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Erik_Zandboer
Expert
Expert

The ESX whitebox mainboard Topic

Hi all,

I'm trying to put together a VERY cheap whitebox ESX server. Preferably in a small minitower enclosure, cheap dual core CPU (AMD or Intel) and 4GB of memory. Storage is to be external (via an Adaptec 29160 SCSI card), so not an issue here.

I have been looking everywhere for chipsets that will work with ESX. However, it is very hard to find this information. Out of a number of forum posts here and there, I figured out some chipsets that will/should work with ESX:

INTEL

Intel 3000MCH

Intel 82875P

Intel E7221

Intel 845

Intel 850

Intel 865

Intel 915

Intel 945

Intel 965

Intel 975

NVIDIA NFORCE

Nforce 430

Nvidia C51PV / Nvidia MCP51

NVIDIA nForce™4 SLI X16

nForce 6150LE

NVIDIA nForce 2200 Professional

VIA

VIA K8T800

VIA KM 266

ServerWorks

HT1000

Anyone able to extend this list?

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26 Replies
bertdb
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

The chipset is probably the least crucial thing. Supported storage and network controllers, that's where most whiteboxes fail. My MSI P35 Platinum board works perfectly with ESX 3.5 (one quadcore CPU, 4 GB ram, a PCIe Intel Pro/1000PT gigabit NIC and a PCI Promise SATA300 TX2 Plus SATA controller).

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supahted
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

bertdb: do you use a intel Pro/1000PT desktop adaptor? I like to know if this nic works with ESX 3.5.

blog: http://vknowledge.wordpress.com/
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mikelane
Expert
Expert

Is it possible to use a (supported) SCSI card with SCSI to SATA adapters to connect 2 or 3 SATA drives to ESX without RAID?

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rpartmann
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Hi,

i used a

Intel Pro 1000GT PCI works

Intel Pro 1000PT PCIe works also

bye r.






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rpartmann
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Hi,

never tried that, but a Promise Sata300 TX4 works and you can connect SATA drives.

This card is detected as SCSI controller so you can create VMFS volumes.

http://communities.vmware.com/message/861670#861670






ps: Award points if you find answers helpful. Thanks.

ps: Award points if you find answers helpful. Thanks.
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mikelane
Expert
Expert

That's great if you have ESX 3.5 :smileysilly:

ESX Server 3.5 supports selected SATA devices connected to dual SAS/SATA controllers. This support is limited to ESX Server 3.5. It is not included with ESX Server 3.0.x.

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Bolgard
Contributor
Contributor

Do the TX4-card still work if you have ESXi 3.5?

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