THIS is the main difference between server and PC motherboards!

it's this port in fact this is not your regular Lan Port it's called an ipmi port let's talk about it [Music] this is super micro X11 scl-if and it's one of their entry-level Mini ITX motherboards and I absolutely love super micros motherboards in fact I have several of them in my home lab this is not a sponsored video I bought all of the super micro motherboards myself but I super like them because they're super reliable so the first thing I should talk about when it comes to differences between uh Server Motherboard and a PC motherboard is the overall look server motherboards because they are intended to go into a server rack don't get looked at very often in fact they're meant to spend years in a server rack and that's why they're missing all the nice design features that your typical PC motherboard will come with there's none of that here it's just you know the saw pocket the ram ports the power supply port or the ATX port and maybe a pcie expansion Port which this particular motherboard has now you may also notice there's a lack of sound card again because it's meant to fit into a rack or to be mounted into one there is no need for a sound device on it which is why this one lacks it or they all do like it as well because nobody's gonna plug in headphones and listen to some music on a Server Motherboard when I asked my friends on Twitter what points about server motherboards I should talk about one of them asked in a very interesting question is there any difference when it comes to Cooling and in fact yes there is fan headers on this particular motherboard can deliver up to 3 amps of current whereas a normal PC motherboard can go Max 1M and in fact the fans themselves are different and much louder for the servers as well because in a data center nobody really cares about the noise for example with a 12 volt fan this can actually have it work at 36 Watts so 3 amps times 12 volts is 36 Watts so they can you know what let me actually show you okay so this is your regular Corsair PC fan and I'll plug it directly into uh Jerry rig power supply which I made just for testing the fence and here we go so this is your regular fan at full speed I think this one is around 1500 maybe 2000 RPM and this is a server grade 1u compatible 40 millimeter fan which is rated at 0.6 amps of power or current let's plug it in [Music] now imagine having a server Farm of these it can get very loud and the second most asked question was the price yes server motherboards are usually more expensive but there is a little secret that most of us home labbers and network enthusiasts know that I shall share with you so yes server motherboards are more expensive but because data centers constantly need to evolve and invest in New Gear they sell out a lot of old gear on a second-hand market and by the air quotes I meant that that gear while being maybe four five six years old is still orders of magnitude faster and more durable than your typical of the shell router or gear that you can buy in your nearby electronics store so we all tend to buy and buy we I mean Network enthusiasts and home levers we buy it second hand from eBay for relatively cheap this one for example is not used in fact it's brand new but it had the status of open box which is why I was able to get it for 200 Euros which is I don't know 230 dollars I think so it's not that expensive compared to a PC motherboard why are new more expensive well it comes down to the components because these motherboards are expected to run five six seven years on full load 24 7. obviously the components that are on the board need to be of a higher durability ratings so they're more expensive because of that and in turn the whole board is more expensive now to the star of the show the port I was talking about earlier and there's another port and that's this port and there's a chip so what are these three components these three components are part of a system that is called board management system or an ipmi which stands for IP management interface it allows you to control the whole server through this ethernet port so what the board itself needs enabled to be controlled is just have power supplied to it it doesn't need to be turned on at all in fact this VGA port which is just for some basic maintenance reason so you can plug a monitor in doesn't need to be used at all you can completely manage the whole system just through your web browser and the IP of this interface which can be configured either statically or through DHCP you access it and you can even get a virtual screen running on your computer through the browser so you don't even need a monitor and if you'd like to see me set this board up complete at least through the web browser let me know and I'll prepare a tutorial about how to do it this chip that is on it is called a speed AST 2500 and it's quite common on the motherboards in fact all my motherboards have this exact same chip which makes it quite convenient because all the interfaces look exactly the same so you can actually see all the statuses so from the CPU status memory status cooling status power everything can be visited and visible in your browser you can also reset the server you can enter the BIOS you can do pretty much everything just by using this port and it's super convenient because most of us and especially then in the data centers you don't want technicians to run to each server whenever there's a problem you just need this port usually it's connected to a management switch that other like consumer facing ports don't have access to so that the management or the sysadmins in a data center can configure each server independently from one control room and yes I like this feature as well though I don't have a data center I just have a basement with a rack it is very useful that in case something goes wrong I can just open my browser visit the IP of this system and just remotely manage it reset it shut it down do whatever we want so this is one of the best features or more unique features that these motherboards have now before we wrap this video up let me show you an image of a 3D model of a case that this board will go into it's not manufactured yet in fact I'm waiting my turn with the CNC milling machine which will take a complete block of aluminum or aluminum and will turn it into a beautiful enclosure for this particular board and we'll configure open Sense on it and make it the complete router which then as I said will I will ship to one of the subscribers of the channel so again make sure you're subscribed please like this video if you have any questions leave a comment down below and I'll see you in the next one

Channel: Tomaž Zaman

Views: 7,080

Keywords: pc, server, motherboard, router

Id: h59HXuKBI3g

Length: 8min 50sec (530 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 07 2023