Google's rumored Wi-Fi router is cheap and has a trick up its sleeve

In the market for a new Wi-Fi router? You may want to wait a bit longer.

Google is rumored to have one in the cooker for its October 4 Pixel phone launch, which may seem odd considering it already makes the OnHub router (pictured above).

Sources tell Android Police, however, that this new router, dubbed the eponymous Google WiFi, will cost $129, or about £99 or AU$169.

While not the cheapest on the market, that's still pretty darn inexpensive, and less than you'd pay for the $179 OnHub. The deal gets even sweeter when you take into account this nugget: apparently the router can connect multiple access points and turn them into a one giant wireless network.

Meshy business

This so-called mesh networking basically links different networks together so they blanket an entire home in a single super network. Routers like the eero already do this, but a single eero costs $199 (about £155, AU$265), or $499 (about £385, AU$655) for a pack of three.

The Google WiFi router is also rumored to have some smart features, though specifics on what those are sparse. It's also rumored to have an enhanced range over other routers, though that's a common brag in the space.

In addition to Google WiFi, the search giant is also expected to reveal the price of its Google Home hub at $129, a new 4K Chromecast Ultra, and the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones next month. TechRadar will be on the ground at the event, so stay tuned for word on all that Google has in store.

Read next: Our review of the iPhone 7

Reviewed By:Anonymous,12/6/2016 10:52:54 AM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product 1 week to 1 month.

This user purchased this item from Newegg

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Pros: -IPMI
-Powerful
-Supports 16GB memory, not just 2x4GB as posted

Cons: I cannot get HDMI or DP to work

Manufacturer Response:We are sincerely apologize the issue you are experiencing with your motherboard. Please kindly contact our technical support so that we can find out more about your configuration and work with you in finding a solution. Please see the below technical support contact information:

Phone: (408)503-8000
Hours: 9:00 a.m – 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time (Monday – Friday)

Email address: support@supermicro.com

You can also submit your issue online: https://webpr3.supermicro.com/Support/login.aspx?

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any question.

Thank you!
SM Technical Support

External Link(s):

Sumbit your issue

Reviewed By:RONNIE B.,12/3/2016 11:19:58 PM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product more than 1 year.

This user purchased this item from Newegg

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Pros: Worked well for 3 years.
Didn't have IPMI but had a somewhat functional Intel Management Engine instead.
Lots of slots.
Cheaper unbuffered memory

Cons: Intel IME was way more of a PITA to configure than a regular IPMI and you end up needing to buy VNC Viewer Plus to actually use it.
Had a couple of idiosyncrasies but was able to work past them.
Worked until it didn't. Warm reboot led to...
Died at 3.5 years.
- Memory Channel 1 invisible/not working
- Several PCIe slots invisible/not working
- On-cpu video not working
As this is the primary storage server for my home business, this is less than ideal.

3 years out of functionality out of a motherboard is somewhat below my expectation.

Other Thoughts: Doesn't seem to be a clear path forward.
The X9SAE-V is discontinued.
There is no X10 or X11 series E3-focused motherboard that meets the slot requirement.
The X9SRL-F, an E5 uniproc version has all my IO and would let me use existing memory but the reviews are disconcerting.
The X10 series is just another money dump... sigh.

Manufacturer Response:Thank you for your comment! Supermicro needs your comment to improve our quality and service. For repairing service, feel free to contact our RMA Department. If you still have any question, feel free to contact us. Please see the below technical support contact information:

Phone: (408)503-8000
Hours: 9:00 a.m – 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time (Monday – Friday)

Email address: support@supermicro.com

You can also submit your issue online: https://webpr3.supermicro.com/Support/login.aspx?

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any question.

Thank you!
SM Technical Support

External Link(s):

RMA

ASRock C2550D4I Mini ITX Server Motherboard FCBGA1283 DDR3 1600 / 1333
Product price is -

Pros: Has been reliable for 6 months now. Better hope you don't require ASRock technical support.

Cons: The IPMI function to monitor the board would be great EXCEPT if you purchase low-voltage memory, an alert is hard-coded into the IPMI monitoring at a set voltage threshold that is too high for low voltage ram. And if you turn on the board monitoring you will receive constant alerts that the voltage for the RAM is critically low (from the VCCM1 sensor); when it really isn't, you are just using low voltage RAM. So you really can't use the monitoring feature if you are using low voltage RAM.

