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  • nathanddrews - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link

    http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/3...
  • Pissedoffyouth - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link

    I kind of want one haha. If I was super mega rich I'd build such an overpowered PC
  • close - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link

    But this isn't a PC. It's a server motherboard. You'd get a PC that boots in ages, makes a lot of noise, consumes an enormous amount of power, cannot use a regular gaming/professional graphics card, cannot be put in a regular case, doesn't have enough USBs, etc. And most times you'd never take advantage of the multiprocessor feature as consumer software doesn't need that. Multiprocessor is a totally different beast from multicore ;). One that doesn't do you any favors if you want to use it at home.

    This is absolutely useless at home unless you plan on simulating server workloads. You wouldn't get an overpowered PC except when talking about the power bill. You're better off by far with a high end i7 and the rest of the desktop components that come with it.
  • hughlle - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link

    You seem to be missing the point. Spending because why not. Not because it's a sensible purchase. If money was no object, who wouldn't want to be a bit silly and buy one of these for nothing more than a file server :D I'm pretty sure dual socket with 300gb+ of ram would classify as an overpowered pc in such a use case :)
  • f0d - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link

    if i had the money to throw away id buy one as a htpc and fill it with max amount of ram and highest spec processors
    watercool it to keep the noise down

    then watch dvd's on it :P

    at least it will sort of come in handy when i handbrake convert dvd's
  • homer1025 - Monday, May 25, 2015 - link

    4K h.265 video from a ultra blurry in 3 minuted! Hahahaha, silly!
  • quicksilver98 - Wednesday, July 15, 2015 - link

    Or surf porn....
  • close - Sunday, May 24, 2015 - link

    "A personal computer is a general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities and original sale price make it useful for individuals, and is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator"

    What I said very clearly is that you wouldn't build an "overpowered PC", not even a workstation, but a server. That's it. And as a server it wouldn't be that overpowered anymore. You'd have a server that you try to use as a PC, a task at which it would fail miserably. Absolutely nothing you would do on this machine will run faster than on a high end desktop using high end desktop parts.

    Point not missed :). Oh, spending for spending sake? Put a gold bar inside. It would have the same effect on the speed of your rig as putting in this motherboard. Plus one extra: with the gold bar you look like a p.i.m.p. while with this mobo you're a geek :D.
  • HeyImHJ - Sunday, May 24, 2015 - link

    +1, why not two gold bars. The weight of is sure help as well.
  • hughlle - Sunday, May 24, 2015 - link

    Your definition of a PC makes it quittee clear that there is no single definition for a PC. Useful to one is not useful to another. Based on that description, an individual could argue a custom built water cooled full tower gaming rig is not a PC given its price and capabilities.

    If I build one of these and use it as my htpc and every day computer, then it is my personal computer. My PC. And maybe my surface pro 3 isn't a PC because its a laptop or, what?

    Doesn't matter how big or what it costs, if I use it as a PC, it is as such, a PC.
  • hughlle - Sunday, May 24, 2015 - link

    Oh, and I used to have a dual Xeon machine. It worked just fine as a PC. Just because its not conventional, doesn't mean it didn't perform the role of a PC just dandy.
  • HeyImHJ - Sunday, May 24, 2015 - link

    Really, is this the nonsense you come up with? use a hardware that normally as a personal computer won't be used in its entirely just for the sake of calling it a Personal Computer. This is like saying that you would buy a bulldozer or an excavator -it can be a mean of transportation, why not?, to use it as a daily transportation like going from home to work, or home to school.

    By the time a personal computer use this level of hardware there will be dozens of generations ahead of this one. This isn't by any mean a "beast of a PC".

