Product SKUs MBD-X8DTH-6F -O X8DTH-6F (Standard Retail Pack) MBD-X8DTH-6F -B X8DTH-6F (Bulk Pack)   Physical Stats Form Factor Extended ATX Dimensions 12" x 13" (30.5cm x 33cm)   Processor/Cache CPU Dual 1366-pin LGA Sockets Supports up to two Intel® 64-bit Xeon®processor(s) of the same type below: Intel® Xeon®Processor 5600 Series (Westmere) Intel® Xeon®Processor 5500 Series (Nehalem-EP) QPI up to 6.4 GT/s   System Memory Memory Capacity 12x 240-pin DIMM sockets Supports up to 192 GB 1333 / 1066 / 800MHz DDR3 ECC Registered memory Supports up to 48 GB 1333 / 1066 / 800MHz DDR3 ECC / Non ECC Unbuffered memory Memory Mirroring supported Memory Type 1333 / 1066 / 800MHz ECC Registered / ECC or Non ECC Unbuffered DDR3 SDRAM 72-bit, 240-pin gold-plated DIMMs DIMM Sizes 1GB, 2GB, 4GB , 8GB , 16GB Memory Voltage 1.5 V / 1.35V Error Detection Corrects single-bit errors Detects double-bit errors (using ECC memory) Supports Intel® x4 and x8 Single Device Data Correction (SDDC)   On-Board Devices Chipset Intel® 5520 (Tylersburg) chipset ICH10R + 2x IOH-36D SAS LSI 6Gbps SAS 2008 RAID 0, 1, 10 support (Optional: AOC-SAS2-RAID5-KEY) RAID 5 support SATA Intel ICH10R SATA 3.0Gbps Controller RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 support (Windows) RAID 0, 1, 10 support (Linux) IPMI Support for Intelligent Platform Management Interface v.2.0 IPMI 2.0 with virtual media over LAN and KVM-over-LAN support Winbond® WPCM450 BMC Network Controllers Intel® 82576 Dual-Port Gigabit Ethernet Controller Supports 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, and 1000BASE-T, RJ45 output Intel® I/OAT 3 support for fast, scaleable, and reliable networking VMDq support for better performance of virtualization 1x Realtek RTL8201N PHY (dedicated IPMI) Graphics Matrox G200eW Super I/O Winbond 83827HF chip   Input / Output SAS 8 SASII / SATA ports Serial ATA Six Serial ATA ports Six SATA hard drives supported LAN 2x RJ45 LAN ports 1x RJ45 Dedicated IPMI LAN port USB 2x USB rear ports 2x USB on-board 4x USB internal headers Total 8 USB 2.0 Compliant VGA 1x VGA Port Keyboard / Mouse PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports Serial Port 1 Fast UART 16550 serial port

Here is the board's layout (click for a full-size image):

... and here is the functional block diagram:

The SuperMicro X8DTH-6F is packed to the gills with state-of-the-art features not found in other server boards.  Most obviously, this board has 7x PCIe x16 slots yet only x8 electrically.  Some may complain that they prefer to have full 16 lanes for graphics cards, but this is a server board.  Besides, one can always populate it with 4x graphics cards, SLI or Cross-Fire them together and see what happens...  Next, we see the emergence of SAS 6Gbps ports via LSI hardware RAID controller on-board.  Although not having cache memory or a BBU, this represents a step in advancing storage controllers on server and workstation motherboards.  Dual gigabit LANs are expected, as well as the on-board VGA, IPMI, and USB 2.0 ports.  There is no iKVM port, or audio ports on this board.  Lastly, the twelve DIMMs across 2x Xeon sockets should provide sufficient triple-channel memory bandwidth and capacity for most applications. 

As for the physical layout, there is little to complain about.  The dual horizontal SAS connectors in its own cutout is simple yet remarkable.  The 6x SATA connectors would have been better placed beside the SAS connectors, along that same board edge.  Power connectors at the top edge is perfectly done, but the rear I/O area could have benefited from more USB 2.0 ports.

Now, let's talk performance.  We tested the X8DTH-6F with a pair of Intel Xeon X5677 CPUs, 6x 2GB DDR3 DIMMs for a total of 120GB, and a Crucial C300 SSD booting Win7 x64.  Here's what we got:

WinRAR Benchmark:     3668 kB/s
Prime95 (Last #):     3.932 msec.
SuperPI Mod (1M):     11.481 sec.
Cinebench 10 x64, 1 CPU:     5,348
Cinebench 10 x64, all CPU:     32,649
3DMark 03, CPU Test 1:     228.5 fps
3DMark 03, CPU Test 2:     53.1 fps
3DMark 05, CPU Test 1:     17.6 fps
3DMark 05, CPU Test 2:     16.2 fps
3DMark 06, CPU Test 1:     2.588 fps
3DMark 06, CPU Test 2:     3.403 fps
Everest Ultimate Edition @ 9-9-9-24 timings:
Mem Read:     13,903 MB/s
Mem Write:     9,585 MB/s
Mem Copy:     10,772 MB/s
Mem Latency:     64.9 ns
CPU Queen:     69,671
CPU PhotoWorxx:     67,258
CPU Zlib:     225,392 kB/s
CPU AES:     823,642
FPU Julia:     27,031
FPU Mandel:     14,754
FPU SinJulia:     13,453

How does this compare to others?  Check it out HERE...
 

Server boards today can only differentiate themselves through design, layout, and secondly, through stable performance.  Our tests have shown that the X8DTH-6F breezed through all testing without any errors, hangs, stalls, reboots, or freezes.  As for the assessment on its overall design, we can not give this board anything lower than perfect marks.  It has everything a workstation / server integrator should want (not gamers, mind you) - plenty of PCIe slots for possible encryption accelerators, fiber, or other cards, 6Gbps SAS RAID, IPMI, and the unquestionably solid build quality of SuperMicro.