help with socket 775/iommu=workaround_bios_bug

[mossiemosforth]

hi guys, hoping someone can help me here.

 

firstly i currently have a socket 775 asus p5q, great board but im in need of passing through some hardware to a vm and it lacks vt-d, even though my x9650 cpu does.

 

therefore im on the hunt for a new board. if i stick with my current ram (ddr2) i have found both the dq35jo and the dq45cb, both support vt-d and would sort of fit purpose. however they are both micro-atx boards, lacking too much expansion.

 

second to those i have found the dx38bt, a 775 atx board that takes ddr3 (even ecc! i have 4x2gb sticks lying around) but intel's site states it doesnt support vt-d. on that note it is listed in the xen wiki here - http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/VTd_HowTo as vt-d capable providing you have the right bios and iommu=workaround_bios_bug. does anyone know what this means??

 

does anyone have any experience with any of these, or even any other boards that would fit my requirements?

[doorunrun]

I've been testing V6+Xen with a DQ45CB and 8GB memory. Using KVM, I was able to pass through a SATA controller card plugged into the PCIe 16 socket without much trouble. But didn't have any luck with on-board devices except USB.

 

I'm not a big proponent of pass-thru; I verified it with Xen on Arch but not with unRAID,

 

Overall the board works for me!

[BobPhoenix]

Another alternative is the SuperMicro X7SBE with 2.0 bios.  It is currently running my 6.0B4 unRAID with a WHS2011 VM and 3 passed through devices (M1015, USB 3.0, 2nd Onboard nic).

[mossiemosforth]

Another alternative is the SuperMicro X7SBE with 2.0 bios.  It is currently running my 6.0B4 unRAID with a WHS2011 VM and 3 passed through devices (M1015, USB 3.0, 2nd Onboard nic).

 

Now that looks like a nice board. Found a few on eBay but they are US sellers and I'm in the UK. To get one locally would cost a fortune and I'm not sure I trust shipping across the pond. Hmmmm decisions

 

 

Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk

 

 

[BobPhoenix]

Another alternative is the SuperMicro X7SBE with 2.0 bios.  It is currently running my 6.0B4 unRAID with a WHS2011 VM and 3 passed through devices (M1015, USB 3.0, 2nd Onboard nic).

 

Now that looks like a nice board. Found a few on eBay but they are US sellers and I'm in the UK. To get one locally would cost a fortune and I'm not sure I trust shipping across the pond. Hmmmm decisions

 

 

Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk

Not that it will help you any but the X7SBE is still available from Newegg here in US.

[prostuff1]

I use the SUPERMICRO MBD-C2SBC-Q-O in my ESXi build.

 

My full build can be seen here: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=17911.0