hey mate thanks for the reply, I tried your method already it works fine, and temps are really good for what it is! also tied 2 of them on the top of the chassis for extra support.
Hey everyone,
Could someone with a supermicro H12SSL-i weigh in on whether or not the black horizontal SATA ports on the motherboard are tall enough to interfere with the installation of long GPUs like Nvidia 4090s? Iām trying to pick between the H12SSL-i and the H12SSL-NT
I have a dual-rome system right now, in a H11DSi motherboard, but that board has some connectors that do block long GPUs, which Iām finally fed up withā¦
Actually a second question - does the H12SSL-NT come with SATA breakout cables?
Thanks.
Here is a $7 solution to your problem:
And here is a $200 solution to your problem:
If your GPU card is actually hitting the SATA ports, it sounds like a card manufactured outside the actual spec, the card should never hit the connectors itself.
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I ended up getting an Asrock ROME8-2T because it was available locally. Iām very happy with it, for what itās worth! I donāt find the lack of connectivity to be a problem for my needsā¦ Audio out via monitor (over HDMI), audio in via the webcamās integrated microphone, and (with an external 4-port USB hub) enough USB ports for me overall.
But yes there were connectors on the H11DSi that blocked installation of a GPU over the āstandardā length (e.g. the length of a quadro card).
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Well, for the 2nd time, my H12SSL-NT has died after adding a PCIe card. The BMC is dead (again) and Iām pretty sure itās the same failure as here : H12SSL-I Stuck at "bmc initiating" | ServeTheHome Forums
PSA: There are some incredibly delicate components by the BMC that can be physically damaged if you slip with a heavy GPU etc.
Was there any damage, or was it from static discharge? Maybe that is why the Asrock ROMED8 has a big heatsink covering the BMC components and NIC.
Looks like I chipped off the corner of one of the SMDās - I was taking proper anti-static precautions.
Looks like the retail SKU (MBD-H12SSL-NT-O) includes the breakout cable below, but the bulk SKU (MBD-H12SSL-NT-B) does not.
SLIMLINE SAS x8 (LA) to 8 SATA x4,INT, 70CM,32AWG, 85 O
Source: H12SSL-NT | Motherboards | Super Micro Computer, Inc.
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Ah man. I just bought an H12SSL-CT. Iāll have to be super careful with itā¦
Thanks for the Proxxon torque screwdriver link. Just ordered one from Amazon UK, cheaper than the Wera and other āknownā brands.
I have several Proxxon socket sets. Awesome tools.
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would this work for LGA3647 and 4189? lost my one i had on my Xeon Scaleable machine and looking to get a new one, sorry for talking about different product in AMD page.
Iām late to the party and youāve probably decided, but this is not a problem on the H12SSL-I, I have two long cards covering them and there is 1-2 mm clearance 
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Thanks very much for weighing in! Glad to hear it. Though, yes, I ended up with an ASRock ROMED8-2T just due to local availability. Iām happy with it. I preferred the supermicro IPMI, but not a big deal since Iām using this as a workstation.
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Hope that posting in this thread gets me some suggestionsā¦ what PCIe cards would you get to make an Epyc Server board more āWorkstation-Likeā?
Other than GPU of course.
Is there a combo-IO board that has e.g. audio and more USB?
What USB cards would you go for?
In theory you can probably get by by adding tons of USB ports and then adding peripherals that way.
Has anybody gotten a high quality audio card?
How about Wifi (I probably wonāt need it for now though).
Any and all suggestions welcome!
Wellā¦ Hereās the thing. There are a limited number of things you can add to a workstation these days. Back in the day, youād often see a workstation decked out with:
- Graphics card
- Audio card
- Capture card
- RAID controller card for heaps of storage
- Extra USB ports
- 10 GbE NIC
- WiFi card
- Physics card
These days? Only card remaining is the Graphics card and maybe a card for extra USB ports. Everything else is just silly.
- Audio and Capture is done better on a USB 3.0 professional mixing device
- HW RAID is mostly dead and m.2 devices can now handle up to six SATA ports if you really must insist
- 10 GbE NIC is a valid choice I suppose, though I would in that case also opt for one with combined m.2 storage (like this one)
- WiFi can often be found on the motherboard these days, and if not, USB 3.0 to the rescue!
- Physics cards are now an integral part of the GPU
- ā¦ And, yes, that only leaves the extra USB 3.0 / USB C ports. Which can often just be a bypass cable to the internal USB headers, but if you must insist, I guess you could get a 5xA + 2xC expansion card or something.
So, yeahā¦ I guess the only fun ones truly worth investing in are 10 GbE, MOAR m.2 slots and MOAR USB, these days?
Thanks Fortunately I already have dual 10GBe, but wifi you rarely find on server boards. Would appreciate pointers if you indeed see Epyc Milan boards with Wifi.
The one rabbit hole I would like to explore more is if I can make Thunderbolt 3/4/USB 4 work on an Epyc Milan dual proc board.
Video capture would also still be PCIe when you go for 4k60+
Also you donāt get many USB headers on server boards.
You can get one of those 16x to 4x M.2 bifurcation cards and deck it out with M.2 USB card, NVMe disk, M.2 10GE and wifi.
Iāve had bad experiences with 3 different PCIe add-in cards for more USB ports. They just donāt seem to work that wellā¦ An external USB hub has been working better for my needsā¦ Between an external webcam (with built-in mic), audio out via monitor over HDMI/DP, and a USB hub, I havenāt needed more, personally.
Never tried thunderbolt or anything more sophisticated, though
Just to be sure, we are talking about server boards here?
You donāt find many USB ports in the first place and if, often only up to 10GBps if you are lucky, more commonly 5GBPs but no 20GBPs.
And then you only get 3 and very rarely 4 of those.
Using my EPYC 74F3 on AsRockRack ROMED8-2T as a workstation, havenāt found the relative lack of ports or onboard hardware a problem at all, in fact I prefer it, so I can add hardware that I actually want, rather than paying for junk I donāt want that take up PCIe lanes and space.
Audio: Mostly use HDMI audio with my monitorās speakers, have a Tascam USB mixer for any other purposes.
USB: 2 Startech USB 3.0 hubs, one connected to a Startech Displayport KVM, one connected to the rear USB port, so I can switch some devices at the same time I switch keyboard/mouse/monitor, and some stay. I have no use for more than 5Gb/s of aggregated USB bandwidth so it works well for me.
Storage: Gigabyte Aorus M.2 card with 4x 2TB Gen4 M.2 in ZFS striped+mirrored pool, ridiculous speeds, and all the ZFS reliability - much better than HW RAID.
Network: Onboard dual port 10GbE NIC is a nice Intel X550 one with SR-IOV, but not as good as the dual port 25GbE Mellanox fiber NIC I added. I have no need for high inconsistent latency WiFi
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