Intel Socket 1151 Motherboards with IPMI AND Support for iGPU


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First off, thank you for taking the time to respond to everyone on this thread. Personally I have been himming an hawing over this board for the past few months but keep coming back to look at it and all the info you have posted here has really helped.

 

Thank you for all the info on RAM and running this board with consumer grade Core CPUs. If I get the board and the RAM does not work I have another consumer board (Asrock Z390 mITX\ac) it should work in so I guess it wouldn't be a huge deal.

 

As an aside, what is the model number of the Asrock board that has IPMI and supports quicksync for 4th gen core CPUs?

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49 minutes ago, Plaidy said:

As an aside, what is the model number of the Asrock board that has IPMI and supports quicksync for 4th gen core CPUs?

it's a Mini-ITX board; E3C226D2I.  I doubt you can find it anymore (maybe on eBay?). The "C226" models in different form factors also support Haswell processors.

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1 hour ago, Hoopster said:

it's a Mini-ITX board; E3C226D2I.  I doubt you can find it anymore (maybe on eBay?). The "C226" models in different form factors also support Haswell processors.

Ah ok. Before I found this board I was actually looking at buying a C236 chipset board the Asus P10S-M WS as I have a few other server boards from Asus and generally find them to be pretty good. It has IPMI through the ASMB8-iKVM addon and it says it has Quicksync capability too, according to the product page. I was kind of wondering though if that was the case after I saw all the issues that you and the others went through to get QS on this C246 chipset. Basically that even if the boards have the right chipset it doesn't seem to be a guarantee the capbility will be active.

Edited by Plaidy
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7 minutes ago, Plaidy said:

I saw all the issues that you and the others went through to get QS on this C246 chipset.

The issue is really does the BIOS support it. 

 

On my C226 board with IPMI the public BIOS supported QuickSync without issue and there was a setting to enable it. 

 

My C236 ASrock workstation board and BIOS also supported QuickSync but did not have IPMI. 

 

On the C246 boards with IPMI, ASRock has decided that supporting QuickSync in addition to IPMI is a special BIOS thing for some reason and it has never made it into a public release.  Not sure why.

Edited by Hoopster
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Just now, Hoopster said:

My C236 ASrock workstation board and BIOS also supported QuickSync but did not have IPMI. 

Ah good to know. It pretty clearly states that board has quicksync and then the manual talks about IPMI through the ASMB8 chip so maybe it does work. I suppose that Asus board isn't really worth it now though as it is an LGA1150 for $200 and this Asrock C246 board is ~$250 it seems. 

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1 minute ago, Plaidy said:

Ah good to know. It pretty clearly states that board has quicksync and then the manual talks about IPMI through the ASMB8 chip so maybe it does work. I suppose that Asus board isn't really worth it now though as it is an LGA1150 for $200 and this Asrock C246 board is ~$250 it seems. 

Right, there are plenty of C236 boards with IPMI.  Mine just did not happen to have it so I don't know if QuickSync was still supported by ASRock in the public BIOS with that generation as it was with the C226 boards.  What other manufacturers may support in their boards/BIOS I do not know as my latest several server boards have all been ASRock.

  • Like 1
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Another question: Is it relatively easy to access the IPMI video feed? For my older Asus boards, the "easiest" solution I've found is to run a docker container on another host that runs an old version of firefox with java enabled. I VNC from my desktop into that container and then I can go to the IPMI address in that browser, accept a bunch of security warnings and pull up the video feed. I was hoping that had changed with these newer boards.

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23 hours ago, Plaidy said:

 I want the lowest TDP possible

Why? Picking the lowest TDP among chips with the same die layout is likely to increase overall power consumption for a given workload, so I wanted to make sure you really need low TDP, i.e., you are dealing with a heatsink / fan / airflow restrictions.

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2 minutes ago, jonathanm said:

Why? Picking the lowest TDP among chips with the same die layout is likely to increase overall power consumption for a given workload, so I wanted to make sure you really need low TDP, i.e., you are dealing with a heatsink / fan / airflow restrictions.