  • close - Monday, May 25, 2015 - link

    I used a tractor head to split some firewood. I'll call it an ax. :)

    I understand what you guys are saying. But if you take a server and use it as a PC... it's a server used as a PC. Just like a PS3 used as a PC is still a console :). A phone used as a camera is still a phone. And this mobo will never ever make an overpowered PC for one simple reason: it offers no power for PC applications. So this server actually makes for an underpowered PC: slow to boot, slow GPU performance, slow memory, slow CPUs (lower freq, no OC), etc. A high end i7 blows this out of the water as a PC. Where this shines is server load (VMs for example). But then you leave the PC area.
  • SlyNine - Sunday, May 31, 2015 - link

    You're just arguing semantics. No one could ever really be right or wrong here. Things are just whatever we call them. You could both just go on arguing forever because if he used it as a PC his argument is still valid, as is yours.
  • agentbb007 - Friday, May 29, 2015 - link

    @close just give up, education to some is futile.
  • HeyImHJ - Sunday, May 24, 2015 - link

    If I had the money I'd estimate what the cost of all that would be, and give it to charity.
  • yuhong - Sunday, May 24, 2015 - link

    Actually, to software it does look the same, the main difference being that consumer software can't use that many cores well, not to mention NUMA.
  • close - Sunday, May 24, 2015 - link

    I said nothing about "how it looks" to the software. It's more about how it runs. Running on two cores in the same CPU is quite different than running on 2 cores in different CPUs when you also have to keep caches coherent and actually lose some of the peak performance. Also, desktop software is rarely so parallelized that it can take advantage of 20+ cores. This is why every test comparing MP platforms with high end desktop platforms showed the desktop as a winner in desktop tasks (games and all that).

    Spending for spending sake is when you buy an extra 1% in performance for 50% of the price. This is paying 5-10 times as much to actually lose performance :)).
  • SlyNine - Sunday, May 31, 2015 - link

    Hyper threading/SMT we used to pay more and lose performance. Some apps could still scale. In general I agree with you tho. It's a silly buy, but I don't think he has denied that.
  • joex4444 - Monday, May 25, 2015 - link

    While server boards do tend to have more to do for bootup, there's nothing that's inherent about a motherboard with completely passive parts that forces it to a) make a lot of noise or b) consume a lot of power, nor any of the rest. Servers (1U-4U cases) tend to be loud because they're full of numerous high RPM 40mm fans, especially for 1U. Servers tend to use a lot of power because they have 2 CPUs that are being used heavily - it's the workload not the hardware that causes that. While it doesn't have any PCIe x16 slots - look at the x8 slots it has. The back is open - they support x16 cards, but they will run at x8 (this is even written in the article). So yes, you can support a standard gaming or professional card. As far as the case goes, it's a standard SSI EEB sized board. There are numerous full tower cases that support those, which would clearly allow you to run a standard gaming graphics card in it. You're not at all limited to 1U, 2U, or any other server rack style case by this board's form factor.
  • close - Tuesday, May 26, 2015 - link

    Well... there is. The narrow socket forces the use of a noisier fan. The fact that you have 2 CPUs will need more case fans. You will have to have a PSU that's way above average to power those 2 CPUs and 24 memory slots. Etc.

    The fact that it supports only x8 was my point exactly. All these "small" handicaps add up. You can't OC the CPUs and you won't find high frequency parts (certainly not in the range that you can get a desktop CPU), the RAM is slower and again it can't be overclocked, etc. When you add all these you just get a slower noisier PC. So I stand by my statement. There is no way to use this and build a better PC (more powerful) than with desktop components.
  • close - Tuesday, May 26, 2015 - link

    http://www.anandtech.com/show/6533/gigabyte-ga7pes...

    Just as a rough overview of how this kind of systems stands up do a high end desktop in desktop applications. Not too great. Maybe if you turn it into a video encoding workstation you'd get some benefits. Also the high end CPUs for this are 135W SKUs. 24 memory slots need 130W of power even at a conservative 5W per DIMM.

    You'd get a beast, no doubt. But it's like assuming a 600HP tractor head is a race car because it has 600CP.
  • Gothmoth - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link

    asrock... the cheap springoff..... meh.
    why not from asus?
  • ddriver - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link

    ASRock has grown quite a lot and has excellent product line across all market segments.

