Gigabyte MU70-SU0 (Intel C612) Server Motherboard Review

Introduction, Specifications, and Packaging

Intel’s C612 chipset brought along a lot of improvements for the workstation and server platform, not just support for Haswell-EP Xeon E5 processors, but also DDR4 memory support at full speed. Today I’m taking a look at one of Gigabyte’s many great server solutions and while most people aren’t that familiar with Gigabyte’s server-side of things, I can assure you that it is a quite impressive line-up. This is the first time we’ve taken a look at a server motherboard, and while we’ve analysed workstation type boards, you will see us opening up our site to a lot more content revolving around servers, their components and everything in between. With that in mind, I’m pleased to start our new server motherboard review section off with a feature packed, small but mighty motherboard from Gigabyte; the MU70-SU0.

Specifications

The specifications are taken directly from the manufacturers homepage and are as such subject to change in possible future revisions.

Key Features

There is always something that sets each and every motherboard apart for the rest, sometimes it’s in features and other times it is the software. On this motherboard, it is most likely the 12 RAM slots that you can run at full speed at the same time.

• Intel Xeon processor E5-1600 V3 & E5-2600 V3 product families
• 12 x RDIMM/LRDIMM ECC DDR4 DIMM slots
• 4 x GbE LAN port (Intel I210)
• 9 x SATA III 6Gb/s
• 1 x mSATA slot
• 1 x USB 3.0 + 1 x USB 2.0 headers
• 1 x internal USB 3.0 port
• Aspeed AST2400 remote management controller

Packaging and Accessories

The box follows a very simple design and is perfect for the market it’s aimed at. There is no need for fancy artwork like we’re used to on consumer motherboards.

The rear of the box gives a little detail about 3 key points that are important to a board of this caliber including reliability, availability, and serviceability. These are all major factors for any IT admin needing a reliable product with quality components that is easy to set up and maintain.