Intel Socket 1151 Motherboards with IPMI AND Support for iGPU


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40 minutes ago, Geran said:

@Hoopster,

 

What BIOS version are you on the AsrockRack board? None of them show as having support for iGPU or is it that all C246 chipset AsrockRack boards support iGPU?

ASRock provides a special BIOS for iGPU support on boards such as the E3C246D4U.  None of the publicly available BIOS versions for this board support the iGPU in addition to the video output from the BMC/IPMI console.

 

The latest version supporting the iGPU is BIOS L2.21A and there is a link to it earlier in this thread.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am trying to understand if I will be able to run an NVMe SSD in the M.2 slot + a GTX1050Ti in the PCIe 3.0 x16 slot + a Mellanox 10GB NIC in the PCIe 3.0 x8 slot all at the same time.  The E3C246D4U mobo has 3x PCIe slots: 

  1. PCIe 3.0 x16 Slot 6: Gen3 x16 link, auto switch to x8 link if Slot 4 is occupied 
    1. plan to use this slot for GPU (Zotac GTX1050Ti)
  2. PCIe 3.0 x8 Slot 4: Gen3 x8 link

    1. plan to use this slot for Mellanox 10G NIC (MCX311A-XCAT CX311A ConnectX-3)

  3. PCIe 3.0 x4 Slot 5: Gen3 x4 link

    1. plan to use this slot for NVMe SSD via M.2 slot (Samsung 970 EVO Plus)

I would like to use the IPMI VGA for remote management, iGPU for Plex docker transcoding, and pass the GTX1050Ti to a VM.  I know that the x16 slot will auto switch to x8 in this configuration but I don't think that will handicap the GPU at all.  Anyone foresee any problems with this setup?

 

Another thing I'm curious about is whether using an PCIe NVMe SSD in the M.2 slot will result in SATA0 port being deactivated.  I've seen a post in this thread by @Hoopster saying:

Quote

A PCIe NVMe SSD in the M.2 slot will disable the x4 slot on the board but not disable any SATA ports.

but that seems to conflict with what the manual says:

Quote

*The M.2 slot (M2_1) is shared with the SATA_0 connector. When M2_1 is populated with a M.2 SATA3/
PCIE3.0(x4 or x2) module, SATA_0 is disabled. 

 

Edited by tallguydirk
typo
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From what I see, you either have x16 x0 x4 or x8 x8 x4.

PCIe 3.0 x 16	- Slot 6: Gen3 x16 link, auto switch to x8 link if Slot 4 is occupied
PCIe 3.0 x 8	- Slot 4: Gen3 x8 link
PCIe 3.0 x 4	- Slot 5: Gen3 x4 link

Plus the issue with the M.2 you mention. So either x16 or x8 x8 and I cannot see all this working as you hope.

 

That is a usual thing as consumer CPUs do not offer that much PCIe lanes to begin with. 😕

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6 hours ago, tallguydirk said:

Another thing I'm curious about is whether using an PCIe NVMe SSD in the M.2 slot will result in SATA0 port being deactivated.  I've seen a post in this thread by @Hoopster saying:

And as I stated in this post, the diagram in the manual seems to contradict other manual descriptions of how the SATA_0, PCIe x4 slot and M.2 slot interact.

 

Text in manual seems to indicate that either a SATA or PCIe device in the M.2 slot disables SATA_0.  The diagram in the post linked above seems to indicate otherwise.  The bottom line is that you have a total of 24 PCIe lanes available with the Xeon E2200 family of processors and the C246 chipset.  How those lanes get allocated is the tricky part.

 

A PCIe (x2 or x4) NVMe SSD in the M.2 slot will disable either SATA_0 or the PCIe x4 slot depending on which part of the manual you believe.  😁

 

On many motherboards, an NVMe device in the M.2 slot disables the x4 PCIe slot.  It is unclear exactly what happens on this board.

