NEW RANGE OF WORKSTATION MOTHERBOARDS AVAILABLE TODAY

King Arthur · 8 Feb 2010 at 11:47

OcUK are proud to be launching our new range of workstation motherboards. Addressing the ever growing market of people wanting personal supercomputers that deliver awesome power, dependable performance and unparallel multiple I/O scalability for the most demanding tasks and future upgrades is something we can't ignore.

Workstations are designed to offer cutting edge performance with an exceptional degree of reliability, available and scalability, which is something few desktop boards can offer. In addition to this workstation motherboards are capable of handling multiple processor and graphics combinations with enough power to render a high quality 3D Animation.

Workstations motherboards are the first place you should look if you want the highest performance available with unparalleled scalability that is specifically designed for use with multi-threaded applications that require a lot of power. For example CUDA Parallel Programming.

Top 5 benefits of a Workstation Motherboard: -

Capable of handling storage capacities in excess of 12TB in a data protecting RAID Array.
Full support for the Quadro or Fire GL graphics card range.
Server class performance and reliability in a workstation motherboard
Capable of providing multiple I/O scalability, that only servers could once handle.
Quieter and more scalable than server motherboards without the expense.

Supermicro C7X58 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Workstation Motherboard @ £223.25 inc VAT

Supermicro motherboards based on the Intel X58 Express chipset support Intel's Core™ i7 and Xeon® 5500/3500 series processors in the LGA 1366 socket. With features that include support for 36 PCI-E 2.0 lanes, up to 24 GB DDR3 memory, these boards deliver the highest performance possible.

- Intel® Core™ i7 / i7 Extreme Edition, and Intel® Xeon® 5500/3500 series processors (QPI up to 6.4 GT/s)
- Intel® X58 Express Chipset
- Up to 24GB DDR3 1333, 1066 & 800 ECC / non-ECC Un-Buffered DIMM
- Dual Intel® 82574L Gigabit Ethernet Controller
- 6x SATA (3.0Gbps) Ports Supporting RAID 0, 1, 5, 10
- 2 (x16) PCI-Express 2.0,
- 1 (x4) PCI-Express (using x8 slot),
- 1x 32-bit PCI Slots
- Supports NVIDIA SLI® and ATI™ CrossFireX™ Technology
- 12 x USB

Only £223.25 inc VAT.

ORDER NOW

Asus P6T6 WS Revolution Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard @ £272.60 inc VAT

The Asus Workstation Series is the ideal foundation for a powerful PC. It delivers awesome power, dependable performance and unparallel multiple I/O scalability for the most demanding tasks and future upgrades. The Asus Workstation Series intelligently reduces operation noise and dissipates heat through advanced and environmentally friendly methods to accommodate user needs. The motherboard will achieve outstanding and dependable performance in the role of a Personal Supercomputer when working in tangent with discrete CUDA technology - providing unprecedented return on investment. Users can count on up to 4 CUDA cards (one of them should be Quadro graphic card) that are plugged into P6T6 WS Revolution for intensive parallel computing on tons of data, which delivers nearly 4 teraflops of performance. No matter what your preference is, six PCI-E Gen2 x16 Slots gives you the sufficient I/O interfaces to fulfill your demand for graphic or computing solution. You'll be able to run both multi-GPU setups. The board features SLI/CrossFire on Demand technology, not only supporting up to three graphics cards in a 3-Way Geforce SLI or CrossFireX configuration but also supporting up to four dual-GPU graphics cards. Whichever path you take, you can be assured of jaw-dropping graphics at a level previously unseen.

- Intel Core i7 Processor Extreme Edition / Core i7 Processor / LGA1366 Intel Xeon
- Intel X58 / ICH10R
- Nvidia nForce 200
- 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 slots (at x16 or x8 mode)
- 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 slots (at x16 mode)
- 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 slots (at x8 mode)
- 1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 slot (at x4 mode)
- True 3-Way SLI
- Intel ICH10R controller:- 6 xSATA 3 Gb/s ports Intel® Matrix Storage supporting SATA RAID 0, 1, 10, and 5
- Marvell 88SE6320 SAS controller: - 2 x SAS ports supporting SAS RAID 0, 1
- Marvell 88SE6121 SATA controller: - 2 xExternal SATA 150/300 (SATA On-the-Go), supporting SATA RAID 0, 1

- EPU - 6 Engine
- True 16+2 Phase Power Design
- Turbo V
- Fan Xpert
- Express Gate
- AI Nap
- Q-Shield
- Q-Connector
- Fanless Design: Heat-pipe solution
- Fanless Design: Stack Cool 2
- My Logo 2
- CrashFree BIOS 3
- EZ Flash 2
- C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)
- SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection)
- O.C. Profile

Only £272.60 inc VAT.

ORDER NOW

King Arthur · 8 Feb 2010 at 12:32

Hi,

Thanks for your interest. While a UD7 is built for performance... its not built for use with Supercomputers in the true sense. When you are working with graphics rendering, computational mathematics or medical / stock brokering for example you need something that is very very stable and has no chance of crashing, overclocking capabilities is not key here. While the UD7 and most desktop motherboards have the performance its the chipset and scalability and supportability aspects that make them unique among other things.

Workstation boards can handle things like ECC memory, SAS hard drives and are better suited to certain types of applications. They also have expansion that normally comes only to server motherboards and can handle enterprise grade add-in cards, that some customer may require. They are also better for ISV's and come highly tested by software manufactures for use with their software.

It’s a similar argument between Quadro/ Fire GL graphic cards and mainstream Nvidia and ATI cards.

Hopefully that helps a little.

