Intel S1200BTL ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1155 Intel C204 DDR3 1066/1333 DIMM

Pros: Its a cheap well built motherboard when you know how to build servers.

Cons: There isn't a 4 ethernet port version

Other Thoughts: To clarify some other peoples complaints when get the motherboard and have it installed in the system you have to go in to the EFI shell(F6 to open the boot menu then select EFI shell) to update the board and program it so it knows what fans you have installed. When you get the FRU/SDR section of the bios update you'll answer yes/no questions to which fans and features are plugged in if its not an Intel Chassis.

On system boot the splash screen covers raid cards, so go into the bios and disable quiet boot. Also Adaptec makes bad raid cards for the money. If you're in the $300-$500 go LSI.

For SBS2011 drivers you go to intel's download center and download the Server 2008 R2 drivers. SBS 2011 is Server 2008 R2 with the current versions of Exchange and SQL.

I've built 100's of these systems for work and with Intel server products their is a little bit of a learning curve but, the added features are worth it and is an overall better product then Asus, Supermicro, and Tyan.

Pros: Intel boards with intel processors seem to last forever with rock solid stability. This is the 3rd s1200BTL we have used in a server system and in 10 years of building systems we have only had 1 intel board fail for no reason.

Cons: lackluster documentation and support from intel on this particular board. A bios update before OS install is basically mandatory for this board. If you try to install server 2011 w/o the bios update it will fail.

Other Thoughts: To address other users issues This board DOES work fine with server 2011, it just needs a bios update which allows you to disable the 2nd onboard NIC. It is almost mandatory because during the bios update you can select whether or not you are using the proprietary Intel case or a 3rd party case. When you select 3rd party it then asks what fan speed settings you would like.
To do a bios update is simple, download the file (
S1200BTS Firmware Update Package for EFI
) from Intel, extract it to a usb thumb drive and upon boot the bios will auto-detect it and boot from it, just simply follow the prompts from there.

Using this with a Xeon E3-1230 and 16GB Kingston ram (Item #: N82E16820239134).

Pros: This is an almost-excellent entry-level server/workstation motherboard.

Pros: ECC RAM memory; 6 SATA ports; 8 USB ports; connectors for 4 PWM case fans + PWM processor fan; 1 PCI and 4 PCIe slots; remote management capability . A Xeon E3-1230 processor makes for a very powerful and cost-effective system.

... EXCEPT ...

Cons: ... EXCEPT ...

This motherboard will not properly control the CPU fan and chassis fans unless you have installed it in an (expensive) Intel case. When installed in a third-party case the fans run at a fixed speed selected by the BIOS at boot time.

Other Thoughts: If it were not for the fan control issue I would have given this motherboard five stars.

My system boots with all fans running at about 30% of maximum rated RPM, and they remain fixed at that speed. The CPU begins thermal throttling at about 50C die temperature (as it is designed to do), but the motherboard never increases the CPU fan speed. This is a serious issue.

With respect to the chassis fans I can understand Intel not being able to anticipate every possible configuration. My 4U rackmount chassis is overcooled, if anything, so control of the chassis fans is a minor issue for me at the present time. However, my position is that Intel should at least provide customers with the tools and documentation necessary to properly configure fan control themselves.

With respect to the CPU fan, my position is: It's an Intel motherboard, with an Intel CPU and an Intel CPU fan. The motherboard should be able to control the CPU fan under all circumstances regardless of the case ch

Pros: None. I really hate this board.

Cons: I've built many systems, this was by far the worst experience I've ever had with a mother board. The driver support is horrible. At the time of this writing there doesn't appear to be any way to boot this into SBS 2011, none of the drivers to access the hard drive will work, either in RAID or non-RAID mode. Seems to work fine with Windows 7, but not SBS 2011.

I realize that this is a no-nonsense server board, but I'm still a little surprised that this has only a VGA output, and no sound output at all. I wasn't expecting HDMI and 5.1 dolby surround... but DVI and basic stereo would be nice.

The front panel connector does not conform to Intel's own front panel standard. It's a custom job, targeted specifically for an Intel Chassis. This is great if you have an Intel Chassis, but a wiring pain if you don't.

Documentation is almost non-existent.

