xeon e-2278G missing from stores

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ramblinreck47

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Aug 3, 2019
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It would be great if AMD had an ECC-capable enthusiast-class processor, BUT I want it paired with a true workstation class motherboard. I am completely put off by every single Threadripper and Ryzen motherboard with the black PCB's, RGB lighting, whizzy fans and plastic plates with stickers and other wiz bang stupid features, and the ridiculous names, geeez! How about they ditch all the fancy crapola, paint, and stickers, and focus on making a quality rock-solid board.
I mean they have the PRO class Ryzen processors that do officially support ECC ram. You can't really buy them new unless they're in a prebuilt server or used on eBay. I wish they were easier to obtain because that new Ryzen 9 Pro 3900 is pretty awesome.

The ASUS Pro X570-Ace is basically the only workstation AM4 board. It does have an IPMI-ish system built in but I've heard nothing but horrible things about it. What we're really missing is Supermicro doing something or anything with the AM4 socket.
 
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TXAG26

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Aug 2, 2016
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Yep, we really need Supermicro to step up to the plate with a AM4 socket board. If only an OEM would come forward with a need for such a board, SM would likely be all over it!
 

ReturnedSword

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Jun 15, 2018
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As much as I’d love an officially supported AMD alternative (and will be all over it as an early adopter), one must consider that it takes years of design wins and execution to wedge a product line into the enterprise. Trust must be built over time. It took years to build on the Xeon name for example. The enterprise moves at a snail’s pace compared to the speed of the consumer/prosumer space. AMD definitely has impressed with the latter in recent years, and if they can keep going it will be a matter of time to move into the former.

Intel has all but admitted that they are going to give up their chokehold in order to diversify. It was relatively easy to maintain that stranglehold in the past with incremental upgrades when there’s no relevant competition. The real question is if AMD can continue to notch wins, move into the space that Intel will vacate and also expand their portfolio. I hope they will.
 

voip-ninja

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Apr 5, 2019
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It looks like a couple of retailers are claiming this is in stock and available finally. Has anyone received one yet? If so I have questions.
 

Vidmo

Member
Feb 3, 2017
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Just installed my E-2288G/X11SCA-F with Server 2019 today, what did you need?
 

Jeff Robertson

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Oct 18, 2016
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Chico, CA
Provantage shipped me one a couple of weeks ago, I had ordered it in October... These things are a pain to get. VERY responsive however. Mine sits between 4.7 and 5Ghz and doesn't really drop below, not a lot of capacity but about the best single thread performance you can get in a server.
 

ramblinreck47

Active Member
Aug 3, 2019
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Provantage shipped me one a couple of weeks ago, I had ordered it in October... These things are a pain to get. VERY responsive however. Mine sits between 4.7 and 5Ghz and doesn't really drop below, not a lot of capacity but about the best single thread performance you can get in a server.
Provantage only had them up for a little while but that listing appears to have completely disappeared. The E-2288G has been in stock recently and they seem to be a little easier to get at the moment.
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
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Provantage shipped me one a couple of weeks ago, I had ordered it in October... These things are a pain to get. VERY responsive however. Mine sits between 4.7 and 5Ghz and doesn't really drop below, not a lot of capacity but about the best single thread performance you can get in a server.
it’s in some workloads going to behave very much like upto a 16 core 2.5ghz cpu.

When I saw the Compulab airtop 3 released these these the idea of an 8-core and 128gb system work upto 9 drives (4 x 2.5” sata and 2 x 2280 + 3 x 30110 NVMe drives) FANLESS system seems pretty attractive... costs some $$ but ready made system that’s really capable. Also it’s low power, I guess ~30w idle ?
 

voip-ninja

Member
Apr 5, 2019
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Just installed my E-2288G/X11SCA-F with Server 2019 today, what did you need?
I have some specific questions around the 2278 with that motherboard or a similar one and idle power consumption.

I also want to know if the configuration can be made to provide a RAID-1 boot for ESXi and if a Dell PERC can be easily configured with the motherboard.

Now that they are finally trickling out in small numbers I might just go ahead and order one.

Provantage has the lowest price but I imagine that it will take at least a month to get one through Provantage.
 

