Gigabyte announced four new mini-ITX motherboards for the Intel Xeon D-1500 SOC product family aimed at low-power and high-density server applications.
Gigabyte’s MB10-DS4, MB10-DS3, MB10-DS1 and MB10-DS0 are mini-ITX server motherboards that each feature a specific Intel Xeon D-series processor using BGA 1667. The DS1 and DS4 come with an Intel Xeon D-1521 processor that has four hyperthreaded cores (for a total of 8 threads) clocked at 2.4 GHz (2.7 turbo), and the DS0 and DS3 motherboards feature a D-1541 processor with eight cores and 16 threads clocked at 2.1 GHz with a 2.7 GHz turbo boost.
The feature sets of the motherboards are mostly the same, but the variances in processors and networking capabilities define a clear target consumer for each board. Here are the full specs of each motherboard:
| Motherboard | MB10-DS0 | MB10-DS1 | MB10-DS3 | MB10-DS4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | Intel Xeon D-1541 | Intel Xeon D-1521 | Intel Xeon D-1541 | Intel Xeon D-1521 |
| Memory | Up to 128 GB DDR4 RDIMM, Up to 64 GB DDR4 UDIMM | |||
| Video | Integrated Aspeed AST2400 2D Video Graphics Adapter | |||
| Storage | 5x SATA 6 Gb/s, 1x SATA 6 Gb/s supporting SATA DOM | |||
| LAN | Dual gigabit Ethernet ports (Intel i210), 1x 10/100/1000 management port | Dual 10 GbE SFP ports, Dual gigabit Ethernet Ports (Intel i210), 1x 10/100/1000 management port | ||
| Expansion Slots | 1x PCI-e 3.0 x 16 slot | |||
| Rear Ports | 2 x USB 3.0, 1x VGA, 3x RJ45 | 2x USB 3.0, 1x VGA, 2x SFP+, 3x RJ45
|
||
All of the motherboards can sport up to 128 GB of DDR4 RDIMM memory or 64 GB of DDR4 UDIMMs. The memory can also be ECC or non-ECC modules, with support for single- and dual-rank DIMMs. In addition, all of the boards feature an integrated Aspeed AST2400 video graphics adapter and six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, with one of the SATA ports supporting SATA DOM. There’s also one PCI-e 3.0 x 16 slot.
The networking features are the only major difference in the specs, with each Intel Xeon D processor-equipped motherboard having the option of additional dual 10-gigabit Ethernet SFP+ ports. This makes the DS3 and DS4 motherboards more suited for heavy networking workloads than its DS0 and DS1 counterparts.
It seems whether you need heavy processing power in a low-power package, high-speed networking capabilities, or both, Gigabyte’s new MB10-DS-series motherboards have an option for you in a mini-ITX form factor that seems to pack a lot of power.
