Looking for a server board that is DDR3 with PCI-E 3.x

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linuxsrc

Member
Oct 1, 2018
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Brownsburg, IN
Hi all, first post here, been watching this forum for some time.

I am replacing a PC desktop board that is not up to snuff for this system.
I have a raid controller that is PICE 3.0 and this board keeps trying to run as such but really not able to do it.

This server is being used for backups and offloads of data on a daily basis so the traffic on this can be as much as much as 1 TB a day. Not huge but enough that the present board is blowing up and getting kernel panics.

Here is what I am able to use or need;
EATX or smaller
I need 3 PCI-E slots for 2 SFP+ cards and the storage controller.
Onboard graphics.
I am looking for a board that does DDR3 just because of the cost of DDR4 is so high. I plan to have 32GB or better of memory in this system.
I do want this to have at least 2 CPUs with it.

The system now has a modern 1200 watt PS in it because of the number of drives that it holds (16 SAS 12G) and is in a 4U case.

I have one nice to have options I am looking and that is IPMI.

The biggest problem has been finding a good board that is not $500 and have PCI-E 3.x
Used or new, I am looking around $200. If there is something that already has memory and or CPU with it great, I know I can find plenty of memory as well as the CPU's on eBay for this.

If someone has a better idea for this, I am all ears.

Thanks all
 

Zhang

Member
Sep 18, 2018
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supermicro X9DRi-LN4F+, EATX, Matrox onboard graphics with IPMI, 4 x16 PCI-E 3.0,1 x8 PCI-E 3.0, 1 x4 PCI-E 3.0, dual E5-2600 v2 CPU
it's around $200 on ebay, and you can also find many combo deals with CPU and heatsink included.
 

acquacow

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Feb 15, 2017
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I have two X9 boards for just that reason.

Dual CPUs aren't really worth it though. I have two single CPU systems with 10 cores each.
 
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RageBone

Active Member
Jul 11, 2017
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Actually, the pcie version depends on the CPU, I think sandy bridge was the gen where most CPUs only supported pcie 2.0
And only some later released ones did have 3.0 sandy was Xeon e5 2600
and 2600 V1

If you have ivy bridge, you shouldn't have problems with that. E5 2600 V2
 

Markess

Well-Known Member
May 19, 2018
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Actually, the pcie version depends on the CPU, I think sandy bridge was the gen where most CPUs only supported pcie 2.0
And only some later released ones did have 3.0 sandy was Xeon e5 2600
and 2600 V1

If you have ivy bridge, you shouldn't have problems with that. E5 2600 V2
Yes! We had two systems with that board, and the Sandy Bridge "dual processor" CPUs (E5-26xx) we had did support pcie 3.0. The single processor systems with Sandy Bridge E5s (E5-24xx) also were pcie3.0. Conversely, the single Processor systems with Sandy Bridge E3s (X9SCL/SCL-F) were only pcie2.0.

So, OP can use either Sandy or Ivy Bridge E5-26xx and get pcie 3.0. This board, X9DRi-LN4F+, however, does need BIOS 3.0 or higher to work with the V2 (Ivy Bridge) E5 CPUs though.
 

BLinux

cat lover server enthusiast
Jul 7, 2016
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guys... the X9DRi-LN4F+ board is EE-ATX, not E-ATX... if the OP is planning to use a standard case, EE-ATX can be hard to fit, even with modifications (custom standoffs, etc.).
 
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BLinux

cat lover server enthusiast
Jul 7, 2016
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a few comments:

1. if you're getting kernel panics under data transmit load, that might not be a hardware problem. a PCIe3 card will just negotiate to PCIe2 speeds and run just fine as such. swapping out the hardware may not fix your kernel panics, and wouldn't be my 1st answer to such a problem.

2. if going with Supermicro motherboard, most of the dual socket X9DR* series systems will meet your requirements. there's *many* choices there with various configurations. if this is a server chassis, with a fan wall, i would recommend something like X9DRD-7LN4F; it is more optimized for server chassis in terms of airflow/cooling, has onboard SAS2308 controller already, and 4x1Gb NICs, with IPMI. It's been found for around $200 or so in varying conditions. It is Narrow ILM, so consider that in your CPU cooler choice, but make sure you have a fan wall of sorts, because it requires airflow over the RAM/CPU area (besides CPU cooling) as the 2308 sits in that area.
 

kapone

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May 23, 2015
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Shameless plug: I have a X9DRD-LN4F JBOD with 2x passive heatsinks and 2x E5-2620 v1s that I'd be willing to let go for a decent price. PM me if interested.
 

linuxsrc

Member
Oct 1, 2018
34
4
8
Brownsburg, IN
Thanks all for helping pick out the board and the offers. I was pretty quick at picking up the board.
I got the board in and I have contacted the eBay seller, the strange this is now I have this the poor thing won't post.

This is sitting on a test bench outside of any case.
I get a warm CPU, if I pull the memory it beeps, the power led is on. I have even put an AMD w5100, the fan on this spins, thinking that video was an issue. I have tested 2 monitors on this.

I have installed 2 only in slots P1/DIMMA1 and P1/DIMMB1 (I have tried other combinations of memory for cpu1, memory in all blue slots on P1)

64gb Samsung M393B2G70DB0-CMA 4x 16GB 2Rx4 PC3-14900R 1866 DDR3 ECC REG 1.5V 696551643232 | eBay

(8 x 16GB) 128GB Samsung PC3-14900R 2Rx4 DDR3-1866MHz ECC Reg
I have attached both cpu ps connectors to this board.
Corsair RM1000i
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YPNSQRW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For testing
Intel Xeon E5-2609 SR0LA 2.4GHz
Intel Xeon E5-2609 SR0LA 2.4GHz Quad Core LGA 2011 CPU Processor *km | eBay

So I am confused, I have seen where others have used the same corsair powersupply, but it was 750 watts and they work so I need some pointers as to what I may be missing.

