Topcat's Supermicro X10DAI Build - Plus NVMe BIOS Mod Inside

[Topcat]

Supermicro's main board model numbers reflect the generations of Intel's processors. e.g. X6 was followed by X7 which was followed by X8 and so on. "20 years old" sounds about right for an X6 main board, making it approximately contemporary with Win XP, which MS stopped supporting and updating long, long ago.

X10 generation main boards were in their prime around 2016. While that's "just" 8 years ago, X13 and X14 generation main boards are most of current sales. BIOS updates to X10 main boards have probably been limited for a couple of years to just fixing security vulnerabilities. Using MS Windows for chronological comparison, X10 main boards were contemporary with Win 8 and 10. MS ended support for Win 8 in January 2023. The end of support for Win 10 is scheduled for 2025.

The last BIOS release for it was in 2021....that would have been a great time to slip in NVMe drivers....

[PeteS in CA]

Supermicro's main board model numbers reflect the generations of Intel's processors. e.g. X6 was followed by X7 which was followed by X8 and so on. "20 years old" sounds about right for an X6 main board, making it approximately contemporary with Win XP, which MS stopped supporting and updating long, long ago.

X10 generation main boards were in their prime around 2016. While that's "just" 8 years ago, X13 and X14 generation main boards are most of current sales. BIOS updates to X10 main boards have probably been limited for a couple of years to just fixing security vulnerabilities. Using MS Windows for chronological comparison, X10 main boards were contemporary with Win 8 and 10. MS ended support for Win 8 in January 2023. The end of support for Win 10 is scheduled for 2025.

[ratdude747]

I don't think any of them had 'official' Paxville support; much like the Precision 470/670 systems.... I have a X6DA8-G2 that does, and 4 cores + 16gb RAM for a system of that era was fantastic. Most just called it good at the Irwindales @ 3.8GHz.....but ohhhhh the heat!! 🌶

Missed this. Yes, aside from the two SM boards that "officially" support Paxville, it's a gamble at best. Never could get my X6DAE (or whatever it is) to run a pair of them successfully. Haven't touched that system in a very long time (like my other three non-W10 workstations, it's retired). Actually ran decently (when I wasn't chasing random BSODs, which were mostly the result of engineering sample CPUs not cooperating).

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Noted on NVME compatibility... keep forgetting such things don't have option ROMs like old RAID cards (and thus, the PCIe adapters aren't bootable on anything old enough to still be using BIOS instead of UEFI).

[Topcat]

The X6DAL-TB2. I wound up finding the latest bios image (I think, couldn't find a version just a date - 12/15/06 for the latest vs 10/06/05 that came on it) attached to a FAQ on Supermicro's website that was tagged for that board. I pulled the bios chip and flashed it with an eprom programmer as I couldn't find a utility from SM . I did wind up finding the manual on theretroweb, and I uploaded that latest bios image there as well. I don't think Paxvilles were ever officially supported, I think just Nocona and Irwindale.

I don't think any of them had 'official' Paxville support; much like the Precision 470/670 systems.... I have a X6DA8-G2 that does, and 4 cores + 16gb RAM for a system of that era was fantastic. Most just called it good at the Irwindales @ 3.8GHz.....but ohhhhh the heat!! 🌶

[370forlife]

Which one? There were two different flavors of this board; one with DDR1 and the other with DDR2... The DDR2 versions is the X6DAL-TB2 iirc. I tried like hell to make Paxvilles run in it, but could never get it to see both CPU's. What drivers are missing? BIOS? I have a BIOS archive with a lot of SM stuff, let me know what revision and I'll see if I have it.

The X6DAL-TB2. I wound up finding the latest bios image (I think, couldn't find a version just a date - 12/15/06 for the latest vs 10/06/05 that came on it) attached to a FAQ on Supermicro's website that was tagged for that board. I pulled the bios chip and flashed it with an eprom programmer as I couldn't find a utility from SM . I did wind up finding the manual on theretroweb, and I uploaded that latest bios image there as well. I don't think Paxvilles were ever officially supported, I think just Nocona and Irwindale.

