Motherboard and System Reviews

Pros:

• Standard ATX form factor
• 7x PCIe 3.0 slots ([4]x16, [3]x8), all lanes direct from CPU for max bandwidth
• PCIe slots can be bifurcated to run multiple GPUs from a single slot (with proper riser) at x8/x4
• supplemental power input for VGA (6-pin PCIe) to support high number of GPUs on board
• Support for EPYC Rome processors up to 64c/128t
• Supports 3200MHz DDR4 RDIMMs
• IPMI for remote management (power control, KVM redirection, BIOS flashes, hardware monitoring, etc)
• available in -2T variant with dual 10GBase-T ethernet (but not necessary for BOINC loads)
• priced very reasonably for this combination of features (~$400)

Cons:

• latest BIOS has a bug for PWM fan control. fan seems locked at 50% (non-issue for water cooling, or remove PWM pin for full speed), a beta BIOS exists to solve this.
• No BIOS update to support EPYC Milan (need ROMED8-2T ($600) for Milan support)
• CPUs and memory are a bit expensive depending on hardware chosen

Pros:

• Dual socket EPYC motherboard
• Standard E-ATX form factor (only a handful of E-ATX dual socket EPYC out there, most are proprietary)
• PCIe slots can be bifurcated to run multiple GPUs from a single slot (with proper riser) at x8/x4
• Support for 2x EPYC Rome processors up to 64c/128t each (Rome support on rev 2.0 only)
• Supports 3200MHz DDR4 RDIMMs
• IPMI for remote management (power control, KVM redirection, BIOS flashes, hardware monitoring, etc)
• dual 10GBase-T ethernet (available in non-NT with 1GbE, but I got a deal on this board)

Cons:

• Only 5 PCIe slots
• no supplemental VGA power
• Nvme slot is only PCIe x2 (not x4 like normal, but doesnt matter for BOINC)
• No BIOS update to support EPYC Milan (need H12DSi for Milan support)
• CPUs and memory are a bit expensive depending on hardware chosen

Pros:

• 11x PCIe x8 slots ([10] 3.0x8, [1] 2.0x4)
• uses dual Xeon E5-2600v2 CPUs (up to 12c/24t each) and DDR3 ECC RDIMM memory, which are very cheap
• X10 variant exists for v3/v4 CPUs and DDR4 ECC RDIMMs
• IPMI for remote management (power control, KVM redirection, BIOS flashes, hardware monitoring, etc)

Cons:

• proprietary non-ATX form factor. wont fit in any consumer chassis
• higher CPU power consumption vs performance
• x8 slots are closed ended, requires an adapter/riser or motherboard modification to install any x16 (most) GPUs
• no dedicated VGA power input

Pros:

• Standard ATX format (some might list it as EATX since it's a bit wider than ATX, but it doesn't reach all the way out to, or require, the EATX screw holes)
• x79 chipset, so it'll work with Xeon E5-1600v2 or E5-2600v2, which are pretty cheap
• has DDR3 ECC memory support (UDIMM only, no RDIMM)
• 7x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots ([3]x16, 4[x8]) using on-board PLX switches to expand CPU lanes
• dedicated VGA power input for multi-GPU

Cons:

• UDIMM memory is more expensive than RDIMM
• the PLX switch setup, while it works to expand PCIe/GPU bandwidth, can be a little unstable when heavily loaded with 7 GPUs
• the board in general has high power consumption due to the PLX chips.
• no Nvme support
• no IPMI
• still quite expensive for such old tech, even used (~$250+)