Great entry level server (CUEP2-M)

Member Name: andycharger

Product:	CUEP2-M
Date:	18/12/01 (198 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good for small servers

Disadvantages: Not enough memory slots

Motherboards are expensive pieces of kit to buy nowadays compared to other components.
Particularly when you consider the plummeting prices of other products on the market such as CD Writers, monitors and RAM.

But when you are building a server to comply with the needs of a small office or gaming network at home, there really is only one choice.

I have built 4 servers now with this motherboard, the Asustek FCPGA Intel 815e ATX V S L.

The reasons for this I will explain.
Servers work best with plenty of RAM, plenty of processor power and loads of disk space. Whereas the Motherboard does not provide any of these directly, it does provide a `meeting place` for all of this raw power to come together.
For this, a motherboard needs to provide enough sockets and fittings to install all relevant components.

This board has the lot.

Firstly, you can stick 512Mb of SDRAM into it via 3 DIMM slots. This runs at 133Mhz clock speed so it is the latest and greatest RAM to stick in other than the P4 RAM.
512 does not sound a huge amount but it is sufficient for all but the most demanding servers.

Processor power is provided on this board by Pentium 3. Emulating the 815e chipset and using a `flip chip` FCPGA socket to hold the processor, either a P3 or a celeron will fit it nicely.
Recommend a P3 for a good quality server.

As far as network connections go, this board is great because it provides on board LAN (Local Area Network) connections as opposed to using a Network Card. This is all taken care of by an ultra fast
Ethernet controller provided by 3Com, a market leader.

There are also 5 PCI sockets for expansion using Graphics cards,sound cards and other PCI fitting extras.
Add to this an AGP slot and you have one of the most comprehensive collections of expansion sockets around.

Using a LS99 LAN/SCSI connector, multiple hard drives can be connected to give you maximum sto
rage space. Up to 30 SCSI connections can be made at rates of up to 160Mbps.

There are facilities for on board Graphics and Sound but don`t expect cutting edge performance.
The AC97i sound module on this chip set is very poor. It does not rival any of the after market Soundblaster types and has conflicts with many of the top games available.
The on board graphics take up to 4Mb of shared memory which is borrowed from the main RAM. 4Mb does not seem like a lot but it does put further strain on the System`s precious memory.

With many other devices now requiring connection via USB, this board allows up to 7 devices to be hooked up. Scanners,printers,Web cams and joysticks all seem redundant as far as Servers go but its nice to have the facility in case the board is being used at home or in standalone form.

All of this sits on a circuit board in ATX configuration. This means it will fit inside most ATX Desktop boxes and towers.

Please do check it will fit inside yours before ordering as some companies such as Dell mach odd shaped cases.
A new case to hold this will cost about £40.

The motherboard itself is £205 from Dabs. Quite expensive but does an awful lot for its money.

Best uses are, as I have said, in small usage servers. Its not going to provide support for 100`s of users with only capacity for 512Mb of RAM but it will suit a smaller office.

Summary: