Pros: Nada for this one. Previous one is great.

Cons: Lan does not function. Previous model bought some time ago had manuals and driver disk. This one had the feel of something refurbished...came without anything other than the board and cables. No manual, no installation disk.

Other Thoughts: Thank you NewEgg for allowing me to return on the last day.

Pros: came with updated bios and IPMI firmware.
worked out of the box for FreeNas.
cost was reasonable.
quality workmanship.

Cons: NONE

Other Thoughts: This board came recommended by forum gurus for building a NAS server
machine on the FreeNas operating system. I'm glad to say that I was smart enough to listen to them and purchase this board.

Pros: I order this board for my new FreeNAS build, it comes highly rated on their forums, and for good reason.

It is a very quality server board, built for what is does best.

I ordered this one versus others because I wanted four PCI-E slots.

I have pulled it in an out of the chassis several times during the build and it very cared.

Cons: Pricey, but you get what you pay for with this board.

Other Thoughts: Paired this with:

Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2
Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) CT2KIT102472BD160B

I was worried about the ram not being on the approved list.
It shows up fine, tested fine, and runs fine.

Pros: It works for VMware 5.5 U1. I have a quad core Xeon 3.2 GHz CPU and it'll do a half dozen VMs as long as they're not really really busy.

Cons: The 2nd NIC isn't supported by VMware but that's certainly not Supermicro's fault. Getting into the RAID configuration is very difficult. The RAID is also not supported by VMware.

Other Thoughts: Spend some time reading the docs on the BIOS. Configuring the boot order is pretty slick - once you figure how to do it.

Pros: IPMI is to die for. Perfect ESXI host

Cons: RAM compatibility sucks. You will have to try a few times probably. Read other reviews for best RAM options.

Other Thoughts: I have been running this 24/7 in a data center for 2 years now with 6 virtual machines in a 16gb/3TB configuration and it never even hiccups.

When I lost a drive earlier this year the IPMI was a life-saver (machine is 600 miles away).

I'd build this machine again in a heartbeat.

Pros: Bought the board to run Windows Server 2012 and VMware ESXi hosts.(8 virtual machines no problem can squeeze few more in). Paired the board with 1 x Intel Xeon E3-1230 V2 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 69W Quad-Core Server Processor BX80637E31230V2. Threw in 1 x Kingston 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 ECC Unbuffered Server Memory Model KVR1333D3E9SK2/16G down the road planning to add 2 more 8 gb stick to bring out all the potential. Added Adaptec Raid controller 5805z . All was plug and play. No issues. Did I mention it has 2 NICS!

Not a peep! Running 24/7 last 3 months.

Great value.

Cons: Wanted to use all the NICS. Had to find intel driver for another nic. Was a little time consuming but once all done. Works like a champ!!!

Other Thoughts: Great product. Full of features. Came with updated BIOS

Pros: This is the third server build with this board. So far the two I built in May of 2013 have not skipped a beat. Glad I posted how to boot from DVD on my previous go round as I needed that information again.

Cons: All documentation and drivers are on the website not in the box.

If you have trouble booting from DVD after setting up raid or finding Raid drivers see my previous post from May 2013.

Other Thoughts: The layout of this board is odd (to me) the power connections are on top and in the cases I buy that ends up right under the power supply, also the power switches and HDD LEDs also on the top edge. Not a big deal just a little inconvenient.

Pros: SuperMicro tech support is great. No where have I ever experienced working with a manufacturer where you literally talk to the guy sitting on a work bench reproducing your problem and figuring things out for you.

Cons: Unfortunately, this board is NOT compatible with Server 2012 Hyper-V. This board has a fatal flaw with the network adapters. If you install the Intel drivers for the network cards with advanced networking services (so you can use teaming, vlans, etc.) and install Hyper-V the system will become unstable. Whenever accessing the network adapter properties of the Intel 82574L or trying to create a team, or other configuration the motherboard will instantly reboot. The problem has been submitted to SuperMicro, it has been reproduced, it has been escalated to Intel, it has been 3 months, there is still no solution.

In addition, at this time Intel has NO drivers for Server 2012 R2.

There is a thread in the Microsoft forums where we are tracking this issue and desperately waiting for a solution. If you intend to use this board with Server 2012 Hyper-V you MUST use the built-in windows drivers for the network adapters which do not have any advanced networking services.

Other Thoughts: There have been some other minor issues I have experienced with this board that were not show stoppers. It has trouble with detecting boot devices unless you change some really strange settings in the BIOS.

Pros: Worked out of box, has all of the features I need for my FreeBSD/ZFS fileserver.

Using with:
Xeon E3-1220 V2 (Ivy Bridge)
2x Kingston KVR13E9/8HM
LSI 2108 Chipset Raid Card (flashed to be a non-raid adapter)

Cons: A tad expensive for the tech, but it's a server board so that's expected.

Also, you need to make sure you get the right type of RAM (ECC Unregistered). Some folks say the RAM is picky, so I'd recommend checking out the compatibility lists to save yourself some time

Pros: -Great Chipset
-Built In RAID
-Dual Ethernet

Cons: -None

Other Thoughts: I have read that supermicro motherboards only fit supermicro heatsinks. While this may be true for other motherboards, the X9SCM-F-0 fits the stock intel heatsinks perfectly. In addition, the C204 is an extremely fast chipset! I have 2 RE4 drives in RAID 1 on this chipset, and I get read rates of about 180 MB/s and write rates of about 120 MB/s. These transfers are over CAT 5E cables. Windows Home Server 2011 recognized everything after I installed drivers and it has been running flawlessly for over 6 months (unlike my previous intel motherboard which crashed every week). Overall this has been a fantastic motherboard for my Windows Home Server 2011 build, and I would absolutely buy it again.