New Xeon E boards support 3 PCI slots

[valis]

iBASE Lists C246 Motherboards for Intel Xeon E CPUs



3 PCI slots, supports up to 64GB ram, full complement of new ports AND enough legacy support to get by with anything you might have lying around that still works. I am seriously considering building one of these to replacing my current scope machine which is now 17 years old!

The iBase staff responded:

Yes. indeed support 5V across all three PCI slot.

If you need board, you can get it directly from our USA office.

I will provide the price information tomorrow as well.

Dr Qi Chen
ibase-USA

iBase has provided pricing information and confirmed that the 3 PCI slots support 5V operation, which is needed for legacy Scope DSP card users (as opposed to Xite users). Please note that these boards ARE competitively priced against makers with similar build quality (Supermicro, Tyan, Intel, etc.), as iBase intends these for 24/7 use in embedded systems and supports their boards much longer than consumer brands.

Hello Matthew,


MB995VF-C246 (ATX)
LGA1151 Xeon & Core i7/i5/i3
C246 PCH
I219LM + Intel I210AT GbE
VGA (HDMI 2.0/DVI-D/DisplayPort)
SATAIII x6
COM x 6 (RS232/422/485 x2+RS232 x4)
PCIe(16x)+PCIe(4x)+PCIe(1x)
3xPCI
Mini PCIe+M.2(M-key)+M.2(E-key)
iAMT11.6,TPM(2.0),iSMART(RoHS)
$343.0


MB995VF (ATX)
LGA1151 Core i7/i5/i3
C246 PCH
I219LM+Intel I211AT GbE
VGA (HDMI 2.0/DVI-D/DisplayPort)
SATAIII x4
COM x 6 (RS232/422/485 x2+RS232 x4)
PCIe(16x)+PCIe(4x)+PCIe(1x)
3xPCI
Mini PCIe+M.2(M-key)+M.2(E-key)
iAMT11.6,TPM(2.0),iSMART(RoHS)
$331.0

(email available on request by pm to me for Ordering department, C/O Shirley @ iBase

[Marco]

Great! Thank you for the hint!

[dawman]

Been watching these guys with Q370 and C246 PCH parts.
This is a great mobo for 1U Servers too because of the DIMMs perpendicular alignment.

Give me a 4GHz Xeon E-2100 something.
Not big on getting slower 6 core variants.
But its possible that the i7s are also able to be used on this board.
In that case, get the fastest i7 quad or 6 core.

[valis]

Here's the listing of the E series Xeons at launch:

https://liliputing.com/2018/07/intels-n ... tions.html









https://liliputing-wpengine.netdna-ssl. ... n-e_05.jpg


I would be curious to see if non-Xeons can be used for others, but I'm still sold on Supermicro as my board and Xeons as the CPU. My machine from 2001 still works great! So does my 2008 machine, so does my pentium II Xeon (though it's in the attic) and my Pentium III Xeons... In fact they work too damn well, the only thing I've ever replaced is a few drives and 1 PSU on any of those machines. Who uses a computer from 2001 for Scope besides me? Die already!

In any case this still isn't going to be one of my primary machines in here, but being able to do MORE than just scope's GUI (and a few light plugins from 12+ years ago under an old 32bit copy of bidule) will be nice. I am also hopeful to get rid of the 10,000/15,000 rpm SCSI drives once and for all in that silly ancient Xeon the Scope cards are in. They've lasted 17 years too!

[dante]

Any ideas what i7 6 or 8 core CPU's would run on it ? Also what does 'embedded computing' mean in this context ?

[valis]

“The C246 motherboards are set to support Xeon E, Pentium, Celeron, and Core i3 processors only, and not Core i5/i7.“

https://www.anandtech.com/show/12199/in ... on-e-entry

[dante]

Ok thanks - I guess its Xeon for me then

[dawman]

Dante.
Supermicro 246 with the E-2186G is pretty damn fierce.

https://www.supermicro.com/CDS_Image/up ... _front.jpg

You can buy a server already made from Supermicro with the CPU and parts.
Its a tiny ass 1U but looks sweet.
There's also a cheap quad Xeon E.
Think I'll get that for the rig where I use lots of hardware and only need a few virtual instruments, and Scope as the big boy mixer and FX.

[Music Manic]

Have you got this running Valis? How does it perform? How much does the Mobo cost?

[valis]

Unfortunately this is literally product announcement, paper launch. However this is the ball I am keeping my eye on as it moves downfield.

So I will be taking notes on my parts decision list and sharing my research as I go. Have several other pots on the stove already in my work and my current Scope machine, while meager by modern standards, is still perfectly functional. I won't have anything running until winter, as I like to let PCB's go to rev2/3 on a product I am interested in before jumping in. 6 months behind the curve in modern audio/DAW terms is fine with me if I'm going to live with a machine for 10-20 years (as it seems I am with my other machines.)

I encourage anyone who is participating on this platform before that to post their results!

