ASUS TS300-E7/PS4 Pedestal Server Barebone LGA 1155 Intel C204 DDR3 1600/1333/1066

Pros: Large fans make it run quietly, works well, never a problem, lots of space. Same motherboard as the rack version but costs less. Running ESXi 5.x flawlessly.

This was my config:
Western Digital WD Black WD1502FAEX 1.5TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
3ware BBU-MODULE-03 Battery Backup Unit for 3ware RAID Controllers
3ware Internal 9750-4i SATA/SAS 6Gb/s PCI-Express 2.0 w/ 512MB onboard memory Controller Card, Single
Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Server Memory Model CT2KIT51272BA1339
Intel Xeon E3-1230 Sandy Bridge 3.2GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 80W Quad-Core Server Processor BX80623E31230

Buy this memory: Kingston 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 ECC Unbuffered Server Memory Model KVR1333D3E9S/8G

Cons: 8 Gig memory stick **NOT** available when I bought this, but *is* available now. Just bought 4 sticks to take the machine to 32 gig memory total.

Other Thoughts: The 8Gig version of the DIMMs are now available.

Pros: Very fast with E3-1230 v2
Quite roomy server, space for drives and cards.
Low noise with only 1 main fan and 1 p/s fan.
Works good as server and workstation.
Workstation has now 5 VMs running under VMware W7 host.
Hotswap drives very convenient (ejected like USB drives).
Four 1Gbps NICs.
Front panel indicators including disk drive status and activity.
Works fine with KVR1333D3E9SK2/8G memory.

Cons: Had my initial difficulties to get into the BIOS setup. Intrusion detection was shown, but no selection for BIOS. Had to remove battery and reset BIOS CMOS to reach the BIOS settings.
PCIe and PCI cards hard to install/remove due to the card locking mechanism.
Audio and USB front panel without any cables and no place to buy.
Could not find a source yet where to buy a second 4-HDD bay.
None of the motherboard cables are marked in case the MB has to be removed (for e.g. a Corsair H60 cooler).
CPU heatsink not sufficient for E3-1230 v2 (over 73C with 5min Prime95).
No USB 3.0 ports.
Only 2 SATA 3 and 4 SATA 2 ports (one used by the included DVD RW drive).
Not possible to use onboard LSI disk controller to use RAID array in EFI mode. Intel's RST is doing the job.
Cannot shut front door when audio/usb front panel is in use. ASUS Support lame ... repeating to do the same over and over. Until they said I need to replace motherboard due to LSI problem.

Other Thoughts: Would be nice to know where to buy additional parts like 4-HDD bay, front panel cable etc.
Was initially meant to be a server only, but due to the power of the E3-1230 v2 I decided to use it as my main workstation, server and HTPC and migrate another server (Linux, Windows) into VMware Workstation VMs into this box. Wish I had ordered with 32 GB RAM.

Pros: Solidly built, plenty of room inside and nice hotswap drive bays.

Cons: Does not work! I have tried to get a stable Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows 7 installation multiple times each with multiple different hard drives (e.g., Seagate and OCX Vertex 2). I'm running an E2-1220 3.1 GHz Xenon CPU and 16 GB of Crucial DDR3 ECC UDIMMs. Everything goes fine with each installation and the OS will run for a few hours, but eventually and inevitably, the system locks up (not even a BSD!) after 2 to 4 hours of operation.

Other Thoughts: Like I said, I tried at least 5 different installations and combinations of drives, OSs, flashing of new Bios, etc -- a HUGE waste of time. I've had good luck with ASus MBs in the past, but there is something clearly problematic here and I'm betting it's the ASUS MB.

Manufacturer Response:

Dear Valued Customer,

Please check the System Event Log in BIOS and see if any were reported before the system lock up. In Windows or other OS, go to the event viewer and see if there are any hardware driver conflicts.

Also check the Seagate and OCZ SSD have firmware updates that may sometime reduce or eliminate lockups. Please check with drive manufacturers.

The system may lockup/reset if the CPU overheats. Make sure that the heatsink is mounted correctly and the fan is operational. In addition, check in BIOS the CPU temperature periodically.

Please let me know if you still have problems. cl-benson@asus.com reference #C1037-920.

Regards,
Benson
Asus Customer Loyalty

Pros: Perfect! This server provides plenty of room for 4 hard disks. Currently has 16GB of ram, i cant find 8GB chips for this motherboard. I run server 2008 r2 with Hyper-V. All of my virtual machines run with out any issues. This server have 4 NIC connections. The front panel has all of the indicator lights you want on a server.

I have no complaints!

Cons: No cons.

Other Thoughts: If you are looking for a server to set-up, configure the sit back and have minimal hands on maint. then order this Asus server.

Rock solid.