Computex 2014: The ASUS Booth Tour

Motherboards and M.2

Recently at AnandTech we have attempted to diversify more into the server motherboard segment, especially in terms of compute-restricted content generation that requires significant power and/or features in order to let the user continue with their workflow.  Also as part of Computex we have been on the hunt for X99 related motherboard showings, either in the consumer or the server space.  The trip to ASUS did not disappoint, with two 2P LGA2011-3 motherboards on show:

The two models are the Z10PE-D16 and the Z10PE-D8, featuring 8 DIMMs per slot and 4 DIMMs per slot respectively.

The D10 model has 10 SATA ports in total, some of which will be earmarked for SAS 12Gbps I would imagine.  The sockets are offset due to the extra power connectors at the top, and the motherboard supports three PCIe 3.0 x16 devices.  We get server management from an Aspeed IC and USB 3.0 support via a header on board.  There are four NICs on the rear, plus another for the management, though it is unclear if two of these are 10GBase-T NICs or they are all gigabit Ethernet.

The D8 model moves the sockets closer together, reducing the DIMM slots but still keeping 10 SATA/SAS ports on board.  The rear panel loses a lot of its functionality in order to accommodate the dual slots in what looks like an E-ATX format.  M.2 is here as well, with two fill-length PCIe x16 slots and management via an Aspeed IC.  A USB 3.0 header is here also.

Also in the server motherboard line was a mini-ITX motherboard focusing on mini-SAS (cia a Marvell 88SE9485) and gigabit Ethernet ports:

This looks like an Avoton C2750/C2758 platform, similar to the C2750D4I we reviewed a little while ago.  Here we have one DIMM per channel, with all the NICs being gigabit Ethernet.  ASUS are promoting this as a high-density node for cloud storage or a micro server, will support up to SAS 64TB/SATA 96TB :

There was nothing much to mention regarding the Z97 motherboard segment, as the new models on display were the ROG ones and the rest were available from launch.

One of the interesting aspects from the ASUS booth was a way to get M.2 x4 into a system that does not have it.  Much in the same way that Kristian tested the XP941 on his regular testing motherboard, ASUS seems set to launch their own M.2 x4 PCIe adapter, named Hyper M.2 x4:

This does what it says on the tin – an M.2 x4 Gen 2/Gen 3 upgrade card.  Not sure when ASUS will release this, as M.2 x4 cards might not hit the consumer market properly until the end of the year.