[Ian]

Please leave your comments about Supermicro X7DWA-N in this thread

[stasdm]

Fast and solid server platform - so not really intended for overclocking. Though for server application I'd prefer to have 4 on-board Gigabit LAN ports.

With 2 PCIe x16 slots the x8 (more or less) UIO slot seems not to be so useful - standard PCIe port will suit as well (this board is surely not for 1-2U chassis).

May be an excellent solution for 2D graphics workstation - 28 to 60GB RAM-based scratch disk (the latter with 8GB memory modules, when they will become cheaper) will make nearly any Photoshop/Illustrator project to fly!

Not so nicely fit for 3D graphics workstation - mainly because of NVIDIA (hope, self-killing) approach, demanding the presence of only NVIDIA chips on (otherwise unused) cross-cards PCIe connection (have quite a serious suspicion that it is drivers-based limitation - might be someone will "cure" this?). Also, sticking to eATX form factor limits the (otherwise excellent) expandability of i5400 chipset. Up to 4 slots might be "organized" from the first connection for up to 4 graphics cards use - they really do not need more bandwidth (at least yet). And 3-4 slots (with x32 total connections) might be arranged for I/O expansion from the second link (surely this construction would not fit onto eATX board!).

[toddbailey]

I've been watching this board for a couple of years as I'm looking to upgrade my (super micro pdsge) media server to better handle Hi def. The problem I see with "consumer" boards such as this is the continual reduction in option slots.
8 used to be the norm but no longer.
Between my 2 raid controller cards and 2 capture card plus video, the expansion capabilities are ended.

I wish that SM and other companies would provide products for the high end user to permit future expansion.
If I had my perfect board it would contain 6 pci-x/pci combo slots & 2 pci-e x16 that support cross fire and sli.
Even though I have no need for this much graphics horse power for my needs.

Aside from this shortcoming, I'm sure that this is a strong contender in it's market space. Unfortuantely, I can't justify dropping one to two large on a board that doesn't permit future expansion as new products come available :<

For now I'm toying with a hp dl380-II server for my next upgrade cycle, (if I can fix the noise issues that is, 10 fans to silence...).
(4 dual xeon @ 2.5 ghz)

[speedorms]

thx for the 08 review... how do you rate this with newer boards with the passing months... thanx.. rich