Other Thoughts: I see in an obscure online forum that ASRock had a bios fix for this. I have contacted ASRock 3 times over 2 months and no response from them. I contacted them directly via server_tsd@asrockamerica.com, no response. Phone call for tech support, nope, only sales support, and no phone technical support for server motherboards. Submitted an online tech support request through their website at http://event.asrockrack.com/tsd.asp, still no response. NOT really the support you expect for a server motherboard. Won't be using ASRock for any future server builds, I will stick with Intel or other brand name boards where I know I can get support if necessary.

Manufacturer Response:Dear Valued ASRock Rack Customer,

we apologize that we didn’t receive your technical support email. As of Dec 05, 2016, we received your email and have immediately responded to it. The email address is wxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxgyguide.com . In responding to your email, I explained to you that I have scanned through our email system by using your name and email address, but couldn’t find if we have received your original email until today. Furthermore, I have also provided you the troubleshooting steps to narrow in to the possible root cause. Please kindly reply to my email below and we will move forward quickly to the next step if necessary.
Thank you

William william@asrockamerica.com

ASRock Rack Support

Reviewed By:Anonymous,12/4/2016 11:04:28 AM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product .
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Supermicro X9SAE-V Desktop Motherboard - Intel C216 Chipset - Socket H2 LGA-1155 - Retail Pack
Product price is

Pros: Worked well for 3 years.
Didn't have IPMI but had a somewhat functional Intel Management Engine instead.
Lots of slots.
Cheaper unbuffered memory

External Link(s):

RMA

SUPERMICRO MBD-X11SAE-M-O Micro ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1151 Intel C236
Product price is -

Pros: I bought 5 of these and one spontaneously died during usage after about 9 months. Considering a failure rate of 4/5, it's not too bad. The good thing is that I sent the board back to SuperMicro and they were able to repair it and send it back, fully covered by warranty. I had a working board again after about 2 weeks.

Cons: I've rarely ever had a board fail that is only 9 months new. This is clearly a con, but at least the service made up for it.

Other Thoughts: I'll buy another one, for some reason I keep coming back to this board for my workstations. I like the low cost pairing with 64 GB ECC and a E3-1245v5.

Reviewed By:Rafael J.,12/3/2016 8:02:00 AM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product .
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ASRock J1900D2Y Mini ITX Server Motherboard LGA 1150 DDR3 1333 / 1066
Product price is -

Pros: - Got it to work with cheap ValueSelect laptop memory.
- What others have said.
- I got this motherboard for cheaper than $169, and in those circumstances I believe this board is worth the money.

Cons: Most irritating:
- Some Dr. Debug codes lacked documentation in the manual.

Honorable Mentions (already stated):
- No Front USB Header.
- Fan configuration: too many presets, not enough customization.

Other Thoughts: - If you need a low-profile I/O shield, you can have ASROCK "provide you the I/O drawing if you would like to have a mechanical supplier make the panel" by contacting their customer support, then taking the file to some other manufacturer, what fun!
- I totally missed the part where the 3rd Ethernet was dedicated to IPMI, however after figuring this out and getting it to work it's pretty cool (because I've never used IPMI before).
- There was absolutely no mention of the LED Indicator in the manual that lights up blue when you press it. I thought it was a magic button at first until I used IPMI (n00b al3rt).

Reviewed By:Matt W.,12/2/2016 1:35:41 PM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product 1 week to 1 month.

This user purchased this item from Newegg

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ASUS Z10PE-D8 WS SSI EEB Server Motherboard Dual Intel Socket 2011-3
Product price is -

Pros: Learned to question purchases here.

Cons: Deeply disappointing.

Other Thoughts: It's been about a week since I purchased this item and until all the other parts arrived.

Connected everything and... no go. Started pulling things one by one suspecting pretty much everything. CPU, RAM, PSU.

Not even a beeping signal, though this board has a pretty sophisticated diagnostics mechanism built in. Collected logs - and they're pretty much empty ("DUMPing" followed by "DUMP Finish").

Reviewed By:Tomasz D.,11/27/2016 6:54:15 PM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product 1 day to 1 week.

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SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SDV-4C-TLN2F-O Intel Xeon D-1520 Mini ITX Server Motherboard
Product price is

Reviewed By:Chad S.,11/23/2016 6:26:42 PM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product 1 day to 1 week.

