Comments on: Four New ASUS Intel Xeon E-2300 Series Motherboards

By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 11:48:41 +0000

About the Intel HDA audio support: I just needed to look further in the fine manual (which at 156 pages is better and more detailed than many other mainboard manauls)! In the P12R-E manual, appendix A-2 “P12R-E Series block diagram” shows the connection for ALC888PCH. Looks to me like my Asus ALC888 MIO audio card should work in one of the PCIe x8 slots on the PCH (slots 1 or 2). Probably the newer ALC892 would also work. So, the P12R-E might be a good upgrade from the P7F-E! The ALC888 is still a good little card, enough for my needs (it has coaxial S/PDIF that is getting hard to find, and I use it). The LSI SAS 9300 with this board still looks like a good choice also. I’ll have to keep considering this board, compared to the ASUS WS C422 (its manual is only 44 pages, so it seems harder to know all of its features for sure).

By: Bob

Bob — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 07:13:40 +0000

I use an Asus P7F-E. It is old now. I’ve been looking at these boards ever since, in case I need to upgrade/repair. There has been the P8, P9, P10, P11, and now this P12. The P7F-E is still working for me very well with 8GB of RDIMM, PIKE-slot LSISAS1068E add-on, and the Asus MIO/PCIe-x1 slot ALC888 audio card. These add-ons were a good value/cheap.

To use the P12R-E, I cannot re-use the PIKE-slot card. Also, I do not see any MIO slot on the P12R-E, so I probably cannot re-use the ALC888 MIO card. I’d have to buy a new SAS HBA, like the PIKE II 3008-8i or some other similar HBA (maybe LSI SAS 9300) and some kind of a new audio card. This makes the P12 more expensive and more difficult than the P7F-E, which was sold an server/workstation board (not pure server).

The P12R-E BIOS has options for Intel HD-Audio [enable/disable]. Does this actually mean that the ALC888 MIO card could still be used in the bottom PCIe slot on the PCH? How do I use the HD-Audio feature in the BIOS? Well, too bad the P12R-E does not have the MIO slot (unless the bottom slot can take an MIO card).

The old P7F-E can take RDIMMs, but the new boards only take UDIMM. So, it is a step backwards. The P7F-E has been extremely reliable in 24/7 operation for 12 years and running. I would like to upgrade to the newest board in the P series someday, if the board has the features I am wanting. I also need 8 SATA for a raid6, plus an extra 4 would be nice for a DVD/Bluray and some spare disks.

I’ve looked at the ASUS WS C422 as an alternative. I’ll have to keep watching what new boards come out later, and probably skip everything for now.

By: Eric

Eric — Sun, 17 Oct 2021 17:49:44 +0000

Anyone have an idea when these boards will be commercially available?

By: Sleepy

Sleepy — Sat, 11 Sep 2021 20:29:19 +0000

I noticed an Aspeed BMC in 1 picture, but I also saw a comment about the ASUS iKVM (optional).

Does that mean you buy the board then you buy a license or some sort of add-on to make the ASUS iKVM work?

I still like the Supermicro approach to KVM – it works right out of the box, immediately. You only need a license key if you plan to use KVM to update the BIOS remotely. I know in past articles that Patrick Kennedy has pointed out the value of the Supermicro KVM approach (it just works!) over that used by ASUS (pay up dude!).

By: emerth

emerth — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 00:40:46 +0000

These look good. May be time to update my S2011v3 home server.

By: Vidmo

Vidmo — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 00:38:21 +0000

These are far more compelling than the SM Xeon E-2300 Series MBs. As already said due to the networking.