UnRAID on Asus Pro WS W680-ACE IPMI

[venicenerd]

2 hours ago, eicar said:

Maybe for space reasons? You'd need an additional PCIe slot for optional IPMI.

 

fyi: there's an industrial variant of this board (available? in the making?), the R680EA-IM-A:

https://www.asus.com/networking-iot-servers/aiot-industrial-solutions/industrial-motherboards/r680ea-im-a/

datasheet incl. block diagram: https://www.asus.com/Websites/global/products/e8zjxlzraxczv2lr/pdf/wot1ujdkz9kusqdy.pdf

It has the R680E chipset, which is the embedded version of the W680, i.e. the same number of PCIe lanes on the PCH (12 x 4.0 + 16 x 3.0) in addition to the CPU lanes with 16 x 5.0 + 4 x 4.0. Same DMI (4.0 x8).

Main difference: 7 SATA ports, i.e. no MiniSAS. SATA port #8 is missing, because you can use the CPU-direct gen4 M.2 slot in SATA mode via the R680E and an ASM2480B.

There are no gen4 M.2 slots via the PCH, but that's why you get three x4 PCIe slots in addition to the two gen5 CPU-direct slots (x16/NA or x8/x8): two PCIe 4.0 x4 open slots and one PCIe 3.0 x4 open slot, plus two legacy 32-bit PCI slots coming from a single lane of PCIe 3.0.

Pretty nice, I think.

 
Ohhhh!!! So how would one got about adding another M2 slot or two if needed? Would that be possible via some sort of extension card in one of the PCI 4 slots? Would it still be fast?

 

Im really bad at reading block diagrams. Would you be able to tell from the diagram if all of the PCI slots and the M2 SSD slot would be getting their own IOMMU groups? Or are some of them grouped together? (Or does a block diagram not even tell you this?)

[eicar]

It is a bit complicated.

 

You definitely have the direct-CPU gen4 M.2 slot. If you use that on the R680EA-IM-A, you lose one SATA, but get the gen4 M.2 SSD.

Similarly, for additional M.2 PCIe SSDs, I would start with the CPU-direct option, i.e. leave the PCH alone at first. Let's say you have one gen3 or gen4 x8 NIC in slot #1, then you can still add a tri-mode x8 HBA in the second CPU-direct PCIe slot, e.g. the Broadcom HBA 9500-16i for four x4 lanes, if you want four gen3 M.2 SSDs at full speed, or the Broadcom HBA 9500-8i, if you want two gen4 at full speed. However, you would need a cage with backplane for the M.2 SSDs, and adapter cables: 8i SlimSAS to dual 4i OCuLink or SlimSAS (depending on the cage).

Another option for the CPU-direct slot, where you don't need a cage and cabling, is a PCIe 4.0 x8 carrier card with a PEX/PCX for bifurcation from PCIe 4.0 x8 to dual gen4 x4 or quad gen4 x2 or quad gen3 x4, e.g. one of the Rocket cards by HighPoint. You can, of course, always use a quad M.2 x16 card, but only use two of its M.2 slots for full speed. (I don't know if there are already any PCIe 5.0 x8 or x16 products on the market.)

Once you go for the PCIe slots that are routed via the PCH, you can use simple carrier cards: PCIe 4.0 x4 cards for single gen4 M.2 SSDs, or PCIe 3.0/4.0 x4 cards for single gen3 M.2 SSDs.

Maybe there are PCIe 4.0 x4 dual M.2 carrier cards with bifurcation, so you can install two discrete gen3 M.2 SSDs in one PCIe 4.0 x4 slot. But I don't know if these exist. If they do, you could use the R680EA-IM-A to build an all-M.2-SSD server with ten (!) gen3 M.2 SSDs. (Or with 5 gen4 M.2 SSDs.) Which is insane tbh.

However, you should always note that the PCH is connected to the CPU with a DMI that can "only" handle throughput corresponding to 8 lanes of PCIe 4.0, so the DMI would be saturated already with two gen4 or four gen3 M.2 SSDs, if you use the chipset's PCIe lanes. That's why I would start with the CPU-direct PCIe lanes, if you want to upgrade the server with M.2. Personally, I would go with a Broadcom tri-mode HBA and an M.2 cage, because you can always repurpose the HBA later, e.g for SATA.

[venicenerd]

Interesting! And how about the IOMMU groups on this board? Can you decipher any information for them from the block diagram? 

