ASUS Intros WS C422 PRO SE Motherboard

[btarunr]

ASUS expanded its socket LGA2066 workstation-class motherboard lineup with the WS C422 Pro SE. The board is physically identical to the WS X299 Pro SE, but is based on the Intel C422 chipset. Designed for single-socket Intel Xeon W ("Skylake-W") processors, this board is targeted at workstation builders who require ECC memory support.

"Skylake-W" is an enterprise variant of the "Skylake-X" silicon, with support for up to 512 GB of ECC quad-channel DDR4 memory. It features up to 18 CPU cores, and is different from the Xeon Scalable "Skylake-SP" silicon. The board supports up to 512 GB of quad-channel DDR4 memory with support for ECC, over its eight memory slots. The rest of its feature-set is identical to that of the WS X299 Pro SE.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Gundem]

512 GB or ram? Wow! What can utilize that in today's application?

Board looks nice.

 

[Chaitanya]

512 GB or ram? Wow! What can utilize that in today's application?

Board looks nice.

Virtual machines and lots of them.

 

[Dr_b_]

Workstation board with no built in 10Gb Ethernet ports. Has enough slots though for a X550 or the like, but its a definite fail there.

 

[ZeDestructor]

Workstation board with no built in 10Gb Ethernet ports. Has enough slots though for a X550 or the like, but its a definite fail there.

10G? How cute. Talk is about 25G/40G/100G/200G with RDMA/RoCE these days (be it Ethernet, InfiniBand or OmniPath).

 

[notb]

Virtual machines and lots of them.

Actually this is not the most frequent use (as this is a workstation mobo, not server-oriented one).
A lot of RAM is almost a must for typical business uses: in-memory databases/analytical software. In such scenarios the program will use as much RAM as it can.

 

[Dr_b_]

10G? How cute. Talk is about 25G/40G/100G/200G with RDMA/RoCE these days (be it Ethernet, InfiniBand or OmniPath).

Cute indeed, but let's be realistic, 25G or+ on a consumer motherboard, and at what price? Not many have that sort of switching infrastructure in their homes or businesses at the client level, whereas 10G has been put into boards already, such as the X99-E-10G-WS, and 10G switches are accessible, if not a bit pricey still.

 

[ZeDestructor]

Cute indeed, but let's be realistic, 25G or+ on a consumer motherboard, and at what price? Not many have that sort of switching infrastructure in their homes or businesses at the client level, whereas 10G has been put into boards already, such as the X99-E-10G-WS, and 10G switches are accessible, if not a bit pricey still.

Somewhere around the 200-400 USD per port range, which is well in the realm of acceptable for someone buying Xeons and ECC memory. Plus, if you're not on the 10GBASE-T (regular 8P8C/RJ45 CAT6) bandwagon (I'm partial to 10GBASE-LR (Single-Mode Fibre) myself), the cheap $60 Aquantia controllers that everyone and their dog is shipping just don't cut it and needs upgrading anyways, meaning easily $100 "wasted" buying a board with those features, or alternatively, paying north of 200 for an Intel X550 or similar NIC (~150USD each at tray volumes) added onboard.

 

[Dr_b_]

Somewhere around the 200-400 USD per port range, which is well in the realm of acceptable for someone buying Xeons and ECC memory. Plus, if you're not on the 10GBASE-T (regular 8P8C/RJ45 CAT6) bandwagon (I'm partial to 10GBASE-LR (Single-Mode Fibre) myself), the cheap $60 Aquantia controllers that everyone and their dog is shipping just don't cut it and needs upgrading anyways, meaning easily $100 "wasted" buying a board with those features, or alternatively, paying north of 200 for an Intel X550 or similar NIC (~150USD each at tray volumes) added onboard.

X99-E-10G-WS has intel X550 controller, dont need add in PCI-E card, and RJ45 is fine, this is a client machine, not a server, and for people connecting their systems to a NAS for example which is a very likely scenario as this board is geared towards workstation/content creator crowd, even the aquantia cards are also good enough. There must not have been room on the motherboard for something like this, or it was cost related. The gripe is that now the slots which could have been used for storage or other will now be taken up by I/O.

You aren't likely to see 25G-200G built into a motherboard like this, certainly was probably a joke on your part to suggest that it should be built in to the motherboard, but my point is that 10G is realistic, has been done before by Asus and others with quality parts like X550, and is affordable and certainly not a waste. If you are partial to 25G-200G, and want LR fiber for some reason because you need your PC up to 10 Kilometers away from your switching infrastructure and you enjoy paying extra for that, your use case is niche, but bravo im sure your network is really something.

 

[karakarga]

There are only 7 capacitors for CPU regulation, this seems weak. Any tantalum capacitors present under the mainboard? If Xeon W-22xx series used, you need to update your bios first and only 4 memory pieces at 2933 MHz can work, additional 4 another modules do not supported at that speed. Last build Asus Pro WS C422-ACE has 17 capacitors for the CPU, and does not have 4 module limit issue, first initial bios of it also includes Xeon W-22xx support. This first build Asus WS C422 Pro/SE board also only 2 slot distance from first slot. Which means, if you install a 3 thick wide graphics card, the second graphics card slot is unusable. Again Asus Pro WS C422-ACE does not have this issue.

 

[karakarga]

There are only 7 capacitors for CPU regulation, this seems weak. Any tantalum capacitors present under the mainboard? If Xeon W-22xx series used, you need to update your bios first and only 4 memory pieces at 2933 MHz can work, additional 4 another modules do not supported at that speed. Last build Asus Pro WS C422-ACE has 17 capacitors for the CPU, and does not have 4 module limit issue, first initial bios of it also includes Xeon W-22xx support. This first build Asus WS C422 Pro/SE board also only 2 slot distance from first slot. Which means, if you install a 3 thick wide graphics card, the second graphics card slot is unusable. Again Asus Pro WS C422-ACE does not have this issue.

Underside of the mainboard, there are 2 additional tantalum capacitors J (6.3 Volt) 150uF in parallel connected to those 7 solid caps (6.3 Volt, 560uF) and additional empty place for two another tantalum caps, those can be filled, if wished. But, total ripple power is still a bit weak...