The newest of those I can find are based on the 2012 era Q77 chipset (Ivybridge, LGA1155). That's far enough back in time from the present day to suggest that residual demand from customers with very expensive embedded/industrial control systems using ISA interfaces is withering away to nothing.
Mine still has PCI slots... but it is also a Sandy Bridge mobo... Still waiting for an upgrade that will blow my socks off :( m.2 looks exciting, but I can't justify a whole new build just to have slightly faster load times than 2 SATA drives in RAID0
mainstream 6+ cores is probably the closest to wow you're going to see.
OTOH if it's not a current need I'd suggest waiting a few more years for PCIe4, initial hardware Spectre/Meltdown fixes (they probably won't be done anytime soon, Spectre appears to be a gift that's just going to keep giving for an extended period), and multiple USB-C ports for better forward looking connectivity.
Green is standard on server and business-grade products. Tyan, Advantech, Intel, Supermicro (besides gaming C7/C9) -- all are green, as well as Asus B360M-C, Q370M-C and several others.
Didn't the last few generations of Cxxx series chipsets support only Xeons (+ a smattering of Pentiums) and not i3/i5/i7 chips? Or was it just vice-versa (Xeons in Zxxx/Hxxx boards) that were incompatible?
The latter is true: Xeons work only in C2xx boards, not Zxxx/Hxxx/Bxxx, but C2xx chisets happily accept consumer CPUs. BTW, these "few generations" are actually a single one: C232/C236 (Skylake/KabyLake). All the previous generations allowed to mix consumer/professional chipsets and CPUs freely. That's why E3-1230/1240v2/v3 were popular among non-iGPU public: "i7 for the price of i5".
It's needs to be cheap. Also Ryzen supports just 64GB too, then the question is what is faster if Xeon E + all security patches or Ryzen? IMHO there is still market requiring the highest single-thread perf available for normal money and Xeon E should end @4.7GHz which is pretty nice...
It's notable that a motherboard built for long-term durability doesn't have elaborate power delivery or random bits of metal posing as heatsinks/spreaders all over it. Also absent are metal slot reinforcements for PCIe devices and the DIMMs. These sorts of products are purchased by people with a clue so I guess no one is going to try to spoof them with angles, eagles, and RGB.
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
19 Comments
Back to Article
shabby - Wednesday, July 11, 2018 - link
Is it me or does that green soldermask bring back some nostalgia?zdw - Wednesday, July 11, 2018 - link
Not the PCI slots?shabby - Wednesday, July 11, 2018 - link
Omg i just noticed those, thought they were pcie or something. When was the last time pci slots were on a mobo?Chaitanya - Thursday, July 12, 2018 - link
there are few motherboards specially made for telecommunication service providers that come with ISA slots.DanNeely - Thursday, July 12, 2018 - link
The newest of those I can find are based on the 2012 era Q77 chipset (Ivybridge, LGA1155). That's far enough back in time from the present day to suggest that residual demand from customers with very expensive embedded/industrial control systems using ISA interfaces is withering away to nothing.CaedenV - Thursday, July 12, 2018 - link
Mine still has PCI slots... but it is also a Sandy Bridge mobo... Still waiting for an upgrade that will blow my socks off :(m.2 looks exciting, but I can't justify a whole new build just to have slightly faster load times than 2 SATA drives in RAID0
DanNeely - Thursday, July 12, 2018 - link
mainstream 6+ cores is probably the closest to wow you're going to see.OTOH if it's not a current need I'd suggest waiting a few more years for PCIe4, initial hardware Spectre/Meltdown fixes (they probably won't be done anytime soon, Spectre appears to be a gift that's just going to keep giving for an extended period), and multiple USB-C ports for better forward looking connectivity.
bolkhov - Wednesday, July 11, 2018 - link
Green is standard on server and business-grade products.Tyan, Advantech, Intel, Supermicro (besides gaming C7/C9) -- all are green, as well as Asus B360M-C, Q370M-C and several others.
CheapSushi - Wednesday, July 11, 2018 - link
I love that Gigabyte will often use a nice shade of blue. :Dboozed - Thursday, July 12, 2018 - link
Never thought I'd see a motherboard that actually looks like a motherboard again.CaedenV - Thursday, July 12, 2018 - link
Ya! I saw the thumbnail and was like... waitaminute, motherboards still come in green? how retro!bolkhov - Wednesday, July 11, 2018 - link
No BMC (IPMI)? A bit odd for a server-grade board, even for an entry-level.BTW, iBase specs are known for months, and these aren't the only known.
Supermicro lists several SKUs on C242/C246 "OS Compatibility" pages, see
https://www.supermicro.com/support/resources/OS/C2...
https://www.supermicro.com/support/resources/OS/C2...
...and a dozen more is known from distributor's sites.
edzieba - Thursday, July 12, 2018 - link
Didn't the last few generations of Cxxx series chipsets support only Xeons (+ a smattering of Pentiums) and not i3/i5/i7 chips? Or was it just vice-versa (Xeons in Zxxx/Hxxx boards) that were incompatible?bolkhov - Thursday, July 12, 2018 - link
The latter is true: Xeons work only in C2xx boards, not Zxxx/Hxxx/Bxxx, but C2xx chisets happily accept consumer CPUs.BTW, these "few generations" are actually a single one: C232/C236 (Skylake/KabyLake). All the previous generations allowed to mix consumer/professional chipsets and CPUs freely. That's why E3-1230/1240v2/v3 were popular among non-iGPU public: "i7 for the price of i5".
mpbello - Thursday, July 12, 2018 - link
It is already old with max 64GB ram and very few PCIe lanes.kgardas - Thursday, July 12, 2018 - link
It's needs to be cheap. Also Ryzen supports just 64GB too, then the question is what is faster if Xeon E + all security patches or Ryzen?IMHO there is still market requiring the highest single-thread perf available for normal money and Xeon E should end @4.7GHz which is pretty nice...
PeachNCream - Thursday, July 12, 2018 - link
It's notable that a motherboard built for long-term durability doesn't have elaborate power delivery or random bits of metal posing as heatsinks/spreaders all over it. Also absent are metal slot reinforcements for PCIe devices and the DIMMs. These sorts of products are purchased by people with a clue so I guess no one is going to try to spoof them with angles, eagles, and RGB.romrunning - Thursday, July 12, 2018 - link
For a board that is designed for Xeons, I would have thought 10GBe would have been either the standard or at least a LOM option.bolkhov - Thursday, July 12, 2018 - link
Supermicro has many dual-10GbE C236-based boards; C246 will follow suit.