Intel S3420 standby question

[gaking]

I've just purchased an Intel S3420GPLX motherboard and Xeon X3450. The system works well and will start up, shutdown, standby in S1 and hibernate as required. However, I cannot get it to standby in S3 mode, which is what I really want to save power, and as I'm planning to upgrade the RAM a bit, anything over 2Gb will prevent hibernation on a 32-bit OS. I've tried the Windows powercfg -a command in WHS v1, Windows 2008 R2 x64 and even Win 7 x64 - they all say the same thing, the firmware does not support S3. However, the manual seems to indicate that it does support S3 (almost as a side-note), but I cannot find any BIOS setting to change the standby state; the Supermicro X8SIA-F is pretty much the same as the Intel board, but seems to have a BIOS option to do this - so it doesn't seem to be an issue with the chipset. It seems pretty odd for a modern motherboard.

Has anyone tried to do this with the S3420 motherboards with any success? Intel won't give me any support as I'm not using an Intel chassis and power supply, which is a bit of a poor response but I guess I can understand why they do this - I just don't believe that these items are actually the cause of the problem as the PSU meets / exceeds the specs in the motherboard manual.

Anyone got any suggestions / successes that may assist me please?

 

[odditory]

It might seem odd for a modern motherboard, but not as as odd when you factor in *server* motherboard. Server boards tend to be designed and implemented for 24x7 use. It's a legitimate concern though, hope you find the answer, but if it ends up unresolvable at least you have a hint why.

On the bright side, Intel boards tend to be 'reference' quality, generally very solid, but often at the cost of skimping on "nice to have" user features that fall outside the intended scope of the product.

 

[gaking]

Thanks, yes that did occur to me, but with the Supermicro board supporting it and the occasional veiled reference to it in the manual I'm hoping that it does. Even servers must have some down-time, e.g. at night, and S3 is very useful in those situations.

 

[odditory]

No doubt. Except remember that most people buying server boards are business customers, and no they don't power down or sleep servers at night. That's why home users interested in saving on power costs will often just use a desktop/workstation type motherboard as their 'server' motherboard. Anyway I would try to help you out except I don't own that particular board.

 

[Patrick]

No doubt. Except remember that most people buying server boards are business customers, and no they don't power down or sleep servers at night. That's why home users interested in saving on power costs will often just use a desktop/workstation type motherboard as their 'server' motherboard. Anyway I would try to help you out except I don't own that particular board.

I sold mine awhile ago so I can't test this, but this is correct. Most business users that purchase these server motherboards look to low idle power numbers in general instead of sleep.

 

[gaking]

Thanks anyway, I'm going to see if I can get Intel to write it into the next BIOS update, but I'm not expecting they will. It's a pity since I was previously using a desktop board (Asus P5Q), but I can't find any LGA1156 or LGA1155 boards which support more than PCIe x1 for add-in cards, so my ability to put in a reasonable RAID or other SATA controller to expand past the onboard 6-disk controller is limited - hence the choice to go for a server board. I wish I could get the Supermicro version in this part of the world.

Edit: Seems that the Supermicro board doesn't support it either, so I guess that's it then - server board = no S3 support. Pity, but I can understand why, however it would be nice to at least be given the option.