Supermicro FINALLY!

Spot|DSE wrote on 11/18/2005, 8:14 PM
As some may have noted, I've really become fond of my AMD dual core machines, but I've been less than fond of the assortment of MOBO's available, as we've had several problems with the two Tyan systems we've been shipping around for tours. (We've always preferred Intel procs until this last year)
However, Supermicro has finally gotten around to building a mobo for the dual AMD's, and we took delivery of it last week.
I put it on a stress test cycle last week prior to heading to NAB Post Plus, so the machine ran Stress Prime 2004 for 5 days, and didn't skip a beat. Next is to install the RAID system, as we only tested this with 2 SATA drives, one a boot and the other storage. FWIW, it was slightly faster in test mode, than is the Tyan system with the same 275 procs on it.
Additionally, the Tyan system doesn't like the Decklink cards much, it seems like we have to reset the BIOS almost every time we change any hardware just for the Decklink cards. The Supermicro *appears* to not have that issue.

Supermicro H8DCE mobo.

I've always been a big Supermicro fan. They cost more (usually) but well worth the cost in past systems. After we do some render tests, I'll post some render times.

Comments

gdstaples wrote on 11/18/2005, 9:47 PM
Good news.

I owned some SuperMicro boards back in the P3 days. Has their customer support improved to your knowledge? I had quite a few problems with a certain number of their boards in the early 2000 period and had a heck of a time getting RMAs and returns of support emails.

Also, any idea if any of these boards will be on approved lists for Canopus?

Duncan
Spot|DSE wrote on 11/18/2005, 10:17 PM
No idea if they'll be approved for Canopus. You might want to call Brandon Higa at Canopus and ask.
As far as customer service...I've not had problems in the past, ever, other than a board that had RAMBUS on it, which they never fully supported anyway. Eventually they replaced it with a newer model that didn't require RAMBUS. Expensive lesson in RAM on our part.

Keep in mind, NX is not an accelerator, it just uses external/card resources for overlay. It helps, but it's not like a Rex or Storm where you've got a decoding accelerator on hardware
gdstaples wrote on 11/18/2005, 10:20 PM
Good to hear on support. Thanks for the info.

Duncan
Coursedesign wrote on 11/18/2005, 10:28 PM
I've had a Supermicro workstation for about 1 1/2 years, never a problem with tech support. Phone answered in less than a minute every time, and competent help always. Well, one exception: how to reduce the noise level of this leafblower-in-a-box, but I figured that out eventually by myself.

I got a tip a month ago that Supermicro now had AMD Opteron mobos. Went to their web site, not a peep, so I contacted their sales dept. and got a link to their secret AMD product page.

Looked OK, but baffling that this is not mentioned on their home page at all. I asked why, and apart from some mumbling about "OEM only" I couldn't get a straight answer from them.

My guess is that they are getting fat checks from Intel in return for not advertising any other CPUs (the Intel Inside program). But I could be wrong.

A very conservative professional computer performance guru friend of mine estimates that, due to new problems, Intel won't be able to catch up with AMD on performance until 2009.

Not 2007 as was the most recent estimate, but 2009...

How much did you have to pay for the Supermicro mobo?
SHTUNOT wrote on 11/19/2005, 12:32 AM
Hello Spot here is some info for use with a UAD-1 card...

http://www.chrismilne.com/uadforums/viewtopic.php?t=3672

Just a word of warning to those who get this board. Spot let us know how your UAD test go as well dude.

A link to the magma expansion site:

http://www.mobl.com/expansion/

Later dude.

Ed.
BG wrote on 11/19/2005, 7:57 AM
Spot-
Are you planning to use the NV Raid on the MB or a hardware controller? I have just set this system up and have had no luck with the NVRAID function. I want to run the OS on a raptor and Raid 0 4-400gb WD Drives. I have checked/changed bios settings, updated NV drivers and software to no avail. I'd love to hear how you're setting up and if you have any probs. I did buy the MB/case/ps (4020ctb). Really a nice case, but fans are noisy! Thanks, Barry
Spot|DSE wrote on 11/19/2005, 8:41 AM
We're planning on running the NV raid. We've had a LOT of NV RAID probs on other machines, it's definitely a bad driver/stability issue, because we've got 2 other machines that crap out regularly.
This machine is just about silent, but I installed a strip of 5 slow moving 4" fans across the front of the chassis with 2 6" fans in the back.
I should have the RAID running later today, I'll let you know. I'm expecting lots of problems, which is why I didn't put the drives in for the stress test.
I've also got a RocketRAID card should I need to use it. (I hope not)
BG wrote on 11/19/2005, 8:44 AM
Great... I'm anxious to hear if you have success with the raid.
JJKizak wrote on 11/19/2005, 10:20 AM
Every Supermicro board I have used (4) has been like a rock.

JJK
farss wrote on 11/19/2005, 12:24 PM
I've only got one but it is rock solid, love their cases too. I've gone with the Rocket RAID controller, one day I'll do serious damage to the bank balance and go to SCSI, sigh.
Bob.
Videoguys wrote on 11/20/2005, 7:04 AM
Checked out the mobo specs - we're planning on a dual core system for our next DIY project.

My one concern is lack of 64 bit PCI slots or FireWire. We've found that for best results we're using the ADS pyro 64 bit FireWire card. I'm not sure if this would be a factor for Vegas, but it would be a big problem for Avid Mojo. This could also prove to be an issue with one of the high end FireWire converter boxes.

Gary
JJKizak wrote on 11/20/2005, 9:59 AM
Supermicro is not really big on built in Firewire stuff. I believe they are aimed at the high end server market.

JJK
farss wrote on 11/20/2005, 12:05 PM
That's sort of true but they're kit is pretty much the defacto standard for render farms and the like, oftenly the bus bandwidth is more of an issue than raw CPU grunt. My Supermicro mobo has I think a LaCie firewire card, two 800 and one 400 ports and sensibly the external power to the 1394 ports comes directly from the power supply.
One thing I did learn when I came to fit the BMD card to my system, it's not just the bus width that you need to consider but also the speed and plugging in a low speed device onto the same bus as a high speed one can slow things down.
Bob.