The Intel W480 Motherboard Overview: LGA1200 For Xeon W-1200
by Gavin Bonshor on June 24, 2020 9:00 AM ESTChoosing The Right W480 Motherboard
The Intel W480 chipset is based on Intel's latest LGA1200 socket and is designed to support Intel's Comet Lake Xeon W-1200 processors. The Xeon W-1200 series ranges from 6 core 12 thread models, up to 10 core 20 thread models, with the highest spec processor, the Intel Xeon W-1290P, including a base frequency of 3.7 GHz, and a Thermal Velocity Boost clock speed of 5.3 GHz on a single core. This is fascinating for the entry-level workstation model, with such high clock speeds supported under a TDP of 125 W. All of Intel's Xeon W-1200 processors include an Intel HD P630 integrated graphics, and all of the W480 options currently unveiled include at least one form of video output on the rear panel.
A lot of the more premium W480 models include at least 2.5 GbE Ethernet controllers, with two of the most recently announced models including 10 GbE Ethernet. One interesting thing to note is that the vast majority of W480 models from the product stack include at least three USB 3.2 G2 ports on the rear panel, with the most premium models from the prominent four vendors including an Intel Thunderbolt 3 controller with dual Type-C connectivity on the rear panel. This is similar to some Z490 models, but with a different target market in mind.
Some of the most notable W480 models include the ASRock W480 Creator and GIGABYTE W480 Vision D, with triple PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots, dual Thunderbolt 3 Type-C connectivity, with corresponding DisplayPort video inputs to allow users to reap the benefits of Thunderbolt. Another noteworthy model is the Supermicro X12SCZ-TLN4F with dual 10 GbE T-Base Ethernet with a more conventional design associated with Intel's Xeon range, with a green PCB, more simplistic design, and an Aspeed AST2500 BMC controller with physical and remote access available to the boards IPMI.
At the time of writing, only a few of the vendors has announced its W480 pricing, some of the fancier models including the ASRock W480 Creator, ASUS Pro WS W480-Ace and GIGABYTE W480 Vision D are likely to reach the top end of the market in terms of pricing. We even have a model from the legendary company DFI, although some of the finer details including visual design, hasn't been unveiled at this time. DFI primarily caters for the embedded market.
Regardless of the feature a user is looking for, below is a list of which models include specific features worth highlighting.
| Choosing the Right W480 Motherboard | ||
| Options | Size | Price |
| 10 Gigabit Ethernet | ||
| ASRock W480 Creator | ATX | $450 |
| Supermicro X12SCZ-TLN4F | mATX | - |
| Wi-Fi 6 / 802.11ax | ||
| ASRock W480 Creator | ATX | $450 |
| GIGABYTE W480 Vision D | ATX | - |
| Three or more PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 | ||
| ASRock W480 Creator | ATX | $450 |
| GIGABYTE W480 Vision D | ATX | - |
| Eight or more SATA ports | ||
| ASRock W480 Creator | ATX | $450 |
| GIGABYTE W480 Vision W | ATX | - |
| GIGABYTE W480M Vision W | mATX | - |
| Three or more USB 3.2 G2 (Rear Panel) | ||
| ASRock W480 Creator | ATX | $450 |
| ASUS Pro WS W480-Ace | ATX | $280 |
| GIGABYTE W480 Vision D | ATX | - |
| Supermicro X12SCZ-TLN4F | mATX | - |
| Supermicro X12SCZ-F | mATX | - |
| Supermicro X12SAE | ATX | - |
| Thunderbolt 3 | ||
| ASRock W480 Creator | ATX | $450 |
| ASUS Pro WS W480-Ace | ATX | $280 |
| GIGABYTE W480 Vision D | ATX | - |
As and when more Intel W480 models are announced and unveiled, we will endeavour to keep this overview updated, especially when more details emerge in regards to the pricing.
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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?