SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCM-F-O LGA 1155 Intel C204 Micro ATX Intel Xeon E3 Server Motherboard

Pros: Newegg isn't out of stock

Cons: In my last review I explained how to get this Mboard to boot from DVD after setting up Raid. This time I was installing server 2012 not 2008 and the drives didn't show up. I knew that I needed the raid driver but the website of the Manufacturer has a mind boggling number of downloads and no way to find the one you are looking for. Fortunately in one post for someone looking for something similar I found the driver for this Mboard:
ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/driver/SATA/Intel_PCH_RAID_RST/Windows/11.2.0.1006/
The forum poster was actually looking for 2003 32 bit but I saw the 11.2.0.1006 and knew from all the others I tried that it would have the 64 bit also - good luck !

Other Thoughts: It would be nice if they included a CD with the Mboard like ASUS and others do but they direct you to their website where they have every download they've ever provided all mixed together. Good luck figuring it out!

Pros: built an entry level server with W2008R2 using this Mboard and an Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 69W Quad-Core Server Processor 2 x Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) ECC Unbuffered Server Memory Model and 2 x Western Digital WD RE4 WD1003FBYX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Enterprise Hard Drive.

Cons: convoluted and missing Raid setup Documentation. I wanted a simple raid mirror at the Mboard level not in windows. While it was easy enough to get the raid setup once I turned it on I could not load the OS from the DVD as it would not boot from it after searching I found the correct settings so that the Mboard will boot from DVD after Intel raid is setup. Here are the steps from Super Micro Forum
change the following BIOS settings also make sure DVD-ROM is connected to SATA port 4 or 5, goto Advanced ? PCIe/PCI/PnP configuration ? Launch Storage OpROM policy ? Legacy only
Advanced ? Chipset configuration ? Integrated IO configuration ? Detect Non-compliance device ? enable
Advanced ? Boot feature ? INT19 Trap response ? Postponed.
After I banged my head against the wall for an hour or so I found these steps and they worked. Save yourself some time if you want to use the onboard Intel Raid and Load the OS from a DVD after setting it up

Other Thoughts: Hope the board lasts, all in all it was a good deal for what you get. Of course Newegg shipped it out right away and it all came before it was due - Newegg Rocks

Pros: Fast when it worked, dual Gb NIC. Lots of features that I could never use. Lasted one year and one month, that's good for a server, right? Tech support spoke English (with a super thick Indian accent, better than no tech support at all)

Cons: Bios somehow got corrupted and the drives began to not be able to talk to the board. During diagnostics with our network admin, the whole server crashed, in the middle of a sales day. Pulled the drives out, they worked fine. Called tech support, they determined the MB was not defective, but the Cmos or bios was corrupted. So I flashed the bios with the newest and got it running again. Still had drive errors on multiple drives. Added a Sata controller card. system works, but likes to hang up when a USB drive is attached to the MB. Going to replace this with something else as it can't be trusted even as a backup!

Other Thoughts: I'm not a network expert, but have a relatively good handle on PC builds and hardware issues. I've tested all the components and keep coming back to the ACHI/sata controller as being faulty.

Pros: IPMI KVM rocks, BIOS options plentiful.
Ivy Bridge support with latest BIOS (shipped with v2.0b).

Cons: On-board video is junk, but hey it's a server...
Crazy issues with SSD RAID configuration, see Other Thoughts.
32Gb memory limit seems a li'l low.
LED pinout intended for SM cases, but 90% functional in my Norco RPC-230 - everything works except OH/UID. Not really a Con, knew what I was getting into before I purchased.

Other Thoughts: I grabbed this along with two Samsung 840 PRO 128Gb SSD's, with the intent of setting up a RAID 1. Eventually I got this working, but out of the box it was not cooperative. First, after changing the SATA mode to RAID from AHCI, you get two options for the code base - Intel or LSI. Using the Intel option, both drives were both detected, but I could NOT access the configuration utility at boot time. Like most other RAID controllers, you press a key combo, in this case Ctrl+I. Pressing this at the proper time had no effect. I even tried another keyboard, thinking maybe my I key had somehow gone bad. No luck. So, I tried LSI code base. Again, the drives were detected, but this time the key combo was detected (just press Enter). However, the machine would never enter the utility. Instead, I got a clear screen with just a flashing cursor. I left it at this screen for over fifteen minutes on one attempt.

So, I had an idea... let's throw in a standard HDD and see what happens. It was detected by both the Intel and LSI code bases, but the result was the same - no config utility access. So, I added another standard HDD... and FINALLY I got the menu in Intel mode and was able to configure the array. After that, I removed the standard drives and the machine retained the configuration and worked as expected.

Why this makes a difference I have no idea. So if anyone else is scratching their head over this, apparently the RAID configuration utilities must detect two or more non-SSD drives in order to proceed (or at least, the Samsung's that I had purchased). Not sure if any other SM boards or SSD's have this issue.

Pros: IPMI

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: Nothing much to say, it's a MOBO. IPMI is amazing for headless mode.

Pros: Works out of the box, loaded VMware ESXi 5. Good for now.

Cons: No USB 3 and Audio header on motherboard, I guess servers don't need them...NOT!

Other Thoughts: Ordered 2 X9SCM and both motherboard came with the latest Bios that supports Xeon V2 Ivy Bridge

Pros: I bought this mobo to build a host/virtual server using hyper-v for a lab environment to facilitate learning for certifications so for that purpose it has been great. I have not taken advantage of advanced features like RAID. I would've given it 5 eggs, but the first board I received was had a severely damaged processor socket, which seems like someone at the factory mishandled it and then I had to wait quite a while to get the replacement due to the holidays. Drivers were easy to install and came with a CD and clear to follow map of the server board itself (very handy for installing the hardware).

Cons: In my case, the first board shipped with a damaged processor socket that must have been mishandled by someone at the factory since the packaging was quite secure. I had to RMA and send back, which meant I lost time to study, but all in all I am glad newegg did not hassle me about the exchange in the end.

Other Thoughts: If you are looking for a high end board for your production environment I'm not sure I'd go with this one. As I said, mainly used this to get up to speed with MS server operating systems and running virtual machines (running 8GB RAM though the board can handle much more). Still, its been a solid board and could probably be used in a small environment with the right hardware.

Pros: Installed as PDC in accountants office in Oct. 2012.
- Good Windows Server 2008 R2 support.
- Onboard RAID is sufficient for my needs.
- Ample expansion possibilities.
- Stable and fast (no issues to date related to the board).

Cons: As others have stated, video on this board is terrible. Just monitoring the server locally is painful. Response on the video is horribly slow and frustrating. If I had to spend any more time in front of this machine I would purchase a dedicated card. I know this is a server, yet the onboard video should, at the very least, be capable of running the basic Windows UI without delay.

Pros: Built 2 NAS servers with this, the KVM over IP is huge

Cons: Took me awhile to find a video driver for server 2012. Got it off dell's website from their r810 server.

Pros: Ive been Running a esxi server with 16 gigs of memory (KVR1333D3E9SK2/8G) and an E3-1230 on this board for over a year. It works great.

Cons: Decided to upgrade the memory to 32gigs and followed the recommendations in this thread. The board does NOT support KVR1333D3Q8R9S/8 as stated by another reviewer.