Supermicro X7SPA L/H/HF ATOM serverboards (Level 1 Tested)


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But even with the meter just hanging on the wall by itself, it measures 6 W.  So is it safe to assume it is measuring 6 W above actual?

 

It could be noise from the open circuit (i.e. having nothing plugged into it.)

 

Try plugging it into a lamp, and see what it read with the lamp on and off, but keeping the lamp plugged into the meter.

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I've done some more reading about IPMI and that looks like a usefull tool.

 

I also like the USB port on the board so you dont have a have a USB key sticking out the back of your case.

 

IPMI is incredible, especially if this thing is going in a closet somewhere.  I've found it to be very invaluable.  And yes, the USB port on the board is just an awesome bonus.

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IPMI is basically complete remote control over the system.  You can connect to it from anywhere.  You can get into the BIOS with it, as it is basically KVM over ethernet.  In my opinion, if you're planning on building an unRAID server and then disconnecting the keyboard, mouse, and monitor, and stick it in a closet, then yeah, it's a pretty important feature.  Otherwise, you will have to shut everything down and move the box, or connect all that crap up in the closet, in order to diagnose something that is hardware related.  It has nothing to do with unRAID.  It's completely autonomous from an OS or any application.  No additional hardware is needed, other than an ethernet connection.

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IPMI is basically complete remote control over the system.  You can connect to it from anywhere.  You can get into the BIOS with it, as it is basically KVM over ethernet. 

 

Many of the supermicro "server class" boards are capable of IPMI. The ones with embedded video chips are capable of KVM over IP. They usually require an additional purchase of a IPMI controller card. This is particular board has it already built in.

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Well, I'm sure the BMC chip is doing some background hogging.  Oh, and the video card is enabled.  I wonder if I can disable it and still use IPMI?...

Have you had a chance to check this yet? Also, have you had any luck with the eth0/eth1 switch in unRAID to use the IPMI?  I was planning on getting one of the sister boards, but now IPMI has peaked my interest. I had no clue what it was when I was comparing the 3 Supermicro boards. I've been sidetracked with new office furniture and getting everything rack mounted into it, or I would've had one of these boards already for my new unRaid build.

 

Oh, any chance you've tested out standby modes with this board?

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Have you had a chance to check this yet? Also, have you had any luck with the eth0/eth1 switch in unRAID to use the IPMI?  I was planning on getting one of the sister boards, but now IPMI has peaked my interest. I had no clue what it was when I was comparing the 3 Supermicro boards. I've been sidetracked with new office furniture and getting everything rack mounted into it, or I would've had one of these boards already for my new unRaid build.

 

Oh, any chance you've tested out standby modes with this board?

I too had planned on the H model as it is slightly cheaper, but now that I have seen first hand how useful IPMI is, I'm glad I went with the HF.  To be honest, I haven't had a chance to mess with video card settings etc, because I can't imagine the gpu is pulling that much juice to run a command line ui.  I didn't get any takers on the eth0/eth1 issue, so I am just dealing with having IPMI and internet traffic over the same nic.  However, you can split IP addresses across it, because you can assign a static IP address for IPMI in the BIOS.  My unRAID IP address is different when the OS boots, but since IPMI runs in the background, the OS never sees the extra IP address.  Kinda cool.  Hopefully when 5.0 comes out there will be some provisioning for multiple nics, as a lot of people are interested in testing aggregation, even if it is theoretically of no benefit.  If you have two nics, you want to use them both.  ;D  I haven't tested the standby modes (I assume you're referring to power consumption).

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Has anyone been able to verify if SATA port multipliers work with the mobo ports?

 

I have no intention of multiplying the ports in my server, so I have not tested this.

 

Also, can i expect the 'mini ITX' board to mount in most ATX/MicroATX cases (holes match)?

 

Can Mini ITX boards be mounted into a normal ATX case? Like the status quo CM 590?

 

[glow=yellow,2,300]According to this wikipedia article, Yes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini-ITX[/glow]

 

Can Mini ITX boards be mounted into a normal ATX case? Like the status quo CM 590?

[glow=yellow,2,300]Yes, it mounts just like a normal board.[/glow]

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Aiden, is there anything about this board that you are not happy about?

Or someting you wish they made different?

 

Only some minor gripes really.  There's no real benefit to spending putting an upgraded gpu on a server board, imo.  The Atom chipset can handle more than 1 PCI-e slot, so why just one?  And why only x4 and not x16?  SO-DIMMs, really??? 

 

But generally speaking, this thing works great out of the box.  The BIOS is simple and powerful, and configured almost perfectly from default.  Linux seems to love it, although admittedly I don't know a lot about Linux to truly test that theory.  Basically, it does what it's supposed to do, and isn't overkill for being nothing more than a file server.  Even though my measurements are suspect, I'm still happy that I'm not drinking 150W with this thing on idle.  And while I didn't appreciate IPMI other than the theory, I can't imagine having a remote server without it anymore.  It pretty much has everything I was looking for on this build.  I really don't want to have 20 drives, to be honest.  So all in all, it couldn't be much better for this application.

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Aiden, is there anything about this board that you are not happy about?

Or someting you wish they made different?

 

Only some minor gripes really.  There's no real benefit to spending putting an upgraded gpu on a server board, imo.  The Atom chipset can handle more than 1 PCI-e slot, so why just one?  And why only x4 and not x16?  SO-DIMMs, really??? 