[eicar]

Sorry, can't say. 🤷‍♂️

[Zerax]

Hello everyone,

 

I'm considering purchasing the Asus Pro WS W680-ACE motherboard for my upcoming build, and I wanted to gather some information regarding its onboard Ethernet controller. I've heard there have been some issues reported with Intel Ethernet i226-V, which is commonly used on motherboards. 

 

Can anyone confirm which Ethernet controller is integrated into the Asus Pro WS W680-ACE motherboard? I'd like to know if it uses the Intel Ethernet i226-V or a different controller. Additionally, if anyone has experience with this motherboard, could you please share whether you've encountered any problems with the Ethernet connection? I'm particularly interested in learning if there have been any connection drop issues or if everything has been running smoothly.

 

Your insights and feedback would be greatly appreciated, as they will help me make an informed decision about my motherboard purchase. Thank you in advance for your assistance!

[Daniel15]

5 hours ago, Roger Jemterud said:

Can anyone confirm which Ethernet controller is integrated into the Asus Pro WS W680-ACE motherboard?

 

It uses the I226-LM. I don't know what the difference is between the -V and the -LM. 

It's pretty hard to avoid Intel for onboard NICs. If you don't get an Intel one, you generally get a Realtek one, which are even worse.

 

My desktop PC has the dreaded I225-V and I haven't actually experienced many issues with it. I can get the full 2.5Gbps speed in both directions (after a driver update - it only hit 800Mbps before), and it's never crashed or locked up the PC.

Edited October 5, 2023 by Daniel15

[Zerax]

12 hours ago, Daniel15 said:

 

It uses the I226-LM. I don't know what the difference is between the -V and the -LM.

 

I did some digging and found that the main difference between I226-LM and I226-V is that the I226-LM supports Intel vPro® for windows and Intel® SIPP, 802.1AS-rev, and Time Sensitive Networking in Linux while the I226-V does not. 

 

Source:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000096004/ethernet-products/gigabit-ethernet-controllers-up-to-2-5gbe.html

Edited October 6, 2023 by Roger Jemterud

[Omid]

On 9/19/2023 at 12:01 AM, JimmyGerms said:

@Omid take a look at this PDF for a password reset within windows or linux. Section is called "How to Reset the IPMI expansion card login password"

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/Add-on_card/IPMI_EXPANSION_CARD/IPMI_Expansion_Card_FAQ_EN.pdf?model=IPMI EXPANSION CARD

On 9/3/2023 at 7:24 PM, Daniel15 said:

If you're having trouble logging into the IPMI (e.g. it says the password is wrong), ipmitool or ipmicfg can reset the password

 

Thank you @JimmyGerms@Daniel15 -- I'll give this a try!🙏

[Omid]

Could anyone advise which cables are mandatory to correctly install the IPMI card onto this motherboard?

 

I'm drowning in a mix of correct and incorrect guides/manuals. I only have a printed "Quick Start Guide", identical to this PDF, unless I've lost some of the paperwork 😕. It mentions/shows T-sensor cables, a PMBus connector and a PCIe power connector, but fails to mention what is required and what is optional.

• T-Sensor: am I right in assuming these are optional and the cables aren't provided?
• PMBus: am I right in assuming this is optional and the cable isn't provided? I have the Corsair HX1000i which has a USB Type-C cable plug straight into a USB header on the motherboard (and I can pick it up with the Unraid plugin 👌. I'm happy with that, since I don't care about monitoring power consumption when the server is powered off. I'm guessing I would need some sort of USB header to PMBus adapter if I wanted to plug it into the IPMI card instead, or switch to a PSU which supports PMBus? But then I wouldn't be able to see the data with the Unraid plugin(?).
• PCIe power: am I right in assuming this is optional and only required if I'm wiring up all the fans to the IPMI card (not sure why)

Aside from the Quick Start Guide mentioned above, I've tried to get answers from other guides and manuals available online, but none seem to refer to the same model of card that I have (although same chipset).

 

• User Guide - for "E19387 First Edition February 2022". Diagram on Page 12 (Section 1.4) resembles my card but Quick Start shows "E21362 Revised Edition V2 October 2022". I'd love the complete user guide for my specific card but, until then, I'm blindly assuming this user guide is accurate enough for my card and not for the other one which seems to be available as a standalone SKU/purchase 👇
• Quick Start for a newer model - for "E21524 / Revised Edition V2 / March 2023". Diagram clearly shows a different card

Am I okay installing it ONLY with the following cables and nothing else, as per the image which follows? I don't care about temp probes or using the card as a fan controller.

