Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/315



We aim to provide powerful and cost effective IA platforms to businesses and enterprises with our complete line of Server and Workstation solutions. - Paul Shay President of RIOWORKS

One of the biggest problems small but growing internet businesses face is the cost of scaling their server backends.   The price of an entry level server will set any company back at least $2,000 however at that price, your internet business won't be able to grow much longer. 

With the latest trend in the desktop market being a move to lower cost systems, it isn't a surprise to see indications of the same trend in the high end workstation/server market.  More and more motherboard manufacturers are producing low cost workstation/server products for up and coming internet businesses.  What was once only reserved for the deepest of pockets is now made available to the common e-business, but at what loss of quality do these low cost products come? 

One company, RIOWORKS is determined to provide businesses with the most cost effective workstation/server solutions possible with their latest in dual processor mainboards.  How does the RIOWORKS PDB-S stack up to the Supermicro/Tyan dominated competition?  Let's find out as AnandTech takes a look at the first of a series of high end motherboards for a low cost market.


AnandTech Report Card Rating
85/B

Motherboard Specifications

CPU Interface Dual Slot-1
Chipset Intel 440BX
On-Board Video N/A
L2 Cache N/A (on-chip)
Form Factor Extended ATX
Bus Speeds 66 / 75 / 83
100 / 103 / 112 / 133
Clock Multipliers 1.5x - 8.0x
Voltages Supported 2.0v/2.8v (Auto Detect)
Memory Slots 4 168pin DIMM Slots
Expansion Slots 1 AGP Slot
0 AMR Slot
5 PCI Slots (3 Full Length)
2 ISA Slots (1 Full Length)
BIOS AMI BIOS

The Good

The RIOWORKS PDB-S is highly reminiscent of the Epox BXB dual Pentium II motherboard AnandTech took a look at a while back.  The 5/2/1 expansion slot configuration carried over from the desktop mainboard market found its way into the workstation/server world, and is present on the PDB-S.   Of the 5 available PCI slots, only 3 are capable of accepting full length cards, and obvious oversight on the part of RIOWORKS.  The last PCI slot is unable to accept a full length card due to the presence of front panel LED connector block, and the middle PCI slot is unable to accept a full length card due to the placement of the Ultra2 SCSI connector.


Click to Enlarge

Of the two present ISA slots, only the first slot from the left (the non-shared slot) is capable of accepting full length cards as the remaining slot is left obstructed by the 50-pin legacy SCSI connector on the board.  RIOWORKS' homepage indicates that the PDB-S is available in a version without the on-board Adaptec 7980AB SCSI controller, which should allow for both another ISA slot and another PCI slot capable of accepting full length cards.  While support for full length cards in the desktop market isn't the primary concern, once you move to the high end workstation/server market you will find that most peripherals including RAID controllers, and high end graphics cards usually come in full length cards only.  The AGP slot on the board is also capable of accepting a full length card.

As briefly alluded to, the PDB-S includes the extremely popular on-board Adaptec AIC-7890AB Ultra2 Wide SCSI controller.  As with most dual processor slot-1 motherboards that feature on-board SCSI, the PDB-S features a 68-pin Ultra2 channel supporting both Ultra2 and UltraWide SCSI-3 devices as well as a 68-pin UltraWide SCSI-3 channel for all non-Ultra2 devices.   For those users with older SCSI peripherals, there is a 50-pin legacy SCSI port that shares the same channel as the non-Ultra2 port that can be used as well.  The purpose of having dual channels is so that Ultra2 (or your faster peripherals, i.e. HDDs) can be placed on a separate channel from your slower SCSI-2/3 (or your slower peripherals, i.e. older HDDs or CD-ROM/Tape drives) in order to prevent the slower peripherals from slowing down the faster ones.  Since your SCSI chain is only as fast as your slowest peripheral, you're better off separating your slower devices from your faster (i.e. Ultra2) devices by using the two channels.  This two channel system is very popular among higher end motherboard manufacturers, however the most expensive motherboards generally support dual Ultra2 channels instead of the single Ultra2 + single UltraWide combo the RIOWORKS board provides.  Considering the target market of the PDB-S, this isn't necessarily a downside as Ultra2 devices are still quite expensive.

Moving away from the expansion slots and the Adaptec SCSI controller are the dual SC242 (Slot-1) interface connectors, both of which feature the now popular built-in universal CPU retention kits.   This move allows for SECC (Pentium II), SECC2 (Pentium III and newer Pentium IIs), and SEPP (Celeron) processors to be installed and physically supported by the built-in retention brackets.  The PDB-S does not come with a SC242 CPU terminator card for the second slot, however in the event that only a single processor is being used RIOWORKS recommends installing it in the first slot and leaving the second slot completely empty.   In AnandTech's tests, stability was not compromised by not using a SC242 terminator card as long as the single CPU is used in the first CPU slot (the one closest to the power supply connector). 