[dante]

Dante.
Supermicro 246 with the E-2186G is pretty damn fierce.

https://www.supermicro.com/CDS_Image/up ... _front.jpg

You can buy a server already made from Supermicro with the CPU and parts.
Its a tiny ass 1U but looks sweet.

Cool but I want to run the 3 PCI cards as well as the XITE-1D. I know theres such a thing as risers, but will 2 lunas and a Pulsar fit in 1U?

[valis]

No, you'll need a normal case.

https://www.ibase.com.tw/english/Produc ... ting/MB995

^^ That page shows Core i3/i5/i7 as well as Xeons listed for this board...interesting! I wonder if the PCI slots are 3.3V or 5V, or both..?

Meanwhile Supermicro's boards show only 1 PCI slot for any of the boards on this platform:
http://supermicro.com/products/motherbo ... 3000/#1151

[dante]

No, you'll need a normal case.

https://www.ibase.com.tw/english/Produc ... ting/MB995

I think theres a typo on that page, where theres 3 PCI slots listed at the top, but the breakdown below lists them as PCI-E (?) No mention of the voltage. Do Scope PCI cards prefer 3.3V or 5V ? But likely the board will take a hexa or octocore i7 ?

[valis]

PCI 1.0 was 5V, which I believe our cards are. PCI 2.0 introduced 3.3V & 5V, and then PCI-X introduced 64bit support (and PCI-X is technically only 3.3V but for legacy 32bit PCI 1.0 support some slots support both voltages, my ancient Supermicro P4DC6+ and my X7DWA-n support both I believe.) And yes I agree, they clearly have a typo as there are other places where they indicate 32bit PCI support and it's in the press release and images.

[valis]

I emailed ibase to ask about pricing options and if the PCI slots are 5V compatible, will respond again here if/when I hear back from them.

Also note that I'm seeing a LOT of Xeon-E motherboard launch press releases on various tech sites (MSI/Asrock/iBase/etc are all chiming in now). Why this is garnering so much attention from board makers, I'm not sure. But it's certainly more releases than I recall in the past for low end embedded/workstation motherboards...

[dawman]

ASRock has the exact board Ive been waiting for.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13079/as ... eon-e-cpus

[valis]

Yep saw that one! I still don't have Xite sadly, so I must stick with PCI compatiblity for the time being. What's nice about that board is it uses the proper orientation for the RAM slots for high airflow/low profile cases. Almost all consumer/gaming class boards have the ram oriented the exact wrong way! Which I've always assumed was on purpose to keep embedded/rack/server builders using a specific class of hardware (beyond just the lack of ECC etc on consumer class gear in any case).

[dawman]

Exactly.
DIMM placement is not a concern when space and mobility are no biggie.
But crucial for folks needing mobility.

Check out DFI in Germany too for the Xeon w/ 3 x PCI Slots.

https://www.dfi.com/Product/Index/388

DFI will have a C246 soon. It was shown at Computex.
The Q370 is pretty close and uses 5 x PCI.

iBase looks fantastic with a 6 Core Xeon though.
If it wasn’t for gaming geeks we’d never see so many enterprise and consumer options.
Gamers really electrocute the shit out of their rigs.
So more server quality PCBs are now mainstream consumer quality, when 8 years ago they were Enterprise level.

Sweet

[valis]

So the iBase responded:

Yes. indeed support 5V across all three PCI slot.

If you need board, you can get it directly from our USA office.

I will provide the price information tomorrow as well.

Dr Qi Chen
ibase-USA

I responded and am awaiting pricing information (edit: quoted below). Please note that these boards ARE competitively priced against makers with similar build quality (Supermicro, Tyan, Intel, etc.), as iBase intends these for 24/7 use in embedded systems and supports their boards much longer than consumer brands. I am willing to build this myself, but again with the caveat that it will take a few months to assemble the required components as I am busy working on a few projects that are not for profit right now.

Hello Matthew,


MB995VF-C246 (ATX)
LGA1151 Xeon & Core i7/i5/i3
C246 PCH
I219LM + Intel I210AT GbE
VGA (HDMI 2.0/DVI-D/DisplayPort)
SATAIII x6
COM x 6 (RS232/422/485 x2+RS232 x4)
PCIe(16x)+PCIe(4x)+PCIe(1x)
3xPCI
Mini PCIe+M.2(M-key)+M.2(E-key)
iAMT11.6,TPM(2.0),iSMART(RoHS)
$343.0


MB995VF (ATX)
LGA1151 Core i7/i5/i3
C246 PCH
I219LM+Intel I211AT GbE
VGA (HDMI 2.0/DVI-D/DisplayPort)
SATAIII x4
COM x 6 (RS232/422/485 x2+RS232 x4)
PCIe(16x)+PCIe(4x)+PCIe(1x)
3xPCI
Mini PCIe+M.2(M-key)+M.2(E-key)
iAMT11.6,TPM(2.0),iSMART(RoHS)
$331.0

(email available on request by pm to me for Ordering department, C/O Shirley @ iBase

(copied into parent topic post)

[dawman]

Nice.
6 Cores @ 3.8 and 3 x Scope Pro Cards..
Guys who held onto the old birds just got new legs.