Skylake Xeon Motherboards: GIGABYTE’s C230 Series Announced

With the new E3-1200 v5 processors announced today we also get a new series of workstation/server motherboards under the C230 series. Aside from standard workstation and Xeon markets that these platforms typically target, due to a set of increased limitations these new processors will not work in consumer grade motherboards, meaning that even for home use the C230 series will be at the front and center for enthusiasts who are interested in going down the Xeon route. Today GIGABYTE Server announced a quartet of motherboards for end-users and business customers alike, including ATX and mini-ITX configurations with IPMI management and NVMe support.

MW31-SP0 (link)

First up is a dual graphics workstation board for SLI or Crossfire with dual Intel network ports (I210+I219-LM), a COM port, TPM support, M.2 support and an interesting proprietary connector between the CPU socket and the PCIe slots for expansion cards:

GIGABYTE Server sells cards for 10 gigabit Ethernet, Thunderbolt 3 via Intel’s Alpine Ridge controller, or additional M.2 slots as required. This proprietary connector has bandwidth for up to four PCIe lanes, and the range of cards that will be offered will most likely depend on the take-up of this connector and how many customers are interested in customizing parts of their motherboard like this.

Other features include an on-board USB Type-A port for software license dongles and the use of a low-end Realtek ALC887 audio codec that we normally find on low end motherboards. Interestingly rather than take the full eight SATA ports from the chipset, here there are four as expected but another four from a Marvell 9230 controller, which does not support RST but its own control storage system for RAID. The PCIe x4 slot in the middle of the motherboard is only a PCIe x2 by design, and we also get USB 3.0 support via a VLI controller rather than the chipset. There is no IMPI control on this motherboard either.

MW21-SE0 (link)

Moving to micro-ATX, this model is somewhat stripped out providing a base entry into a Skylake Xeon workstation. There is no onboard audio for example, only a single PCIe 3.0 x16, only one Intel I219-LM network controller, a TPM, some SATA ports and USB headers, plus four DDR4 slots for up to 64GB of memory. Add in a COM port, VGA for the AST1400 control and that’s about it.

The design is offers a four-phase processor arrangement, with the final PCIe slot at x4 from the chipset. Despite the image above looking as if the DDR4 memory is inserted sequentially, it seems that this ‘stock’ photograph is from a mockup where the slots were placed in the wrong colors.

MX11-PC0 (link)

On the server side, the MX11-PC0 actually looks like an interesting mini-ITX motherboard for the rest of the ecosystem to consider. It somewhat attempts to adhere to the thin mini-ITX standard with a half-height rear IO, but there are a number of interesting elements to this worth noting. The DRAM slots are positioned for server use, but the power ports are still on the outside of the motherboard in such a way that a couple of features stick out.

First up is the U.2 port, where the battery is stuck to. This uses the SFF-8639 connector which we’ve seen on Intel’s SSD 750, and runs at PCIe 3.0 x4 speeds with NVMe support. We’ve seen this connector on a couple of ASUS ROG boards so far (the Impact and Extreme), but the more the merrier. Aside from the PCIe 3.0 x16 slot and SATA ports we also get an AST2400 controller IC with an associated memory chip, and a pair of Intel I210 network ports.

The rear of the board also gets co-locator LED buttons and power/reset/NMI buttons.

MX31-BS0 (link)

In a similar server style, the MX31-BS0 also puts the socket/DRAM orientation more suited for server airflow but also attempts to aim for that low to mid-range implementation with IPMI control via an AST2400, dual I210 network ports, an M.2 slot supporting SATA and PCIe 3.0 x1, onboard USB 2.0 Type-A and what amusingly looks like a Realtek audio codec onboard but the system comes without rear-panel audio jacks, leaving the audio solely for SPDIF output.

Typically motherboards from GIGABYTE’s Server business unit start as B2B sales only and the more consumer focused models should end up on select retailers over the next few months.

