Supermicro vs. Tyan support & used motherboards

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paulsperch

New Member
May 10, 2011
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I have heard that both Tyan & Supermicro both have great service. I am getting ready to put a system together using either a Tyan 1155 socket board or a a Supermicro 1156 board. I need out-of-band management w/ remote KVM. I have found a couple of used boards but don't know how either company supports used equipment if it is still under warranty. I know that Supermicro will send a new board under waranty if needed but what if the board was not purchased through an authorized seller but instead purchased used or from a reseller?

Also I was wondering if either company will help diagnose possible issues outside of warranty (phone or email support). How long do these companies usually support there boards?

FYI - I am using the board to build a iSCSI SAN/NAS using either FreeBSD (using zfs, HAST, and CARP) or OpenSolaris (or similiar ... Nexenta/NexentaStor/OpenIndiana/Oracle Solaris express). I will need to setup HA whichever I use.
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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Sorry on iPad this week. Personally, I would look to a new 1155 board. The thing is saving a few dollars on one of these used or from a non-authorized reseller can save a few dollars, but if something goes wrong, you really want support since your data may not be accessible in the meantime.

Between the two, I would go for the newer platform. SM is a bigger company, and they do more to customize the IPMI framework for the better. I would still recommend building new on 1155 instead of 1156 at this point.
 

paulsperch

New Member
May 10, 2011
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I thought you might say that :(. Unfortunately Super Micro does not have any 1155 boards with SAS onboard and definately nothing as nice as the LSI on the X8SI6-F that I was thinking of getting. Only Tyan has the out-of-band management in an 1155 board and the nice LSI SAS controller. Honestly I really wanted to go with Super Micro but without the onboard LSI I think it might be too expensive to get a $200-300 board and a seperate $150-250 controller card. Especially since I don't need any RAID and only a simple SATA/SAS HBA.

Does anyone know if the the C202 or C204 chipset works in FreeBSD and Nexenta/NexentaStor/OpenIndiana/Oracle Solaris express? Also any recommendation for a SAS/SATA HBA that will work with both and have at least 8 ports with decent throughput for less than $150 (I know I am probably dreaming lol)?
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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My thought would be decide on a storage platform first, then look for hardware compatibility. Going the other way around can lead to headaches.

Let me see this week if I hear any rumors of a LGA 1155 SM board with a LSI controller onboard. I think that is a much needed product.