SUPERMICRO SYS-5037C-I Pedestal Server Barebone LGA 1155 Intel C202 DDR3 1333/1066

Pros: Toolless, small, quiet

Cons: RAID 5 isnt supported like it said as is,

Other Thoughts: Nothing an external RAID controller couldn't fix, but had to pay a little extra. The card will probably work better then software controller anyway

Intel Xeon E3-1220 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz
Kingston 8GB (4 x 4GB) Unbuffered DDR3 1333
4x Western Digital WD Black WD2002FAEX 2TB 7200 RPM
Windows Server 2008R2

Pros: It's slightly larger than a M-ATX case. Takes very little space. Great features and options for the price. Runs cool (at least with a second fan installed in the front.)

Cons: Not immediately clear that you MUST use ECC-UNbuffered RAM. I made that mistake on our first one. Integrated video is incredibly laggy even with drivers. Not much of an issue with servers though.

Other Thoughts: We just received our third one for our infrastructure upgrade. This little box is an incredible value for the money.

Pros: Unit is very quite and looks clean and professional. I have used this unit several times, and I have always had great results and been very happy.

Cons: Power supply had one dead segment. Replaced supply and all is well. I asked supermicro to pay for shipping both ways and I was told "our policy is you pay one way" I can not in justify spending $15.00 to ship a 300W supply back for replacement. Very POOR customer service in my book.

Other Thoughts: I actually like the system but I will keep this experience in mind when deciding on my next unit.

Pros: Built Sturdy. Clean, sleek design. Good motherboard and case.

Cons: Per section 1-6 on page 1-13 of the X9SCL motherboard manual, it REQUIRES an 8-pin JPW2 connector to the CPU Power port from the power supply to the motherboard. The power supply included, PWS-303-PQ, only has a 4-pin JPW2 connector.

Tech-Support/RMA from SuperMicro has been no help thus far over the past week of getting this matter resolved, and keeps trying to reassure me that their "various tests" show this is "adequate."

All I have requested was a replacement to meet the requirements of the motherboard, and not their "various tests."

This system is not being built for me, it is for a customer, and my business strives on making sure our business clients have 24/7 up-time without any chance of having inadequate hardware or software.

Other Thoughts: SYS-5037C-I Barebones Kit
Intel Xeon E3-1230v2 Ivy Bridge CPU
Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Unbuffered ECC RAM
60GB OCZ SLD3 SSD (OS Primary)
(2) 1TB Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 7200rpm HDD in RAID
LITE-ON DVD Burner

The only way it gets 5 eggs is if SuperMicro responds in a timely matter within the next 72 hours to resolve this matter in my favor, otherwise, it loses another egg.

Pros: Supermicro products are usually always well built, sturdy, and last for a good while. This case is solid, with tooless hard drive caddy's and super quiet. It was a tight squeeze with 4 SAS 15k cheetah's and dual Adata 120GB SSD's running off an LSI RAID 9260-8i. This WILL run the new V2 E3 Xeon's, you just have to update BIOS to their latest version

Cons: As most people know, supermicro still has a bit of a proprietary setup with their pin outs between the motherboards and cases, but we usually like to stick with the pair anyway. Pay attention to the memory requirements. A bit specific with this board.

Other Thoughts: Bang for the buck! You can't go wrong. Ours setup:
Intel E3-1270 V2
32GB Kingston Memory
4 SAS 15k Cheetah's
2 Adata 120GB SSD
DVDRW
LSI 9260-8i
SBS 2011 (not a fan, but that is what the client wanted)

Pros: - reasonable price
- quiet
- Dual gigabit LAN (Intel teaming support)

Cons: - Very picky on memory. Tried GSkill and PNY and neither worked. Ended up using Kingston part# KVR1333D3E9SK2/8G.
- no hot-swap

Pros: Great system and it assembled easily and well

Cons: Not compatible with the ram bundle that was purchased as a DIY Bundle. System requires unbuffered ram and the DIY combo is shipped with buffered ram.
N82E16820139464=Does not work with the board.

Other Thoughts: It is very disheartening that customers are being steered in this direction.

Pros: Great little barebones server that was a pleasure to build. I am very satisfied with the sturdy quality all around, no complaints. The tool-free HDD case swivels out to pop in your drive. Tool-free 5 1/4 optical drive slot (I opted to add a couple screws anyway). Seems to have good airflow thru the case, temps read normal inside.

The system manual specifies 2 compatible CPUs: "Single Intel Xeon E3-1200 Series processor or a Core i3-2100 Series processor in an LGA1155 socket". The Core i3-2100 must be second generation (Sandy Bridge), which I opted for since my processing tasks are not super intensive. The i3-2100 gives me a 7.1 on the WEI rating.

Supports up to 32 GB memory (4 slots, up to 8 GB per slot). My choice of 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) does all I need and provides a 7.5 WEI rating.

Data I/O flies through this machine. I am using both Ethernet ports to support a variety of intranet server tasks. No problems, no complaints, the boss is happy, life is good!

Cons: On-board video capability is very basic, but is certainly good enough to set up a server and use the pretty Windows 7 GUI. Video rates a flat 1.0 on the WEI rating lulz.

Other Thoughts: As always, my entire build was purchased from Newegg including:

500GB WD RE4 SATA HDD, Item #: N82E16822136697

Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1333 ECC memory, Item #: N82E16820139262

Windows 7 Professional 64 bit, Item #: N82E16832116992

Intel Core i3 2100 Sandy Bridge CPU, Item #: N82E16819115078
(the heatsink/fan that comes with this CPU works cool and quiet even while compressing & 256-bit encrypting 80GB+ data for offsite storage)

ASUS SATA DVD burner, Item #: N82E16827135204

Scythe KAMA FLOW 80mm case fan, Item #: N82E16835185154
(the front case 80mm fan is optional but I loves me a fan blowing across the hard drive, this one runs nearly silent)

My total server build was less than a thousand dollars - you really can't beat the value!

Pros: One of best Barebones I have worked on. Everything neat and tidy with plenty of space. Specs are very good for price as well and with the right HD/CPU/RAM combo this is easily a better deal than low-end Dell/HP SBS servers.

Cons: I've read this motherboard is picky with RAM but my offbrand booted fine.

Pros: This is my first Supermicro and I guarantee it will not be my last.

Virtually Silent: Literally had to open the case and check the fans to make sure it was running.
Using it as a Xentyal gateway, tried running ClearOS as a gateway and ran into issues with the kernel not picking up the 2nd Nic (the 2 onboard nics are different; Intel® 82579LM and 82574L)

Cons: Haven't had a single issue yet other than the Nic problem, which was my fault and I should have read better when i bought it.

Other Thoughts: Can't wait to buy another Supermicro!