This user purchased this item from Newegg

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Pros: Price
2 x 10Gbe
M.2
Up to 128GB ECC RAM
M-ITX

Cons: Hot - If you do not actively cool the CPU it will overheat
Cannot boot from NVMe M.2, only SATA M.2
Front USB 3.0 header would be good
BIOS does not have health/temp information
Cannot flash BIOS without DOS boot disk

Other Thoughts: Only thing I did not expect was not being able to boot from NVMe, but really not too big of a deal.
3 of these and a 10Gbe switch and you have a monster lab ready to go!

Manufacturer Response:Thank you for your comment! Supermicro needs your comment to improve our quality and service. According to the TDP of SOC, we strongly recommend the customer to use the active heatsink. If you install the OS with UEFI mode on NVMe M.2, system can boot from OS properly. About the health/temp information, you can check with IPMI. If you still have any question, feel free to contact us. Please see the below technical support contact information:

Phone: (408)503-8000
Hours: 9:00 a.m – 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time (Monday – Friday)

Email address: support@supermicro.com

You can also submit your issue online: https://webpr3.supermicro.com/Support/login.aspx?

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any question.

Thank you!
SM Technical Support

External Link(s):: Submit your issue

Pros: Price
2 x 10Gbe
M.2
Up to 128GB ECC RAM
M-ITX

Other Thoughts: Only thing I did not expect was not being able to boot from NVMe, but really not too big of a deal.
3 of these and a 10Gbe switch and you have a monster lab ready to go!

External Link(s):

Submit your issue

SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SL7-F-O Micro ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1150 Intel C222 DDR3 1600
Product price is -

Pros: I purchased as a result of a referral from a friend, building an UnRaid Server and wanted a solid, high-speed board as my base. The build went together very easily and easily accommodated the Haswell E3 process and heat sink. Here's the best part; I had a problem getting the board configured so I called Supermicro. They were fantastic. I had a tech work with me for over an hour and we finally figured out what was happening. I couldn't be happier with the quality of the product and the support from the company.

Cons: There is nothing I could say about this board that would be considered a con.

Other Thoughts: If I build another server for my office, I would buy this same board and processor in a split second.

Reviewed By:Mitchell R.,11/21/2016 5:44:46 PM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product 1 week to 1 month.

This user purchased this item from Newegg

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ASRock C2750D4I Mini ITX Server Motherboard FCBGA1283 DDR3 1600 / 1333
Product price is -

Pros: Works great for a home server, small size, low power, easy to setup.

Cons: It died after two years. For a server motherboard with a 3 years warranty, that's unacceptable for me.

Other Thoughts: I posted a review before and ASRock responded, but I could not answer in return:

> Wonder where did you submit the support ticket at?

http://event.asrockrack.com/tsd.asp
I followed the 'contact support' links on your site.

> If you could provide us your first and last name other than anonymous, I am more than happy to scan our email record to see if your inquiry has come through.

Sorry, I'm not posting my real name on a public place. Privacy and all that ...

> We mostly reply all email inquiries the same day they came in to our system.

I sent it on Oct 30. Something went really, really wrong there...

> Did you also perform troubleshooting step on other hardware such as PSU to eliminate the root cause? How about memory? How did you determine that it’s board that caused the problem?

I removed every peripheral, leaving only the board, its RAM and the PSU. I tested the RAM in another known good machine, with success. I swapped the server PSU with another more powerful and known good, and got the same absence of reaction from the bios. I've cleared the CMOS too, with no success.

> A little more information will be much productive and appreciated.
True, my apologies. I tend to be terse and I'm kinda frustrated.

I contacted William (US support) directly, and will be filling a RMA request as he suggested.

Manufacturer Response:Dear Valued ASRock Rack Customer,

I am glad to know you are now being taken care of with the RMA service procedure. Whether or not we are able to duplicate your issue with the board you return, we will surely send you back a tested and fully functional unit.

Thank you

ASRock Rack Support
Email: http://event.asrock.com/tsd.asp?ln=en

Reviewed By:Anonymous,11/21/2016 5:18:59 PM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product more than 1 year.

This user purchased this item from Newegg

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ASRock C236 WSI Mini ITX Server Motherboard LGA 1151 Intel C236
Product price is -

Pros: 8 SATA ports
internal USB 3.0 port so you can install OS on flash drive and have the drive inside the case.
dual gig-e
ECC (unbuffered) support
xeon support

overall great board for building a freeNAS setup

Cons: You need to pull the ram to be able to unplug the main power connector.
Could use an extra set of system fan headers to support NAS cases that use more than one system fan. Had to replace my NAS case fans with fans that could run off molex power to work around the issue.

