SSI EEB 3.61 vs. EATX

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Lyuokdea

Member
Mar 31, 2009
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Hi All,

I've been digging through information online, and nobody has clearly explained the differences between SSI EEB 3.61 and EATX form factors. If I buy a SSI EEB 3.61 case (specifically the Asus Z8PE-D12 Dual Xeon Nehalem), will this fit in any EATX case? Does it require a specific SSI power supply?

I'm looking at the following cases for either the above Asus motherboard, or the supermicro MBD-X8DA3 (which is listed as EATX).... what do you think would be the best bet. The case will probably be holding 5 HDs, but only one DVD drive. I'm not planning on water cooling, unless somebody could give me a solution that's not horribly expensive. I'm not overclocking so it really shouldn't be necessary.

Xclio WTBK http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811103019
Zalman http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811235014
Silverstone Kublai http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811163100
Lian Li http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811112141
Coolermaster HAF 932 http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811119160

Thanks so much for your help,

~Lyuokdea


 
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rand777

Junior Member
Apr 2, 2009
12
0
0
Hi,

I've been researching this for the same reason. I spoke with SuperMicro tech support earlier today. I bought a SuperMicro CSE-743TQ-865B chassis last week, which supports EATX mobos, but apparently it won't accomodate any of SuperMicro's new EATX X8 dual xeon motherboards. The board will physically fit, but I wouldn't be able to mount a heat sink on it according to the tech unless I get their new Revision K chassis which came out Apr 1.

From what I've found so far, SSI EEB and EATX both specify a 12" X 13" motherboard, but the mounting holes are in different locations, so they are not compatible; so you need to pair a EATX case w/a EATX mobo, and an SSI EEB case w/a SSI EEB mobo. There appears to be an issue with the heatsink retention mechanism though, since my week old SuperMicro EATX chassis apparently will not accomodate any of their new EATX dual xeon X8 mobos.

I found a copy of the SSI EEB 3.61 spec here:
http://ssiforum.oaktree.com/pdfs/SSI%20EEB%20v3-61.pdf

If anyone has any more info on why an EATX chassis won't accomodate a Nehalem EATX mobo because of a heatsink retention issue, please let me know. I think the SuperMicro tech I spoke to might be wrong.

rand
 
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Lyuokdea

Member
Mar 31, 2009
39
0
0
Thanks for the info. That's about all the information that I have, though in addition I was told by Silverstone that the Kublai would fit both motherboards, though I doubt they were looking at mounting brackets or anything like that, and were likely just matching up the SSI and EATX standards.

One additional question, since you're working on the same thing. Why did you prefer the Supermicro board over the asus motherboard? I was leaning towards getting the Asus, just becasue it's about $50 cheaper to get the D12 on newegg, since you get $30 off when you buy the asus and a processor.

Thanks again for the info, let me know if you have any questions i might be able to answer,

~Lyuokdea
 
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rand777

Junior Member
Apr 2, 2009
12
0
0
Hi,

I initially was leaning towards the supermicro board because I don't intend to overclock at all, and want a stable setup more than anything else. I would get the Asus board at this point, as I'm sure it's equally stable provided one doesn't overclock it, but since it uses an SSI EEB form factor it unfortunately won't fit in my case which is EATX.

Perhaps you can help. The problem I am running into is that according to supermicro, their newly released EATX motherboards for Dual Nehalems will fit into my EATX supermicro case, but I wouldn't be able to mount a heat sink to the cpus because the holes won't line up since the Nehalems use a larger die size than previous generation Xeons. That is only a problem though if the heatsink actually screws directly into the chassis, which seems like it would be a good idea to avoid the motherboard from possibly warping over time, but one popular heatsink that i looked into, from Noctua, doesn't appear to screw directly into the chassis at all, in which case I should be able to put something like a supermicro X8DA3 motherboard inside of a supermicro CSE-743TQ-865B case, since they both support EATX @ 12" x 13".

If you or anyone else knows about this particular issue, any help would be much appreciated.

thanks!

rand
 
dajeepster

dajeepster

Golden Member
Apr 15, 2001
1,974
16
81
Originally posted by: rand777
Hi,

I initially was leaning towards the supermicro board because I don't intend to overclock at all, and want a stable setup more than anything else. I would get the Asus board at this point, as I'm sure it's equally stable provided one doesn't overclock it, but since it uses an SSI EEB form factor it unfortunately won't fit in my case which is EATX.

Perhaps you can help. The problem I am running into is that according to supermicro, their newly released EATX motherboards for Dual Nehalems will fit into my EATX supermicro case, but I wouldn't be able to mount a heat sink to the cpus because the holes won't line up since the Nehalems use a larger die size than previous generation Xeons. That is only a problem though if the heatsink actually screws directly into the chassis, which seems like it would be a good idea to avoid the motherboard from possibly warping over time, but one popular heatsink that i looked into, from Noctua, doesn't appear to screw directly into the chassis at all, in which case I should be able to put something like a supermicro X8DA3 motherboard inside of a supermicro CSE-743TQ-865B case, since they both support EATX @ 12" x 13".

If you or anyone else knows about this particular issue, any help would be much appreciated.

thanks!

rand
Click to expand...

I have an Asus board with dual xeon X5405 mounted on it... the board came with heatsink mounting brackets so i didn't have to mount it directly to the chassis.... they had several different size standoffs so that the mounting bracket was flush to the chassis, but didn't directly attach to the chassis... i'm using a cosmos S case.
if I remember when I get home, i'll put up the motherboard model number... just can't remember...
the point is.. the new asus motherboard might come with brackets so that you don't have to mount the heatsink directly to the chassis.
 
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rand777

Junior Member
Apr 2, 2009
12
0
0

Thanks dajeepster. I'm hoping the new Asus boards have the same bracket. The Asus dual nehalem motherboards are selling on newegg already, but their is no mention of them on the Asus website, at least not on the USA version, so I can't peek at the manual yet. From what I've read though, it sounds like an SSI EEB or SSI CEB form factor motherboard will not fit into an EATX case because the mounting holes don't line up. The only EATX sized dual nehalem motherboards I've found so far are from supermicro. I think they will work if I use the Noctua heatsink, because it seems to mount only to the motherboard, but still not entirely sure. If I can't resolve this I may just go for a single CPU setup.
 
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