Vidmo

Member
Feb 3, 2017
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I have some specific questions around the 2278 with that motherboard or a similar one and idle power consumption.

I also want to know if the configuration can be made to provide a RAID-1 boot for ESXi and if a Dell PERC can be easily configured with the motherboard.

Now that they are finally trickling out in small numbers I might just go ahead and order one.

Provantage has the lowest price but I imagine that it will take at least a month to get one through Provantage.
I have not measured idle power consumption with this processor or board and probably won't as it will never see idle anyway. ;) I'm using it for a Windows file server, Emby server and Blue Iris server. I can tell you that like most any Supermicro motherboard you can easily install a Perc or LSI raid card without issues. They will work fine in either legacy or UEFI mode. I'm using a 9361-8i with the X11SCA-F myself.
 

voip-ninja

Member
Apr 5, 2019
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I have not measured idle power consumption with this processor or board and probably won't as it will never see idle anyway. ;) I'm using it for a Windows file server, Emby server and Blue Iris server. I can tell you that like most any Supermicro motherboard you can easily install a Perc or LSI raid card without issues. They will work fine in either legacy or UEFI mode. I'm using a 9361-8i with the X11SCA-F myself.
OK thanks for the information. I will have a similar workload to what you are describing but will be using ESXi (to make upgrades and migrations easier) to run a Linux PLEX, Windows server (for Blue Iris or similar) and a couple of Linux utilities.

I would really like to be able to run the hypervisor from the M.2 slots in a RAID-1 configuration but it seems that is probably not supported.

I will probably buy a refurbished PERC and run that and then back everything up to my NAS.
 

Jeff Robertson

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Oct 18, 2016
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Chico, CA
I have one in an SM board with four Micron 5100 SSDs in a raid array (onboard controller) and 64GB RAM. Idle consumption bounces between 27 and 36 watts with 5 VMs running. Compared to my epyc system it sips power.
 

voip-ninja

Member
Apr 5, 2019
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Looks like tray versions are available and I would probably pair with X11-SCAF Supermicro workstation board. It is not ESXi certified but I think I would still be okay.

Can anyone make a recommendation on a decent cooler for this Intel 80 watt TDP CPU without braking the bank?

What about RAM? I'd prefer to run ECC for some added insurance but it seems that the ones certified by SuperMicro are either scarce or very pricey.
 

ramblinreck47

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Aug 3, 2019
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What about RAM? I'd prefer to run ECC for some added insurance but it seems that the ones certified by SuperMicro are either scarce or very pricey.
I believe the Kingston KSM26ED8/16ME ECC DDR4-2666MHz 16GB will work. This YouTube video led to that belief:

I don't think the X11SCA-F is too picky about RAM. I've never heard of any DDR4 ECC UDIMM's failing to work properly (this doesn't mean there aren't brands or models out there that will cause issues...I just haven't seen them). Stick with either Crucial, Kingston, or other reputable name brands.
 

Jeff Robertson

Active Member
Oct 18, 2016
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Chico, CA
I purchased two 32GB ECC sticks that weren't on the list and they work great, these boards are not picky at all. There are only a few memory makers left so almost anything should just work.
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
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I have one in an SM board with four Micron 5100 SSDs in a raid array (onboard controller) and 64GB RAM. Idle consumption bounces between 27 and 36 watts with 5 VMs running. Compared to my epyc system it sips power.
that’s what makes these so compelling , depend performance if busy (high clock) but really a low idle. AMD has a heap of cores these days but idle consumption is long way from these intel systems.
 

denywinarto

Active Member
Aug 11, 2016
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It’s Registered ECC, which won’t work. You will need Unbuffered ECC.
Like these?

Samsung 32GB PC4-21300 PC4-2666V DDR4-2666MHz 288 pin ECC Unbuffered UDIMM SDRAM | eBay\

Sure is expensive, makes me wanna reconsider getting xeon,
i was contemplating between i9-9900 + 128GB non ecc or e2278G + 128gb ECC ram....
Is ecc absolute necessity?
I've had my server 2019 rdp locked up today, even ipmi couldn't help because when login windows says the rdp process is busy, had to hard reset my server.. Can ECC helps this kind of situation though?
 
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