GIGABYTE Reveals C230 Series Server & Workstation Motherboards

GIGABYTE is ready for the new Intel Xeon E3 1200 V5 processors and they’re releasing four new motherboards for them today, all based on the new Intel C230 series chipsets. The new addition to the lineup consists of two workstation motherboards and two server motherboards. The new 14nm Skylake microarchitecture CPUs bring some new features to the single socket motherboards, mainly the switch to DDR4 memory with increased speed and maximum capacity. The other main new feature is the increase of the number and speed of PCIe lanes available from up to 8 Gen2 lanes to up to 20 Gen3 lanes.

The first new workstation motherboard is the MW31-SP0 and it comes in the normal ATX form factor. It features dual Intel Gigabit LAN with expansion abilities through the mezzanine card slot that can be used for additional network connections, but also for an extra M.2 slot or Thunderbolt port. It supports 2-way SLI and CrossFireX and has the 8 SATA3 ports that the chipset provides. Additionally it also has an M.2 storage port and onboard audio with 5 audio jacks and S/PDIF out on the rear plus onboard headers. You can pack this motherboard with up to 64GB DDR4 ECC memory.

The second workstation motherboard is the MW21-SE0 and it is a microATX form factor board intended for entry-level builds. With minimal specifications, it’s perfect for users looking for a simple and affordable yet highly durable solution to access the features of the new Xeon family.

The MW21-SE0 features a single Gigabit Ethernet LAN port, four USB 3.0 ports, a COM port, and a D-Sub VGA connector. You can connect up to six SATA3 drives to the onboard connectors. This motherboard can also equip up to 64GB ECC memory.

The GIGABYTE MX11-PC0 is a compact NVMe enabled server board designed for high density or low-profile server integration. The component placement is rackmount optimized and there are plenty of features despite the small size.

It is the first GIGABYTE server motherboard to be released with a mini-SAS HD connector capable of connecting to one NVMe drive. With higher IOPS, lower latency, and lower power consumption, the NVMe technology is perfect for this scenario. It features two Intel i210 Gigabit Ethernet controllers, four SATA3 ports and an onboard AST2400 for remote management (IPMI).

The MX31-BS0 is an entry-level microATX server board with rackmount optimized component placement and all the features required to integrate a standard server system based on the new Intel Xeon CPUs. It features two Intel GbE LAN ports, one M.2 slot, six SATA3 ports, and onboard IPMI 2.0 via an AST2400 chip. So despite being called an entry-level motherboard, it features quite a lot.