jgreco
Resident Grinch
- Joined
- May 29, 2011
- Messages
- 18,680
In general, the standard Supermicro boards are extremely good at running any current operating system that's used for server use in the data center. They will be a little weaker for desktop use due to their lack of "real" graphics and audio. The graphics provided by a typical Supermicro server board is tightly integrated with IPMI so you can do all the remote management stuff, but isn't going to be particularly stellar at driving anything significant for video. It might not be practical to retrofit these with a high quality GPU because a lot of GPU's want PCIe x16, and a lot of the recommended boards like the X9SCM don't have an x16 slot. However, SuperMicro has started including an x8-in-x16 slot on some of the more recent gen boards, like the X10SL7/X10SLL/X11SSL boards.
Of course, as with anything, if you take a modern X11 board and try to run five-year-old Ubuntu on it, there's certainly the possibility you'll run into driver support issues.
Of course, as with anything, if you take a modern X11 board and try to run five-year-old Ubuntu on it, there's certainly the possibility you'll run into driver support issues.