Other Thoughts: run this with 32GB ECC, Xeon E3-1230, 8 drive case with 8x sata drives, freenas installed on 64GB USB 3.0 flash drive.
Using primarily as a PLEX media server.

Reviewed By:Kenny B.,11/21/2016 3:03:35 PM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product 1 month to 1 year.

This user purchased this item from Newegg

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ASRock C2550D4I Mini ITX Server Motherboard FCBGA1283 DDR3 1600 / 1333
Product price is -

Pros: I like the board management software, low power consumption. Ridiculously good software compatibility. I tested it with various BSDs and open source solaris forks, with no trouble.

Cons: It worked well enough for a bit over 6 months, then kernel paniced on some processor error. Now, it power cycles every 10 seconds or so instead of getting through the power on self test. I unplugged the drive, tried both dimms in slot A1 on their own, and tried a known-good (and extremely over-speced) power supply.

Other Thoughts: ASRock tells me that newegg will provide me with technical support and handle the RMA. I haven't emailed anyone yet; this is based on what their website says here:

http://www.asrock.com/support/index.us.asp?cat=RMA

I've never heard of contacting newegg for something 6 months after the purchase date. I'm skeptical that Newegg will handle the warranty service.

Manufacturer Response:Dear Anonymous,

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
If you need technical support, please visit our web site http://event.asrockrack.com/tsd.asp to submit a ticket.
Our server products carry 3-year manufacture warranty.

Thank you

ASRock Rack Support
Email: http://event.asrock.com/tsd.asp?ln=en

Reviewed By:Anonymous,11/20/2016 8:31:52 PM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product 1 month to 1 year.

This user purchased this item from Newegg

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GIGABYTE GA-9SISL Mini ITX Server Motherboard BGA 1283
Product price is -

Pros: Low power consumption. Quiet.

Cons: So, I was running Xen server with few virtual environments and the GA-9SISL decided to stop working. It is not even completing POST. The case's power supply was tested by using another motherboard. The power going into the power supply is using a UPS. I have the 1 year warranty and I will exercise that warranty tomorrow. I will keep all posted.

Other Thoughts: if the pending replacement MB works; I will recommend it.

Reviewed By:Michael V.,11/20/2016 6:15:16 PM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product 1 month to 1 year.

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ASRock C226 WS ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1150 Intel C226 DDR3 1600/1333
Product price is -

Pros: -Solid durability
-Good Design
-Bug code on the board made troubleshooting much easier
-Very Reliable once set up
-Lots of sata ports and usb ports

Cons: -It took way to much time to set up
-Extremely picky on what ram it will let you install
-on-board graphics did not even work when I got the board
-Had to reseat the cpu and ram 6 times to get it to work....

Other Thoughts: I would totally recommend this board to others! If they have time to kill and know that it can be extremely frustrating when setting it up. Once you are past the initial setting up phase, then this has been very reliable. It has not given me any problems and works as advertised. Just be very aware that setting it up usually comes with many, many frustrations.... It is a very picky board with what will and what wont work on it. I also would not rely on the on-board graphics. That was the most upsetting part and ended up getting a decent graphics card somewhere else online.

Reviewed By:Skyler N.,11/20/2016 12:48:50 PM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product 1 week to 1 month.

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SUPERMICRO MBD-X9DR3-F-O SSI EEB Server Motherboard Dual LGA 2011 DDR3 1600
Product price is -

Pros: -supports boatloads of RAM, so far populated with 256GB of RAM and 2 x 8 core xeons
-built in ikvm supporting ipmi
-intel finally added support for trim for drives in raid on normal sata-raid ports (this board has a separate "full" raid implemetation as well)

Cons: -narrow ILM, be careful when getting CPU cooler, I thought I got a CPU with narrow ILM
-narrow ILM, be careful when getting CPU cooler, I thought I got a CPU with narrow ILM
- and did I mention, the narrow ILM?

