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I'm running a server motherboard (Supermicro H12DSi-N6), and while the processing power is wonderful, the tradeoffs were a bit surprising: * I can't disable th

I'm running a server motherboard (Supermicro H12DSi-N6), and while the processing power is wonderful, the tradeoffs were a bit surprising: * I can't disable the BMC video card, which means that when I'm running Windows, there's a 800x600 monitor that will never go away and windows occasionally decide to open on it. This is solvable by opening the BMC on the machine itself and using the IKVM webapp to drag it onto my main screen; this takes a very careful flick of the mouse. * There's no built-in audio; in order to listen to Spotify, I use a USB audio card. * The board only has 6 USB ports, only 2 of which are USB-3. Thus, I get to use a lot of hubs. * It takes a long time to boot past the firmware; generally 3-4 minutes to warm boot and 6-8 cold. * While it can be used as a single-socket board (which I do, because I don't have the funds for a second CPU just yet), I lose a bunch of PCIe slots doing so; half the PCIe lanes for the first CPU are direct wired to the second socket for the inter-CPU link.

sdrinf 4y ago
| * It takes a long time to boot past the firmware; generally 3-4 minutes to warm boot and 6-8 cold. ^^ why is that? is it just the firmware being buggy, or is there any legit reasons why they need to self-check _for minutes_?
- zeta0134 4y ago
  Server hardware operates remote and headless, so it performs much more exhaustive memory checks and will try to proactively report failures. Good datacenters will catch these and open a ticket to replace failing hardware. Beyond that, lots of servers will then enumerate all of the network interfaces and try to initiate a net boot, and only then fall back to the hard drive. Some tweaking in the bios can usually disable these features and gain a bunch of time, but again in a headless remote context this default behavior is incredibly useful for recovery purposes. We like to avoid actually running out with a physical crash cart if we can help it :)
justinlloyd 4y ago
Bridge jumper JPVGA1 directly on the motherboard and it will disable the onboard VGA. Switch BMC priority from onboard (default) to offboard, I don't think this is necessary if you bridge JPVGA1. Get yourself a nice Highpoint USB 3.0 card with quad controllers on each port. 20Gbps of bandwidth in aggregate. I believe there is a jumper on the motherboard that will bridge the missing PCIe slots in single CPU configuration.
ev1 4y ago
If the 800x600 is on the right and a window opens in it, you can alt-tab to it or click it on the taskbar, then just hit win+leftarrow until it appears on the correct monitor. Same for win+rightarrow if other way around. Should not need to IKVM
- Eduard 4y ago
  On all Windows operating systems I have used, this workaround (winkey+left/right) unfortunately does not work for moving modal pop-ups. For example, when starting KeePass by opening a .kdbx password safe file, KeePass will first open the master password input modal pop-up. If that happens on a turned-off screen (IMHO it opens on the screen on which the KeePass main window was placed before the process exited on the previous run), you'll be lost. Very frustrating, e.g. for multi-screen home theater setups. Anyone please share your solutions to this problem.
  - vic20forever 4y ago
    Moving a window: Alt-Space, M, arrow keys
    - stinkyball 4y ago
      If you Alt-Space, M, and press one of the arrow keys, the windows will 'stick' to your mouse cursor so you can just wiggle your mouse after they key combo to bring it to you.
    - twoodfin 4y ago
      I was inspired by nostalgia to do the research via archive.org: This shortcut goes back to Windows 2.0, almost 35 years ago. I remembered it from the 3.1 days.
    - cardiffspaceman 4y ago
      The old CUA, Windows 3.0 corner square has an oblong rectangle that represents the space bar (at least in my mind). Unless the window is a child window, in which case the shortcut is Alt-Hyphen[1], and I haven't used that shortcut in many years. The fashion for tabs has probably made that useless. [1] http://www.robelle.com/smugbook/win3x.html http://www.robelle.com/smugbook/win3x.html
Lownin 4y ago
In case helpful, select the app on the task bar and use Shift+Win+Left/Right arrow key to move it between monitors without needing to do the IKVM dance
zeusk 4y ago
If that's the only other monitor, you can set your actual display as primary then select primary display only in Win+P menu
toast0 4y ago
Can you disable the video driver in the system control panel if you don't want Windows to use it? Other stuff seems normal for a server board though.
preisschild 4y ago
Damn, respect, your mainboard alone is probably worth more than my entire workstation.
ChoGGi 4y ago
You could likely use autohotkey and winmove to place the modal windows where you want, I'm not at my desk now, but I'll update this post with the script I use (or a reply to it).

