For the Intel Xeon E3-1200 V3 series, ASUS released a number of new Haswell server motherboards. ASUS has been in the server market for years and is launching with a fairly robust Haswell product portfolio, mirroring what it is able to do on the desktop. There is one thing for certain, ASUS certainly has one of the most buzz worthy Intel Xeon E3-1200 V3 series motherboards out there with the ASUS P9D-MH/SAS/10G-DUAL. As will be seen shortly, that motherboard packs tons of onboard features into a small package. Read on for a quick overview of the ASUS Haswell server motherboard launch offerings.
First things first. ASUS is releasing one of the most anticipated Haswell server motherboards. The ASUS P9D-MH-SAS-10G-DUAL motherboard takes full advantage of the Intel Xeon E3-1200 V3 platform. Along with the fairly standard micro ATX form factor, C224 chipset and dual Intel i210AT gigabit Ethernet NICs, the ASUS P9D-MH-SAS-10G-DUAL has a Broadcom dual SFP+ 10GbE NIC. Along with the 10GbE Ethernet, ASUS packs a LSI SAS2308 8-port SAS (6.0gbps) controller onboard. That gives the ASUS P9D-MH-SAS-10G-DUAL the ability to address up to 14 drives (12 on 6.0gbps ports) and dual port 10GbE without an add-in card.
Even with the onboard dual 10GbE NIC and the LSI SAS2308 controller, the motherboard still has two PCIe x4 slots (one gen 2 and one gen 3) in x8 physical slots and an x1 slot.
Aside from the ASUS P9D-MH-SAS-10G-DUAL, ASUS is releasing six other models. Almost all have IPMI functionality. The ASUS P9D-X is targeted as a very inexpensive server platform like a few other models we have seen. Here is the full ASUS Intel Xeon E3-1200 V3 server motherboard lineup.
Once Intel motherboards are added to this, we will have a full listing of all Intel Haswell Xeon E3 motherboards on the forums here.
Like other vendors, ASUS is using the Intel i210 series Gigabit Ethernet controllers on all of their Haswell server motherboards. This is a clear trend with the Intel Xeon E3-1200 V3 generation platforms. Also, ASUS has opted to use the Intel C224 chipset across the board which provides two additional 6.0gbps ports to the platform. One other interesting note, ASUS has a new iKVM revision, the ASMB7-iKVM with this generation of platforms. The ASMB7-iKVM allows for remote KVM functionality. More to come on these server motherboards as we are able to test them in the lab.
Any idea of price?
The Secure Erase functionality has me as giddy as a schoolgirl. I’m beyond tired of having to boot up esoteric Linux distributions, put in a pile of commands, and plug (and replug) SSDs in order to erase them. We go through this process entirely too much due to all the SSDs we have.
I think I have just found my new media servers board….
Hello Patrick,
The table of Asus boards shown in the article above (at least, as of 20130611-2215 GMT), seems to not match the specs on the Asus website; it looks like perhaps the table has some rows ‘cross-wired’ &/or some table cells wrong.
.
For example, Asus site indicates that the P9D-E/4L and P9D-C/4L are much more similar than the article table suggests – ref:
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* http://www.asus.com/Commercial_Servers_Workstations/P9DC4L/#specifications
* http://www.asus.com/Commercial_Servers_Workstations/P9DE4L/#specifications
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Another example: table says ‘P9D-MV’ is ATX, but Asus site says micro-ATX (http://www.asus.com/Commercial_Servers_Workstations/P9DMV/#specifications) .
&usw.
Regards,
SC
Looks like you were seeing the old version of the chart. I cleared the cache hoping that helps.
Anybody an idea where to buy them? Or from when?
Hi Patrick,
Would you be able to verify if the Asus P9D-WS supports Intel AMT, Intel vPro, or has remote management feature like the ASMB7-iKVM?
Rich;
The P9D-WS does not support ASMB7-iKVM (no header for it on-board!). Will check on the other two.
+1. And it’s now 6 months after Peter’s initial question. Are they just vapourware?
I’ve been looking to get 3 of these boards for a few months now. Asus Australia doesn’t even list them on their site (and my multiple inquiries have received nothing but deafening silence). Trying to source them from overseas has also proved next to impossible.
Patrick – any way you can get a comment on availability from Asus?