Gigabyte announces its Intel Xeon E5-2600 V3 Haswell-EP motherboards

Gigabyte today announced its Intel Xeon E5-2600 V3 Haswell-EP motherboards. Gigabyte is continuing its push into the server and workstation space and is certainly introducing a few unique features with its latest generation of motherboards. Hopefully STH will have some reviews in the coming weeks.

Gigabyte’s Grantley Platform Key Features

Probably the number one most interesting feature is that Gigabyte is enhancing its two and three DIMMs per channel DDR4 speed. This means that even in high memory configurations, DDR4 can operate at 2133MHz, assuming the processor supports it (e.g. the E5-2609 V3 may not.)

Gigabyte Easy BIOS Update is an integrated function (no utility to install) that lets you update the BIOS of your motherboard(s):

• Without having to install CPU(s), memory, drives, operating system, etc.
• Without having to power on the system (but a power supply must be connected)
• One board at a time via Gigabyte’s standard IPMI 2.0 web interface
• Multiple boards simultaneously via command line

Many installations will always use factory BIOS to limit risk and downtime. If a BIOS update is needed, this is a handy feature.

Here are the motherboards from the press release:

Gigabyte’s Grantley Workstation Motherboard

The Gigabyte MW50-SV0 is the company’s first workstation motherboard supporting the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600/1600 V3 product families. Eager to offer the most flexible product for the largest number of workstation applications, GIGABYTE has included on this motherboard all the features required to reach that goal.

Notably, it features a mezzanine card slot with four PCIe lanes with custom mounting sockets to receive one of our proprietary LAN controller cards. Positioned right between the board’s CPU socket and its rear I/O, it can add more LAN ports (including 10GbE fiber ports) to the standard interface and fit into a larger range of possible network scenarios.

Moreover, it includes a comprehensive audio connectivity with five audio jacks and an optical S/PDIF output on the rear panel, as well as a front audio header, an S/PDIF-In header and an S/PDIF-Out header on the board.

• 8 x DDR4 DIMM slots
• 2 x GbE LAN ports (Intel I210 controller)
• 1 x GbE LAN port (Intel I218 controller) supporting Intel vPro
• Rear I/O add-on card slot
• 3-way and 2-way NVIDIA SLI & AMD CrossFireX support
• 1 x mSATA 6Gb/s slot
• 13 x SATA III 6Gb/s ports

Server Motherboards

The Gigabyte MU70-SU0 can run 768GB of DDR4 memory running at 2133MHz frequency. The MU70-SU0 is therefore designed for a server running memory intensive applications.

Moreover, this motherboard uses a mezzanine card slot with four PCIe lanes with custom mounting sockets to receive one of our proprietary LAN controller cards. Positioned right between the board’s CPU socket and its rear I/O, it can add more LAN ports (including 10GbE fiber ports) to the standard interface and fit into a larger range of possible network scenarios.

• 12 x DDR4 DIMM slots
• 4 x GbE LAN ports (Intel I210 controller)
• Rear I/O add-on card slot
• 1 x mSATA 6Gb/s slot
• 9 x SATA III 6Gb/s ports
• Aspeed AST2400 remote management controller

MD30-RS0

The main feature of the MD30-RS0 is the presence of two 2011-3 sockets on an ATX form factor without doing any trade-off on other features. This board still provides 8 memory DIMMs, a large storage platform, and various full-length PCIe slots.

In addition to its ten SATA III 6Gb/s ports, the MD30-RS0 has two Mini-SAS 6Gb/s connectors that can be activated with the addition of our proprietary CRA220-8 add-on SAS card, providing at the same time RAID 0/1/1E/10 levels for these ports.

In spite of its very packed placement, this board still uses standard sockets and not narrow ones. Therefore, users have a larger choice of available cooling devices to install on this board.

• 2 x LGA 2011-3 sockets on an ATX form factor
• 8 x DDR4 DIMM slots
• 2 x GbE LAN ports (Intel^® I210 controller)
• 10 x SATA III 6Gb/s ports
• Up to 8 x SAS 6Gb/s ports
• Aspeed AST2400 remote management controller

MD50-LS0

This model offers all the standard features expected from a professional board dedicated to run standard server applications and is an ideal entry point into dual socket hardware.

In addition to its ten SATA III 6Gb/s ports, the MD50-LS0 has eight SAS 6Gb/s ports that can be activated with the addition of Gigabyte’s proprietary CRA220-8 add-on SAS card, providing at the same time RAID 0/1/1E/10 levels for these ports.

With both of its sockets being completely offset, the board’s processors are able to receive equally cold air flow without disturbing each other’s thermal levels and the operating efficiency of the CPUs.

• 8 x DDR4 DIMM slots
• 2 x GbE LAN ports (Intel I210 controller)
• 10 x SATA III 6Gb/s ports
• Up to 8 x SAS 6Gb/s ports
• Aspeed AST2400 remote management controller

MD60-SC0

This motherboard is a beefed up version of the MD50-LS0, with a larger memory platform and an onboard 10GbE fiber network solution.

In the context of virtualized environments getting always more popular and asking for more and more resources from the networking side of a system, this motherboard is ready for high-performance virtual applications thanks to its high end Intel 82599ES controller. Capable of load-balancing, FCoE support, and low latency transfers, this solution simplifies a network’s topology while boosting its overall performance.

• 16 x DDR4 DIMM slots
• 1 x QSFP+ port supporting two 10GbE outputs via split cable
• 10 x SATA III 6Gb/s ports
• Up to 8 x SAS 6Gb/s ports
• Aspeed AST2400 remote management controller

MD70-HB0

This model integrates an onboard LSI SAS 3008 controller, which provides eight SAS 12Gb/s ports. This controller also features the LSI DataBolt technology that makes the aggregation of lower bandwidth drives into 12Gb/s data streams over compatible expanders possible.

For users already owning SATA/SAS 3Gb/s or 6Gb/s drives, this means the benefits of a 12Gb/s bandwidth can be enjoyed without having to make a large investment in new SAS 12Gb/s drives.

• 16 x DDR4 DIMM slots
• 2 x 10GbE BASE-T LAN ports (Intel X540 controller)
• 8 x SAS 12Gb/s ports
• 10 x SATA III 6Gb/s ports
• Aspeed AST2400 remote management controller

MD80-TM0

This model is the top of the end of the new Gigabyte Grantley lineup and it can accommodate the maximum amount of memory offered by the Intel Xeon E5-1600/2600 V3 families with twenty-four (three DIMMs per channel) DDR4 memory DIMM slots.

This motherboard also features an onboard M.2 slot, which can receive M.2 SATA SSD cards up to 6Gb/s or M.2 PCIe SSD cards up to 10Gb/s.

• 24 x DDR4 DIMM slots
• 2 x 10GbE BASE-T LAN ports (Intel^® X540 controller)
• 8 x SAS 12Gb/s ports
• 10 x SATA III 6Gb/s ports
• Onboard M.2 slot
• Aspeed AST2400 remote management controller

More to come on the Gigabyte line as we get a chance to test them.