-SSI-EEB form factor - boo hiss, knew it when bought it and planned for it, so read other comments

Other Thoughts: Hard to find a good looking SSI-EEB compatible case. I knew this when I bought it. Sooooooo...... I bought a corsair air 540, because I love the case and have used it on so many other builds. Some of the holes line up and some don't. If you don't mind drilling the case - which I didn't you will end up drilling 4 holes and also using 3 plastic standoffs to support the board when plugging in the RAM and other items.

Top left and two bottom right holes use plastic standoffs. Two bottom rights ones will rest on the rubber grommets in the Corsair Air 540 case. Drill holes for the three center screws (top, middle, bottom) as well as top right. Get yourself a 6-32 tap so you can drill the whole and tap it so the corsair motherboard standoffs will screw right in to the case; maybe pickup a few 6-32 nuts in case you strip the hole.

Also, yes, it is a server board, not a gamer or enthusiast board, so BIOS is slow on boot, systems really should have ECC Registered ram (and is required if over 128GB of RAM), no sound, no usb3, basic onboard video via VGA, and only 2 x sata III. Again, not complaints, all known before purchase and my purchase was for a VM host.

System will be just fine for a high-power workstation as long as you keep that stuff in mind.

Enjoy!

Reviewed By:Chris S.,11/19/2016 10:46:53 PM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product 1 day to 1 week.

This user purchased this item from Newegg

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ASRock EP2C602 SSI EEB Server Motherboard Dual LGA 2011 Intel C602 Supports DDR3 1866 / 1600 / 1333 / 1066 R/LR ECC and UDIMM
Product price is -

Pros: board works flawlessly, no hiccups, using as a small 24/7 server and its super fast for my needs.

Cons: i dont have any cons after a month of running

Other Thoughts: 2 2670s
64 gigs ecc
server 2012 r2
couldn't be happier so far

Reviewed By:John S.,11/19/2016 3:12:19 PM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product 1 month to 1 year.

This user purchased this item from Newegg

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SUPERMICRO X9SRL-F ATX Server Motherboard
Product price is

Submit your issue

Pros: - IPMI
- Pretty much everything else you'd expect from a Supermicro motherboard
- Decent price for the featureset

Cons: - BMC is right where PCIe cards are inserted; I've fried a board by shorting it with the metal bracket of a PCIe card, and nearly fried another
- POST beep codes are largely undocumented and even support doesn't know what most of them mean

Other Thoughts: - LGA2011 NARROW--not standard. You'll need a narrow fan.

Manufacturer Response:Thank you for your comment! Supermicro needs your comment to improve our quality and service. Basically, beep code is only for reference. If you still have any question, feel free to contact us. Please see the below technical support contact information:

Phone: (408)503-8000
Hours: 9:00 a.m – 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time (Monday – Friday)

Email address: support@supermicro.com

You can also submit your issue online: https://webpr3.supermicro.com/Support/login.aspx?

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any question.

Thank you!
SM Technical Support

External Link(s):: BIOS post & beep code table

Reviewed By:Adam C.,11/13/2016 1:23:00 PM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product 1 month to 1 year.

This user purchased this item from Newegg

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Pros: Cheap
No ECC RAM
Small

Cons: No AES-NI
Proprietary size

Other Thoughts: I bought this to make my home pfSense, but didn't check out the D525 Atom, nor this board. It's a proprietary size (my stupid move not researching better). I thought it was just ITX. It's not.

If you're doing any sort of encryption, avoid this board. No AES-NI. I have it as a tunnel endpoint on an IPSec tunnel doing a 15Mb/s NFS stream and the CPU hovers around 50% usage. If you have no need for encryption, though, it's not a bad board at all.

Manufacturer Response:Thank you for your comment! Supermicro needs your comment to improve our quality and service. If you still have any question, feel free to contact us. Please see the below technical support contact information:

Phone: (408)503-8000
Hours: 9:00 a.m – 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time (Monday – Friday)

Email address: support@supermicro.com

You can also submit your issue online: https://webpr3.supermicro.com/Support/login.aspx?

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any question.

Thank you!
SM Technical Support

External Link(s):

Submit your issue

SUPERMICRO MBD-A1SAI-2550F-O Mini ITX Server Motherboard FCBGA 1283 DDR3 1600/1333
Product price is -

Pros: Small
Silent
Comparatively cheap
IPMI

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: I bought this for a pfSense build for my house. Works like a champ and is silent.

On a 100/100 fiber connection, it's very sufficient. The built-in AES-NI helps with the constant 15Mb/s IPSec traffic (it doesn't even register it).

