In the past, it may have been a big difference between server motherboards and regular desktop systems. Server grade hardware was more reliable, it came with expensive stuff integrated such as SCSI controllers, had better heatsinks because the manufacturer couldn't rely on the datacenter to keep the rack temperature low...
Nowadays, even the gaming or regular cheap boards come with polymer caps, the have good enough heatsinks because most people overclock their systems, the boards have good SATA 6 gbps controllers integrated and video... basically the only benefit server motherboards have nowadays is support for ECC RAM and maybe SAS. Even ECC RAM is not that special, as some AMD chipsets support it on regular motherboards.
If you were to build the server now from scratch, it would not be worth it.
1. You'd have to get a computer case that supports EATX or whatever format the motherboard has.
2. Processors would be much more expensive than the 140$ you paid for the 2 cpus now.
3. You'd have to buy cpu coolers as they don't normally come with the processors.
4. You'd need a special power supply that would have TWO x 8 pin cpu cables - so that's a 650+ w power supply.
In the end, you'd have an expensive system that usually consumes more than 1A of power, which is the usual limit for a 1-2U server in a datacenter.
For the same price you'd pay if all parts were new, you'd probably be able to make two systems with the AMD FX8150 for example, and keep the second as spare machine or have the second as a failover.
Even with one system, you'd have 90% of the performance and about 95% of the reliability of your normal system, yet with about 60% of the power consumption, which would normally save you money in the datacenter if you were to colocate it.
There are hosting companies that do work with this kind of systems - Hetzner in Germany for example uses thousands of such systems and they found them just as reliable as Supermicro and Dell servers... see http://www.hetzner.de/en/hosting/pro...oduktmatrix-ex
... and they're using these boards for various offerings:
All EQ and EX models (MSI X58 Pro-E, Asus P8H67-M Pro, Asus P8BWS)
DS Servers with the following motherboards:
MSI K9AG Neo2 (MS-7368)
MSI K8T Neo2 - F (MS-7032)
MSI K8MM3-V (MS-7181)
MSI KA780G (MS-7551)
MSI K9NBPM2-FID (MS-7252)
And let's be honest here... even if the motherboard would die in 3 years, it's a 60-100$ part, and the server is hosting a forum and maybe some other things. You won't lose millions if the forum will be down for the time you can go to a retail store to buy a motherboard and replace or order one overnight from Newegg. But you'll definitely have a harder time fixing this server if the Supermicro board dies.
I didn't criticize that you do this build, because i realize having the motherboard free changes things. You're also lucky that you found those processors for a bargain... I even agree it's okay to spend some money and be at a loss, just because you see this as a project and a fun/interesting thing to do.
Nowadays, even the gaming or regular cheap boards come with polymer caps, the have good enough heatsinks because most people overclock their systems, the boards have good SATA 6 gbps controllers integrated and video... basically the only benefit server motherboards have nowadays is support for ECC RAM and maybe SAS. Even ECC RAM is not that special, as some AMD chipsets support it on regular motherboards.
If you were to build the server now from scratch, it would not be worth it.
1. You'd have to get a computer case that supports EATX or whatever format the motherboard has.
2. Processors would be much more expensive than the 140$ you paid for the 2 cpus now.
3. You'd have to buy cpu coolers as they don't normally come with the processors.
4. You'd need a special power supply that would have TWO x 8 pin cpu cables - so that's a 650+ w power supply.
In the end, you'd have an expensive system that usually consumes more than 1A of power, which is the usual limit for a 1-2U server in a datacenter.
For the same price you'd pay if all parts were new, you'd probably be able to make two systems with the AMD FX8150 for example, and keep the second as spare machine or have the second as a failover.
Even with one system, you'd have 90% of the performance and about 95% of the reliability of your normal system, yet with about 60% of the power consumption, which would normally save you money in the datacenter if you were to colocate it.
There are hosting companies that do work with this kind of systems - Hetzner in Germany for example uses thousands of such systems and they found them just as reliable as Supermicro and Dell servers... see http://www.hetzner.de/en/hosting/pro...oduktmatrix-ex
... and they're using these boards for various offerings:
All EQ and EX models (MSI X58 Pro-E, Asus P8H67-M Pro, Asus P8BWS)
DS Servers with the following motherboards:
MSI K9AG Neo2 (MS-7368)
MSI K8T Neo2 - F (MS-7032)
MSI K8MM3-V (MS-7181)
MSI KA780G (MS-7551)
MSI K9NBPM2-FID (MS-7252)
And let's be honest here... even if the motherboard would die in 3 years, it's a 60-100$ part, and the server is hosting a forum and maybe some other things. You won't lose millions if the forum will be down for the time you can go to a retail store to buy a motherboard and replace or order one overnight from Newegg. But you'll definitely have a harder time fixing this server if the Supermicro board dies.
I didn't criticize that you do this build, because i realize having the motherboard free changes things. You're also lucky that you found those processors for a bargain... I even agree it's okay to spend some money and be at a loss, just because you see this as a project and a fun/interesting thing to do.
All those boards were bought back in 03~04, when they were new.... I bargain hunt yes (I wait a year or so from their launch for prices to drop, etc)....but all were of top-end parts, I had probably 4000 in them all, give or take a few hundred. In their SEVEN years of FLAWLESS service, they have generated probably close to 6-figures in revenue....probably more with all the side stuff. See where I'm going with this? At the end of the day, the hardware is worthless, and the cost of buying it was very trivial. I give them away to keep them from either sitting on the junk shelf or becoming landfill. Ratdude was able to make good use of it, and I was happy to see that become of it. Quality aint cheap my friend... yes, I could have built cheaper machines.....but I can guarantee with a fair degree of confidence that they would not have given the same top-grade service that the intended hardware has given.
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