Intel C202, C204, C206 Xeon E3 Bromolow Motherboards Thread

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groove

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Sep 21, 2011
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Right - so I've tried different slots - that did not help. Don't have any other controllers / cards installed. Have been using onboard video (also what I intend to use finally in the build). None of these have helped.

Yes, we do have opposite issues with our controllers. The irony is that this controller works just fine on my i915. System boots, my Solaris Express 11 detects all the 4 drives attached to it. No probs at all. Maybe we should join forces - or maybe exchange controllers LOL !

I also tried the sas2flash and got an 'Unable to initialize PAL' error. I'd got the same error a couple of months ago when I went to update the controller's firmware and bios. Back then I put the controller on my Asus M/B and was able to update the firware and bios successfully. I do now wonder if I need to flash the bios of the 3442 with something more 'EFI' friendly....
 

mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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Ah the PAL error I do believe is due to lack of Option ROM space, this is common on AMD CPU Mobo's.

Can you disable the LAN's and anything else on the Mobo that may use ROM space.
 

groove

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Sep 21, 2011
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Tried that as well. That didn't help either. I wonder if there are other cards that might also give the same issue. I mean there are quite a few re-branded variants of this card (all based on the 1068 processor). Even Supermicro have variants of this controller - AOC-USAS-L8i, AOC-USASLP-L8i. I wonder if those would also work with this motherboard or if it's just a LSI specific issue.....
 

mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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I'm all out of ideas now, you've pretty well done everything under the sun.

Hopefully someone with same board but a different card can enlighten us.

With the PAL error the Mobo may have issues loading the LSI BIOS, as it works on a different motherboard.
This is the most likely cause of your woes, if you have someone with a spare say IBM1015 possibly try this.
 

groove

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Sep 21, 2011
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What's odd is that on the i915, I get the same PAL error but the controller works just fine. It seems to work best on the Asus Z8NA. Card is recognized by the sasflash utility, bios loads up fine. It all just work. I've send an email to SuperMicro support. Not sure if I'll hear back from them. But this is a real bummer. Now I have to look for a new controller - and HOPE that it will work on this board AND with OpenIndiana...... More research and figuring out (not that I mind the research part, what's upsetting is that I'm already over budget on this build and now I have to go out an shell out another 100-200 more on a new card)......
 

5loth

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Nov 3, 2011
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Great thread with lots of good info.

I am just putting together a system with the following specs:

Asus P8B-M C204 Motherboard
Xeon E3-123x CPU
4 x 4GB DDR3-1333 ECC Kingston Memory

Couple of questions:

I saw mention of the KVM-over-IP requring the E3-12x5 processors with integrated graphics? From what I have read only the motherboard/chipset needs to support this feature, not the CPU? I believe I will just need the additional ASMB5 module to enable this, even with just an E3-1230 CPU.

Also, has anyone been able to pass-through via VT-d the Intel Integrated Graphics of the E3-12x5 processors with ESXi? I saw this mentioned earlier in the thread, but haven't seen anyone else mention it anywhere:

At various points in our setup we have had it passing through two Intel NICs (quad port and a dual-port), the CPU graphics, the onboard SATA ports and both onboard ethernet ports. All worked hunky-dory.
I see people haven't really had any luck with ATi/Nvidia cards, would be good even just to get the Intel CPU Graphics through.

Finally, I saw here: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/322826

Someone asking if the LSI MegaRAID on the P8B-M would work with ESXi, and the answer was yes, but I am guessing you won't be able to configure the drives in a RAID setup as it is still software-based RAID, is that correct? If so I may look at getting a cheapish RAID5 compatible card, possibly the Dell PERC 5/i off ebay which seems to go for pretty cheap.
 

meatincereal

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Jul 20, 2011
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Great thread with lots of good info.

I am just putting together a system with the following specs:

Asus P8B-M C204 Motherboard
Xeon E3-123x CPU
4 x 4GB DDR3-1333 ECC Kingston Memory

Couple of questions:

I saw mention of the KVM-over-IP requring the E3-12x5 processors with integrated graphics? From what I have read only the motherboard/chipset needs to support this feature, not the CPU? I believe I will just need the additional ASMB5 module to enable this, even with just an E3-1230 CPU.

Also, has anyone been able to pass-through via VT-d the Intel Integrated Graphics of the E3-12x5 processors with ESXi? I saw this mentioned earlier in the thread, but haven't seen anyone else mention it anywhere:



I see people haven't really had any luck with ATi/Nvidia cards, would be good even just to get the Intel CPU Graphics through.

Finally, I saw here: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/322826

Someone asking if the LSI MegaRAID on the P8B-M would work with ESXi, and the answer was yes, but I am guessing you won't be able to configure the drives in a RAID setup as it is still software-based RAID, is that correct? If so I may look at getting a cheapish RAID5 compatible card, possibly the Dell PERC 5/i off ebay which seems to go for pretty cheap.
Afaik only C206 mobos support on-cpu graphics
 

Patrick

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Dec 21, 2010
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wouldn't pass-through be independent of that however? Much like an independent graphics card?
From what I have seen, the Sandy Bridge CPU basically disables the GPU when it is not in a C206 motherboard or another one with the ability to use the onboard graphics (e.g. Z68, H67/ H61 or Q67.)
 

sotech

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Jul 13, 2011
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Also, has anyone been able to pass-through via VT-d the Intel Integrated Graphics of the E3-12x5 processors with ESXi? I saw this mentioned earlier in the thread, but haven't seen anyone else mention it anywhere:
I have tried this several times - each time I configure it for passthrough and reboot ESXi 5.0 hangs whilst loading. I was able to successfully set it for passthrough and reboot as normal on 4.1 but upgraded to 5.0 before I ever actually got around to trying it out in a VM... I need to do more troubleshooting to make sure I'm correct but I got sick of reinstalling ESXi whenever it would hang so I'm leaving it for a while :p

Anyone else had success?
 

relobe

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Dec 7, 2011
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ASUS P8B WS and 3ware 9650SE compatibility?

