Which RAM & Mobo for Xeon E3-1230 V2?

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supermacro

Member
Aug 31, 2012
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With the -B you get the MB, IO Shield, book and CD in white or brown cardboard packaging. -O is retail packaging (pretty blue box) and they send random SATA cables and other junk that you probably don't need/want anyway.
I don't think Supermicro gives out the CD & manual anymore (good moves on their part to save cost since no one really uses them). You just get the board, IO shield & 2 cables with the bulk pack. It's usually $5 ~ $15 cheaper (depending on the boards). You do get the "pretty blue" box with the retail pack :)
 

TheBay

New Member
Feb 25, 2013
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Hi, been down this road before, after money and time was spent here is what I recommend:

X9SCM-iiF if you don't need pcie-x16 slots, they come with new bios that support E3-12xxV2.

X9SCA-F if you do need x16, but you may need a cheap Celeron to update the BIOS before booting with E3-12xxV2.

X9SCI-LN4F if you need 4 lan ports and don't want to bother using another nic.

X9SCL+-F if you want the cheapest and you don't need Sata3.

For E3-12xx/V2 setups I recommend using dual rank 1.5v DDR3 ECC Unbuffered ram only, almost every ram issue I had with Supermicro in recent time came from 1.35v ram so I recommend staying away from them for at least a few more years.

The ram you're looking for with this setup are:
Kingston KVR1333D3E9S
Samsung M391B1G73BH0-CH9

There are cheaper options but these 2 are the current gold standard for E3-12xxV2. If you are building more than one server, you can get the 24G kit (3x8G) Kingston to save a few more bucks.

Btw SuperBiiz have stopped shipping internationally.
Ah you have worried me now, I spoken to Crucial this morning and they guaranteed 100% compatibility with this RAM : CT102472BD160B - 8GB, 240-pin DIMM , DDR3 PC3-12800 from Crucial.com However it's listed as 1.35v but can run at 1.5v, I hope it works as I've just ordered 4 sticks of 8GB.

Finding 8GB ECC Unregistered sticks is to near impossible in the UK, Kingston have lead times of 3 weeks minimum, none of my suppliers can get any brand.

Also regarding the OP question and the great advice you have given above, may I chime in and suggest that the boards with the prefix A, i.e. X9SCA have a 16x PCIe slot, but all the remaining PCIe slots are only 4x electrical but 8x mechanical, so not ideal for multiple RAID/HBA's.

I had a pick of all the boards, but I went with the X9SCL-F as I will not require onboard SATA 6 as it's only being used for an optical drive and will run 1x HBA and 1x RAID card. The mATX versions of these boards are a bit better than the ATX versions due to more 8x PCIe ports. Not sure why they didn't do that with the ATX boards.

The NIC issue didn't bother me either as I will be installing either a fibre card or an Intel I-350, so overall for my needs it's ideal. Plus you can disable the PHY NIC via a jumper on the board, though patching ESXi/Linux isn't difficult if you want to use it.
 
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ZzBloopzZ

Member
Jan 7, 2013
91
13
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Thanks for the information everyone! Great tips TheBay, I had no idea about the prefix A models. Makes perfect sense now.

I ended up ordering:

Xeon 1230 v2 ($216 shipped w/ Newegg 10% Visa promo)
Supermicro X9SCM-IIF ($192 shipped w/ SuperBiiz $7 coupon)
4x Hynix 8GB 1600 DDR3 UDIMM HMT41GU7MFR8C-PB ($175 shipped via [H])

Glad I was able to find everything on sale. The 1600 UDIMM was most difficult to find but I lucked out by being in right place at right time. :c)
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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I think you are going to end up very happy you got an F board. It may be $10 more but will pay off at some point.
 

TheBay

New Member
Feb 25, 2013
220
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UK
I think you are going to end up very happy you got an F board. It may be $10 more but will pay off at some point.
I concur!, being an ex HP employee and HP certified professional all I ever dealt with was lights-out, then I left HP and used Supermicro and I must say IPMI is far better than lights-out (I won't even talk about their licencing!) If anyone is buying a Sever motherboard then do not scrimp and pay that tiny bit extra as it's invaluable!
 

RimBlock

Active Member
Sep 18, 2011
837
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Singapore
Another for the IPMI version. Even witht he servers behind me it is much easier to sit in front of a big monitor and keybord on my desk than to to stand in front of a rack with a small monitor.

If you want to save the money then the X9SCM-F is fine for ESXi and even though the LM network chipset is not supported by ESXi out-of-the-box, you can use VT-d to directly pass control to a VM which can then use its own drivers.

I have built a number of client servers on these boards and they work very well. I tend to use Kingston ram (KVR1333D3E9S/8G 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 ECC CL9 DIMM w/TS) which also works in my own Intel S1200BTL and HP ML110 G7 machines.

RB
 

TheBay

New Member
Feb 25, 2013
220
1
0
UK
Another for the IPMI version. Even witht he servers behind me it is much easier to sit in front of a big monitor and keybord on my desk than to to stand in front of a rack with a small monitor.

If you want to save the money then the X9SCM-F is fine for ESXi and even though the LM network chipset is not supported by ESXi out-of-the-box, you can use VT-d to directly pass control to a VM which can then use its own drivers.

I have built a number of client servers on these boards and they work very well. I tend to use Kingston ram (KVR1333D3E9S/8G 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 ECC CL9 DIMM w/TS) which also works in my own Intel S1200BTL and HP ML110 G7 machines.

RB
Save even more money and go with the X9SCL-F if using ESXi and a HBA/s and or RAID Controllers.
 

omniscence

New Member
Nov 30, 2012
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I would not cheap out on the mainboard after the relatively expensive CPU/RAM combination. You will always miss a feature later when you repurpose the system.
 

Biren78

Active Member
Jan 16, 2013
550
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I would not cheap out on the mainboard after the relatively expensive CPU/RAM combination. You will always miss a feature later when you repurpose the system.
QFT - never skimp on things like onboard nics and ipmi.