Socket C32 motherboards

[CrystalCowboy]

Oh, and the ASUS mobo is available at NewEgg, whereas I haven't seen the MSI board at retail anywhere yet.

[CrystalCowboy]

I just ran across this useful page:
Server Motherboards with AMD Chipsets
It lists the KCMA-D8 and the MS-91F7 and a number of other C32 and G43 mobos.

[chithanh]

The specification doesn't explicitly say whether the KCMA-D8 has PEG slots. If it does not, then the choice of graphics cards would be severely limited.

[chithanh]

Socket C32 CPUs are available at significantly higher clock speeds compared to G34. It may have to do something with TDP.

[CrystalCowboy]

Because

1) 4-6 cores is enough for my application

2) I want the higher clock speeds. the 4184 is rated at 2.8 GHz. The fastest G34 CPU at present is the 6136 @ 2.4 GHz. If I switched from the 4184 to the 6136, I would gain an additional 2 cores, but would lose 0.4 GHz

3) The 6136 is more than double the cost of the 4184.

So, on factors of core count, clock speed, thermals and cost, a G34 would only win on one of those, and lose on two; and as I said, the additional cores are not something I need so that one factor is an empty win.

[CrystalCowboy]

The Tyan product matrix lists a S8225 (GM4NR) motherboard, and several variants of the S8226 which are apparently not available as of yet, and not fully detailed anywhere. The chief differences between the S8225, as compared to the S8226, is that it will have six PCIexpress slots (length not detailed) and the RAM will max out at 64 GB rather than 96 GB.

The two versions of the S8226 which are currently listed (GM3NR and WGM3NR) each only have two PCIexpress2.0 x16 slots. Variants WGM3NR-HE, GM3NR-HE and WGM3NR-HE-B supposedly will have three PCIe2.0 slots each, length not listed.

All of those boards have form factor EATX and chipset SR5690 + SP5100.

[CrystalCowboy]

Found a little more in the PDF catalog of Tyan products for AMD platforms.

The base S8226 models have SR5690 + SP5100 chipsets, two PCIe2.0 x16 slots, and three gigabit ports.

"HE" variants of the S8226 have SR5690 + SR5650 + SP5100 chipsets, and will have a third PCIe2.0 x16 slot.

The S8225 board has a different layout, a max RAM capacity of 64 GB rather than 96 GB, a chipset combo of SR5690 + SR5690 + SP5100, and these slots:
4 - PCIe2.0 x16
1 - PCIe2.0 x8
1 - PCIe2.0 x4
1 - PCI
Depending on whether you believe the product matrix web page or the PDF catalog, the S8225 may have 3 or 4 gigabit ports.

[Melchior]

I can't believe there are only a handful of ATX C32 boards.

Virtually none with multiple PCIe x16 slots (and the few that do only have 8x lanes connected). What's with the refusal to use a more powerful SR5690 chip instead of the lame SR5670...!??

Also, Does Acer actually make Opteron C32 boards ?

Finally there are inexpensive Server-class CPUs but no decent boards to use them in... Irony, thy name is AMD.

[CrystalCowboy]

I can't believe there are only a handful of ATX C32 boards.

Virtually none with multiple PCIe x16 slots (and the few that do only have 8x lanes connected). What's with the refusal to use a more powerful SR5690 chip instead of the lame SR5670...!??

Also, Does Acer actually make Opteron C32 boards ?

I am not aware of any Acer products with Socket C32.

I presume the dearth of slots has something to do with the cloud server model overtaking the standalone workstation model.

Availability of the boards already mentioned has improved. The Tyan S8225 is now officially released, and is available at NewEgg and elsewhere.

[Melchior]

Acer Mystery server

The Acer (AKA "Gateway") "server" is here:
http://za.gateway.com/products/produ...?prod=GT115_F1


Basically a MATX desktop board. With a 4000 Series Opteron...

The board layout does look sane, although very limited.