The Intel W480 Motherboard Overview: LGA1200 For Xeon W-1200
by Gavin Bonshor on June 24, 2020 9:00 AM ESTGIGABYTE W480M Vision W
The smallest of GIGABYTE's W480 models is the W480M Vision W with its micro-ATX frame. It is identical in design to the more jumbo W480 Vision W with its black heatsinks and heavily visible traces on the PCB. The most notable features of the W480M Vision W includes dual PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots, eight SATA ports, dual Ethernet ports with one Intel 2.5 GbE Ethernet controller, and a Realtek ALC1200 HD audio codec.
Despite the smaller micro-ATX size, the GIGABYTE W480M Vision W crams in a solid feature set. Included are two full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which operate at x16, and x8/x8, with two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. For storage, there is a pair of PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots, with eight SATA ports that include support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. Memory support includes both ECC and non-ECC memory, with speeds of up to DDR4-2933 listed and a maximum capacity of up to 128 GB across four available memory slots.
On the rear panel is a good selection of input and output for a micro-ATX model, with two USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports. For users looking to use Intel's UHD integrated graphics, there's two DisplayPort 1.4, one D-Sub, and one HDMI 1.4 video output. At the same time, a PS/2 keyboard and mouse combo port allows the use of legacy peripherals. Looking at networking, there are two Ethernet ports with one port powered by an Intel 2.5 GbE Ethernet controller, while the other port is a standard Intel Gigabit port. However, GIGABYTE hasn't specified which controllers are being used. Finishing off the rear panel is five 3.5 mm audio jacks and an S/PDIF optical output which is controlled by a Realtek ALC1200 HD audio codec.
The GIGABYTE W480M Vision W is a solid alternative for users looking to use Intel's Xeon and Xeon W-1200 series processors, but need something with a smaller desktop footprint such as micro-ATX. There's plenty of features on offer including dual PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots, an Intel 2.5 GbE Ethernet controller, and eight SATA slots with full chipset support on RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. GIGABYTE hasn't unveiled pricing at this moment, but it will likely be the cheapest of the three models showcased in this overview.
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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?