Finally some new dual socketed goodness from Intel that can be used by prosperous enthusiasts. For those who can afford the pair of Xeon E5-2600 V3 CPUs required to run a dual CPU system you can have 4 PCIe 16x slots running at full speed and compatible with both SLI and CrossFire. The motherboard is more optimized for heavy productivity workloads such as graphics rendering but that is no reason not to use it to build the biggest and baddest gaming machine on the planet!
Fremont, CA (10th September, 2014) – ASUS today announced the Z10PE-D8 WS motherboard based on the Intel C612 chipset and with dual processor sockets ready for the latest Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v3 product families.
The new Server System Infrastructure Enterprise Electronics Bay (SSI EEB) motherboards have superb storage support, including the ASUS PIKE II (Proprietary I/O Kit Expansion) card and support for PCI Express (PCIe) 3.0 x4 M.2 (Next-Generation Form Factor, or NGFF). They benefit also from the ASUS Q-Code Logger for one-touch easy maintenance and a Dr. Power LED lamp to clearly indicate unusual power status.
Ultimate PCI Express 3.0 multi-GPU power
The Z10PE-D8 WS is equipped to provide the ultimate workstation graphics power, with support for up to four dual-slot graphics cards. Both 4-Way NVIDIA GeForce SLI and AMD CrossFireX are supported, so it is an excellent choice for professionals who depend on powerful graphics in areas such as design, modeling and medical research, as well as processing-intensive simulation and rendering applications.
With a total of seven PCIe 3.0 slots, the Z10PE-D8 WS offers ample room for RAID cards, PCI Express-based solid-state drives (SSDs), video-capture cards and other high-speed components.
Premium components for premium power efficiency
Z10PE-D8 WS benefits from premium components hand-chosen and carefully arranged by ASUS engineers to provide optimum power efficiency. These include integrated Driver-MOSFETs (Dr. MOS) to save space and reduce operating temperatures for more efficient operation, and ASUS-exclusive Beat Thermal Chokes II. The new Beat Thermal Chokes II design delivers up to 94% power efficiency and lower temperatures under normal operation.
ASUS is the world’s first server manufacturer to introduce 12K solid capacitors — the Z10PE-D8 WS has these ultra-resilient components on board. These Japanese-made capacitors are able to withstand up to 12,000 hours of temperatures as high as 105°C, far exceeding everyday demands. And at a typical operating temperature of 65°C, our 12K capacitors have an expected lifespan of 1.2m hours — or well over a century.
The Z10PE-D8 WS also employs ProCool power connectors. The ProCool design eliminates hollow areas associated with traditional power connectors, ensuring a close and secure connection with the PSU power connector pins. The flush connection enables lower impedance and better heat dissipation – helping to prevent connector burnouts.
Flexible fan speed control, flexible storage and easy maintenance
The new Z10PE-D8 WS motherboard offers flexible fan-speed controls, which can be managed manually or automatically. In automatic mode, the fan speeds are adjusted according to the processor temperature. In manual mode, the administrator can set a fan curve according to cooling requirements.
The new Z10PE-D8 WS motherboard offers industry-leading storage flexibility, with a built-in M.2 connector supporting PCIe 3.0 x4 2260 (60mm), 2280 (80mm) and 22110 (110mm) devices, and support for the ASUS PIKE II (Proprietary I/O Kit Expansion) card for high-reliability, enterprise-grade 12Gbit/s Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) devices.
The motherboard also benefits from ASUS Q-Code Logger, an easy-maintenance button that records four-digit port 80 code logs to a flash drive with one touch, so administrators can diagnose problems quickly and easily. Similarly, the conveniently-located Dr. Power LED displays messages to clearly indicate a power fault.
AVAILABILITY & PRICING
The Z10PE-D8 WS is priced at $599 and will be available soon at ASUS authorized resellers and distributors.
These dual CPU motherboards
These dual CPU motherboards seem to get released every year or so, and reviewers make a massive, beastly rig, and it never really seems to convert to better benchmark scores. Definitely not per dollar.