I do get network activity on the BMC nic as well, but I don't see any dhcp requests from this on the dhcp server.

Any pointers of what I may have missed I would appreciate this.

Thanks in advance!
 

linuxsrc

Member
Oct 1, 2018
34
4
8
Brownsburg, IN
Unable to edit my post so this is fixing the memory that is incorrectly stating 64gb

Thanks all for helping pick out the board and the offers. I was pretty quick at picking up the board.
I got the board in and I have contacted the eBay seller, the strange this is now I have this the poor thing won't post.

This is sitting on a test bench outside of any case.
I get a warm CPU, if I pull the memory it beeps, the power led is on. I have even put an AMD w5100, the fan on this spins, thinking that video was an issue. I have tested 2 monitors on this.

I have installed 2 only in slots P1/DIMMA1 and P1/DIMMB1 (I have tried other combinations of memory for cpu1, memory in all blue slots on P1)

(8 x 16GB) 128GB Samsung PC3-14900R 2Rx4 DDR3-1866MHz ECC Reg
I have attached both cpu ps connectors to this board.
Corsair RM1000i
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YPNSQRW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For testing
Intel Xeon E5-2609 SR0LA 2.4GHz
Intel Xeon E5-2609 SR0LA 2.4GHz Quad Core LGA 2011 CPU Processor *km | eBay

So I am confused, I have seen where others have used the same corsair powersupply, but it was 750 watts and they work so I need some pointers as to what I may be missing.

I do get network activity on the BMC nic as well, but I don't see any dhcp requests from this on the dhcp server.

Any pointers of what I may have missed I would appreciate this.

Thanks in advance!
 

BLinux

cat lover server enthusiast
Jul 7, 2016
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@linuxsrc a few things to check:

1) if the PSU is modular, are you using the original cables that came with it? if not, be careful because they can be wired differently by the different manufacturers.

2) do you have both EPS 12V connectors plugged in?

3) does the CMOS battery read at least 3.0V?
 

linuxsrc

Member
Oct 1, 2018
34
4
8
Brownsburg, IN
@linuxsrc a few things to check:

1) if the PSU is modular, are you using the original cables that came with it? if not, be careful because they can be wired differently by the different manufacturers.

2) do you have both EPS 12V connectors plugged in?

So this is a new PS and it came with two eps cables and I used both of them


3) does the CMOS battery read at least 3.0V?

This read at 3.0 so I replaced it with a new one that reads 3.2 and the same results
 

BLinux

cat lover server enthusiast
Jul 7, 2016
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I don't know then... there's no special magic potion in getting a Supermicro board to POST. maybe post a photo of your test bench setup so we can see what's going on?
 

linuxsrc

Member
Oct 1, 2018
34
4
8
Brownsburg, IN
I am accustomed to using chassis by the motherboard manufactures, with the PSU. The thing is I have another PSU rated at 1600 and a full 4U chassis for this all set in place. So I figured this should not be much of a problem.

I have built systems from the ground up many a time, chassis, CPU, memory, motherboard. etc.

So this is confusing to get green lights, no beeps and CPU heating up. I have put the v2 CPU in prior to this and got the same results. I thought that the reason this did not work was that the bios needed upgrading
So I purchased an older CPU to do the upgrade of the bios, the V2s did not heat up as this CPU did,

I was hoping to find some way to get access to the BMC via ILO, but without a way to know what the IP is that is out.

If what I have done looks to be right then it means that something is not right with the board it some way.
The only thing is for these types of boards I never really dig much into them as they usually just work so I don't know of any "tricks" to get info as to why it won't post.

Without diag lights or beeps this is like telling the doctor, hey this hurts!
 

linuxsrc

Member
Oct 1, 2018
34
4
8
Brownsburg, IN
OK So bent CPU pins - I got it to post for a few seconds and it gave a b7 error code, but from what I saw online it still meant that the CPU was not going to post. I pulled the CPU again put it back in and nothing.

From what I see then I should be able to get this to work with all that I have only after I get the seller to replace the board.

I looked closer at the socket and I found what looks like someone had dropped a CPU corner into the socket.

IMG_20190209_035004.jpg

 
Last edited:

RageBone

Active Member
Jul 11, 2017
617
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That socket is busted, don't put a cpu in untill you bent those back.

if you put a cpu into a socket with bent pins, you will make it worse because you might bent pins into the wrong direction, back into the socket, into other pins, shorting them out.

Simply Don't!
 

linuxsrc

Member
Oct 1, 2018
34
4
8
Brownsburg, IN
The pins in the socket were bent on arrival as I had only remove the heat sink from the MB. I had not even noticed them being bent until after having pulled the CPU off.
I am waiting now for the eBay seller to get back with me to do a swap. I had not done a close inspection of the board before installing the CPU.
So cross my fingers the new board won't come the same way.
 

linuxsrc

Member
Oct 1, 2018
34
4
8
Brownsburg, IN
Thanks, everyone for helping me out here, I ended up going down a rabbit hole with this one. Now after understanding this MB size and all I am on the lookout for a 4u chassis that will support this.

I have spent some time on e-Bay looking for something but before I pull the trigger on a $500+ expenditure, I wanted to ping this group here.
If anyone has suggestions or have something lying around that would support this board x9DRi-LN4F+, I am all ears.

Thanks once again!