Reviewed By:Adam C.,11/13/2016 1:18:51 PM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product 1 month to 1 year.

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ASRock C2550D4I Mini ITX Server Motherboard FCBGA1283 DDR3 1600 / 1333
Product price is -

Pros: Affordable.

Cons: Died after little more than 2 years. Extra SATA controller was buggy according to FreeNAS people and they recommended to not use them. IPMI was always a bit unreliable.

Manufacturer Response:Dear Anonymous,

Our server boards come with 3-year manufacture warranty. Within 3-year of purchase, if you have run into any issue with the board, RMA service will be well covered by warranty.

If you have any technical issues or warranty inquiry, please contact me with detail problem description at william@asrockamerica.com
I will assist you shortly.

Thank you

ASRock Rack Support
Email: http://event.asrock.com/tsd.asp?ln=en

Reviewed By:Anonymous,11/12/2016 9:25:52 PM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product more than 1 year.

This user purchased this item from Newegg

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ASRock EP2C602-4L/D16 SSI EEB Server Motherboard Dual LGA 2011 Intel C602 DDR3 1600/1333/1066
Product price is -

Pros: -Dual sockets
-Supports 128GB ECC RAM in 16 slots
-Lots of PCI-E slots
-Integrated IPMI/BMC
-Tons of SATA ports

Cons: -Only 2 USB ports, and they're only USB2. A third USB2 port is accessible from the inside.
-There are USB front panel connectors, but they're also only USB2 so they can't be used with most modern cases (USB3 plug is different).
-No onboard sound (though it is to be expected on a server motherboard)
-Terrible fan speed control
-Incredibly long POST time, even compared to Dell, HP, and Supermicro server boards
-Very few SATA ports are SATA3
-Cost

Other Thoughts: I'm using this as a workstation with a number of virtualized servers running 24/7, and it's at least stable. I haven't had any driver related issues on Windows 7 or Arch Linux which is nice, though Windows needed the drivers downloaded as they aren't in Windows Update's database. Though it's technically not E-ATX, it will fit in an E-ATX case. Two of the screw holes don't line up, but a tiny plastic spacer can be used to keep it from sagging in place of the screw.

My biggest gripes with it are the features you'd notice when it's used as a daily-driver PC. The fan speed is NOT accessible to the OS and never will be. The fan speed goes straight to the BMC chip, so to view it you need to go to the BMC console and view it there. As a result, the fan speed can't be controlled by the OS. There's an automatic fan speed control setting in the BIOS, but it seems to be forgotten about after a week of uptime. The fans then run at full deafening speed until you power cycle the system (reboots won't do it, the BMC chip has to lose power to reset and there's no option in the BMC console).

So the BMC is problematic, but there are also grievances to be had with the SATA port configuration. There are three different SATA controllers on this motherboard, so it takes a fair bit of research to determine which ones are optimal to use. If you have several hard drives (as I do since this is running a bunch of virtualized servers) you end up waiting for all three SATA controllers to initialize each time the system is rebooted. Surely they could have used some controller that supports more than just a few drives to simplify things. SATA3 speeds would also be nice. I think only 2 of them are SATA3, but I'd have to check the manual again to be sure.

I suppose the last pain-point of this before things get too nitpicky is the cost. At nearly 4 bills it's just way to expensive to have these sorts of issues. I bought it because I didn't want to deal with the more locked down Dell/HP server motherboards, but if I was to do this again I'd probably try to find something by Supermicro or really any other manufacturer that's producing dual-socket motherboards.By the time you add in a sound card, USB3 card, and a standalone fan controller, you could have found a better motherboard that works for everything out of the box. I don't recommend this board, but I will at least give it 2 eggs because it does mostly work (fan/BMC aside).

Manufacturer Response:Dear Steven,

Intel C602 PCH only supports USB 2.0. For a server board architecture, most of the resources are reserved for internal lanes switching. And while it’s a server board, it doesn’t always inherit the luxurious number of USB ports found on Desktop and gaming boards. It’s very normal. Server boards are hardly equipped with audio chipset much like workstation server board (EP2C602D8A http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=EPC602D8A#Specifications ).
And again, Intel C602 only support two SATA3.0 ports http://ark.intel.com/products/63984 . There are only TWO storage controllers on this board – Intel C602 and Marvell SE9230. Even our product page says it. Only if you have contacted our support team, we could have saved you time by writing a rather accurate review.