Yeah I am working in the Silverstone CS-381 mATX case and I only have an SST AR11 heatsink with a Noctua fan on it. I am looking for the most workload with the lowest heat. Is this not the way to go?

Edit: That said, I do currently have an I7-3770 in there and at 100% CPU it only gets to about 65 C so maybe I could go a bit higher on TDP.

Edited by Plaidy
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1 hour ago, Plaidy said:

I am looking for the most workload with the lowest heat. Is this not the way to go?

If CPU were the only load involved, yes. However, in a NAS, typically hard drives are a much bigger factor in cooling, so the faster you can get your tasks finished and the drives spun down, the better. Unraid typically needs the most power / cooling during parity checks or disk rebuilds, and if your case ventilation can properly handle that, your CPU TDP is unlikely to be a factor. Choose the CPU with the maximum passmark / cost or other benchmark in a particular die generation, the idle power of most similar generation chips is pretty much identical. It's only full throttle that makes a big difference. When you move to a new die type, that's when things change.

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28 minutes ago, jonathanm said:

Choose the CPU with the maximum passmark / cost or other benchmark in a particular die generation, the idle power of most similar generation chips is pretty much identical.

Thank you for the info. Are you able to answer as to the ease of accessing the IPMI on this board that I asked about earlier today?

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6 minutes ago, Plaidy said:

Thank you for the info. Are you able to answer as to the ease of accessing the IPMI on this board that I asked about earlier today?

Not with any authority. Good motherboard manufacturers issue firmware updates to keep abreast of IPMI security issues, for example my Supermicro X10SL7-F which is several years old got an update that added HTML5 instead of older java builds.

 

So, it depends on the specific board and the firmware versions available and currently loaded.

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7 hours ago, Plaidy said:

Another question: Is it relatively easy to access the IPMI video feed?

The IPMI implementation in this board is HTML5.  One issue for which there is no workaround when using the iGPU for transcoding is loss of video signal when the i915 driver loads at the end of the boot cycle.  This is what you will see if you attempt to launch the KVM after the system has booted completely:

 

image.thumb.png.16a67d389f5ccb5c21bc01229c20848d.png

 

During boot up, there is video and you can watch the system boot and record videos; however, as soon as 'modprobe i915' is executed in the 'go' file, video control switches from the bmc to the iGPU.  Console access and video recording though IPMI/KVM are then disabled.  Of course, with unRAID up and running, you have console access through the GUI, PuTTY, etc.

 

Even though I have IPMI on this board, I have a small monitor attached to the server for troubleshooting, that goes blank as well (as you would expect since it receives the BMC video signal) at the end up the boot cycle.

 

Unfortunately, that is the tradeoff with a BIOS that supports both the BMC/IPMI and the iGPU.  All other IPMI functions still work other than KVM video.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Came across this topic when i found out my X11SCL-IF couldnt do quicksync, 

a few questions :

1 . Anyone ever used this asrock board + Blueiris + quicksync combo ? 

2. Regarding the IPMI and IGPU trade-off, has anyone tried "duplicate view" on windows 10 to get IPMI working along with external monitor?

My X11SBA-F could do this, but strangely my X11SCA-F couldn't do this. I guess it's BIOS limitation thing..

But i guess since i plan to use RTX 2060 hooked up to my monitor this shouldn't be an issue right?

Edited by cemaranet
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What is the BIOS setting needed to enable use of the iGPU? I only see an option whether I want it enabled when there is an external video card attached to the system. Is this what I am looking for? It is currently set to auto after updating to 2.21A.

 

Also, has anyone experienced issues when booting from nvme? I am getting I/O and partitioning errors.

 

Edit: After trying several more OS's (Ubuntu and Fedora) I am getting install errors all around. I am beginning to think I may have a faulty board but I don't have another nvme to test with. I just know the nvme works fine in another motherboard. I sent a email to support but if anyone has any suggestions in the mean time I am all ears.

