The Bottom Line: An ATX workstation motherboard that can hold two Quad Core cpus under your desk. Nothing in the ATX form factor in 2007 will be faster.
rgathright's Full Review: Supermicro X7DAL-E Motherboard
The Supermicro X7DAL-E, to me, is a gift to those of us who crave high performance computers. Intel’s FB-DIMM memory, overclocking, ATX form factor and a long upgrade cycle all combined in one powerful desktop motherboard.
Documentation
The owner's manual is a little vague. You will be using the manual alot if you decide to tweak the board to get more performance out of it. I quickly found myself online searching for the meaning of the terms used to describe the memory modes. In the end, I was able to increase my memory bandwidth over 25% by changing settings in the BIOS.
The Supermicro site for this motherboard is:
http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon1333/5000X/X7DAL-E.cfm
Installation:
The motherboard fit smoothly into the Ultra Max (CSULT31826) computer case purchased for it.
Several 1/3” rubber feet were mounted under the memory banks to prevent motherboard flexing during memory installation.
Configuration
I initially purchased two 512Mb 667FSB Kingston FB-DIMM sticks. My decision was a mistake because the memory controller was designed to operate in Quad-Channel mode. With only two memory sticks, I was getting half the memory bandwidth available to the computer.
OS Install:
I have installed Fedora Core 5 and Windows XP Pro 32bit on this computer with no problems. I applied the Microsoft Update KB896256 on 12/28/2006. I noticed 25% gains in SETI@Home processing time as a result. The Microsoft Update allows the kernel to set affinity for processes in Windows.
Overclocking:
I purchased this motherboard with a pair of Xeon 5120 cpus. I then attacked it with every overclocking modification I could find. Now four months later, the board is still running and crunching SETI workunits. Amazing if you consider the board is mounted inside a standard height ATX case.
A forum member XeonTux of a popular website, 2CPU.com, discovered a pin modification for the Xeon 5120 processor. The result is 1333FSB and a clock speed of 2.33Ghz, up from the stock clock speed of 1.86Ghz. The modification was applied to this motherboard successfully. Later last year, Techpowerup.com's overclocking tool: Systool unveiled support for the X7DAL-E! Now I have clocked the processors in this motherboard up to 2.7 Ghz!
Operation:
The system does not need loud cooling fans, so I am able use it as a software development PC in an office environment. Our company has several development PC's, none can open/compile Visual Studio 2005 projects as fast as this one.
The system memory does generate a lot of heat. The challenge was removing it. I have an 80mm fan blowing air directly on top of the memory sticks, from the side panel window. A 120MM rear exhaust fan efficiently moves the heat out of the case. The Northbridge chipset cooler was given a small 40MM fan as well to help cool it down. The heatsink covering the chipset was then removed after the excessive heat problem continued. I discovered a thick rubber like paste covering the bottom. On top of the past was a thin piece of cloth. The paste and cloth was removed. Artic Silver heatsink compound was placed on the chipset and bottom of heatsink and put back into place. The Northbridge now is luke warm while the computer is on. The heatsink covering the The Southbridge chipset cooler is painfully hot as well, but I left it alone.
Bundled Software
The CD-ROM provided with this motherboard gave me all I needed to install Windows XP 32bit, including the bootdisk for SATA Raid support. DO NOT USE Super Doctor III or Watch Dog. These packages are over five years old and tied up system resources.
Disappointments:
The only drawback to this board has to be the limited memory slots. With only six slots available, the user must purchase 1Gb sticks of FB-DIMM ECC DDR2, to get over 3Gb total memory, which can get very expensive.
Future:
The future of this board looks bright, with Quad Core compatibility and rumored support for the Xeon 45nm process. I used an Enermax EG651 power-supply to provide my system with the ability to upgrade to the new Intel Quad Core Xeon.
Review Updates:
1/19/2007: I added notes to the OS Install and Overclocking sections of the review, based on my ongoing experience with overclocking/tuning this motherboard.
3/20/2007: Added details about bundled software and documentation.
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