sdrinf 4y ago

| * It takes a long time to boot past the firmware; generally 3-4 minutes to warm boot and 6-8 cold. ^^ why is that? is it just the firmware being buggy, or is there any legit reasons why they need to self-check _for minutes_?

zeta0134 4y ago
Server hardware operates remote and headless, so it performs much more exhaustive memory checks and will try to proactively report failures. Good datacenters will catch these and open a ticket to replace failing hardware. Beyond that, lots of servers will then enumerate all of the network interfaces and try to initiate a net boot, and only then fall back to the hard drive. Some tweaking in the bios can usually disable these features and gain a bunch of time, but again in a headless remote context this default behavior is incredibly useful for recovery purposes. We like to avoid actually running out with a physical crash cart if we can help it :)

justinlloyd 4y ago

Bridge jumper JPVGA1 directly on the motherboard and it will disable the onboard VGA. Switch BMC priority from onboard (default) to offboard, I don't think this is necessary if you bridge JPVGA1. Get yourself a nice Highpoint USB 3.0 card with quad controllers on each port. 20Gbps of bandwidth in aggregate. I believe there is a jumper on the motherboard that will bridge the missing PCIe slots in single CPU configuration.

ev1 4y ago

If the 800x600 is on the right and a window opens in it, you can alt-tab to it or click it on the taskbar, then just hit win+leftarrow until it appears on the correct monitor. Same for win+rightarrow if other way around. Should not need to IKVM

Eduard 4y ago
On all Windows operating systems I have used, this workaround (winkey+left/right) unfortunately does not work for moving modal pop-ups. For example, when starting KeePass by opening a .kdbx password safe file, KeePass will first open the master password input modal pop-up. If that happens on a turned-off screen (IMHO it opens on the screen on which the KeePass main window was placed before the process exited on the previous run), you'll be lost. Very frustrating, e.g. for multi-screen home theater setups. Anyone please share your solutions to this problem.
- vic20forever 4y ago
  Moving a window: Alt-Space, M, arrow keys
  - stinkyball 4y ago
    If you Alt-Space, M, and press one of the arrow keys, the windows will 'stick' to your mouse cursor so you can just wiggle your mouse after they key combo to bring it to you.
  - twoodfin 4y ago
    I was inspired by nostalgia to do the research via archive.org: This shortcut goes back to Windows 2.0, almost 35 years ago. I remembered it from the 3.1 days.
  - cardiffspaceman 4y ago
    The old CUA, Windows 3.0 corner square has an oblong rectangle that represents the space bar (at least in my mind). Unless the window is a child window, in which case the shortcut is Alt-Hyphen[1], and I haven't used that shortcut in many years. The fashion for tabs has probably made that useless. [1] http://www.robelle.com/smugbook/win3x.html http://www.robelle.com/smugbook/win3x.html

Lownin 4y ago

In case helpful, select the app on the task bar and use Shift+Win+Left/Right arrow key to move it between monitors without needing to do the IKVM dance

zeusk 4y ago

If that's the only other monitor, you can set your actual display as primary then select primary display only in Win+P menu

toast0 4y ago

Can you disable the video driver in the system control panel if you don't want Windows to use it? Other stuff seems normal for a server board though.

preisschild 4y ago

Damn, respect, your mainboard alone is probably worth more than my entire workstation.

ChoGGi 4y ago

You could likely use autohotkey and winmove to place the modal windows where you want, I'm not at my desk now, but I'll update this post with the script I use (or a reply to it).