SUPERMICRO MBD-C2SBM-Q-O LGA 775 Intel Q35 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: 2 serial ports
Micro ATX

Cons: Ordered 10 of these, already had 3 fail within 3 months. Past Newegg's 30 day policy. Had to order replacements at full cost because we cannot afford to wait on Supermicro's RMA.

Other Thoughts: Supermicro used to stand for quality. These are the last boards we will ever order from this company.

Pros: Supermicro!

Excellent features make this a versatile solution for many situations

Cons: None really, see below

Other Thoughts: Just a heads up for anyone considering using this as a SOHO server board, it doesn't seem too happy with an Areca RAID card in the PCI-E x16 slot. It works most of the time on a cold boot, and most of the time on a warm reboot it hangs. I'm sure the official response would be that this is a workstation board so I can't really count this as a con.

It appears to have the latest BIOS so no luck there.

I picked up a Supermicro MBD-X7SBL-LN2 to try instead so I'll let you know if that works better with the RAID.

Pros: Excellent layout. Workstation features. Low power chipset. All passive design.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: Supermicro boards are not for those looking for insane overclocks or tons of jazzy features. Instead, Supermicro is known to build boards for stable workstations and servers. Used as an OEM and ODM, Supermicro is known for reliable parts expected to work year after year in an enterprise environment

Sure it doesn't have tweaks for FSB and voltage but you do get two serial ports which is great for minicom and other enterprise gear that still require these legacy ports. You also get a PCIe x8 slot keyed for PCIe x4 to support devices like dual port NICs and hardware RAID adapters.

Note to builders. Supermicro sticks to the specs so don't expect to drop in fancy overclocked DDR2 running at 2.2v. Stick with standard 1.8v DDR2 and you will be fine. Massive coolers probably won't fit so go with the stock HSF.

Pros: Specifications were perfect for my application.

Cons: Quality control is poor; I received two of these boards DOA from Newegg.

Other Thoughts: Supermicro boards have been hit or miss for me: they either work perfectly out of the box or you get a dud. I've had 3 dud boards out of 5 from Supermicro and I'm left wondering if their brand is really that great.

Pros: This is my fist SuperMicro board and I'm definitely impressed. I needed a Micro ATX board with RAID and this fit the bill perfectly. I think the quality (and layout) of the board is great, and the documentation is "pretty good" (it would be nice if the doc went into more detail of the BIOS settings, but I can't complain too much). Very stable as well, but this is a server for me, so no overclocking.

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: Windows Server 2003 with a $40 1.8GHz Celeron CPU, I think the performance is great for what it is. For me, it was a cheap server.