TYAN S5512WGM2NR ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1155 Intel C204 DDR3 1600/1333

Pros: The best value, the best features, better than SM. It has built in LSI raid. The IPMI works better than SM, I was not able to get into some BIOS, LSI MegaRaid BIOS screens with SM. Tyan does not require a special client, just a web browser and Java for the console. I can do everything remote via a browser.

I use this for VMware ESXi 5.0 and it works great with the on board USB jack. it supports Direct Path I/O. The RAID controller works great.

You can see fan RPMs, temps and voltages in the ESXi vSphere Client. This is super cool.

Cons: Difficult to find in stock. The LSI controller in RAID 1 is not so fast for write speeds, but that is probably to be expected and has more to do with the LSI chipset, possibly only seen with ESXi (I do not do Windows). The security of mirroring outweighs the write speed penalty.

The SAS chipset runs hot, but again this is a common issue with the LSI chipset. I do not have any extra ventilation and it works fine. It's just a bit unnerving to see it running at ~60c all the time.

It does take a long time to boot with the BIOS and LSI BIOS, IPMI, etc but this is a server board and to be expected. You shouldn't be rebooting very often.

All of these are minor issues, not worth docking any stars.

Other Thoughts: I had a Supermicro MBD-X9SCM-F-O board and this board beats it in every way.

Note that the built in LSI raid controller only supports 2 RAID 1 arrays, but this is a standard limitation of the LSI 2008 chip (LSI MegaRAID SAS 9240-8i has the same limitation). I use RAID 1 with a hot spare and will break the mirror and put the disk into another ESXi server with a standard SATA controller and it will see the datastore and the VMs. I do this for instant replication and to take backups or snapshots of my VMs. Note that you need 3 disks to do this as you should have a hot spare to keep the mirror.

Make sure you use compatible memory, I used Kingston ValueRAM 4GB KVR1333D3E9S/4G.

Pros: Onboard SAS Raid, Price / Specs is outstanding

Cons: BIOS, RAID options, Low RAM slots and/or capacity for some uses

Other Thoughts: I have 2 issues with the board. If the second issue was addressed, or better documented, it would have a 5 star rating.

First is simply that the LSI RAID doesn't support 5 or 6. Instead we're forced to use 1E or 10. While this wouldn't seem like it should be an issue, RAID 1E or 10 aren't really logically in-line with the purpose of this board. It just doesn't make sense to make a budget do-it-all board, and not support the most reasonable type of RAID for a budget build. Yeah, we get better performance out of 10, but at a much higher cost. 1E is really just a bandaid to allow the use of an odd number of disks. I'm not a fan of 10 for non disk-intensive applications such as running a database. It's just a waste of money. This wasn't a surprise or anything so not a big deal because the specs are well stated, just more of a why...?

Main issue is the BIOS. This board was manufactured between Sandy and Ivy bridge CPU releases on 1155 core. This is a huge problem because all of the boards I've come across have pre-2.x BIOS which is not compatible with Ivy bridge CPU's. This means that you cannot flash the BIOS if you do not have a spare Sandy bridge CPU to throw in it. This leaves you with the option of sending the chip to Tyan to flash it, finding a 3rd party to send you a flashed chip, or buying a spare CPU just for the purpose. You also must request a specific BIOS update from Tyan if you do want to upgrade from 1.x to 2.x. The downloadable one on their site will brick your BIOS chip. We use Tyan enough that we're getting ours flashed from them, but I've read in several forums that they have refused to flash some people's chips. It still puts our build back by at least a month. I've read several stories of the 2.x bios download bricking the board as well. Make absolutely certain you have the ability to get the chip flashed in case you receive a 1.x BIOS. Make sure you request the proper BIOS update directly from Tyan if you are going to flash it yourself.