    And it is a "spin-off" not a springoff, and certainly not cheap. They are more affordable, since you don't pay for the brand.
  • Arnulf - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link

    Wouldn't want to buy any Asus crap myself ... AsRock on the other hand, while affordable, has served me well. It's not my first choice but it certainly is a viable choice, unlike Asus.
  • Samus - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link

    You do realize Asus and ASrock are the same company, right?

    You're basically calling the Chevy Silverado crap compared to the GMC Sierra, when they are nearly identical.

    ASrock and Asus share most engineering, programming and even production staff, and the boards are produced in the same Foxconn and Pegatron plants. Together, Asus and Asrock command over 40% of the world motherboard market; Asus is the largest motherboard manufacturer in the world.

    Asus also holds more design patents than any other motherboard manufacturer, having more unique designs, sometimes reverse engineering/bypassing manufacturer lockouts.

    Of course it's hard to forget that ABIT was the one who brought us the first truly jumper-less motherboard. The Asus P3B (which is a jumper-less successor to the P2B) was considered more stable than ABIT BH6 with superior quality. When ABIT folded and engineers left to start DFI with some defectors from Gigabyte, DFI took over where ABIT left off, but DFI was plagued with the same quality\manufacturing issues as ABIT, and eventually they folded too.

    Since my DFI Infinity 975x I have used Asus and ASrock exclusively in nearly a dozen systems ranging from ATX to ITX. I think the Asus P6T (X58 Nehalem) is possibly the most stable PC I've had.
  • Lonyo - Sunday, May 24, 2015 - link

    Asus owns something under 20% of Pegatron (19.33% as at end of 2013), plus some additional influence as some individuals also have direct shareholdings, and Asus has in house manufacturing. They don't use Foxconn and mainly use their own stuff.

    Pegatron owns I think something like 58% of what probably is ASRock (the Pegatron structure chart is horribly confusing).

    Asus did used to own ASRock, but in 2007-2010 there was a restructuring, resulting in the current structure of Asus owning a small amount of Pegatron, and Pegatron owning most of ASRock, but all 3 are publicly listed companies.
  • Samus - Sunday, May 24, 2015 - link

    ASRock is still under the ASUS umbrella in that they have IP licensing agreements, use the same software development team (A-Tuning and AiSuite have the same backend) and the boards are produced in the same plant. Being publicly traded doesn't mean they can't be the same company. A "DBA" of a C-Corp can be traded independently even on the NASDAQ. I'd like to see information on the ASRock restructuring, I didn't know such a thing happened.

    You will find plenty of Foxconn components on ASUS/ASRock boards. I'm looking at a ASRock H87m-ITX board right now that has a Foxconn-stamped eSATA-USB stack on it, indicating this board was likely manufactured in a Foxconn facility:

    http://cdn-reichelt.de/bilder/web/xxl_ws/E200/ASR_...

    But you are right, I've seen various models of ASUS and ASRock boards manufactured by Pegatron and Foxconn.
  • Samus - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link

    Asrock is fine. I'm sure they're kicking themselves for picking such a stupid name, because when they started they were a budget company targeting home PC builders and gamers. They have proven themselves more capable, as was expected considering they operate under the Asus talent umbrella.
  • ggathagan - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link

    If I'm looking at a workstation or server motherboard, I'm going with SuperMicro or Tyan.
    Neither ASRock or Asus have a good enough track record in this particular arena to be a wise choice.
  • Samus - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link

    SuperMicro has great support but every time I've worked on one of their server boards, I've NEEDED that support because their boards have very finicky compatibility issues due to their limited resources to validate many hardware configurations. They are, after all, a small company, and they cater to a market that often has extremely custom configurations.

    However, the support is so amazing, they once actually sent my configuration issue to engineering and within a week I had a CUSTOM BIOS to correct the issue I had with my Areca RAID controller not properly initializing an external 12-bay JBOD. The correction theory was to increase the voltage slope of the PCIe slot the RAID card was in to prevent a voltage drop when the JBOD was initialized. It worked.