Edited by Hoopster
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3 hours ago, tallguydirk said:

Does anyone monitoring this thread have the same board/cpu and also have an NVMe they can test with?  I'd like to confirm it'll work before I order...

I do have a Samsung 970 Evo Plus on this board.  I can do some testing if you'd like.  I've got my server up and running and have been moving things over to it.

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13 minutes ago, Shane01638 said:

I do have a Samsung 970 Evo Plus on this board.  I can do some testing if you'd like.  I've got my server up and running and have been moving things over to it.

That'd be awesome! I'd really appreciate it.  Are you able to tell if the x4 slot or sata_0 are deactivated?  From you signature it looks like you have a 10GbE NIC, assuming it's in the x16 or x8 slot?  If so then maybe you could try putting it in the x4 slot and see if it's recognized?  

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52 minutes ago, Shane01638 said:

Ok. The middle PCI slot is disabled but SATA0 is not. It depends what kind of nvme drive you use.

Thanks for clearing that up!

 

This is exactly what I would expect with a PCIe NVMe SSD in use; the x4 PCIe slot is disabled. 

 

If a SATA NVMe SSD is used, SATA_0 is disabled.

 

This is how it works on most other motherboards.

 

That corresponds to the diagram in the manual, but, it contradicts the text in other places in the manual that says the M.2slot is shared with SATA_0 and an NVMe drive (SATA or PCIe) disables SATA_0. 

 

The manual is inconsistent in explaining the interaction between M.2 slot and PCIe or SATA NVMe SSDs.

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5 hours ago, Shane01638 said:

Ok, How do I enable iGPU transcoding while still keeping IPMI?  I followed this guide but IPMI KVM shows powered off.  Is there a difference between iGPU and i915?

i915 contains the video drivers for the integrated GPU.

 

When 'modprobe i915' is run from the go file, you will lose video output from the BMC to the VGA port and will have a blank monitor screen as well as a blank KVM in the IPMI console.  There is no way around this. Once the iGPU becomes the active onboard video adapter, the BMC is no longer outputting video to the VGA port/KVM.

 

There is no path from the iGPU to the VGA port as this is controlled exclusively by the onboard BMC.  You will get no video output from the iGPU but it can be used for transcoding.

 

If you want console output, you can still use the unRAID terminal, PuTTY or something similar.

 

All other aspects of IPMI continue to function and KVM video will be active for BIOS changes and through the boot process until i915 drivers load.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I received a response from the eBay sellers IMC and they stated that the newest BIOS version on the site (2.30 right now) supersedes the 2.21A that is linked in this thread and that 2.30 also has iGPU support. Can anyone confirm this? They have stated that the BIOS of the boards they are selling have been set to 2.30. 

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2 hours ago, Plaidy said:

I received a response from the eBay sellers IMC and they stated that the newest BIOS version on the site (2.30 right now) supersedes the 2.21A that is linked in this thread and that 2.30 also has iGPU support.

I don't think the 2.30 BIOS supports the iGPU in the same way 2.21A does.  I had the same experience as @realdiel.  There was no hardware transcoding with the 2.30 BIOS.  Installing the 2.21A BIOS resolved that.

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26 minutes ago, Plaidy said:

Strange that Asrock wouldn't incorporate the changes into the next final release after 2.21A

2.21A actually was released after 2.30.  Their special iGPU BIOS is on a different version number track that the public BIOS.  

 

The iGPU code is in the public BIOS for older hardware platforms but they maintain two separate BIOS releases now.   You have to know about the iGPU BIOS and request it to get it.  Kind of a pain if you ask me, but, they didn't ask me.

  • Haha 1
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And if this board has a consumer Intel Core i* CPU in it, ONLY non-ECC memory works and then ONLY ECC with a Xeon right? IPMI will still work with the consumer CPU no issue?

 

For non-ECC, is the board picky or will any old desktop DDR4 work as long as it meets the frequency requirements?

Edited by Plaidy
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