Phil

King Arthur · 8 Feb 2010 at 12:34

Skyline said:
will warn anyone that is interested in the supermicro board that it has the same issues with memory as the X8SAX Motherboard. If you populate all of the slots it will downtrain the memory to 1066Mhz regardless.

Hi Skyline,

Thanks for your comment, we are in regular touch with supermicro and have been made unaware of this issue. I will take it upon my self to investigate this with the hope that bios release has resolved the issue and will report back their answer.

Phil

King Arthur · 8 Feb 2010 at 14:17

Hi,

The below is take from an email from Supermicro UK and quoted in verbatim (i.e. its not been edited)

Supermicro said:
If the CPU supports 1333MHz memory then it is supported by the board provided you are using 3 pcs of memory or less. - This is actually as per Intel’s CPU specification and not any Supermicro limitation.

If you are using more than 3 pcs of memory then the Intel specification is to down clock the memory frequency automatically.

Having said that it is important to remember that only the highest end Core i7’s support 1333MHz memory –

For example the 960 does not -

http://ark..intel.com/Product.aspx?id=37151&processor=i7-960&spec-codes=SLBEU

Supermicro have an FAQ on this at their website -

http://64.174.237.178/support/faqs/faq.cfm?faq=8837

XMP memory is supported on the C7X58 –

http://64.174.237.178/support/faqs/faq.cfm?faq=8772

Hope this clears it up

Phil

King Arthur · 8 Feb 2010 at 15:16

k.Jacko said:
I think a few may find this helpful (?)
I need to buy/build 6 cad/rendering workstations for work.
My current quote is based on the Asus P6T x58, but nowhere near the cost of the ilk and price of those above. If i had a set budget should I pour more money into the board or the other components like cpu, quality ram and ssd?
Thanks.

Hi,

Thanks for your interest.

Firstly lets remind ourselves the motherboard is the bit that connects everything together and makes it all work. Its is a very important component and will often be the making or breaking of a good system.

The Asus P6T is a very good motherboard, but unfortunately for the wrong reason's when you’re looking at comparing to the workstation motherboard. It’s designed for mainstream desktop performance and to be a good overclocker. It’s not necessarily designed for ultimate stability or scalable I/O. Different chipset also which takes advantage of certain capabilities that exist from software manufacturers.

I have worked in the B-2-B industry for a long time and sold many workstations for into various industry sectors.

In respect to your personal requirement i would always where possible go for a workstation motherboard (see above reasons in other posts).

Depending on the CAD work your doing i.e. 2D or 3D and depending on the program you using you should certainly factor the majority of your cost into a FX series Quadro graphics card, a motherboard and a Good amount of memory. Most quad core CPU's would be fine unless you looking at doing some heavy 3D modelling in which case i would look at a top of the range i7. A SSD is less important in CAD work as it will normally load most of the model into memory and writes very little to the HDD meaning most large mechanical HDD's will be fine. Something with 32MB cache on a 500GB drive would be a good starting point.

The only time i would suggest a SSD or SAS hard drive would be when your application (not necessarily CAD this time) needs a lot of HDD access, i.e. rendering of video's.

Ideally i would like to spec you something up, but i first need to know you budget, CAD program you use and the type of CAD modelling you do.

Phil

King Arthur · 8 Feb 2010 at 16:12

Hi,

Please submit it here and then everyone can see what i come back with in comaprison to your needs.

Phil

King Arthur · 8 Feb 2010 at 16:53

Hi,

Your current workstations aren't looking very supercomputer to me

. Time to get some new ones

I completely agree that outsourcing your image rendering requirements is an expensive necessity. It wouldn't take many weeks of rendering to pay for a few of these systems.

I have sent you an email via trust with a quotation. Feel free to comment on the price back here, but for now please keep the quotation specification private as any official quotations would need to be done via the sales team.

I wont quote you on Windows 7 Ultimate because unless you want to see it in multiple lanuguages or use bit-locker it has very little use for you. You would normally need Windows 7 Professional.

Phil

King Arthur · 9 Feb 2010 at 10:28

sorted thanks.

Phil

King Arthur · 9 Feb 2010 at 10:32

k.Jacko said:
How come OCUK don't stock nvidia workstation cards? They only do ATI.

Sorry i must have missed this one.

We are looking into stocking a wider range of products to support the workstations in the short term future. So keep an eye out, among these products will most likely be quadro graphic cards.

Phil

King Arthur · 11 Feb 2010 at 08:32

Mr Chippolini said:
Are there any dual socket boards available? thanks.

We aren't carrying stock at the moment although i'm sure we can order one in upon request.

Supermicro are the only ones who do dual socket bare in mind and they are only xeons and need special memory. Asus currently dont do em.

The ones we are current stocking will support the new i7 series processors as well as xeon with normal ddr3 memory.

Phil

King Arthur · 11 Feb 2010 at 10:24

Yes pricing is quite volatile lately. I will amend the original post to reflect the new prices. The new pricing is still competitive though

so you can rest assured were still the best.

Phil

King Arthur · 11 Feb 2010 at 10:43

Its a bit of a toss up to be honest.

Asus have been in the mainstream enthusiast market for a long time and like most people have branched out into workstation motherboards.

Supermicro on the other hand have always been in the server and workstation market space. Supermicro has a bigger reputation than Asus in the workstation market space i feel, but Asus has more features and better motherboard cooling.

In the end its user preference but i know some people prefer supermicro where as others prefer Asus as they are more familiar with it.

Phil

King Arthur · 17 Feb 2010 at 12:44

Sorry, it must have been missed by the person I asked to do it for you.

Ill do it right now personally for you, should be with you in 20 minutes. It will become my priority.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Phil