Edited by Plaidy
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2 hours ago, Plaidy said:

What is the BIOS setting needed to enable use of the iGPU? I only see an option whether I want it enabled when there is an external video card attached to the system. Is this what I am looking for? It is currently set to auto after updating to 2.21A.

Primary Graphics Adapter needs to be set to Onboard and IGPU Multi-Monitor should be set to Enabled.  Auto will not enable the iGPU.

 

2 hours ago, Plaidy said:

Also, has anyone experienced issues when booting from nvme?

What are you trying to boot from NVMe? 

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16 hours ago, Hoopster said:

Primary Graphics Adapter needs to be set to Onboard and IGPU Multi-Monitor should be set to Enabled.  Auto will not enable the iGPU.

 

What are you trying to boot from NVMe? 

Thanks for the info about the BIOS I will get that set up.

 

I have tried to install Proxmox, Ubuntu Desktop 18.04 and Ubuntu Server 20.04 to a newly purchased WD_Black SN750 that was working well in an Asrock Z390m-itx/ac for the past few weeks. I have no other drives hooked up to the board so the SATAO port sharing shouldn't be a problem.

 

I just successfully installed Proxmox to a Seagate Ironwolf SSD 240GB hooked up to SATA_1 so my next step will be to hook that drive up to SATA0 after removing the M.2 card and then try to install to it again.

 

William from Asrock just replied to my email too so good news there :) 

 

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Edit: It seems that the NVME drive decided to die when I moved it from one system to the other even though it is like a 2 week old drive with about 12 hours total usage with most being idle. I put it in another system and it gave the same errors when trying to create a partition. So not an issue with the mobo.

Edited by Plaidy
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The screenshots below show the iGPU is active and working on the hypervisor itself (Proxmox) ready to be passed through. On the left is remote control over IPMI and on the right I am SSH'd in at the same time. I don't know if it makes a difference but I have the i965-va-driver installed that is available to Debian/Ubuntu distros. I'm not sure what is available to Slack/Unraid, if this could cause the difference.

 

image.thumb.png.da48edf4772413bc8dffbfc9027f3787.png

 

Edit: So Emby in a Docker container inside an LXC on Proxmox is showing the iGPU ready for use and remote control through the IPMI is still working the same as shown above:


image.thumb.png.a75630cab92bc0e73b0817edf0037b25.png
 

Edited by Plaidy
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  • 3 weeks later...
5 minutes ago, davejaca said:

Hey Guys,

I requested the latest bios from Asrock prior to finding the link in this thread, they provided L2.34, link below.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qkcfvata0t2wasv/E246D4U2.34?dl=0

Have not tested myself yet but thought I would provide for others.

Thanks!

DJ

Thanks for sharing. I'm still on L2.21A as its been running great for me, but I've been itching to update for no particular reason. Curious to hear if anyone notices any improvements.

 

Edit: I should ask, did they tell you if it supports iGPU, unlike their public BIOS?

Edited by kaiguy
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53 minutes ago, kaiguy said:

Edit: I should ask, did they tell you if it supports iGPU, unlike their public BIOS?

 

This was my question:

"I believe there is a bios available that supports the iGPU in addition to BMC, it is said to only available directly from you (ASRock support)"

and the reply:

"Provide you with the latest beta BIOS version L2.34 "

 

I made the assumption that it does! Doing a preclear at the moment so will test in a day or so and report back if anything looks off.

 

  • Thanks 2
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They are saying that as of at least p2.30 (not a beta revision) that iGFX can be enabled in the BIOS. But I was linked to 2.34 again as well so either should work.

---------------------------

Sent: Friday, January 8, 2021 7:15:25 PM
Subject: RE: $E3C246D4U$ I/O errors and kernel panic using nvme for boot (United States)
"Thank you for your patience! According to the BIOS engineering team, the latest retail BIOS P2.30 https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=E3C246D4U#Download already includes such function, but the term is now changed to IGFX. Your board has a BMC controller. And as long as the BMC is working, IPMI communication is already there. Hope that helps. Thank you!"

Edited by Plaidy
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