 

But generally speaking, this thing works great out of the box.  The BIOS is simple and powerful, and configured almost perfectly from default.  Linux seems to love it, although admittedly I don't know a lot about Linux to truly test that theory.  Basically, it does what it's supposed to do, and isn't overkill for being nothing more than a file server.  Even though my measurements are suspect, I'm still happy that I'm not drinking 150W with this thing on idle.  And while I didn't appreciate IPMI other than the theory, I can't imagine having a remote server without it anymore.  It pretty much has everything I was looking for on this build.  I really don't want to have 20 drives, to be honest.  So all in all, it couldn't be much better for this application.

 

Now I envy your new server even more!  ;D 

 

I am dead set on getting this board for my next build.

 

 

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EDIT: I just checked, and even with the system completely turned off and unplugged, the meter still shows 6 W?  Perhaps it's not well calibrated, or there is some other background thing going on.   Should I readjust the numbers to reflect that background reading?

 

Go around your house and find some lamps with 60W and 100W bulbs in them. Test them to get a feel for what the meter is reading.

 

For comparism, my HTPC uses a Zotac 9300-G-E mini-ITX board with a E6300 processor and the below linked power supply. I also have a Blue WD 250gig drive and a slimline DVD burner in the case. This system uses ~39W when sitting idle with the hard drive still spinning. I tested my meter with a 60W and 100W bulb and for both it measured very close to the bulb rating.

 

http://cgi.ebay.ca/130W-ITX-ATX-Power-150W-AC-adapter-fanless-PicoPSU-Y5_W0QQitemZ180462064733QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCA_UPS?hash=item2a0460945d

 

Obviously, the power supply can't support 12 drives. But still, this system is a good example of why these "low power" Atom boards aren't all their claimed to be on the energy savings front, especisally for HTPC use or other applications that could use more processing power for certain tasks to make the user experience smoother (such as using a remote to navigate a user interface or opening applications. Of course, I'm getting way off topic now....

Peter

 

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Aiden, can you jump on your server grep out the bogo mips and post it here.

 

egrep -i bogomips /var/log/syslog*

 

Example;

1st is my 2.6ghz core 2 duo, 2nd is my dual lv 2.4ghz dual xeon.

 

root@Atlas /var/log #egrep -i bogomips /var/log/syslog*

 

syslog.1:Nov 30 17:42:45 Atlas dmesg[1975]: Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 5320.11 BogoMIPS (lpj=26600588)

syslog.1:Nov 30 17:42:45 Atlas dmesg[1975]: Total of 2 processors activated (10640.21 BogoMIPS).

 

root@gatekeeper /usr/bin> egrep -i bogomips /var/log/dmesg

Calibrating delay loop... 4797.23 BogoMIPS

Calibrating delay loop... 4810.34 BogoMIPS

Calibrating delay loop... 4810.34 BogoMIPS

Calibrating delay loop... 4810.34 BogoMIPS

Total of 4 processors activated (19228.26 BogoMIPS).

 

 

I'm curious for reasons other then unRAID.

I want to build a small station just for ripping CD's/DVD's and retire my dual Xeon server.

So I want to get a feel for the atom board to see if it would suffice for my needs.

Plus I'm curious. heh.

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Aiden, can you jump on your server grep out the bogo mips and post it here.

 

I will do that... as soon as I get home from work.  ;D  While theoretically I could vpn into my network at home and fire up the server using IPMI, I don't have enough security on the box itself to feel comfortable opening it up yet.  But I can't imagine the Atom doing a lot of flops, even with 4 cores.  I could be wrong, but it would surprise me.

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I can't imagine the Atom doing a lot of flops, even with 4 cores.  I could be wrong, but it would surprise me.

 

I just want to get an idea of how much it is and compare it to some other itx boxes.

 

I have 2 spare CMB-673's with a 2.26 single core laptop processor

  http://www.commell.com.tw/Product/IPC/CMB-673%28NS%29.HTM

and 2 spare sumicom 620's with a P4 2.4ghz 800mhz hyperthreaded processor.

  http://www.kingyoung.com.tw/.%5Cs620.htm

 

I'm just trying to get an idea if it's worth it for me to go with this board.

Right now I have dual XEON firewall and a vmware XP instance on it that I use for ripping.

It rips DVDs, CDs to flac/mp3 and has the transcoding software.

I have it on all the time. So I'm just exploring options to thin out my computer collection.

Last I counted there were 20 machines (including laptops) around my apartment many of which are idle.

 

If the IPMI will allow remote connections without a KVM I may go that route. (at the very least for my firewall/proxy server).

I may beef up my current unRAID server with a 3ghz dual core and move the XP instance over there.

(only thing missing is the CDROM driver on the unRAID OS).

 

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Feb  4 18:20:39 Tower kernel: Calibrating delay loop (skipped), value calculated using timer frequency.. 3333.07 BogoMIPS (lpj=16665380)

Feb  4 18:20:39 Tower kernel: Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 3333.32 BogoMIPS (lpj=16666612)

Feb  4 18:20:39 Tower kernel: Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 3333.31 BogoMIPS (lpj=16666556)

Feb  4 18:20:39 Tower kernel: Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 3333.33 BogoMIPS (lpj=16666668)

Feb  4 18:20:39 Tower kernel: Total of 4 processors activated (13333.04 BogoMIPS).

 

So, looks to be roughly 66% as powerful as your Xeon.  Not too bad considering it's running a lot slower @ 1.6ghz.  But if I'm reading your output correctly, it actually scores higher on total MIPS than your Core 2 Duo (13333.04 vs 10640.21).

 

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