X-bit labs

Supermicro PDSGE Mainboard Review: Desktop Platform from the Server-Maker

Category: Mainboards

by Platon Scheblykin

[ 10/26/2005 | 07:04 PM ]

Today we would like to introduce to you a pretty unusual desktop product from the leading server and workstation solutions manufacturer – Supermicro. This desktop mainboard with great networking capabilities, excellent software bundle and reliable operation may certainly attract your attention.

Table of contents:

• Specification
  
• Package and Accessories
  
• PCB Design
  
• Functionality Indepth
  
• BIOS, Overclocking and System Monitoring
  
• Performance
  
• Conclusion
  

Today we are going to introduce to you an unusual mainboard: PDSGE from Supermicro. What is so unusual about it? Well, it is primarily the origin of this product. To give you a better idea of what we are actually talking about here, I would like to say a few words about the manufacturer.

Supermicro Company founded in 1993 deal with servers and server equipment. Of course, they also design mainboards for servers of different levels and types. So, the remarkable thing about the mainboard we are going to discuss today is that the manufacturer doesn’t position it as a server solution. They target it as a desktop platform. Note that this is not the first Supermicro mainboard positioned for the desktop platform market, but there are not too many of them in Supermicro’s product range.

So, today we will try to find out if Supermicro PDSGE will become a good solution for a reliable desktop system.

Specification

The mainboard we are reviewing today is also available in a more advanced modification called PDSG4. The latter modification is equipped with an onboard SCSI controller and a slower PCI-X bus (100MHz against 133MHz by the PDSGE we have in our lab now).