If you have any technical inquiry, please contact me with detail problem description at william@asrockamerica.com
I will assist you shortly.

Thank you

ASRock Rack Support
Email: http://event.asrock.com/tsd.asp?ln=en

Reviewed By:Steven K.,11/12/2016 10:33:05 AM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product 1 month to 1 year.

This user purchased this item from Newegg

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SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SDV-4C-TLN2F-O Intel Xeon D-1520 Mini ITX Server Motherboard
Product price is

Reviewed By:Adam C.,11/11/2016 10:38:26 AM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product 1 week to 1 month.

This user purchased this item from Newegg

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Pros: Comparatively cheap
10Gb NICs
IPMI
Xeon
128MB ECC RAM capacity

Cons: Toasty. Extremely toasty.

Other Thoughts: I bought this for a shallow rack mount to house a file server/DC for a business. It's a great, great board, minus the fact the CPU, if there's not a breeze blowing over the heat sink, will overheat within 5 minutes, so you need some sort of case with higher-flow active cooling or to screw a fan (I bought a 40MM Evercool) onto it and it will be fine.

For a Xeon ITX, you can't beat the price, honestly. 4 cores, 2.4GHz (it's a 1521, not a 1520). Up to 128MB of ECC. There's a 1.5U case that it fits into around here from ARC that works awesomely and will allow you to screw a fan on top of the heat sink to take care of the overheat problem. That, coupled with 2 60MM Noctua fans keep the proc at a comfortable 55C for me.

Highly recommended buy. Just get a fan to blow air off the heat sink. That's the only reason I gave it 4 eggs, not 5.

External Link(s):: Submit your issue

Reviewed By:Patrick H.,11/11/2016 2:31:11 PM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product 1 month to 1 year.

This user purchased this item from Newegg

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Pros: If it wasn't for the lack of fan control this motherboard would be a 5 star.
A good number of SATA ports, PCI M.2, 2400 DDR4 memory support , MicroATX, IPMI; just what you'd expect for a small footprint server.

Cons: Supermicro missed to boat when it comes to fan control with this motherboard. Basically, there is no control.
Supermicro support says OEM fans are not supported because fan low speed is too low and will cause low fan sensor read errors. The sensor read error will cause all fans to cycle from slow to fast to slow again; over and over. There is no way to control this unless you set the fans to full speed. I am stuck with all my fans (4) spinning a 1500 RPM.

It is my opinion fan speed should be governed by thermal output. My current configuration has 9, that's right, 9 thermal sensors monitoring temperature out of a total of 11 sensors. And all sensors are reporting temperatures below 30 C. So I have a very cool running machine.

I am still investigating other fan speed control options; however, it should not be this difficult and Supermicro should fix this in firmware update.

Not ideal for a home server because you can't make it quiet.

Other Thoughts: If you don't care about fan noise then this is a good entry level server. You will be happy with its performance. Performance wise, I'm very happy.
LGA2011 configuration is NARROW which limits your choice in CPU coolers. Typical LGA2011 coolers are SQUARE and will not fit a NARROW. So make sure your LGA2011 cooler supports the NARROW option. I am using Noctua NH-U12DXi4 and works very well; however, you may have space problems with this cooler and MicroATX cases.
Unless you have a lot of air flow through the case do not use a passive (fanless) CPU cooler; even if you are using a low watt Xenon E5-2620 V4 like me. You will not be able to dissipate the heat fast enough and will overheat.

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Submit your issue

ASRock EP2C602-4L/D16 SSI EEB Server Motherboard Dual LGA 2011 Intel C602 DDR3 1600/1333/1066
Product price is -

Pros: Well...the board arrived a little early!

Cons: Initially the MOBO was reporting issues with Memory modules not registering. After swapping modules around trying to isolate the problem, it boiled down to a defective MOBO. Quite a disappointment...especially after having spent the time installing the MOBO, cables, and peripherals only to have to completely rip everything out of the case.

It's odd that the MOBO only has 2 USB slots. be sure to purchase a USB hub if you plan on using this for anything other than a server.

Other Thoughts: It seems hit or miss with the Mobo. Not sure I can recommend it for purchase.

