20x boards, as well as the Sandy Bridge Core i3/i5/i7 CPUs. One important thing is that the board has BIOS that support the specific CPUs. Personally, I would just send a note to the support e-mail addresses to get the compatibility assurance (and possibly the BIOS you need) in writing. I will tell you that I have used Core i3, i5 and i7 CPUs in C202, C204 and C206 boards.

Let us know what you find.
 

groove

Member
Sep 21, 2011
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Patric, thanks for the confirmation. I have sent a note to the support email address. I will surely post an update what I find out. I'll order a board and memory shortly and post results as well.
 

emc

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Sep 15, 2011
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Asus has a CPU compatibility chart for the P8B WS on their website ... it pretty much supports any 1155 socket based CPU. The server 1155 boards should be checked carefully as they typically don't support more than i3 & E3 base CPUs.
 

Patrick

Administrator
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Dec 21, 2010
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Asus has a CPU compatibility chart for the P8B WS on their website ... it pretty much supports any 1155 socket based CPU. The server 1155 boards should be checked carefully as they typically don't support more than i3 & E3 base CPUs.
This is true and I have had pretty random findings in terms of unsupported CPUs. They have been working quite often for me lately but it seems totally random.
 

groove

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Sep 21, 2011
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Looks like it's supported.

I have sent over an email asking Supermicro to confirm support for the G620. I have not got a response just yet. In the mean time I did google around a bit more and came across this dump of running a 'dmidecode' of a X9SCM-F :

http://www.thomas-krenn.com/de/wikiDE/index.php?title=Hardwareinfos_mit_dmidecode_auslesen&oldid=12244#Supermicro_X9SCM-F

In there is an entry for the G620 CPU :

Handle 0x0069, DMI type 4, 42 bytes
Processor Information
Socket Designation: CPU
Type: Central Processor
Family: <OUT OF SPEC>
Manufacturer: Intel
ID: A7 06 02 00 FF FB EB BF
Version: Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU G620 @ 2.60GHz
Voltage: 0.0 V
External Clock: 100 MHz
Max Speed: 3800 MHz
Current Speed: 2600 MHz
Status: Populated, Enabled
Upgrade: <OUT OF SPEC>
L1 Cache Handle: 0x0004
L2 Cache Handle: 0x0005
L3 Cache Handle: 0x0006
Serial Number: Not Specified
Asset Tag: Not Specified
Part Number: Not Specified
Core Count: 2
Core Enabled: 2
Thread Count: 2
Characteristics:
64-bit capable
So it appears that the CPU is supported as stated on Supermicro's website for the motherboard. I don't know if the '<OUT OF SPEC>' would cause any issues. I'm hoping it does not....

I'm planning to pull the plug tonight and order the board and memory. I already have the CPU. I'll post my results once I have the board.
 

Adster

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Sep 22, 2011
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I can confirm that the Pentium G620 runs just fine on a Supermicro X9SCM-F board. I've had it running for a few months now with no issues or errors.

I liked the Supermicro 5017C-MTF server with that motherboard so much I decided I wanted to build a midtower Supermicro with that same board in it. Unfortunately I came across the problem that everyone else faces and that is the lack of 8GB ECC UDIMM's for sale anywhere!

Now on a usual perusing of Dell's website I see that suddenly the PE T110 II is now available with 4x8GB ECC UDIMM's for a total of 32GB on a C202 board, check the specs page: http://www.dell.com/ca/business/p/poweredge-t110-2/pd?~ck=anav

Now of course that is a healthy $1800CDN option, haha, thereby putting it well into the range of nobody ever purchasing that option. But it would be interesting to find out the supplier of those 8GB sticks now wouldn't it?
 

groove

Member
Sep 21, 2011
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Recevied confirmation even from SuperMicro.

SuperMicro Tech Support confirmed that the motherboard will support the Pentium G620. Went ahead and ordered it and the ram from newegg.

Adster and Patric, thanks for the confirmation. You'll helped me make the decision.

Adster - it would be great if 8GB ECC UDIMMS were available - as far as Dell's price goes - I guess they simply stating that 32 GB is available - but I doubt if they expect any orders for it at that price - I mean 1800 for 32 GB - seriously ????
 

sofakng

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Apr 27, 2011
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Does anybody have any advice on the Supermicro X9SCM-F versus Tyan S5510?

The Tyan seems better because it has two open-ended PCIe slots (for x16 cards) and is using the older Intel NICs which are better supported.

However, I am still leaning towards Supermicro because I've had a good experience with them but I'm really not sure what to do...

(I was hoping to try PCIe pass-through for a GTX 460 video card but on the Supermicro it will be difficult because these cards are all x16 physical... sigh.)
 

emc

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Sep 15, 2011
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The S5510 is a quirky board especially about power supplies. Do some searches on Tyan S5510/5512 won't POST. I was able to get 1 of my 6 power supplies to actually POST. Hope they fix that in upcoming BIOS upgrades. Other than that it is a very solid board (once you get it running). As far as VMDP of video cards .. don't get your hopes up. See http://communities.vmware.com/thread/297072?start=0&tstart=0 for some info on this. I have tried & failed on both of my boards (Tyan S5510 & ASUS P8B WS) with numerous ATI & Nvidia cards. Some do report success but the vast majority don't. Not something to count on!
 

fnc1

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Sep 23, 2011
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I see groove got the G620 to work with this board... Has anyone tried the G620T???
The only difference i can tell about these two chips, is that the G620 is 65W and the G620T is only 35W (and im quit interested in the lower power option)

SuperMicro Tech Support confirmed that the motherboard will support the Pentium G620. Went ahead and ordered it and the ram from newegg.

Adster and Patric, thanks for the confirmation. You'll helped me make the decision.

Adster - it would be great if 8GB ECC UDIMMS were available - as far as Dell's price goes - I guess they simply stating that 32 GB is available - but I doubt if they expect any orders for it at that price - I mean 1800 for 32 GB - seriously ????
 

PigLover

Moderator
Jan 26, 2011
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I see groove got the G620 to work with this board... Has anyone tried the G620T???
The only difference i can tell about these two chips, is that the G620 is 65W and the G620T is only 35W (and im quit interested in the lower power option)
The G620T should work in any motherboard that the G620 works in.

There are a couple of differences. 2.2 Ghz vs 2.6 and 650Mhz vs 850 for the graphics core clock (not that the graphics core will matter in a server...). The lower clocks are why there is a lower TDP. Also, remember that TDP has almost no bearing on actual wattage used - it is a measure of maximums used to design the cooling product. Your server's idle power is much more important as it will likely be idle most of its life. Though I haven't seen benches comparing these two chips, I would be surprised if there were any significant difference in power at idle.