Source: GIGABYTE Server

Gallery: Skylake Xeon Motherboards: GIGABYTE’s C230 Series Announced

ASUS Announces the Z170-based Maximus VIII Extreme ROG Motherboard

We caught a glimpse of it very briefly in our motherboard overview at the time that Intel launched its 6-th Generation Skylake processors, but at the end of last week ASUS formalized its announcement around their flagship motherboard for this generati…

ASUS Announces the ROG Maximus VIII Impact Z170 Motherboard

At the initial Skylake launch, we provided a rundown of all the Z170 motherboards we could get information on from the major motherboard manufacturers. Even with details on over 55 motherboards, there were some noticeable parts missing from that list as we were told to expect more as the platform developed. The Maximus VIII Impact from ASUS is one of those to come a couple of months after the initial launch, and builds on the previous Impact products from the Republic of Gamers brand.

As with other Impact motherboards, the major difference between it and other mini-ITX motherboards is the power delivery on a right-angled daughter board at the top. This allows ASUS to provide a larger power sub-system, cool it appropriately, and over the multi-generational iterative design we are told the power losses involved with this method are continually minimised. From the images it is difficult to make out, but the Z170 generation of the Impact comes with a rear metal guard (look on the right hand side and over the motherboard screw hole in the top right corner). Presumably this is either for rigidity or for extra PWM cooling. Also as with other Impact designs, the power connectors are on the right hand side of the board, outside the DRAM slots, to make them easier to access for cable management. Underneath this is the front IO panel, a fan header and a USB 3.0 header from the chipset.

Being a mini-ITX board, there is really only space for two DRAM slots, and the Impact uses dual DDR4 slots with single-sided latches and support for 32GB and DDR4-4133. The latches for the slots are on the PCIe side due to the power delivery daughterboard, which might make DRAM removal with large GPUs installed more difficult. Inside the DRAM slots are four SATA 6 Gbps ports, but storage is aided by a U.2 connector near the rear panel. This is done due to the size of the U.2 connector, and it’s great to have the functionality, though it does mean that SSD 750 owners will be routing the cable over the motherboard to get to it in most cases. Back at the launch of the Z170 chipset, after the SSD 750 had been out for a month, I spoke to motherboard manufacturers about actually replacing SATA Express with U.2 onboard – here’s one of the first examples (there are a couple of others).

The last generation Impact came with an additional daughterboard for extra fan headers, to aid the two already on the motherboard. Here, instead of that daughterboard, we get the EXT_FAN header in the top right which is a breakout connector to a separate PCB containing fan headers and power. When talking to ASUS about this on previous designs, the move towards the fact that Impact owners tend to have customized systems, so having this option allows them to have a more configurable system design.

While we don’t have HDMI 2.0 here, ASUS seems to be using Intel’s Alpine Ridge controller to provide two USB 3.1 ports at 10 Gbps with type-A and type-C support. There are two Intel ICs next to the USB 3.1 ports, the smaller of which is the network controller and the larger seems to be the Alpine Ridge and is similar to other implementations – there isn’t an ASMedia controller nearby at any rate. This would be one of the first times we’ve seen the Alpine Ridge controller outside of GIGABYTE boards, perhaps suggesting that their launch day exclusivity has now come to an end. ASUS also puts on the board an Intel I219-V network controller, a 2×2 MU-MIMO 802.11ac Wi-Fi Go module, and their SupremeFX Impact III daughterboard audio solution, now encased in a full EM shield and with LED-illuminated audio jacks and headphone impedance detection/adjustment up to 600 ohms.  The rear panel also supports BIOS flashback, four USB 3.0 ports, and their Impact Control III information/control panel.

Because this information is from the ROG team and not an ASUS regional office, pricing and availability is not yet known. Although typically an ROG team announcement in the past has become a 2-4 week lead time to US deployment in the past, and previous Impact motherboards have been in the $230-$280 area.

Gallery: ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Impact

Source: ASUS ROG

Update 10/11: We’ve been told that the Max VIII Impact will retail for around $249 and be available next week in North America.