• PWR & RST front I/O cables
• BMC HEADER
• USB HEADER

 

Thanks!

 

Edited October 7, 2023 by Omid

[Daniel15]

2 hours ago, Omid said:

PCIe power: am I right in assuming this is optional and only required if I'm wiring up all the fans to the IPMI card (not sure why)

AFAIK it's because the PCIe x1 bus doesn't provide sufficient power for the BMC plus all the fans.

 

The only PSUs I know of that support PMBus are server PSUs (for rackmount servers) and some very old Corsair PSUs before they switched to using USB instead (they used to provide a PMBus to USB cable rather than it just being USB on both ends).

 

I've got the MicroATX version that has IPMI built in, so I can't comment on the cables unfortunately.

 

Edited October 7, 2023 by Daniel15

[Omid]

Thanks for the reply, @Daniel15. I won't plug in a PCIe power cable, since I'm not connecting any fans to the card.

 

I'm having a horrible time getting this card installed again. The system won't POST or show anything on screen with it installed. Q Code LED cycles through 00 -> 12 > 7F 🤷‍♂️ I've tried clearing CMOS.

 

I've opted to put in into the bottom PCIe slot because installing it into the top slot makes it too close to my Noctua NH-D15 to the point that some of the soldered tips on the PCB are touching the cooler's conductive fins, which is a short waiting to happen (if not today, some time in the future when gravity closes in on the nanometre gap).

 

Hmmm, now I'm thinking it might not be POSTing because of the absent PCIe power cable 🤔

 

Will report back...

Edited October 7, 2023 by Omid

[Omid]

RESOLVED 👍

1 hour ago, Omid said:

I'm having a horrible time getting this card installed again. The system won't POST or show anything on screen with it installed. Q Code LED cycles through 00 -> 12 > 7F 🤷‍♂️ I've tried clearing CMOS.

 

I removed my storage card in addition to the IPMI card and reinstalled them both. Everything booted up fine the first time (albeit 4 auto power cycles - training?). It's possible I switched around the PWR and RST cables this time due to not being able to work out the orientation of the Lian Li case's wires.

 

Now I'm back to a few months ago, where I can reach the iKVM UI but can't login with admin:admin 🤣 I've installed `ipmitool-1.8.18-x86_64-1_SBo.txz` via NerdTools and can use the command but I get:

 

root@unraid:~# ipmitool
Could not open device at /dev/ipmi0 or /dev/ipmi/0 or /dev/ipmidev/0: No such file or directory

 

When checking `/dev`, I can't see anything related to `ipmi`.

 

When checking Unraid's System Devices page, I can see the following in the list with an unchecked checkbox:

[1a03:2402] 0b:01.0 IPMI Interface: ASPEED Technology, Inc. Device 2402 (rev 01)

 

EDIT: I also had to install the IPMI plugin for unraid and ipmitool to see the card. I assume that plugin adds the necessary drivers

Edited October 7, 2023 by Omid

[njzy]

On 8/30/2023 at 5:40 AM, Daniel15 said:

I just purchased the MicroATX version of this board: The Asus Pro WS W680M-ACE SE. Bought it directly from Asus since stores don't have it in stock yet (it was only launched a few weeks ago), and it arrived within a few days. It's very similar to the full-size ATX version but only has two M.2 slots and three PCIe slots (one 5.0 x16, one 4.0 x4 and one 3.0 x1). It also has the IPMI/BMC directly onboard rather than using a separate card.

 

Haven't tried it with Unraid yet - will likely set it up over the weekend.

 

As far as I know, the only RAM that supports multi-bit ECC at the moment is buffered memory, whereas this motherboard only takes unbuffered. "Proper" expensive enterprise servers almost always use buffered RAM, so unbuffered ECC RAM has a much smaller market.

 

I bought 2 x 32GB Kingston KSM48E40BD8KM-32HM DDR5 ECC since it's one of the only models that's listed in the compatibility list for this motherboard, and I could get them for $100 each with an employee discount at one of the suppliers we use at work. It's only single-bit ECC though.

I have also purchased the same motherboard as you. I bought this motherboard mainly for its IPMI functionality, so I would like to ask you if the IPMI feature of this motherboard is complete. Can I use it to modify the BIOS and reinstall the system through the web interface? Could you provide some screenshots of the IPMI-related features?

