Server MBs

[Alma J Wetzker]

Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
> On Fri, 2005-08-19 at 15:20, Lonni J Friedman wrote:
> 
>>On Fri, 19 Aug 2005, Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
>>
>>>Dumb question here:
>>>
>>>I am looking at 19" rack mount chassis that can hold 6, 8 or however
>>>many more SATA disks. These seem to be common; however, it seems that
>>>all suppliers list that the systems are for Dual Xeon ATX MB. Well, I do
>>>not want Dual Xeon. I want a P4 ATX MB (as in an ASUS P4C800-Deluxe).
>>>Could I expect this to work? Could it be that the Dual Xeon info is just
>>>letting me know I can put that in, but a P4 MB should work as well?
>>>These are not coming with the MB. I will be adding that.
>>>
>>>I am asking various manufacturers this, but I want to know NOW!!
>>>
>>>Anyone know about this sort of thing?
>>
>>Generally speaking i don't think you can run Xeons and P4s in the same
>>motherboard, as they have different numbers of pins.  The P4C800 you
>>mentioned certainly can't take Xeons.
> 
> 
> I am not trying to run them in the same motherboard. I have selected the
> ATX motherboard and CPU that I want. What confuses me is that the rack
> chassis info say they are for an ATX with a Dual Xeon. I can see that
> they can say they support such a thing. But does that mean this is all
> the rack supports? I thought ATX defined where the connectors are and
> the types of connectors for power and things. The specific CPU should
> not really be a concern of the rack chassis. In fact, I have found some
> manufacturers that say their racks support ATX MB with Xeon, P4 or PIII.
> I think in the other cases (where only Xeon is listed) the manufacturer
> is being lazy or assumes their customers know this support (P4 and all)
> is implied.
> 

I usually run AMD so I am not positive, but, I think the high end Intel 
processors need a separate power connector from the power supply.  Are 
those connectors the same for a P4 and a Xeon?  Is it a 2U case so you 
can replace the PS with one that does have the correct connector if you 
guess wrong?

ATX does indeed mean that the mechanical connector locations are 
defined.  It even implies a certain connector for MB power.  With the 
specialized stuff that showed up in the decade since ATX was defined, 
some extra stuff is bound to get added.

     -- Alma