ASUS TS100-E7/PI4 Tower Server Barebone LGA 1155 Intel C202 DDR3 1600/1333/1066

Pros: Cheap.
Accepts Xeon and ECC RAM.
Dual Intel LAN ports, which means it's actually usable for Linux, unlike earlier models with RealTek LAN where only the first port would work.

Cons: Comes with a severely outdated BIOS, which has to be updated twice to be able to use newer CPUs. To do this, you need another computer, an USB memory stick, and a monitor that can switch to non-VGA-standard display sizes, which the EZ-Flash2 program in the BIOS requires. I.e. this is not doable on a server KVM, which is strange when sold as a server. You have to drag out a bigger monitor.

The ATA CD/DVD drive does not work for boot due the bundled LSI soft-raid controller taking over all ATA ports. This means you have to install from USB or PXE. And can't even boot the bundled Auto Installation DVD. This is documented in an errata on the ASUS site, but may be a real showstopper for many.

Other Thoughts: Broken on arrival. It will not POST with RAM in slots A1 or A2. Tried with four sticks of Kingston RAM approved for this motherboard, and any combination with memory in slots A1 or A2 would cause a four-beep POST code, both before and after BIOS updates. All four modules work when used in slots B1, B2 or both.
I will have to RMA this.

Pros: Clean layout, great fan/heatsink, all 6 sata cables included and prerun. Nice value given the price of a p8b-x mobo and a nice case

Cons: Didn't ship with the most recent bios. QVL doesn't specify the bios version required. Spent a week tracking down why the machine gave 4 beeps on boot (fully undocumented) and gave no video.

Asus support was completely worthless and never mentioned that an unsupported cpu by the bios could cause the error code.

Other Thoughts: Great system, just don't match it with a E3 v2 cpu unless you have an older supported cpu that is supported by the 0902 bios that the TS100 ships with.

Pros: Installed the ram, hd and RAM and it booted with zero issues. With 8 gigs of ram and a Xeon E-1230, this thing loaded Server 2008R2 in about 10 minutes and another hour for AD, DNS, and WSUS. It comes with a larger Asus CPU fan which is a nice bonus considering Intel's is garbage. Keep in mind this is an entry level system, but for the money, I feel this is a great deal.

Cons: None so far. Total system cost me around $700 which really isn't bad when compared to complete systems sold from other companies with the same hardware.

Other Thoughts: Everything is posted on the ASUS product page as far as hardware compatibility. If you look there before buying your hardware, you shouldn't have any issues at all. The previous reviewer obviously didn't look because Patriot isn't listed as compatible hardware..

Pros: Everything comes together except for processor, RAM, and hard drives.

Cons: Does not work with all types of memory. Make sure you check the Asus support website before ordering. I sprung $449.99 for 16GB Patriot Signature 1333 RAM only to find out it does not work.

Other Thoughts: Hope Newegg sees the issue here and refunds me the restocking fee. All the documentation from Asus and Newegg claim it works with ECC 1333 Dual Channel RAM up to 32GB. In reality, it will only accept certain modules from South Korean manufacturers and not any 8GB modules are listed so it couldn't possibly use more than 16GB RAM despite what the sales literature says.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Please always check the Qualified Vendors List http://www.asus.com/Server_Workstation/Servers/TS100E7PI4/#QVL before making a memory purchase as not all memory are compatible with the motherboard. There are two 8GB modules, made by ACTICA and A-DATA on the QVL that will allow you to have up to 32GB of memory.

Regards,
Benson
Asus Customer Loyalty