SUPERMICRO MBD-X7SPA-HF-O Mini ITX Server Motherboard DDR2 667

Pros: Cheap, low power, quiet.

Cons: We purchased 14 of these units from various suppliers.
-1 was completely dead after some days of operation (does not power up, LED's are all off).
-3 had a strange problem with the lan port where computer can be discovered and pingebut cannot be accessed. Fixed by swapping motherboard.
-5 Had severe serial port issues. of those, 3 had it on both external and internal header port.

All of the above issues were fixed by replacing the motherboard with the remaining hardware/os install being intact so the issues are definitely in the motherboard.

Also, most of the 14 units think they are booted for the first time and take forever to POST on every boot. These are used in embedded systems so the long POST times cause 2-3 minute long boots into a completely stripped down XP Embedded build which is unacceptable.

Also, this board overheats inside passively cooled case, requires case fan. I am able to run another type of Micro-ITX fanless board (different brand) in a nearly sealed e

Other Thoughts: Why is it under server motherboards? Having two lan ports does not make up for cheap build quality and so many issues. These boards feel like ticking time bombs.

Pros: Completely silent. Low power usage. People complaining of CPU heat must keep in mind that this CPU is design to handle 100°C or 212°F.

I have it running pfSense 2.0.1 in a really, really small case that have a 60W DC-DC power supply, so not even a single fan and the CPU stay below 70°C.

Cons: I had trouble booting pfSense from the onboard USB, but that was pfSense fault, something about a delay before mounting the USB drive, the delay wait for the USB controller to initialize the drive.

Other Thoughts: Case : APEX MW-100
USB Flash : Patriot Xporter XT Rage 8GB
OS : pfSense 2.0.1

The case is really small, but it is perfect for what I did with it. The USB Flash drive fit perfectly inside, I was worried that it wouldn't fit at first, but it did. Don't expect to have a DVD drive with the flash drive though, you might need a smaller one.

Pros: Very low power consumption. Dual Intel Gigabit Ethernet.
Did a Routing Server/File Server with it and was amazingly using 55 Watts with 3.5 "HDD+5 fans+DVD Drive.

Cons: Nothing

Pros: This board is simply fantastic for its intended usage, and as a first time Atom builder, it couldn't have been easier to get up and running. With 2 cores with hyper-threading, there is way more power than will ever get used in my application.

After using Dell's DRAC and Sun's LOM at work, I was convinced I had to get something similar for my home servers. I bought this to test IPMI to see how the implementation would be for future builds. After spending some time with it, I am extremely impressed. There are a few quirks, but overall it does exactly what I need it to and even more. The ability to mount an ISO image over the LAN under its Virtual CDROM and do a headless setup of the machine from the BIOS to the OS is pure gold.

Cons: As mentioned above, there are a few quirks with IPMI. Although, I'm still a bit uncertain whether it's because of the Java JRE I was using on my Linux desktop, or in the IPMI implementation itself. However, the only major issue I'm really having still is with the sensors under IPMIView. If I add the system, login, and go to the sensor readings it works as it should. However, any time thereafter that I try the sensors tab will never load properly again, and even block the other tabs from working correctly. I have to delete and re-add the IPMI managed system to get everything working again.

Other Thoughts: I am using this in a Supermicro CSE-502L-200B 1U Rackmount case (N82E16811152131), 2xCrucial 2GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM 667mhz (N82E16820148087), and a left over Western Digital Raptor 74gb from an old desktop build.

The machine is running CentOS 6.2 64-bit currently, and replaced my old K7 Athlon 500mhz as my gateway machine. Routing is handled via Shorewall. Among its firewall/routing duties, it also serves as secondary DNS for my domains, and primary for the LAN, DHCP server, an NFS client/server, Samba server, network monitoring for local and remote machines via SNMP/Cacti, transparent Squid proxy for LAN clients, and misc. other tasks here and there.

This system handles everything without issue, and there is hardly ever any load on the machine unless I am doing disk intensive activities such as running its backup to the file server (but that load is due to IO - not CPU).