    A few months and BIOS revisions later, I was then re-notified by support that the changes I needed were validated and made it into a production BIOS and it was safe for me to flash the supported BIOS.

    I don't have a lot of experience with Tyan, but SuperMicro sets a high bar.
  • Capissen38 - Tuesday, May 26, 2015 - link

    Indeed! I had a completely identical thing happen about seven years ago while working for a big ol' whitebox integrator. The fast and personal response was nice, but good grief did we ship an uncomfortable number of servers with custom BIOSes with build dates that matched our ship dates. Once you get Supermicro systems stable, they'll run forever without issue, but it can be an adventure getting there.
  • nils_ - Friday, May 29, 2015 - link

    I had the same experience with a PCIe Infiniband card where they sent over a modified BIOS.
  • nils_ - Friday, May 29, 2015 - link

    The IPMI is utter crap however.
  • eSyr - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link

    > it isn’t something you could casually mention in conversation
    But it is perfectly memorizable — (Haswell-)EP 2-socket board with C612 chipset and 24 DDR slots == EP2C612D24.
  • ShieTar - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link

    I get that this board does not need a lot of Video-Connectivity, but is a VGA-Port really still the weapon of choice of Server-Admins? I'd assume that IF they want to attach a monitor to a board like this, it would be something a bit more portable than an old dusty CRT monitor.
  • hughlle - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link

    I can't comment on its the logic but there are scores of LCD displays that take VGA..
  • lset - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link

    Because all rack KVMs are VGA and there server adapters for any of their switches are always ethernet to usb/ps2 and VGA. Server kit like that takes ages to change and there just isn't a requirement for it to go beyond VGA.
  • ddriver - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link

    VGA is not a CRT-only interface, all cheap, small, low res LCD displays come with VGA.
  • sulphurlad - Sunday, May 24, 2015 - link

    The Aspeed onboard iKVM has Matrox g200/g400 graphics chip. Just enough to run an OS install and not be stuck with 640x480.
    I wouldn't even hook up a monitor to run it, with iKVM and all, just network cables and power, login over the net and go go go.
  • TheUnhandledException - Monday, May 25, 2015 - link

    Sadly yes. As others have said VGA is fine for LCD panels. It also is the least common denominator. Take any server for the last 30 years and they all have a VGA port. That means almost all KVM switches use VGA ports. It would make a lot of sense for KVM switches to use display port but a display port KVM is kinda useless if it can't connect to 70% of your servers and nobody is going to drop in a display port video card in a server just to connect it to the KVM. Server could use DP connector but since the KVM probably uses VGA that would mean a dongle or having both DP and VGA neither of which is attractive.

    Thus the great chicken and egg scenario has continued for a decade and probably will for another one.

    Still IPMI has made a physical video port pretty much redundant. If the problem can't be solved over IPMI then in many organizations the server is being pulled from the rack anyways. I will point out that having the VGA port hard wired to the back panel (I didn't see any front panel header) is annoying as shit and a sign of a less mature product.
  • Dug - Tuesday, May 26, 2015 - link

    Yes. One of the main reasons is because of compatibility and the fact they still use screws to tighten the connection. When you have servers that slide in and out of the rack, you don't want a connection that will pop out with some tension on the cable like you would get from display port.
  • sulphurlad - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link

    Looks like my Supermicro X9 Dual board I bought (3) years ago, but it's missing (4) 16x PCIe slots.
  • wintermute000 - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link

    Whats the Vmware compatibility of this thing? Don't forget us home white-box server tinkerers
  • sulphurlad - Sunday, May 24, 2015 - link

    Probably fine, it's an Intel c612 chipset, might even be certified, it has an internal USB A connection, for installing onto a usb thumb drive.
  • SanX - Sunday, May 24, 2015 - link

    Make dual socket mobos with regular PC processors
  • biostud - Monday, May 25, 2015 - link

    I don't know much about these types of motherboards but wouldn't a 10Gbit network connection be a good idea?
  • Dug - Tuesday, May 26, 2015 - link

    Yes

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