I'm in the process of putting together a new ESXi server and the ASUS P8B WS looks good.

Is there anyone here who have got this motherboard working with the 3ware 9650SE RAID controller? I'm aware of issues with other controllers and have asked this question in other forums, but haven't had any answers yet... (I even tried asking 3ware's support---a very disappointing experience.)
 

lucidrenegade

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Dec 12, 2011
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Has anyone tested a PERC 5/i RAID controller with the P8BWS, or any C202/C204/C206 motherboard for that matter?

Do the Core i7 desktop processors provide video out with the C206?
 

Patrick

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Dec 21, 2010
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lucidrenegade: I did not try the 5/i with the P8BWS. Both of my PERC 5/i's stopped working in the past few months.

The i7 CPUs do support video out on the C206.
 

phred

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Jun 23, 2011
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A beginners question: can I run 4 pcs of the IBM 1015 on a Tyan S5510GM3NR as recommended in the Mid-range DIY Storage Server Buyer’s Guide?
 

mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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Can't see why not, there are 4x PCIe 8x slots

BUT buyer BEWARE
4x PCIe 8x slots
2 slots are 8x physcial and electrical.
2 slots are 8x physcially BUT 4x electrical
This is a C20x chipset/CPU limitation

All 4 cards should run, but 2 cards will be limited in total bus bandwidth
If you have spindle drives even with all 8 SAS/SATA ports used on each card I doubt you'll reach the PCIe 4x limit
SSD's will probably saturate the 4x bus.

To run all 4x cards at full speed and run a LGA1155 CPU you need to look for something like an ASUS P8P67 WS Revolution

Hope this helps
 

Patrick

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PCIe 2.0 is 500MB/s so an x4 that is 2GB/s and spindle drives are maybe 150MB/s max (only on outer edge of disks and some can go a bit faster at the very outer edge). For eight 7200rpm spindles you have 1.2MB/s in a best case scenario that you need to service. A PCIe 2.0 x4 slot has enough bandwith for 2x SSDs and 6x 7200rpm SATA disks.

Realistically though, most of the time you won't access every disk at the same time, so this will be fine for a storage server.
 

mobilenvidia

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Yes imagine a home server dishing out 2GB/s continuously :)
What ever is connected to the server (or how really) is what will decide the actual speed from the theoretical max of 2GBs/ for PCie 4x

Even a 1GBps LAN would max out (downhill and tailwind) at 125MB/s total for everything attached to the server.

Basically:
SSD (SATA3/SAS2) can dish out 550MB/s max per drive
HDD (spindle) can dish out max 150MB/s per drive

But 4x IBM M1015 would run 32x Disks, 64 with expanders attached either way an awful lot of drives for a home server.
Do you need 4x M1015's or does the Buyers Guide mean you need 4x disks minimum to make a Home server where 1x M1015 will suffice ?
 

John G. Gauthier

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Dec 23, 2011
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No luck thus far with LSi + C206

I have an Intel S1200KP (C206), E1235, ESXi 5.0, and it runs great.

I managed to snag a Dell PERC H700 (LSI Megaraid 9260 rebranded I believe) from a Dell R810 and I can't get it to boot to save my life.

If I boot with the PERC's battery installed, the machine will never get past the motherboard BIOS splash. If I boot with the PERC battery removed, after 5 minutes of the motherboard BIOS splash I'll get the PERC BIOS and 5 minutes after that it'll reboot, starting the 5 minute cycle all over again.

Has anyone seen a working LSI/PERC on a C20x chipset?
 

mobilenvidia

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Sep 25, 2011
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Try with the onboard Intel SATA controller set to IDE (not AHCI), or even just disable it for testing purposes.

Next see if you can find a detailed diagram of the H700.
On the M5015 (LSI9260) there are 2 jumpers that the H700 may also have.
Should they be there then:

One is a reset to Factory set default jumper, does the obvious and try this first if IDE mode fails on the Intel.

Two, is a SBR bypass jumper, this allows a boot incase the SBR is broken, I think it just stops the LSI BIOS from loading allowing you to boot and then fix the issue with a flash.
Grab the latest Dell Firmware I think 12.10.2.0004
Make a bootable DOS USB stick
Put the Dell flasher on this
Boot run the flasher
Reboot

Do some research on the above flash, I've not run a Dell LSI flash, it's quite different from LSI and IBM
I think it's just run a batch file and it does everything.

I can upload some Firmware for the LSI9260 (M5015/Perc H700) that I have accumulated and am testing along with all the utilities needed.

BECAREFUL it's awfully easy to make a paper weight with BIOS flashing
If you are not comfortable with it, DON'T do it !!
You break it, you were warned, I deny all knowledge and have never been to these forums 'Your Honor' :)

Get back to us on how you got/getting on.
 
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