Notes about Asus WS C246 PRO


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Upgrading my 2011 system I wanted to move to iGPU encode and decode for Plex. Also I wanted to get the latest chipset / cpu that’s for servers but not really a need for a Xeon cpu. Choice fell to the c246 chipset and that narrowed the boards down to Supermicro X11SCZ-F or the Asus WS C246 PRO. I really wanted a IPMI board since the board I’m replacing has IPMI. Reading about issues with IPMI and iGPU at the same time I dropped that requirement.

 

Speaking for the Asus board seemed to be the ability to use more lanes to the PCI slots by turning off 4 SATA ports and not having the SM fan controller. Since I have the x-case 420 PRO case it has an issue with the SM fan controller and the built-in fan controller in the case. Thus I choose the Asus board.

 

Specs:

Intel Core i7-8700K

Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 32GB (CMK32GX4M2A2666C16)

X-Case 420 PRO

2 IBM M1015 IT mode

3 SSD for cache

17 HDD

 

The board booted without a extra graphics card present both with the shipped bios and the latest bios version 0802. Both M1015 cards works too in slot 1 and 2, this seems important since the cards do not like 4x slots.

Unraid (6.6) does not find the fancontroller without adding modprobe -v nct6775 to the GO file. Adding that row and FAN1-7 can be controlled independently ( I think). Also iGPU enconding works like a charm.

 

IOMMU group 0:                [8086:3ec2] 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 8th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 07)

IOMMU group 1:                [8086:1901] 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor PCIe Controller (x16) (rev 07)

[8086:1905] 00:01.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor PCIe Controller (x8) (rev 07)

[1000:0072] 01:00.0 Serial Attached SCSI controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic SAS2008 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2 [Falcon] (rev 03)

[1000:0072] 02:00.0 Serial Attached SCSI controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic SAS2008 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2 [Falcon] (rev 03)

IOMMU group 2:                [8086:3e92] 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation UHD Graphics 630 (Desktop)

IOMMU group 3:                [8086:a36d] 00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH USB 3.1 xHCI Host Controller (rev 10)

[8086:a36f] 00:14.2 RAM memory: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH Shared SRAM (rev 10)

IOMMU group 4:                [8086:a360] 00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH HECI Controller (rev 10)

IOMMU group 5:                [8086:a352] 00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH SATA AHCI Controller (rev 10)

IOMMU group 6:                [8086:a340] 00:1b.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH PCI Express Root Port #17 (rev f0)

IOMMU group 7:                [8086:a338] 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev f0)

IOMMU group 8:                [8086:a330] 00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH PCI Express Root Port #9 (rev f0)

IOMMU group 9:                [8086:a332] 00:1d.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH PCI Express Root Port #11 (rev f0)

IOMMU group 10:              [8086:a309] 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Device a309 (rev 10)

[8086:a323] 00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH SMBus Controller (rev 10)

[8086:a324] 00:1f.5 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH SPI Controller (rev 10)

[8086:15bb] 00:1f.6 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection (7) I219-LM (rev 10)

IOMMU group 11:              [8086:1533] 06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation I210 Gigabit Network Connection (rev 03) 

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  • 2 months later...
On 3/4/2019 at 9:48 PM, Output said:

Upgrading my 2011 system I wanted to move to iGPU encode and decode for Plex. Also I wanted to get the latest chipset / cpu that’s for servers but not really a need for a Xeon cpu. Choice fell to the c246 chipset and that narrowed the boards down to Supermicro X11SCZ-F or the Asus WS C246 PRO. I really wanted a IPMI board since the board I’m replacing has IPMI. Reading about issues with IPMI and iGPU at the same time I dropped that requirement.

 

Speaking for the Asus board seemed to be the ability to use more lanes to the PCI slots by turning off 4 SATA ports and not having the SM fan controller. Since I have the x-case 420 PRO case it has an issue with the SM fan controller and the built-in fan controller in the case. Thus I choose the Asus board.

 

Specs:

Intel Core i7-8700K

Corsair Vengeance LPX Black 32GB (CMK32GX4M2A2666C16)

X-Case 420 PRO

2 IBM M1015 IT mode

3 SSD for cache

17 HDD

 

The board booted without a extra graphics card present both with the shipped bios and the latest bios version 0802. Both M1015 cards works too in slot 1 and 2, this seems important since the cards do not like 4x slots.

Unraid (6.6) does not find the fancontroller without adding modprobe -v nct6775 to the GO file. Adding that row and FAN1-7 can be controlled independently ( I think). Also iGPU enconding works like a charm.

