Supermicro gets 2.5 inch drives

SUPERMICRO WAS SHOWING off several new models at Computex, but nothing earth shattering. The new models all filled niches in their lines and will likely do quite well.

The first one is the most sorely needed item in the Supermicro lineup, a chassis with 2.5 inch drive bays. This form factor allows for eight drives in 1U, severely upping the space and flexibility for this chassis. It isn't much more than a swap-out of the modular front section, but the 1025C-M3B is finally here.

1025C-M3B - sexiest chassis name of Computex 2008

Next up we have a curiosity in the Supermicro lineup, the C2SEA, G45 based mobo. It is a pretty-run-of-the-mill mobo, the main feature is that it has HDMI outs, most likely the first Supermicro board to have it. I am not sure I would call this a workstation board, much less a server, so if you need a media center box to go with your blades, Supermicro can satisfy that need as well.

The new ones are in the middle

Speaking of blades, the middle three are the new storage blades packing six 2.5 inch blades in the standard Supermicro 7U chassis. You can fill all 10 blades with 300G SAS drives allowing you to have 18TB in this chassis. That is pretty high storage capacity to go along with all of the CPU horsepower you can pack into these blades.

Pick your DIMM count

The last one up is also a minor tweak to an existing product, compare the two boards here. The one on the left is the new mobo called the H8DMT-INF+, and for the terminally slow, it has eight DIMM sockets per CPU instead of the older four.

It is a 'half-U' form factor which means you can slap it in the standard Supermicro chassis that takes those boards. If you do, it is called the 1021TM-T+ in 1U form factors. One thing to notice, Supermicro put on, and patented, power headers on both sides of the board. That way you can have one board and it will fit either side. They don't have to design multiple boards, you don't have to buy or stock multiple boards, and world peace reigns. Neat. µ