September 11, 201510 yr I'm definitely not an expert either, but some of the things that define "server grade" for me are: Chipset CPU Support Support for ECC RAM Number of LAN adaptors and vendor (for instance Intel over Realtek) Number of memory slots Number of x16 slots with support for SATA controllers Number of SATA ports Support functions like IPMI Virtualization support - vt-x and vt-d Number of fan headers Internal USB support All that said, the chipset, CPU Support, and support for ECC RAM are probably the key things to me that set a server class motherboard apart - the rest are features you can pick and choose from. As it turns out, both the Haswell Core i3 and some Pentium and Atom models support ECC RAM so there are some less expensive options to achieve a server grade system than going with a Xeon, if you don't need the horsepower and virtualization support it provides. By the way, your server grade box had 16GB of RAM, and your Z97 box had 8GB of RAM. Whether ECC or standard dual channel, just buy as much as you need - there's no need to stuff the box.
September 12, 201510 yr Author I'm definitely not an expert either, but some of the things that define "server grade" for me are: Chipset CPU Support Support for ECC RAM Number of LAN adaptors and vendor (for instance Intel over Realtek) Number of memory slots Number of x16 slots with support for SATA controllers Number of SATA ports Support functions like IPMI Virtualization support - vt-x and vt-d Number of fan headers Internal USB support All that said, the chipset, CPU Support, and support for ECC RAM are probably the key things to me that set a server class motherboard apart - the rest are features you can pick and choose from. As it turns out, both the Haswell Core i3 and some Pentium and Atom models support ECC RAM so there are some less expensive options to achieve a server grade system than going with a Xeon, if you don't need the horsepower and virtualization support it provides. By the way, your server grade box had 16GB of RAM, and your Z97 box had 8GB of RAM. Whether ECC or standard dual channel, just buy as much as you need - there's no need to stuff the box. 8GB was all i intended, linked to the wrong item. Thanks for the notes, i'm studying some more options before buying... its one of those things i'll keep looking, studying, educating on until one day I just get impulsive and jump on
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