Pros: Onboard LSI raid provides a lot of data storage options, great for a NAS. ESXi 5.0 support straight out of the box, internal USB ports handy for OS install like ESXi, IPMI and iKVM are fantastic, work real well. Good Bios. Dual intel Nics and enough room for pci/pcie expansion.

Cons: the LSI 2008 onboard raid controller does get hot like people have mentioned, even when Idle so ample cooling would be best, but other than that, this is the best bang for the buck server board I have bought

Other Thoughts: Installed ESXi 5.0 without any problems, everything supported out of the box. Xeon E3 1220V2, 8gigs kingston ECC Ram.

Pros: Perfect for VMware ESXI, feature packed (remote IPKVM, LSI 2008 RAID, etc)

Cons: Few options in unbuffered ECC DIMMs, LSI 2008 RAID runs HOT, very poor connector choice for LSI RAID, dual Intel NICs

Other Thoughts: Setup and installation was really easy. Thanks to the remote management I flashed the BIOS to the latest before I ever powered up the CPU. I've never had a monitor plugged into this beastie (don't have a VGA cable!) because the remote management is that good. This board packs an awful lot more tech into a package costing as much as "enthusiast" boards adorned with gold colored capacitors and pictures of skulls. Of course, those make better choices if you're looking to run multiple video cards in SLI mode.

VMware ESXI 5.0 is up and running and has inbox support for every feature of the board including VT-d.

The only reservation I have is that this board requires lots of active cooling. For example, the heatsink on the LSI 2008 chip tops the chip out right at its threshold of 80 degrees Celsius when idle without additional ventilation. I'll be replacing the heatsink on this chip very soon to hopefully reduce the airflow requirement.

Pros: Has everything you want, but nothing you don't need. Even comes with a header definition sticker to go inside the case so you won't need to go digging for the manual for that info next time this needs servicing.

Cons: Nothing really bad to say about this product. Everything went together well and functions as expected. The drivers disk is a little odd. Rather than launching the driver installers, the autorun program tells you where on the disk each individual driver is located. Not a big.

Other Thoughts: This board has two separate HDD controllers. The SATA II/III controller has 2 SATAIII and 4 SATAII and supports RAID 0/1/10/5. The built in LSI has 8 SAS/SATA ports and supports RAID 0/1/1E/10. If you plan on RAID 5, you are limited to just the Intel interface. The Intel interface will not initialize a RAID5 array until after windows is fully loaded.

My build:
Athena Power CA-SWH01BH8T Black Steel Pedestal Server Case
Athena Power AP-RRP4ATX6508 80 PLUS Certified 20+4Pin 2 x 500W Mini Redundant Server Power Supply – OEM
TYAN S5512WGM2NR ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1155
Intel Xeon E3-1230 Sandy Bridge
Kingston 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3 1333 ECC Unbuffered Server Memory
5x Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB (RAID 5)
2x Western Digital Caviar Black WD5002AALX 500GB (RAID 1)
Win 2008 Server Standard

Pros: Great features for a server motherboard. The KVM-over-IP functionality (with its dedicated network interface) is useful and works well. This has plenty of drive connectivity for building a storage server. Board seems to be stable and reliable. Everything plays well with Linux (at least with the current Slackware release). (Actually, I'm not sure about the built-in graphics card, but I am not using that, anyway.)

Cons: Includes SATA cables, but does not include SAS to SATA cables, which are necessary when using SAS drives. You will need a SATA to SFF-8482 SAS Cable to connect SAS drives. See Newegg item N82E16816115101.

Other Thoughts: Great board for a storage server or for building a headless server. There is a version without the built-in SAS controller if you don't need that functionality.

Pros: Appears to be a great board, Tyan got stable..... bit.ly/jQwyLe or search reviews at servethehome .com

Cons: Onboard raid "puts your eggs in one basket", needs solid cooling airflow with onboard chip bit.ly/krirQF

Other Thoughts: These LSI onboards have been shown (another review) to be "moveable" to a discrete card for data recovery should the board fail, so there IS options.