Manufacturer Response:Dear Ryan,

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Based on your problem description, it evidently indicates that there may be some accidental bent pins or stained pins in the CPU socket. Memory controller is embedded in CPU; if there are some damage pins in the CPU socket and depending on the damaged region among the pins, it could have affected how the CPU accesses a certain group of memory. 9 out of 10 EP2C602-4L/D16 returned from Newegg are found with bent pins in CPU socket(s), while another one could be a completely working unit. We checked our Technical Support email system but couldn’t find any Ryan with the same board. Only if you have contacted us before, we could have provided you with some troubleshooting steps. If you are not sure that if you would recommend this board, we will be more than happy to help you find the truth.

If you have any technical inquiry, please contact me with detail problem description at william@asrockamerica.com
I will assist you shortly.

Thank you

ASRock Rack Support
Email: http://event.asrock.com/tsd.asp?ln=en

Reviewed By:Ryan M.,11/8/2016 4:52:43 PM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product 1 week to 1 month.

This user purchased this item from Newegg

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ASUS Z10PE-D16 SSI EEB Server Motherboard Dual LGA 2011 R3
Product price is -

Pros: Fast Sipping

Cons: Waiting to get back from National Guard so I can ship off the old board

Other Thoughts: Looks Like and awesome board. Not able to say yet. I will update after we get the RMA.

Reviewed By:Eric M.,11/8/2016 7:03:05 AM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product 1 week to 1 month.

This user purchased this item from Newegg

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ASUS Z10PA-U8 ATX Server Motherboard LGA 2011-3 DDR4 2133 / 1866 / 1600 / 1333
Product price is -

Pros: Looks good on paper

Cons: I ordered 2 of these to upgrade 2 of my servers. I have been using ASUS for years without any problems. Ordered compatible CPU and memory right out of their manual. Can't even boot to BIOS. I get "system init" on screen and then it hangs with Q-code "87" and screen goes black. Code 87 doesn't even exist in the manual. I've unplugged everything except a fan, still no joy. Other MB hangs with different code, but still won't even load to BIOS. Also, one mounting hole is not right in standard ATX case. I installed in iStar D-400 (again, used for years), but one mounting hole in MB has no mounting hole in chassis to line up with. It would normally be where the second memory bank is, but they moved it towards the front of the chassis. Might work in EEB compliant chassis, dunno for sure.

UPDATE:
A solution has been found. Tried different memory... no luck. Tried ASRock MB, same result of not booting up. So now I'm thinking it's the CPU or PS. But really, a PS is a PS is a PS. Went back to the ASUS MB. The real issue was the BIOS and CPU. The BIOS was rev.3003, even though the ASUS site said it's 0303. CPU installed is Intel Xeon E5-2620 V4 Broadwell. Supposed to be supported. ASUS tech agreed. They asked me to RMA, but I wasn't ready to give up. I bought the cheapest E5-26xx V3 CPU I could find (2603), popped it in and it booted up fine. Updated BIOS to latest version (rev.3202), reinstalled V4 CPU and it booted fine. Build date on MB was 10/2015, purchased in July 28, 2016. Old BIOS will only accept V3 CPUs, not V4. With a V4 chip installed, you can't boot up far enough to update BIOS. You have to buy a V3 chip, update BIOS and reinstall V4 chip.

Other Thoughts: Now I get the fun task of calling ASUS support for help. I will update this when I talk with them.
I'm pretty sure I just wasted about 600 bucks and now have to find a new MB. Sigh...

UPDATE:
Do not plan on using a V4 CPU in this MB unless the BIOS has been updated to at least 3202.

What a PITA this has been... not easy on my wallet either.

Reviewed By:Todd J.,11/7/2016 9:59:32 AM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product 1 month to 1 year.

This user purchased this item from Newegg

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SUPERMICRO MBD-X10DAL-I-O ATX Server Motherboard Dual LGA 2011-3 Intel C612
Product price is -

Pros: Ease of installation, powerful. I'm not sure if there was an update to this board but I've had none of the shorting issues other purchasers have had. Not sure if its the chassis it's in (Rosewill 4u) or what but so far so good.

Cons: None at this time.

Other Thoughts: Currently running 1 Xeon 2620 v4 with 128GB RAM. No room in budget for additional CPU or ram but will certainly add later. Running ESX 6.0.1 with no issues nearly 2 months now.

Reviewed By:Christopher D.,11/6/2016 1:40:25 PM
This reviewer reports that his/her technical understanding of this type of product is and has owned this product 1 month to 1 year.

This user purchased this item from Newegg

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