With the recent release of Intel’s Haswell-EP (aka Grantley) range of CPUs we have a new assortment of motherboards to match. One of the Supermicro server offerings is the X10SRH-CLN4F single-socket (UP, as opposed to dual socket – DP) board.
Tag: Motherboard
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How to install an Asus PIKE 2008 card
As a non-standard PCI-Express card, the Asus PIKE card involves a slightly different installation procedure.
The PIKE slot sits on either side of a gap in the motherboard:
You’re definitely not going to mistake it for a regular PCI-Express slot. The card only goes in one way, with the heatsink facing the PCI slots; it can be a little hard to get in sometimes as it needs to be inserted from almost directly above.
Motherboard-side view:
The card is secured on either end; on the side closest to the SAS/SATA ports, it hooks under a latch on the slot:
Here you can see the metal part of the PIKE card latching underneath the slot’s edge. You can also see how close other board components often are to this end! The other end sits over one of the motherboard mounting holes:
Don’t install the card without taking this screw out first, otherwise you’ll be taking it out and starting over. Now the card will activate the SAS/SATA ports next to it:
Easy done! Taking the card back out can be a little challenging with the metal clip on the side where the ports are, particularly if you have PCI cards still installed while you try to remove it (e.g. when the motherboard is still in the chassis). On the topic of removing the card while the motherboard is still in the chassis – as the card is quite short and the insertion pressure is reasonable so it’s quite difficult to remove in the chassis if there’s not a lot of space on both sides. A better idea is usually to take the motherboard out in these cases to minimise the risk of damage to the card or other board components.
You can buy the Asus PIKE 2008 card from Amazon.com:
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Asus P9D-E/4L Haswell Server Motherboard Review
With the recent release of Intel’s Haswell architecture came new server boards to match. From Asus came the new P9D line, and within that line the Asus P9D-E4/L is the flagship model with quite a comprehensive list of features.
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New Intel Motherboard in-house: S1200KPR Mini-ITX Server board
We’ve been building a few mini servers with these lately and finally found the time for a bit of a write-up – we’re almost finished, so keep your eyes peeled for a review shortly!
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Asus motherboard BIOS update error: CAP file not recognised EFI bios!
If you see the above error – and you’re selecting what you’re sure is the proper CAP file – chances are you’re trying to use a USB disk formatted to NTFS rather than FAT32. Frustratingly, the error message for a corrupt/non-CAP file is the same as the error message you get when you’re trying to use an NTFS-formatted drive, which Asus Ez Flash 2 is not compatible with.
The solution is simply to use a FAT32-formatted drive. If that doesn’t work double check that your file hasn’t corrupted during the download and is complete, and the right BIOS for the board.
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Asus Z9PE-D16 review: Part One
Up for review today we have one of Asus’ dual-socket-2011 server motherboards – the Z9PE-D16. Hit the break to find out what it’s all about and why you might care about it even if you don’t need to run two CPUs…
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Can you mix processor models in Intel’s Socket 2011 dual-CPU motherboards?
Intel recommend using two identical CPUs in their socket-2011 dual-socket motherboards; it is theoretically possible to use non-identical CPUs, though, and Intel’s rules for that are that they must be:
- Of the same processor family
- Have the same number of cores
- Have the same cache size at each level of cache
- Able to find a common QPI link frequency
Given the above, Intel states that you can mix CPUs with different core frequencies – the faster CPU will clock down to match the slower one, however. The same applies to the QPI links.
We haven’t yet had the opportunity to test differing CPUs in other brands’ dual-socket motherboards yet – we will update if or when we do. This isn’t something which we would usually recommend without finding someone who has successfully tested your intended combination just in case, but it is handy to know that it is theoretically supported.
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BIOS update: Asus P8B WS
For those of you with the Asus P8B WS-based workstations, there is a new BIOS available which enables use of the new Ivy Bridge Xeons (#2009). You can download the BIOS update here.
