Supermicro X9SCM-F-O + 4 GB RAM - $190 (combo deal)

Supermicro X9SCM-F-O + 4 GB RAM combo

 

Solid combo deal - $10 cheaper than the standard price of the motherboard alone, plus 4 GB of RAM for free. I haven't used this RAM yet so I can't guarantee compatibility, but I doubt Newegg would bundle them together if it wasn't compatible. No promo code needed.

It doesn't appear as though that RAM is on the tested memory list. But as you stated, it's unlikely newegg would bundle two products that were not compatible.

 

Can you recommend a low cost CPU for this board? No transcoding, no SABnzbd, just basic server functions.

any socket 1555 I3 would work very well.

 

you do need a V2 bios to use an IVY Bridge I3.

Thanks. 

I just got this board in a combo with a  Xeon E3-1230 V2 last month, the xeon looked like really good bang for the buck.  CPUmark was 9165 on cpubench.net, that's within 5% of a I7-3770!  Current price of the E3-1230 V2 at Microcenter is $219 in-store or  $244 from newegg.  The board newegg shipped had bios 2.01 iirc, I was glad to see it boot because otherwise apparently one has to get a non-Ivy 1155 cpu to boot it and upgrade the bios.

 

For RAM I got Hynix HMT41GU7MFR8C-PB DDR3-1600 ECC from superbiiz, the X9SCM will support 1600 ram if the CPU is an Ivy Bridge type and this ram was on the compatibility list and only a couple bucks more than 1333 at the time.  Newegg was out of the ought-to-be-compatible Kingston 8G sticks at the time, those *might* be a bit cheaper.

 

So far so good, it's screaming fast

any socket 1555 I3 would work very well.

 

Socket 1155.

 

 

I just got this board in a combo with a  Xeon E3-1230 V2 last month, the xeon looked like really good bang for the buck.  CPUmark was 9165 on cpubench.net, that's within 5% of a I7-3770!  Current price of the E3-1230 V2 at Microcenter is $219 in-store or  $244 from newegg.  The board newegg shipped had bios 2.01 iirc, I was glad to see it boot because otherwise apparently one has to get a non-Ivy 1155 cpu to boot it and upgrade the bios.

 

Is the V2 an Ivy Bridge?  It's listed as a Sandy Bridge on Microcenter's site.

 

I was wondering if it's worth $20 / 10% more than the E3-1230.

Is the V2 an Ivy Bridge?  It's listed as a Sandy Bridge on Microcenter's site.

 

I was wondering if it's worth $20 / 10% more than the E3-1230.

Right, the V2 is an Ivy Bridge - the 1230 V2 is a 22nm process vs 32nm for the, uhh, non-V2.  CPUMark is 8420 for the non-V2 so the V2 is just under 10% faster, on that scale at least.  And the TDW is 69 watts vs 80 watts for the non-V2. (TDW/nm from ark.intel.com)  So yeah, based on that + the use of 1600 ram (for whatever miniscule performance difference that makes, heh) I went for the V2.  Well, that and the V2 was in the newegg combo at that time...

Right, the V2 is an Ivy Bridge

 

OK, thanks, I thought the Ivy Bridge wouldn't work with this MB or with ESXi, or something like that.

Right, the V2 is an Ivy Bridge

 

OK, thanks, I thought the Ivy Bridge wouldn't work with this MB or with ESXi, or something like that.

It's not that it won't work.  It's what you want to pass through in ESXi that causes the most problems.  A single M1015 will work without problems and I believe 2 M1015s will also work but I could be wrong.  You will not get 3 M1015s working in ESXi unless SuperMicro has fixed the bios problems.  You will also have problems with AVer Media Duet tuner cards even being recognized as plugged in by the MB.  If you don't use ESXi then you can get 3 M1015s working if I remember correctly but the Duet still wouldn't work. 

 

A SandyBridge CPU opens up more options.  If you use a Sandy Bridge CPU (v1) and the non-Ivy Bridge compatible Bios (before 2.0) then the AVer Media Duet card is recognized by the MB and you can use it and 3 M1015s in pass through in ESXi.

... You will not get 3 M1015s working in ESXi unless SuperMicro has fixed the bios problems.

 

actually, 3 M1015s will work on this mobo, with a 2.0a bios, and an ivy bridge cpu ... check this thread for further details

... You will not get 3 M1015s working in ESXi unless SuperMicro has fixed the bios problems.

 

actually, 3 M1015s will work on this mobo, with a 2.0a bios, and an ivy bridge cpu ... check this thread for further details

So you are using 3 M1015s on a X9SCM-F with an Ivy Bridge CPU and bios 2.0a and all ports on the M1015s used with 17-24 drives connected in an ESXi unRAID VM?  The reason I ask is that RockDawg could not get it to work when he had 3 M1015s connected and passed through to an unRAID VM in ESXi even when he went to 5.1.  The M1015s worked fine in unRAID only mode.  Also I had no problem with 3 M1015s on a Sandy Bridge CPU but I don't have an Ivy Bridge CPU to test with.

... So you are using 3 M1015s on a X9SCM-F with an Ivy Bridge CPU and bios 2.0a and all ports on the M1015s used with 17-24 drives connected in an ESXi unRAID VM?  The reason I ask is that RockDawg could not get it to work when he had 3 M1015s connected and passed through to an unRAID VM in ESXi even when he went to 5.1.  The M1015s worked fine in unRAID only mode.  Also I had no problem with 3 M1015s on a Sandy Bridge CPU but I don't have an Ivy Bridge CPU to test with.

 

i double checked ... im using 3 M1015s on a X9SCM-F-O with an Ivy Bridge CPU and bios 2.0 ... two of the m1015s are HBAs for two Chenbro SAS controllers in separate DASs. i'm only using one port in both m1015s.

 

the third m1015 is passed through to an Oracle Solaris 11 VM.... this is under ESXi 5.0U1

 

additional details here

... So you are using 3 M1015s on a X9SCM-F with an Ivy Bridge CPU and bios 2.0a and all ports on the M1015s used with 17-24 drives connected in an ESXi unRAID VM?  The reason I ask is that RockDawg could not get it to work when he had 3 M1015s connected and passed through to an unRAID VM in ESXi even when he went to 5.1.  The M1015s worked fine in unRAID only mode.  Also I had no problem with 3 M1015s on a Sandy Bridge CPU but I don't have an Ivy Bridge CPU to test with.

 

i double checked ... im using 3 M1015s on a X9SCM-F-O with an Ivy Bridge CPU and bios 2.0 ... two of the m1015s are HBAs for two Chenbro SAS controllers in separate DASs. i'm only using one port in both m1015s.

 

the third m1015 is passed through to an Oracle Solaris 11 VM.... this is under ESXi 5.0U1

 

additional details here

I can believe it works when you pass the M1015s to different VMs also turning off the com ports would have released some interrupts and may have made all the difference.  I don't have an Ivy Bridge Xeon to test on my X9SCM-F so I can't test 3 M1015s to the same VM.  I do know that ESXi 5.0 on my Intel DH77EB with Ivy Bridge i7-3770s would not recognize the MB devices correctly.  They came up as generic names or unknown.  I haven't tried ESXi 5.1 on it yet just haven't had the time. But 5.1 is suppose to work better with Ivy Bridge because more MB devices are recognized correctly.  Some time over the holidays I intend to try 5.1.