I built a system based around this board and i'm REALLY pleased.
Currently populated with: 8GB ECC + 6*500GB Z2 (A few drives are bigger than this but that's my array). It's been running for a few months now as my XBMC Backend. Jails running couchpotato/sickbeard/sabNZB/Plex
I haven't moved any of my critical data to it yet (pictures/work docs etc) so i can feel free to break stuff :) (Still learning here). i can't say I saw any issue or difference between the two controllers. In fact during my "Lets see what'll happen" phase, I shut down the server to clean up airflow issues. Unplugged all the SATA cables and replugged them in to better optimize routing and open space. I made no attempt to notice where any drives were plugged in before or after. Happy as a clam.
Next "Test" will be to expand the array up to 6*1TB one drive at a time. Fun :)
Note: if i were putting one of these in at work, I'd be looking at super-micro. Asrock still doesn't "get it" when you talk Enterprise. I noticed that the firmware on my board was newer than the one published on their web site so I sent an email asking what was the deal. What is the current firmware, why is this one not on the website etc.....
here's the response:
Hi Michael,
We regularly perform inspection and benchmarking test on random server boards pulled from the stock. When we do it, we also update all the BIOS, BMC firmware, other hardware firmware if they are available, even internally. The BMC firmware came with your C2550D4I is probably a 0.18.0 which hasn’t been released to the public. However, such update is pending to be released soon. And you just happen to have the privilege to use it first.
Best Regards
William XXXXXX
(note i specifically told them i had 0.16 on my board. 0.14 is what is available on their website. I'd prefer not to "Have the privilege to use it first" on a mission critical server with a wierd random unpublished BIOS.)
-DarkStar