X8DAi - The Crunchinator

Therefore with the introduction completed lets look into briefly the specifications of todays exclusive look at Supermicro's X8DAi mainboard.

Key Features

Dual Intel® 5500 series Xeon® Quad/Dual-Core, with QPI up to 6.4 GT/s
Intel® 5520 (Tylersburg) Chipset
Up to 96GB DDR3 1333/ 1066/ 800MHz ECC Registered DIMM / 24GB Unbuffered DIMM
Intel® 82573V/L Dual-port Gigabit  Ethernet Controller
6 x SATA2 (3 Gbps) Ports via ICH10R Controller
2 (x16) PCI-E 2.0, 1 (x4) PCI-E (in X 8 slot), 3 X PCI 33MHz slots
Realtek ALC883 7.1 HD Audio
2 x IEEE 1394a Headers
IPMI 2.0 (SIMLC) Slot

Physical Stats
Form Factor - Extended ATX
Dimensions - 12" X 13" (30.5cm X 33cm)

Processor/Cache
CPU - Dual 1366-pin LGA Sockets.   Supports up to two Intel® 64-bit Xeon® processor(s) of the                                                               same type; Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor 5500 sequence                                                                     (Nehalem-EP processor)
QPI - up to 6.4 GT/s

System Memory
Memory Capacity      12x 240-pin DIMM sockets
                             Supports up to 96 GB 1333 / 1066 / 800MHz DDR3 ECC Registered memory
                             Supports up to 24 GB 1333 / 1066 / 800MHz DDR3 Unbuffered memory
                             Memory Mirroring supported
Memory Type           1333 / 1066 / 800MHz ECC Registered / Unbuffered DDR3 SDRAM 72-bit, 240-pin gold-plated
                             Dimms
DIMM Sizes              1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB
Memory Voltage        1.5 V
Error Detection         Corrects single-bit errors.  Detects double-bit errors (using ECC memory) Supports Intel® x4
                             and x8 Single Device Data Correction (SDDC)

On-Board Devices
Chipset                   Intel® 5520 (Tylersburg) chipset  ICH10R + IOH-36D
SATA                      Intel ICH10R SATA 3.0Gbps Controller  RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 support
IPMI                       Support for Intelligent Platform Management Interface v.2.0 / 1.5.  200-pin IPMI slot (SIMLC)
                             (Optional: AOC-SIMLC)
Network Controllers   Intel® 82573V & 82573L Gigabit Ethernet Controller.  Supports 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, and
                             1000BASE-T, RJ45 output
Audio                      Realtek ALC883 7.1 HD audio
Super I/O                Winbond 83627HF chip

Expansion Slots
PCI-Express                       2 (x16) PCI-E 2.0 slots 1 (x4) PCI-E (in x8 slot)
PCI                                  3 X 33MHz PCI slots

Input / Output
Serial ATA                         Six Serial ATA ports.   Six SATA hard drives supported
Floppy                              1 Floppy controller; 1.44 MB
LAN                                  2 X RJ45 LAN ports
USB                                  4 X USB rear ports, 2x USB on-board, 4x USB internal headers. Total 10 USB 2.0
                                       Compliant
Audio                                Realtek ALC883 7.1 HD audio
Keyboard / Mouse               PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports
Serial Port                         2 Fast UART 16550 serial ports

Important Chassis Notes 
To ensure system stability, a 550W (minimum) ATX power supply [Two 8-pin (+12V) and 24-pin are required]

The All Important Processor Population Rules

For optimum performance, when two processors are installed, both must be of identical revision, core voltage, and QPI/core speed.    When only one processor is installed, it must be in the socket labelled CPU1. The other socket must be empty.      Processors must be populated in sequential order. Processor socket 1 (CPU1) must be populated before processor socket 2 (CPU2).    No terminator is required in the second processor socket when using a single processor configuration.

Page 1 - Introduction
Page 2 - Introduction Continued
Page 3 - Mainboard Photographs
Page 4 - System Build Pictures
Page 5 - System Set-Up, Benchmarks and Applications Used
Page 6 - Sandra 2009 SP2
Page 7 - Hard Drive Tests
Page 8 - ATI FirePro V8700 - Cinebench, POV-Ray 3.72 Beta and 3D Studio Max 2009 Scenes
Page 9 - ATI FirePro V8700 - SPECapc for SolidWorks 2007™ and SPECviewperf® 10.0
Page 10 - NVIDIA Quadro FX4800 - Cinebench, POV-Ray 3.72 Beta and 3D Studio Max 2009 Scenes
Page 11 - NVIDIA Quadro FX4800 - SPECapc for SolidWorks 2007™ and SPECviewperf® 10.0
Page 12 - Conclusions and Award