Supermicro X11SCA X11SCA-W and X11SCA-F for Xeon E-2100 Workstations

[Krobar]

Some thoughts on the X11SCA-F:
Good:
UEFI Support is good
No host machine incompatibilities with Adaptec 7 series card I am using (This is often a problem)
AS2500 IPMI is a big step forward over older implementations (IMHO)
Even an I3-8300 seems speedy
ECC support is good on an I3
No Stability issues
Layout is nice

Bad:
In Bios 1.0 - Broken ACS implementation (Very limited PCI Passthrough)
In Bios 1.0 - Intel Graphics not initialised properly when AST is primary. This means using Intel as secondary graphics in OS or passthrough for VM doesn't work. (There may be more to this than I know but currently this is what seems to be source of the problem as disabling the AST allows it to work and VGA Arb is set correctly)
In Bios 1.0 - Linux reports ACPI bios bugs (DSDT related I think)
5 Fan Header is not enough (IMHO)

Summary: Bios needs work; lets hope V1.1 sorts a lot of the above. In its current state it is good for standard server use but not VM work if PCI passthrough or SRIOV is needed (SRIOV on my Intel X540 is broken by ACS too). If you intend to use it for a workstation with AST for remote manage the current graphics initialisation probs rules out this board too.

 

[Krobar]

@zir_blazer

The X11SCA IOMMU groups looks alright in an older Centos 7.5 kernel (Have updated reddit thread). Beginning to wonder if the ACS patch actually breaks the X11SCA-F.

 

[Mason]

Looking to purchase the X11SCA-F. What's a good source?

 

[T_Minus]

I was just going to ask where people were buying these? I looked yesterday and couldn't find them or the new CPU to purchase yet

Anyone have a list of SuperMicro C246 based motherboards too?

 

[Bernhard Neuhauser]

Do you think that the X11SCA-F is reasonable to be used as win10 desktop? Rationale: in case of an upgrade in some years, this could be repurposed as server. It seems to be the only solid option when it comes to C246 boards with IPMI. Additionally the Xeon E-2176g is really competitive to a normal i7-8700.

Hopefully the VM bugs krobar described will be fixed in future.

In europe, i would consider to buy the X11SCA-F from mindfactory.de (currently in stock).

Sadly Xeon E-21xx CPUs are harder to buy. It seems like shops are not intending to keep them in stock. It is also interesting that shops are listing c246 boards but not a single Xeon E-21xx cpu.

 

[Mason]

Unfortunately, I've yet to find any X11-SCA-F boards in the US. Appreciate any leads.
Mason

 

[Bernhard Neuhauser]

Seems like availability is really a problem. Not longer listed in europeans shops.

 

[T_Minus]

 

[Krobar]

Do you think that the X11SCA-F is reasonable to be used as win10 desktop? Rationale: in case of an upgrade in some years, this could be repurposed as server. It seems to be the only solid option when it comes to C246 boards with IPMI. Additionally the Xeon E-2176g is really competitive to a normal i7-8700.

Hopefully the VM bugs krobar described will be fixed in future.

In europe, i would consider to buy the X11SCA-F from mindfactory.de (currently in stock).

Sadly Xeon E-21xx CPUs are harder to buy. It seems like shops are not intending to keep them in stock. It is also interesting that shops are listing c246 boards but not a single Xeon E-21xx cpu.

A soon to be released bios fixes the issue with IOMMU although you can use the kernel pci reallocate option to fix it with the V1.0 bios. The VM PCI Passthrough problems with newer kernels are actually because kernels since around May 2018 include a 300 series ACS quirk which when applied breaks PCI passthrough on the X11SCA. No solution is out yet for the kernel issue but it has been sent to the Intel maintainer who added the 300 series quirk (I don't know if Supermicro did something to fix the ACS bug to allow older kernels to operate or if Intel's errata for the 300 series somehow does not apply to the C246).

Arch 4.14.36-1-lts works great with all PCI Passthrough out of the box with the X11 SCA including IGP UPT graphics passthrough so I can recommend this kernel or indeed most kernel before May 2018 for VMs with PCI passthrough. If you don't need to enable PCI Passthrough / Intel IOMMU then newer kernels will work fine.

My board came from Boston here in the UK.