[Topcat]

Very nice system what are your plans for this computer

No real plans for it....sell it eventually.

I've lost some faith in supermicro recently after the issues I had with the X6DAL board. I know, its like 20 years old at this point, but to not have any drivers, bios, or documentation available at all and then tell me its because it is EOL despite the fact that they have all that stuff available for socket 7 pentium boards is annoying.

Which one? There were two different flavors of this board; one with DDR1 and the other with DDR2... The DDR2 versions is the X6DAL-TB2 iirc. I tried like hell to make Paxvilles run in it, but could never get it to see both CPU's. What drivers are missing? BIOS? I have a BIOS archive with a lot of SM stuff, let me know what revision and I'll see if I have it.

[370forlife]

I've lost some faith in supermicro recently after the issues I had with the X6DAL board. I know, its like 20 years old at this point, but to not have any drivers, bios, or documentation available at all and then tell me its because it is EOL despite the fact that they have all that stuff available for socket 7 pentium boards is annoying.

[sam_sam_sam]

Very nice system what are your plans for this computer

[Topcat]

Yes, I know I don't post this stuff much anymore....the only reason I'm posting this one is because of a NVMe adapter incompatibility; seems rather planned by Supermicro.....or I'm atleast a bit suspicious. It's plenty new enough to have a UEFI bios but a short 'happy list' of NVMe controllers that will work with this board, as if by some 'miracle', all Intel....so lets start at the beginning; we'll get back to this later.

Of course the motherboard is as the thread title states; X10dai....but we'lre going to have some fun shoehorning this into a modern 'gamer case' that can actually handle an eATX motherboard. It's an inexpensive one I found on ebay....was like 60 bucks shipped; the usual tempered glass thing intended for the silly ARGB fans, etc.... 🤮

Spiced up with liquid cooling; a pair of asetek 650LX coolers. Plentiful and also cheap.





The 'meat'.



I won't bore you with too much assembly.



Modding a new case; clearances were too tight to fit the fans under the radiators.



Gives it charm.



1200W Antec power supply.



The real RAM. 512GB worth I got for really cheap!



Some temp testing idle and under load. These are 160W CPU's. I was impressed with how cool they ran.



Even crunching some numbers, they didn't get too warm.



No RGB lighting.....but a translucent case like this needs a little something....




...but here's where the problems began... I used a Dell NVMe adapter with a 2TB Patriot M.2. Windows install went just fine, it saw the drive, install, and done....or so I thought. Upon reboot after file copy, no 'windows boot manager' as a boot option.... Long story short, there's no EFI drivers in the BIOS for any other NVMe controllers other than what's in SM's 'happy list'....which I thought was really shoddy of SM....but they pretty much told me to pound sand, there will not be any further BIOS releases for this board.... 😠

Ok, I'm not going down like this; it's an AMI APTIO firmware, and after some research, used this instructional on how to add the NVMe UEFI driver into the binary:

https://winraid.level1techs.com/t/ho...efi-bios/30901

After completing this and flashing the BIOS, tada!! Windows boot manager now appears as a boot option.




I did have to reinstall Windows after the flash though.... The previous install showed up as 'windows boot manager', so I know the BIOS mod worked, but it would just hang when selected as a boot device. Reinstalled windows and no more issues!!

...and here we are!!



I have attached the modded BIOS to this thread as well....incase anyone out there runs into this, I'll save them the trouble of hacking a BIOS.



Enjoy....this thread created from this beast!

MB: Supermicro X10DAI
CPU: 2x E5-2687W @ 3GHz - total 24C 48T
Cooled by Asetek 650LX 2011-3 Coolers
RAM 16x 32GB Samsung PC4-2400T - 512GB
GPU: Quadro M5000 8GB
Dell 2-slot NVMe Adapter + 2TB SSD
PSU: Antec 1200W TruePower