 

IOMMU group 0:                [8086:3ec2] 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 8th Gen Core Processor Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 07)

IOMMU group 1:                [8086:1901] 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor PCIe Controller (x16) (rev 07)

[8086:1905] 00:01.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v5/E3-1500 v5/6th Gen Core Processor PCIe Controller (x8) (rev 07)

[1000:0072] 01:00.0 Serial Attached SCSI controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic SAS2008 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2 [Falcon] (rev 03)

[1000:0072] 02:00.0 Serial Attached SCSI controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic SAS2008 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-2 [Falcon] (rev 03)

IOMMU group 2:                [8086:3e92] 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation UHD Graphics 630 (Desktop)

IOMMU group 3:                [8086:a36d] 00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH USB 3.1 xHCI Host Controller (rev 10)

[8086:a36f] 00:14.2 RAM memory: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH Shared SRAM (rev 10)

IOMMU group 4:                [8086:a360] 00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH HECI Controller (rev 10)

IOMMU group 5:                [8086:a352] 00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH SATA AHCI Controller (rev 10)

IOMMU group 6:                [8086:a340] 00:1b.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH PCI Express Root Port #17 (rev f0)

IOMMU group 7:                [8086:a338] 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev f0)

IOMMU group 8:                [8086:a330] 00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH PCI Express Root Port #9 (rev f0)

IOMMU group 9:                [8086:a332] 00:1d.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH PCI Express Root Port #11 (rev f0)

IOMMU group 10:              [8086:a309] 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Device a309 (rev 10)

[8086:a323] 00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH SMBus Controller (rev 10)

[8086:a324] 00:1f.5 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH SPI Controller (rev 10)

[8086:15bb] 00:1f.6 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Connection (7) I219-LM (rev 10)

IOMMU group 11:              [8086:1533] 06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation I210 Gigabit Network Connection (rev 03) 

Hi!

 

Thinking about buying Asus WS C246 PRO and xeon E-2146G, saw that you fixed the fan controller with the extra line of code in the go file. The server still going strong and the fan controller works? 

 

Just to be on the safe side, this i my GO file:

 

#!/bin/bash
# Start the Management Utility
/usr/local/sbin/emhttp &
modprobe -v nct6775

 

You just added the line like above? 

 

 

 

All best!

// Linus

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  • 1 month later...
17 minutes ago, Output said:

The server is still running strong, no issues at all!

QuickSync working well on 6.7.x for you? How many transcodes have you gotten it to do?

 

I’m really thinking about getting the Xeon sorta equivalent (E-2146G) and love seeing any comments about similar processors and C246 boards.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
On 3/4/2019 at 3:48 PM, Output said:

Both M1015 cards works too in slot 1 and 2, this seems important since the cards do not like 4x slots.

What do you mean by "the cards do not like 4x slots"? Would the hard drives not show up? I'm guessing since those x4 slots come from the PCH that might have been causing issues. I'm just curious what you were seeing going wrong since I'm interested in getting this board.

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2 hours ago, ramblinreck47 said:

What do you mean by "the cards do not like 4x slots"? Would the hard drives not show up? I'm guessing since those x4 slots come from the PCH that might have been causing issues. I'm just curious what you were seeing going wrong since I'm interested in getting this board.

From other threads I've concluded that the M1015 might not work at all in a 4x slot, this could be dependent on the firmware on the M1015 card. I have not tried it myself since I've opted for a 8x connection for the cards.

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  • 1 year later...

WS C246 PRO does not have IPMI. 

WS C246M PRO does. 


Anyway, I have solved the problem.

 

Add, to boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg append line:

acpi_enforce_resources=lax

So that it looks like: 

default menu.c32
menu title Lime Technology, Inc.
prompt 0
timeout 50
label Unraid OS
  menu default
  kernel /bzimage
  append initrd=/bzroot acpi_enforce_resources=lax
label Unraid OS GUI Mode
  kernel /bzimage
  append initrd=/bzroot,/bzroot-gui acpi_enforce_resources=lax
label Unraid OS Safe Mode (no plugins, no GUI)
  kernel /bzimage
  append initrd=/bzroot unraidsafemode
label Unraid OS GUI Safe Mode (no plugins)
  kernel /bzimage
  append initrd=/bzroot,/bzroot-gui unraidsafemode
label Memtest86+
  kernel /memtest

Adding modprobe nct6775 to the go file is still a good idea. 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

@Forty Two man, am I glad I found your post. I've been scratching my head for a long time about why my Asus Z270 Prime board was detecting the NCT6775 module but not detecting any of the PWM controllers attached to it. I tried all the other posts' suggestions about making sure you've got the latest lm_sensors and forcing modprobe address etc. Your acpi_enforce_resources=lax tip was the missing piece! This is the only place I've seen reference to that. Out of curiosity, where did you find that?!

 

-A

 

 

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