The Intel W480 Motherboard Overview: LGA1200 For Xeon W-1200
by Gavin Bonshor on June 24, 2020 9:00 AM ESTDFI CMS310-W480
Fondly remembered for the LANParty series of motherboards back in the 2000s, DFI disappeared off the radar from the consumer motherboard market. However, it still creates a range of industrial models and embedded solutions. The DFI CMS310-W480 is a little bit of an enigma with no official images or anything which could decipher the board's visual design and layout. We do know the CMS310-W480 will include a single PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot, four SATA ports, and three video outputs on the rear for triple display capability.
Focusing on what we do know about DFI's CMS310-W480, we know that it will feature two full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which will operate at x16, and x8/x8, with two PCIe 3.0 x4 slots, although we can't be sure if these will be full or half-length slots. There will be a single PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slot, with four SATA ports capable of supporting RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays, with an M.2 Key-E slot present to allow users to install a wireless interface, perhaps one of Intel's AX200/201 Wi-Fi 6 models.
The official specifications list says the rear panel includes two Gigabit Ethernet ports but can accommodate up to four Gigabit ports upon request, which gives the impression that DFI will be looking to secure specific orders in volume, perhaps from system integrators and from within the server/workstation industry. It lists two USB 3.2 G2 ports and four USB 3.2 G1 ports but doesn't specify between Type-C and Type-C, with a trio of video outputs including a DisplayPort, HDMI, and a D-sub. The three 3.5 mm audio jacks will be powered by a Realtek ALC888 HD audio codec.
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YB1064 - Wednesday, June 24, 2020 - link
Underwhelming at best. Why would anybody go for this over EPYC?Jorgp2 - Wednesday, June 24, 2020 - link
Lolextide - Wednesday, June 24, 2020 - link
This doesn't even compete with Threadripper, much less Epyc. This chipset allows you to use LGA1200 Xeons which are identical to the 10th gen Core series plus ECC support -- which is essentially what you get with regular Ryzen line -- except the regular ryzen line goes to 16 cores and ECC is only "semi official"foobaz - Wednesday, June 24, 2020 - link
The Xeon has one minor advantage over Ryzen - the Xeon does both ECC and integrated graphics. Ryzen APUs can't do ECC, so if you want ECC, you need to pair a Ryzen without integrated graphics with either a discrete GPU or a motherboard with onboard graphics like the X470D4U.PixyMisa - Wednesday, June 24, 2020 - link
For a server though, you want BMC, so you want a motherboard like the X470D4U.And for a workstation, in most cases you want discrete graphics.
abeetz - Sunday, January 23, 2022 - link
For one, the W480 Vision W from Gigabyte includes AMT, as far as I can tell. Some are selling it as a workstation board, and the W-1370 / 1370P CPUs are positioned as workstation processors. But I don't see any downside to using this as a pretty beefy server. It does have a fancy audio section, but that in itself shouldn't disqualify server use. Happy to get anyone else's take on this here. Saying this, of course, because I was able to get a hold of that motherboard + W-1370P CPU, both currently rare, and am considering them as a server for a small business whose network I run.abeetz - Sunday, January 23, 2022 - link
Correction - I meant that some are selling it as a SERVER board...0ldman79 - Wednesday, June 24, 2020 - link
When you're talking servers the dinky GPU doesn't factor in.The price difference between the Intel and AMD line they can more than afford to toss in any motherboard-integrated GPU they can think of.
I'd say 99% of the time the server GPU is only used during initial setup and config. Everything is remote managed.
I even go so far as to disconnect the mouse, keyboard and monitor on almost every server I set up. Keeps the business owner's kids from screwing with it.
The iGPU is not a deciding factor in a server purchase.
eek2121 - Wednesday, June 24, 2020 - link
I don’t know about that. Ryzen chips can do ECC, I actually haven’t looked at whether the APUs have a different memory controller, but all Ryzen chips support ECC. My X570 board let’s me enable it via the BIOS (F20a, AMD CBS menu).Slash3 - Thursday, June 25, 2020 - link
Pro series APUs do support ECC, but non-Pro APUs do not.