Six Dual Xeon Motherboards on the Cheap

Intel SE7505VB2, Continued

Alone among its fellow candidates in this test, Intel has given its board a SATA controller. The 3112A chip from Silicon Image has output connections for two drives. RAID 0 or 1 can be chosen as operating modes.

Even registered modules can be used in the DDR memory slots on the Intel board

As one of the few boards in the test, the SE7505VB2 can be run with registered memory. This opens up use of 2 GB modules up to a maximum memory of 8 GB. Alternatively, ECC mode can be activated.

Clearly labeled fan connections on the Intel board

The SE7505VB2 comes with four fan connections - which we consider generous to a fault. All are monitored by the system.

The I/O panel on the Intel board

Three USB 2.0 ports and the VGA output are accessible on the I/O shield. A further four USB ports figure on the board itself. Not exactly workstation-friendly: Intel does without sound and FireWire support.

One of a kind: console setting in the BIOS

The event console makes it possible to query the status of the operating computer at any time via the serial port.

Console query via the serial interface

A telnet console now enables remote operation of the Intel mobo. Image transfer is, however, limited to ASCII/ANSI codes. The SE7505VB2 sells for around $450. While it makes a flexible alternative for the server segment, it cannot be recommended for use as a workstation.