 

[Omid]

PSA: There is a very new BIOS update available (2802) for these motherboards. Links to download pages below:

• Pro WS W680 ACE IPMI (ATX, PCIe IPMI card)
• Pro WS W680M ACE SE (mATX, integrated IPMI)

I just jumped from 2305 to 2802 (released 2023/10/06, just 2 days ago) -- the first 26+ hours have been fine and stable.

 

Also, ICYMI: the page also includes BMC Firmware releases (2023/08/04) for both motherboards, although they don't seem to share versions. I actually just tried to upgrade from 1.0.12 to 1.1.33 but was unsuccessful. The file was accepted via the upload form, the device restarted and presented its login page after a couple of minutes, but everything still shows it's on 1.0.12.

 

For anyone interested, here are the only BIOS settings I've changed for my server (i7-13700K, 64 GB DDR5 ECC, ~15 containers)

• Ai Tweaker > Asus Performance Enhancement 3.0 > Disabled (from Enabled)
  • I value stability over any OC/changing of limits
• Boot > Boot Logo Display > Disabled (from Auto)
  • Personal preference for a server
• Boot > Fast Boot > Disabled (from Enabled)
  • For compatibility with unRAID
• Advanced > System Agent (SA) Configuration > Graphics Configuration > Primary Display > PCIe (from Auto)
  • See this post and the few following it. I only have an iGPU, no discrete GPU
• Advanced > Onboard Devices Configuration > Q-Code LED Function > Auto (from POST Code)
  • Why not? Useful for when you need to troubleshoot
• Advanced > Onboard Devices Configuration > Bluetooth and WiFi > Disabled (from Enabled)
  • Neither are available on this board anyway
• Advanced > Onboard Devices Configuration > SlimSAS Configuration > SATA (from PCIE)
  • Only if you're using the SlimSAS connector (or plan to)
• Tools > Armory Crate > Disabled (from Enabled)
  • lol
• IPMI > In-band driver type > Linux (from Windows)

Edited October 8, 2023 by Omid

[Omid]

6 hours ago, smokeless-grind5220 said:

I would like to ask you if the IPMI feature of this motherboard is complete. Can I use it to modify the BIOS and reinstall the system through the web interface? Could you provide some screenshots of the IPMI-related features?

 

@smokeless-grind5220 I have the ATX version, but I assume the IPMI functionality is very similar, if not the same. I'm sharing a lot of screenshots below for you. Please note that I do not have any fans. temperature sensors or PSU connected to the IPMI card; only the BMC and USB headers are attached. I need to see if I can supress all of these events, warnings and alerts. It would be ideal if I could completely disable the monitoring/sensors.

 

Are the features "complete"? -- I would say "no". it's about what you would normally expect with these types of products. The UI/UX is equivalent to something I'd throw together during a weekend to test some new frontend framework or for some hackathon project of some sort 🤣

 

With all that said, it works! More feedback and comments below...

 

 

 

 

This page seems useless. Just templated text/fields. Nothing can be clicked.

 

 

 

 

H5Viewer takes you into a separate tab where you can fully access and interact with the system:

 

The Remote Control page has one button to reach the Remote Media page:

 

 

 

 

Clicking on "BIOS" on the top right (header of every page) opens a new tab which ALMOST mirrors the actual BIOS:

 

 

Most sections that are nested more than 2 or 3 pages deep seem to always return blank, so I wouldn't rely on this as a way to reliably and accurately make BIOS changes

 

I think this might possibly maybe be the only page and setting I would ever potentially change using this tool...maybe 🙃

 

There are some pages and settings missing. For example, the entire "Ai Tweaker" tab/menu is missing

 

 

I hope this helps!

 

Edited October 8, 2023 by Omid

[njzy]

1 hour ago, Omid said:

 

@smokeless-grind5220 I have the ATX version, but I assume the IPMI functionality is very similar, if not the same. I'm sharing a lot of screenshots below for you. Please note that I do not have any fans. temperature sensors or PSU connected to the IPMI card; only the BMC and USB headers are attached. I need to see if I can supress all of these events, warnings and alerts. It would be ideal if I could completely disable the monitoring/sensors.

