The Intel W480 Motherboard Overview: LGA1200 For Xeon W-1200
by Gavin Bonshor on June 24, 2020 9:00 AM ESTDFI CMS310-W480
Fondly remembered for the LANParty series of motherboards back in the 2000s, DFI disappeared off the radar from the consumer motherboard market. However, it still creates a range of industrial models and embedded solutions. The DFI CMS310-W480 is a little bit of an enigma with no official images or anything which could decipher the board's visual design and layout. We do know the CMS310-W480 will include a single PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot, four SATA ports, and three video outputs on the rear for triple display capability.
Focusing on what we do know about DFI's CMS310-W480, we know that it will feature two full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which will operate at x16, and x8/x8, with two PCIe 3.0 x4 slots, although we can't be sure if these will be full or half-length slots. There will be a single PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot, with four SATA ports capable of supporting RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays, with an M.2 Key-E slot present to allow users to install a wireless interface, perhaps one of Intel's AX200/201 Wi-Fi 6 models.
The official specifications list says the rear panel includes two Gigabit Ethernet ports but can accommodate up to four Gigabit ports upon request, which gives the impression that DFI will be looking to secure specific orders in volume, perhaps from system integrators and from within the server/workstation industry. It lists two USB 3.2 G2 ports and four USB 3.2 G1 ports but doesn't specify between Type-C and Type-C, with a trio of video outputs including a DisplayPort, HDMI, and a D-sub. The three 3.5 mm audio jacks will be powered by a Realtek ALC888 HD audio codec.
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timecop1818 - Wednesday, June 24, 2020 - link
nobody cares about pcie4, and definitely not the target audience for this cpu/boards.PixyMisa - Wednesday, June 24, 2020 - link
Intel doesn't offer PCIe 4.0 on any of their CPUs yet. Not even Cooper Lake, which launched last week.Foeketijn - Thursday, June 25, 2020 - link
Even if they would be PCIe 2.0 they would sell. Current xeon servers are still also sold with iron drives.The box will say, Intel and Xeon, Windows server will run on it, and the barebone is less then 600 bucks. All potential customer needs.
Foeketijn - Thursday, June 25, 2020 - link
Because the whole server is going to cost way less then 1 Epyc CPU.dragosmp - Wednesday, June 24, 2020 - link
DFII fondly remember a Lanparty Nforce4 AM2 board
Most their good folks went to Biostar, I seem to remember, and then to Gigabyte. Glad to see they're still around as a company, although they may not have anything to do with the DFI of old
Foeketijn - Thursday, June 25, 2020 - link
Ah, a man of culture! Those where the hardware times. The times when the chipset mattered, and the latest CPU could do things you couldn't do with last years CPU. When the midrange GPU was affordable and still beat last years high end GPU.Having said that. On the CPU front AMD is making life interesting a bit lately.
bolkhov - Wednesday, June 24, 2020 - link
Gavin,Regarding Supermicro X12SAE: it is NOT the only ATX W480 model from Supermicro; the second one is X12SCA-F. Its main difference is BMC (hence the "-F"), thus, the IPMI/BMC mentioned in X12SAE docs are about X12SCA-F.
In X11 lineup these mobos' predecessors were X11SAE/X11SAE-F (Skylake/Kaby) and X11SCA/X11SCA-F (Coffee). For some unknown reason in the X12 lineup this pair was separated, and current Supermicro's site is, to put it mildly, not very informative/straightforward/useful (previous version had much better information accessibility), so it isn't easy to grasp the whole W480 lineup.
Foeketijn - Thursday, June 25, 2020 - link
This chipset is for people who need a server. Which CPU? Intel I guess.I am wondering why so many motherboard are made. Maybe because they are a drop in replacement for the consumer chipset. So R&D cost are minimal.
In the end 99% of those chipsets are sold by HP/Dell/Lenovo in less then 1000 bucks windows server boxes.
If only those 3 would make the same Ryzen based servers like Asrockrack. Then still the bulk would be intel, since in this branch, hardware minded people are scarce (you did your 3 year IT course, and now you can maintain a Windows Server, as long everything goes as planned).
bolkhov - Thursday, June 25, 2020 - link
BTW, regarding ASUS Pro WS W480-Ace:according to User Manual, two Display Port connectors on the rear panel are NOT outputs, but are INPUTS, for those TB3s. Probably to connect discrete GPU outputs, for those to be tunneled to TB3s.
Dunno if iGPU output pipes are routed to TB3s internally or if HDMI is the only iGPU output; the User Manual keeps silence about it.
Mr Perfect - Saturday, June 27, 2020 - link
That ASRock W480 Creator has the most impressive rear IO I've ever seen. Why don't high end desktop boards have a set like that?