ASUS KGPE-D16 SSI EEB Server Motherboard Dual Socket G34 AMD SR5690 DDR3 1600/1333/1066/800

Pros: worked absolutely perfectly out of the box, with plenty of expansion options. usb ports work after reboot (2nd revision board), plenty of ethernet ports, even ps/2 connectors! along with more sata ports than i could dream of using.

Cons: only 2 USB ports. not so much a con, as i needed a usb 3.0 addon card (silverstone) for the usb 3.0 ports on the case anyway, and usb isn't a priority on a server machine anyway.

the pci-e slots were a little bit confusing, but made sense after a while. the asus manual was a great help for showing what ones would be disabled or run at 8x while others were occupied. i did not get a MIO audio card, as it would not fit with the noctua NH-U9DO heatsinks.

Other Thoughts: I'm running this board along with:

dual opteron 6272's
2x 16gb kingston 1600mhz ddr3 ecc memory
silverstone raven case (awesome case!)
silverstone usb3.0 card with front panel connector
nvidia gtx titan
corsair tx750 v2
noctua NH-U9DO heatsinks
and a lone 2TB barracuda drive (for now).

Pros: - natively supports console over serial
- can flash bios over serial using a terminal client that supports xmodem
- supports up to 256GB of ram
- has at least one pci express x16 gen 2 slot
- IPMI (network KVM)
- extra thermal sensors for hardware monitoring
- I would say plenty of 4 pin pwm fan connectors, BUT (see cons)

Cons: can't control fan speeds (either with lm_sensors, IPMI, or web management tool. All of my fans are PWM, speedfan can control only the CPU fan.

excess of sata and sas connectors that will never be used (because I rock a 12 port int and 4 port ext Adaptec card with battery backup, and may purchase an additional card just like it as a backup in case mine fails because I like the card so much.) Not a big fan of proprietary sata controllers or onboard raid, however i would be really pleased if I could change the mode of all the sata connectors to be esata then connect external drives.

KVM/Qemu iommu support for VGA passhthrough is extremely lacking, also I had to jumper the onboard video to off and disable it just to get windows to install (otherwise the installer would crash every time, I discovered this by trial and error, almost threw a fit!) Ironically, this combination (onboard vga enabled and vga in the pci slot) worked fine in linux.

Other Thoughts: someday maybe I'll upgrade to that super micro board since supposedly somebody got SLI to work with it (not that I need SLI or really need to spend $2,000 for two 690s just so I can say I have 4 video cards worth of GPU....nah I'm torn between maybe finding out if quadro's stereoscopic 3d is something of interest to me.

Pros: Fantastic board, I'm running two of them at home, one with dual 6120's and another with dual 6212's. Neither board has given me any problems in over 2 years. Also had no problem running ATI and Nvidia graphics cards simultaneously for 4 monitor support.

Cons: I can't think of any.

Other Thoughts: It's a big board, definitely not for the average user. For a power user, or a server, these are fantastic. I had my first one for over a year, and upgraded the processors I had on it. The second board I bought without hesitation to run the leftover processors from the upgrade. If I had a need for more computers, I would surely buy this board again.

Pros: Runs fast.

Cons: First board = C2 mem socket dead. RMA
Second board = wrong box and ID (Xeon P/N and S/N), and one of the heatsink holes was not tapped all the way.
I tapped the hole, then fired it up.
You must jumper to get 1.35v RAM.
Not all 62xx chips will go DDR3-1600, no matter what. My 12-core 2.3? would not, nor the 16-core 2.6ghz.
Was unstable running nVidia 2xx and 6xx series cards.
Gave up, put in AMD card.
Freaked out over the DVD player at first.
Tech support does not exist. Nobody at ASUS knows what the board does.
First board also had random false "case open" errors when jumpered to delete.
Docs are often wrong or incomplete.

Other Thoughts: This is not a board for beginners. You must be able to guess at what is wrong from the factory with no docs or support. It's running good now, but it was a fight every step of the way.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for your feedback. We're sorry to hear that you were not able to get the support you needed. In addition to our telephone / online support, please also contact me at cl-benson@asus.com at any time and we will try our best to assist you. Thank you.

Support information on KGPE-D16: http://www.asus.com/Commericial_Servers_Workstations/KGPED16/#support. To obtain support: http://www.asus.com/support/Contact-ASUS/; service: http://www.service.asus.com/.