 

Are the features "complete"? -- I would say "no". it's about what you would normally expect with these types of products. The UI/UX is equivalent to something I'd throw together during a weekend to test some new frontend framework or for some hackathon project of some sort 🤣

 

With all that said, it works! More feedback and comments below...

 

 

 

 

This page seems useless. Just templated text/fields. Nothing can be clicked.

 

 

 

 

H5Viewer takes you into a separate tab where you can fully access and interact with the system:

 

The Remote Control page has one button to reach the Remote Media page:

 

 

 

 

Clicking on "BIOS" on the top right (header of every page) opens a new tab which ALMOST mirrors the actual BIOS:

 

 

Most sections that are nested more than 2 or 3 pages deep seem to always return blank, so I wouldn't rely on this as a way to reliably and accurately make BIOS changes

 

I think this might possibly maybe be the only page and setting I would ever potentially change using this tool...maybe 🙃

 

There are some pages and settings missing. For example, the entire "Ai Tweaker" tab/menu is missing

 

 

I hope this helps!

 

Thank you very much for providing these screenshots. They seem to meet my expectations. Can I also enter the BIOS settings directly from H5Viewer by booting up and sending shortcut keys?

[Daniel15]

19 minutes ago, smokeless-grind5220 said:

Can I also enter the BIOS settings directly from H5Viewer by booting up and sending shortcut keys?

Yes, this works fine. I don't actually know which key enters the BIOS so I just mash escape, delete and F1... It's one of those lol

 

1 hour ago, Omid said:

Clicking on "BIOS" on the top right (header of every page) opens a new tab which ALMOST mirrors the actual BIOS:

Interesting... Mine doesn't show anything in the BIOS section of the web UI. I wonder if I needs a BIOS update or something, or if this is a difference between the MicroATX and the regular ATX.

 

One thing missing from the screenshots above is that the web UI lets you change the fan speeds, either by selecting a preset (like silent, turbo, normal) or configuring your own fan curve.

[Omid]

1 hour ago, smokeless-grind5220 said:

Can I also enter the BIOS settings directly from H5Viewer by booting up and sending shortcut keys?

@smokeless-grind5220 Yes and that's how I'd recommend making any BIOS changes remotely. This web version is very basic. I wouldn't use it for anything more than a read-only tool to check effective values. A lot of the popular settings are on pages that aren't even reachable (because of the empty page bug).

 

50 minutes ago, Daniel15 said:

Mine doesn't show anything in the BIOS section of the web UI. I wonder if I needs a BIOS update or something, or if this is a difference between the MicroATX and the regular ATX

@Daniel15 It could be, yeah, although I'd expect the BIOS changelog/release notes to mention that. What version is your BMC Firmware? Honestly, you're not missing much with this BIOS feature. I can't see myself ever having the confidence in using it.

[Omid]

Has anyone here paired this motherboard with a SAS HBA card?

Is 9207-8i still an appropriate go-to for these newer motherboards? Any performance/bandwidth bottlenecks with putting 8 HDDs through it via 2 SFF-8087 cables?

[Daniel15]

1 hour ago, Omid said:

Is 9207-8i still an appropriate go-to for these newer motherboards?

 

I've never used SAS or a HBA card but to me this seems like it'd be fine. The two PCIe 5.0 x16 slots are connected directly to the CPU so I'd place the card in one of those slots.

 

The other PCIe slots — 2 x PCIe 3.0 x16 and 1 x PCIe 3.0 x1 — go via the chipset, which is connected to the motherboard by a DMI 4.0 x8 connection. This has the same bandwidth as PCIe 4.0 x8, which is 15.754 GB/s, shared between all chipset connections: Other PCIe slots, second and third M.2 slots, onboard 4x SATA, onboard SlimSAS. This is fine for most use cases (you'll rarely if ever concurrently use every single device at its maximum speed), but I'd still put the highest bandwidth PCIe devices in the CPU-attached slots.

Edited October 10, 2023 by Daniel15

[njzy]

After update bmc and bios version, i can't visit bios setting page from ikvm, i don't know the password(it is not the ikvm password), eveny body know how the password or how to reset?

[casperse]

On 6/23/2023 at 1:04 AM, Omid said:

So, I've finally reached some challenges with this motherboard. Well, more specifically, its IPMI card which doesn't seem to be documented too well. For starters, the full manual (only available online) says that the box should contain an SPI cable and a TPM adapter; neither of which I appear to have. This is also inconsistent with the list of accessories the Quick Start guide mentions, which doesn't include those two items. But never mind, it doesn't seem like those are mandatory.