 

[Krobar]

Further info:
Revert "PCI: Add ACS quirk for Intel 300 series" - Patchwork

Not Supermicro's fault on the passthrough / ACS issue, faulty kernel commit which is being reverted. Just need the second bios to release and the X11SCA should be an excellent C246 platform.

 

[Mason]

Supermicro X11SCA-F boards now available from newegg.com

SUPERMICRO MBD-X11SCA-F-O Intel C246 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s ATX Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com

 

[Patrick]

Supermicro X11SCA-F boards now available from newegg.com

SUPERMICRO MBD-X11SCA-F-O Intel C246 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s ATX Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com

FYI targeting a review next week.

 

[Slowmo]

Since there was a discussion about IOMMU groupings, will it be possible to pass through SATA ports to one VM (NAS), and iGPU to other (to use it as workstation with keyboard/mouse and monitor attached)? I'm looking for a solution, which could perform NAS, NVR, IOT e.t.c duties and at the same time be used as workstation occasionally.

 

[basteagow]

In Bios 1.0 - Intel Graphics not initialised properly when AST is primary. This means using Intel as secondary graphics in OS or passthrough for VM doesn't work. (There may be more to this than I know but currently this is what seems to be source of the problem as disabling the AST allows it to work and VGA Arb is set correctly)

Have you heard anything as to whether Supermicro will be addressing this in a BIOS update, or have you otherwise found a workaround that doesn't require disabling the AST graphics?

 

[RoboSteveJackson]

Does anyone know what the graphics situation is on the MBD-X11SCA-F?

Supermicro states "Intel UHD P630 graphic(For CPU Xeon E-21XXG series only)". However, would the graphics output still work with an i7 8700 as it also has UHD 630 on chip as per Intels site?

 

[basteagow]

Does anyone know what the graphics situation is on the MBD-X11SCA-F?

Supermicro states "Intel UHD P630 graphic(For CPU Xeon E-21XXG series only)". However, would the graphics output still work with an i7 8700 as it also has UHD 630 on chip as per Intels site?

Yes, it works on all CPUs with integrated graphics (including Celeron, Core, and Pentium). Supermicro's poorly-worded statement only means to highlight that, within the Xeon family, only "G" parts have integrated graphics. I'm currently using iGD on the X11SCA-F with a temporary Celeron until my Xeon arrives.

 

[Slowmo]

I'm currently using iGD on the X11SCA-F with a temporary Celeron until my Xeon arrives.

Can Celeron work with ECC memory, that way when Xeon arrives, all is set? Or non-ECC memory must be used in combination with Celeron and swapped to ECC after upgrade to Xeon? In other words, Xeon can work with both ECC and non-ECC memory, but will system still boot, if ECC memory is used with Celeron, as it does not support ECC?

 

[ReturnedSword]

Can Celeron work with ECC memory, that way when Xeon arrives, all is set? Or non-ECC memory must be used in combination with Celeron and swapped to ECC after upgrade to Xeon? In other words, Xeon can work with both ECC and non-ECC memory, but will system still boot, if ECC memory is used with Celeron, as it does not support ECC?

@Slowmo Celeron G series have ECC support, however be careful since Gemini Lake (Atom) based Celerons, i.e. N4xxx/J4xxx don't support ECC. This also includes Pentium Silver J5xxx series.

Refer here for a list of G series Celerons (including previous gens). The newest Coffee Lake Celeron G series should be on top.

 

[RoboSteveJackson]

Yes, it works on all CPUs with integrated graphics (including Celeron, Core, and Pentium). Supermicro's poorly-worded statement only means to highlight that, within the Xeon family, only "G" parts have integrated graphics. I'm currently using iGD on the X11SCA-F with a temporary Celeron until my Xeon arrives.

What RAM are you running?

My board just came in and might do the same. For those wondering I ordered mine from Provantage. It took about a week and half to get it.

Its a little early for benchmarks but do we think the 2146G is going to be comparable to a i7 8700?
There is a single sample of the 2146G in CPUBench (PassMark - Intel Xeon E-2146G @ 3.50GHz - Price performance comparison)

Provantage has now lists the 2146G with "additional processing time" just like the motherboard.

 

[RoboSteveJackson]

For those wondering on RAM, I used "Kingston ValueRAM 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4 2400 RAM (Server Memory) ECC DIMM (288-Pin) KVR24E17D8/16" and it booted right up with my temp i3.