Regards,
Benson
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Accepts lots of RAM.

Cons: USB ports stop working after restarting

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We're sorry for the USB issue you had with the motherboard. Can you tell me what devices you have connected to the USB ports? If a USB keyboard is connected, can you enter BIOS after power on or restart? Were there any changes to the system prior to restart? For continued support, please contact me at cl-benson@asus.com (reference #C1037-9290 in the subject line) and we'll try our best to assist you. Thank you.

Regards,
Benson
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: I have had good luck with these motherboards. We have had COMSOL running on 2 machines 24/7 with few problems. I did not use the PIKE card or the ASMB4-iKVM. One of the machines was slated for SolidWorks later on, so the PCI-E x16 was handy for a nice Video card. The SSD’s scored published numbers after installing the latest AHCI drivers. Since I can build 2 of these machines for less than 1 comparable Xeon and get more production I’m going to give it 5 eggs. I recently helped someone on the COMSOL forum with a similar build and noticed that this board has updated BIOS for 16 Core, Interlagos, and Abu Dhabi CPU’s... I am a little jealous.

The Build

o 1 x AMD 100-505647 FirePro V7900 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Workstation Video ...

o 16 x Kingston 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 ECC Registered Server Memory Model KVR1333D3D4R9S/8G

o 2 x AMD Opteron 6128 Magny-Cours 2.0GHz Socket G34 115W 8-Core Server Processor OS6128WKT8EGOWOF

o 2 x Dynatron A6 77mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler

o 1 x ASUS KGPE-D16 SSI EEB Server Motherboard Dual Socket G34 AMD SR5690 DDR3 1600/1333/1066/800

o 1 x COOLER MASTER Silent Pro Gold Series RSA00-80GAD3-US 1000W ATX 12V v2.3 / EPS 12V v2.92 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready ...

o 1 x ARK IPC-4U600 Black 1.2mm SECC Zinc-Coated Steel 4U Rackmount Server Chassis

o 3 x Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

o 1 x Western Digital WD VelociRaptor WD4500HLHX 450GB 10000 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Cons: I removed most of the hard drive brackets and front door to accommodate 2 X 120mm fans to draw air in from the back and blow it out the front of the case. The on board fan controller does a good job – Opterons can run forever at 70C+

Other Thoughts: In the grand scheme of things, this build was current enough to meet production needs and extremely cost effective. Newegg, as always was great, too.

Pros: Dual CPU's, 6 fan controllers, off board temperature sensors, loads of hard disk connectivity!

Cons: Would be nice to have some USB3.0 ports on the board. That is; however, easily remediated. The experience with the board is great. It is easy to align the processors.

Pros: Don't know. Never got chance to try it out.

Cons: Asus not manufacturing these boards anymore. I call them to verify.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,



Thank you for your interest in this motherboard. The KGPE-D16 is still available for purchase at Newegg (as of writing) and is still in production. If you've received the motherboard and require support, feel free to contact us at 1-812-282-2787 or online at http://vip.asus.com/eservice/usa_techserv.aspx.

Regards,
Benson
ASUS Customer Loyalty

Pros: Just so ya'll know.

This Puppy:
Supports raid 0,1,5,10
Supports 4 Channel Memory
And A TYPE USB

Just in case you were trying to decide whether or not to buy this or the Tyan at 100$ more. This is the better option. I have 12 of them now.

Cons: None

Pros: None

Cons: 2 DOA, 2 of 5 failed within 6 months.

Other Thoughts: We installed five computers based on this motherboard in mission critical offsite assignments. We would get a hang occasionally with one system, then another, which would require a remote restart. This is after having to return several because they would not even start up. After a time the restarting became more frequent, leading to having to retrieve the units and replacing the motherboards with SUPERMICRO MBD-H8SGL-F-O units which can take a single G34 AMD chip. On paper this appears to be a good board, in principle: caveat emptor!!!

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

We apologize for the issue you had with the motherboards.

Have you requested an RMA for these boards? If yes, can you tell me the RMA #'s that were issued so that I can follow up on your case? In addition, please include components/parts and their specs that were installed on these boards.

Thank you.

Regards,
Benson
ASUS Customer Loyalty