This was my first Atom build as stated, but based on my experiences thus far, it will not be my last. :)

Pros: Been using this board as a pfSense 1.2.3 firewall in an M300 case with 4GB RAM (3GB supported in 1.2.3 32-bit) and an old Scorpio drive. Administered headless over IPMI, which works wonderfully. This board is rock solid and doesn't have a problem saturating my 30Mb/s fiber. Quiet, low power, low heat, low maintenance, powerful for pfSense, dual intel GB nic, and I am a happy camper.

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: Also tried Endian, Untangle, and Astaro, and performance seemed to suffer somewhat vs. pfSense with all the UTM stuff added on. May be inherent to those OSes, user error on my part with config, or D510 just struggled with UTM duties. However, running pfSense with snort maxed out, squid, and a number of other packages still screams with this board.

Pros: IPMI and on board USB slot that no one can access without opening the case. 6x SATA ports for packing a Lian Li PC-Q08B case with hard drives.

Cons: Price a bit high for a atom processor board that only allows 4Gb DDR2 PC667. The CPU heatsink is super chincy and does not cool the CPU very well for a $200+ server motherboard. IPMI has issues reading RPM from fans.

Other Thoughts: Using this with FreeNAS 7.02 (8 sucks and offers no media serving capabilities). Build is Lian Li PC-Q08B (case), Mushkin 996618 (RAM), WD Green WD20EARS (6xHDDs), Some bronze 80 PSU 320W, OCZSSDPX-1RVD0050 (OS SSD). I had to knock an egg off for the heatsink issue and RAM limit. Heatsink is that important for server class.

Pros: Everything I wanted for a NAS. The out of band management software is new to me, I like it.

Cons: Wish it had more memory capacity, for ZFS cache.

Pros: PCIx slot (x4), IPMI server management

Had Itx board with D510, but all came with PCI (NOT PCI Express) so in using with RAID card was limited to PCI 33mhz (sucks). With this board, was able to use Adaptec 1430SA and PCI Express x4!! Now have my ideal build - this board, RAID 10 across 4 1TB drives, in Chenbro ES34069 case. Tiny, small, fast. Note you need a 90 deg riser card to use PCI card in that case.

Cons: All SATA are on one controller, can't mix IDE and RAID

Thought initially to use 1 SATA for system hard drive, 1 SATA for DVD drive, remaining 4 SATA for 4x 1TB bard drives in software raid through the ICH9R. Unfortunately, Windows Home Server will not install easily on a drive managed as a RAID drive, and since all 6 SATA are on one controller, you have to have all managed as RAID, or none. Required me to get Adaptec 1430SA 4port SATA PCI card, but that's probably a better solution anyway.

Other Thoughts: Video does indeed suck, but this is is a server board not an HTPC. The IPMI server management software is awesome though - basically a mini basic computer interface available all the time as a web page at the server's IP address. Had trouble hooking up a virtual drive, I think you're limited to "attaching" ISO images, not routing an actual hard drive.

Pros: 6 Sata connections, USB plug directly on board. Overall quality product.

Cons: Manual that came with a board could be confusing for someone who is used to working with other well known brands. Front panel connectors are located in somewhat strange place. Read the manual.

Other Thoughts: This a perfect mobo for somebody looking to build quality home server. I am running unRaid from USB stick, but you should not have any problems using FreeNas, or even WHS. I recommend installing single RAM in upper bank, when I installed RAM in lower bank, motherboard did not want to boot. Rather strange

If you are still looking for a small factor case, your options are rather limited, to Lian Li PC-Q08 and Fractal Design Array R2. Both can house 6x3.5' hard drives and SSD. PC-Q08 will require however PSU (single rail, 12V) for your server. Array R2 comes with SFX PSU already, but it would have to be shipped from Canada (google it). Newegg please include Fractal Design products in your inventory.

Pros: two intel nics. ip kvm and ipmi. low power usage. win2008r2 installed with no problems. vyatta (linux router distro) also worked flawlessly. greate box if you want a soho/smb server or vyatta router.

Cons: upgrade the ipmi software before doing anything else. Cannot get radius authentication to work with the web gui, only local authentication. probably not a big deal for most people.maki