Smallest affordable (aka cheap) server motherboard for custom mitx case

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stealthrt

New Member
Sep 15, 2014
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Hey all!

So I am the guy who does what others say cant be done or isn't worth the time and energy...

That being said I am trying to find the smallest (depth wise at least) dell, hp or something similar that has either 2 CPU's (1 CPU if it supports at least a 10 core Xeon). It must have at least 1 PCI-e 16x slot in order to run a NVIDIA graphics card (Tesla or Quadro). And of course, it needs to be pretty cheap (less than $100 with or without CPUs)

What I am wanting to do is place this server motherboard into a mITX form factor. It doesn't necessarily have to be that size since I am also making the case for it.

I've been looking around and found a Dell PowerEdge C8220 and that offers 2 CPUs, 2 PCI-e slots but its too tall (depth wise). It measures ~26" so that's way too big.
server1.png

So in walks another Dell micro server. The PowerEdge C5220. Perfect size IF the 29" that it has in the doc is counting the hard drive connection board... If not then this is too big as well. But another issue is there are no PCI-e slots! :(
server2.png

At 19.2" the Dell PowerEdge M610 is decently small. But of course it has no PCI-e slots...
server3.png

So at this point I stopped. So any one that has information pertaining to what i need please feel free to post it! :)
 
Last edited:

anoother

Member
Dec 2, 2016
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What about an ASRock X99E-ITX/AC or EPC612D4I? Both are actually ITX.

I would be tempted to look at a good AMD B550 ITX board (eg. B550I Aorus Pro AX) and a 12- or 16-core Ryzen, though...

Granted these options are likely a little over your budget, but you'll be saving yourself a bunch of headache and/or custom fabrication and wiring..