MSI Win 2008 Compatability - alternative to ASRock

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Tanyac

Tanyac

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Aug 30, 2014
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Hello,

I've purchased 4 ASRock boards in the last 12 months. 3 of them have failed. 1 I sent back for a warranty claim 8 weeks ago and still haven't gotten an outcome. The second took 6 weeks, and the last one is failing but I haven't removed it because the retailer is stuffing me around, and when I went to ASRock they are stuffing me around now.

So - I'm looking at dumping ASRock and going to a different brand.

The motherboard most important is the X99 WS which lasted 4 months (It's in a Fractal Design ARC XL case with 5 fans and liquid cooling). The Server runs 16 hours a day and has 9 HDDs, 1 M.2 drive and an optical drive.I need to run 2008 R2 because I use WSUS 3.0 Sp2, which won't run on non-Server OS's

I've looked at Gigabyte and ASUS and none of those have the specifications that I need.

MSI have several boards - 10+ SATA3, 1+ M.2 PCIe x4 32gb/s, 2+ internal USB 2.0 headers, 64gb+ memory capacity supporting up to 3000 mhz, X99 chipset, 2011-3 socket.

Has anyone had any experience with MSI boards on Windows Server 2008 R2?

I know that Intel changed their driver installer to not allow LAN drivers on server OS's without some hacking, but apart from that are there any other driver issues or compatibility issues that you might have experienced?

I rang MSI and they said they have no boards certified for Server OS's but the guy said he thinks it will work. "Grab the hardware ID from the device manager and Google it and locate Windows 2008 R2 drivers for the device"... Sound a little too chancy??

Anyway, would appreciate some feedback and suggestions.

thanks
Tanya
 
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Lutfij

Lutfij

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Oct 7, 2009
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In the past when the ram kit(you've so painstakingly chosen to match a color scheme) was not found in a memory QVL it bring people to a heightened amount of sadness since the rams stated in the QVL would work without a hitch. In terms of a server where reliability is the highest concern and down time is a very big scare factor it's best to go with boards that actually have certification with working on the OS you're looking for. Puling up Hardware ID's from Device Manger and Googling it isn't a practical alternative for a server machine and as such I'd advise against it.

This link might interest you ;)
 
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Tanyac

Tanyac

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Aug 30, 2014
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I agree entirely, which is why I scoffed at MSI when they gave me that advice. Just trying to flog one of their boards.

In the end, I still have the ASRock installed, but I replaced the memory with 32gb 2800C14 Corsair (Only coz I couldn't find a 16g kit locally). That was cheaper than replacing the motherboard. ASROcks RMA process stinks and I could be without a board for months.

I also bought an MSI X99 for my PC to replace the ASUS I Had (That PC runs Win7). In the end, the MSI board is terrible. The BIOS is lacking, and the fan headers, even though they are 4 pin, only actually have 3 pins wired. There were a number of disappointments, so the MSI got ripped out about two weeks after I installed it. So - if server crashes persist, then the X99 WS is definitely at fault and I can force the drivers to install on the MSI board whilst I wait for ASRock to extract the fingers from their rear and replace the motherboard.
 
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