All in all, the rest might be forgivable, but the driver situation made this board unusable. Save yourself the trouble and pass on thi

Other Thoughts: First mother board I've ever had to send back. Good riddance. How Intel can be so lax with their driver support is beyond me. SBS 2011 has been out for awhile now, there's no excuse. If you're not a major OEM supplier, I would suggest avoiding Intel mother boards at all costs.

Pros: Up and running with no problems. Booting from internal usb and just using sata drives (no raid). Did have to do the work around to use the 2nd nic with esxi, but I knew that going in. Using an E3-1220 processor with 16g ram.

Cons: None yet.

Pros: This mainboard was purchased for a very specific purpose. I built a single CPU Xeon workstation to serve as a home lab setup running ESXi and Cisco UC applications. So, I am able to overlook some of the criticisms that others have of this board. The workstation is built, and is functioning without issue. I can make the following conclusions 1. With the right memory, and Xeon CPU, I had ZERO issues with this board. 2. My board gave me no errors during POST like some other have reported. 3. BIOS is very typical of Intel server boards, and the options were very familiar to me

Cons: As others have said, the only video port on this board is the D-Sub VGA connector. This is very typical of server-grade boards...so it wasnt a surprise to me. It will spend most of it's life without a monitor attached to it. HOWEVER, my only real concern is with it's mouse and keyboard connections...or lack of them. Nearly any server you see these days has the D-Sub video and at least 1 PS2 connector for a keyboard. But this one does not. USB only. Im not sure this qualifies as a true CON, but it is something to be aware of.

Other Thoughts: I selected this mainboard over other more feature-rich boards because of 1 simple reason...With a Xeon E312XX CPU, this board is fully supportable by VMware, and is on their approved hardware list. The enhanced feature set for working with virtualization really makes a difference over other board/CPU combos. In conclusion...when you look at this board as a task-specific item...it really is top notch.

System:

Xeon E3-1245 CPU
Intel S1200BTL Mainboard
Intel SAS controller
3 x 10K rpm drives in Raid 5
1 x 10K rpm drive attached SAS no raid
Antec HCG Power Supply
Lian-Li mid-tower case

Runs VMware and Cisco UC apps like a champ!

Pros: UPDATE TO MY PREVIOUS REVIEW. Worked initially and seems to work with onboard SATA.

Cons: Fails to detect Adaptec 6805. Actually it was detecting it in 25% cases, but stopped doing it after BIOS update. Returning it

Other Thoughts: I got TYAN S5510GM3NR ($199) working with Adaptec (under ESXi 4.1), but I had to disable RAID BIOS. TYAN also has 3 NICs usable by ESXi.

Pros: Board worked and raid was setup easily.

Cons: DRIVERS!! they are unusable. I had to return this board becuase i can't get any of the linux drivers to work. I tried CentOS and Redhat 5 and 6 and could not get any drivers to install. I saw alot of people having trouble on fourms too and Intel's tech support was useless. Even the remote manage software didn't install on XP, it says i had UAC turned on. Stay away from this board if you are using linux.

Other Thoughts: Seems like a good board but intel just didnt care about drivers. Time to buy another brand

Pros: Bought this one to upgrade my ESXi 4.1 server. I took out X58 motherboard and replaced with this one. ESXi has recognized the board, CPU and one of the ethernet ports. No problems, VT-d works fine, nice and fast.

Cons: none really

Pros: Supposed to be stable

Cons: Too many technical and software issues with this one. 1) Out-of-the-box it stalls on splash screen. No documentation on how to get out. Can't access setup, boot menu, or anything. Figured out that hitting 'y' bypasses this. The stall is because it wants you to update the bios. I found no way to do so. All utilities and methods to do so (and there are many) don't work (EFI, disk provided, USB, etc). Even when I got it to 'see' a BIOS update, it gave me a vague complained and quit. 2) Motherboard couldn't detect the PCIe devices I tried (which work on other MBs). 3) Uses a non-standard (obsolete?) P14 connector (for monitoring functionality). 4) The drivers provided and found online for networking don't work. I get a menu in the installation with invisible options and fails if I continue. The disk provided for OS installation screws up RAIDs (if installing in them). I have 2 of these motherboards and the same problems happen in both (so it wasn't a lemon or a fluke).

Other Thoughts: It really seems like this MB was rushed out or didn't get any love from Intel. It's the MB with the most issues out-of-the-box that I've ever seen (and I put a lot of systems together).