 

It would be great if anyone who purchased this motherboard (the IPMI variant) could confirm what cables they received in the box.

 

The BIOS detects and shows some details from the IPMI card, so it appears to be functioning fine. My issue now is that I can open the web interface, but it's not accepting the default credentials (admin:admin). I can't find a way to change/reset the password via the BIOS or via something like a jumper. Some results online for older versions suggest flashing the card or potentially running some commands to do it, but I'd need to boot into something and I'd rather do that before moving Unraid into this build.

 

I'm wondering if anyone can confirm what their default credentials were. I've already tried many variations with CAPS, the full administrator word, etc.

Thanks!

Are you happy with this MB? and the IPMI?
Does the IPMI card utilize obe of the PCI-E slots or is there a special slot for the IPMI card on the MB?

 

UPDATE: It looks like the IPMI takes up the last PCI-E slot?

 

Edited October 26, 2023 by casperse

[casperse]

So you finally find a MB with 4 different PCI slots and you have to use the last one at the bottum for the IPMI?

The screenshots of the webUI to change Bios settings look very lacking.

Reading the entire post it seem like a Raspberry solution would be better? keeping all slots for expansion cards?
https://pikvm.org/ 

 

[Daniel15]

7 hours ago, casperse said:

Reading the entire post it seem like a Raspberry solution would be better? keeping all slots for expansion cards?
https://pikvm.org/ 

 

 

This only gives you KVM features - IPMI has more features than that, such as being able to read sensors, control fan speed, remotely mount USB devices and ISOs over the network when using KVM, maintain the system through a desktop app on another system (useful if you have a lot of servers), etc.

 

The prebuilt PiKVM is over half the cost of the motherboard, too.

 

If you need a lot of PCIe slots plus IPMI then you might want to consider looking at server motherboards (like Supermicro).

 

7 hours ago, casperse said:

The screenshots of the webUI to change Bios settings look very lacking.

Reading the entire post it seem

You can reboot into the BIOS and get the full regular BIOS.

Edited October 29, 2023 by Daniel15

[Omid]

On 10/17/2023 at 7:29 PM, njzy said:

After update bmc and bios version, i can't visit bios setting page from ikvm, i don't know the password(it is not the ikvm password), eveny body know how the password or how to reset?

 

That's very strange. My attempt to update the BMC firmware was unsuccessful (from 1.0.12 to 1.1.33), so I can't really comment. I use the same credentials to access these BIOS pages. I will point out that the page header in your screenshot looks different to mine.

 

 

On 10/24/2023 at 8:34 AM, casperse said:

Are you happy with this MB? and the IPMI?
Does the IPMI card utilize obe of the PCI-E slots or is there a special slot for the IPMI card on the MB?

 

UPDATE: It looks like the IPMI takes up the last PCI-E slot?

 

Overall, I'm very happy with this motherboard. I personally find the number of M.2, PCIe slots and SATA/SAS ports perfect for my Unraid use case. I don't believe there's any bifurcation either; if there is, I've not come across it yet with my configuration. I'm less impressed by the IPMI functionality, but, coming from Supermicro's integrated IPMI, I've decided that they all generally suck (unless you're using some enterprise-grade IPMI such as Dell's DRAC or HPE's iLO).

 

I'm not sure where you got that picture from, but the IPMI expansion card is only PCI 3.0 x1 and the very first slot on the motherboard is also PCI 3.0 x1 (look directly below the CMOS battery). That makes it the most ideal slot for the IPMI expansion, as long as you have enough clearance from your cooler. That's unfortunately not the case for me:

On 10/7/2023 at 8:15 PM, Omid said:

I've opted to put in into the bottom PCIe slot because installing it into the top slot makes it too close to my Noctua NH-D15 to the point that some of the soldered tips on the PCB are touching the cooler's conductive fins, which is a short waiting to happen (if not today, some time in the future when gravity closes in on the nanometre gap).

 

 

 

On 10/29/2023 at 9:28 AM, casperse said:

So you finally find a MB with 4 different PCI slots and you have to use the last one at the bottum for the IPMI?

The screenshots of the webUI to change Bios settings look very lacking.

Reading the entire post it seem like a Raspberry solution would be better? keeping all slots for expansion cards?
https://pikvm.org/ 

 

Hmmm, no, not necessarily. +1 to all of @Daniel15's points