Just south of the second SC242 slot is the 443BX controller chip which provides the chipset support for the dual processors.  RIOWORKS chose to use the 440BX chipset on the PDB-S most likely for cost concerns, however this does mean that the board is limited to 1GB of system memory as opposed to the 2GB limit of the more expensive 440GX solution.  The memory banks are placed almost flush against the 443BX controller which results in shorter trace lengths between the two components, and ideally to avoid any memory capacitance issues, a set of Sanyo capacitors lines the edge of the first DIMM slot. 



The configuration of the board, unlike most competing high end motherboard solutions, is done entirely through a jumperless setup portion of the included AMI BIOS.  The board does feature overclocked FSB settings, however if you are interested in stability alone, then overclocking your workstation/server is not the most intelligent idea.  Although your overclocked Celeron 300A at home may not crash during the day, you're not hitting your computer with 2000 requests at a time like most high trafficked web servers are. 

The AMI BIOS setup provides an interface for the hardware monitoring features of the on-board Winbond 83781D chip.  The 83781D, an extremely popular hardware monitoring solution, can monitor two onboard fans, 7 voltages, and up to 3 temperatures.  As with most motherboards that use this chip, the PDB-S leaves it's third fan port un-monitored.  Most likely a cost saving decision, RIOWORKS removed all external thermistor headers from the board, meaning that the only temperature that can be read using the Winbond chip is the temperature of the chip itself.  A bit unfortunate if you're looking to keep a close eye on the operating temperature of your system.

The board was relatively stable during AnandTech's tests, when placed in a true server situation using ZD's Server Bench and Web Bench test suites crashes that could be attributed to the design of the board were minimal at best.  Although the PDB-S did not match the quality and reliability of Supermicro during the tests, the PDB-S did remain somewhat competitive, an impressive contribution from a low-cost solution.  The performance of the board, as expected, was on-par with most other dual processor solutions.

RIOWORKS includes a decent user's guide with the PDB-S, unfortunately the guide doesn't go into much detail about the setup of the Adaptec SCSI controller nor troubleshooting.  Along with the manual is your standard bundled CD that contains drivers and utilities for use with the board, a copy of the SCSI drivers is provided on a set of 3.5" disks as well, just in case your only CD-ROM drive happens to be SCSI.  Pretty much standard, you shouldn't expect any less from a motherboard manufacturer, although many times you will be given much less.  Once again, in order to cut costs, the PDB-S does not come with a 68-pin Ultra2/UltraWide SCSI cable, nor does it come with an active LVD terminator, so you're on your own purchasing those cables if you happen to have any hard drives that need them.  



The Bad

The PDB-S does have it's downsides as you would imagine.  The lack of a second ATX power supply connector means that the board does not support redundant power supplies, a feature which is greatly desired by those that are keen on keeping their servers up 100% of the time.  The aforementioned lack of any external thermistor headers is an oversight that may sway many server administrators since diagnosing an overheating problem with a server that is out of your immediate reach is quite difficult without a full set of hardware monitoring reports to keep you posted. 

RIOWORKS' decision to make the PDB-S a BX only solution will immediately take a large portion of customers interested in running a high end web server out of the target market, as 1GB of system memory translates into very little when it comes to a web server with enough traffic to eat up that mere gigabyte quickly.  Database servers will also find themselves running out of memory as the amount of concurrent user sessions goes up, leaving the scalability of the PDB-S a little iffy when it comes to future memory upgrades.  If you don't anticipate needing more than 1GB of system memory, then the BX chipset is just as good as the GX chipset for you, and the PDB-S all of the sudden isn't that limiting of a motherboard solution.

The overall quality and stability of the PDB-S could be improved, and the layout definitely could use some tweaking, however in this market, you get what you pay for, if you had the budget to get the world's most reliable motherboard then you would, otherwise you have to settle for what is reasonable and that's what the RIOWORKS PDB-S is, reasonable.


USB Compatibility

  • Number of Front Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 0

  • Number of Rear Universal Serial Bus Root Ports: 2

  • USB IRQ Enable/Disable in BIOS: Yes

  • USB Keyboard Support in BIOS: Yes


Recommended SDRAM

Recommended SDRAM: Mushkin SEC -GH PC100 SDRAM; Memory Man SEC -GH PC100 SDRAM
SDRAM Tested: 1 x 64MB Mushkin PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 64MB Memory-Man PC100 SDRAM; 1 x 256MB Corsair PC100 SDRAM DIMM (for compatibility testing only)

Manufacturer: The Memory Man
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.memory-man.com

Manufacturer: Mushkin
Purchase Web-Site: http://www.mushkin.com


The Test

In recent times, choosing a motherboard cannot be completely determined by a Winstone score. Now, many boards come within one Winstone point of each other and therefore the need to benchmark boards against each other falls. Therefore you shouldn't base your decision entirely on the benchmarks you see here, but also on the technical features and advantages of this particular board, seeing as that will probably make the greatest difference in your overall experience.

AnandTech Motherboard Testing Methodology

Test Configuration

Processor(s): 2 - Intel Pentium II 400 - OEM
RAM: 1 - 64MB Mushkin PC100 SDRAM
1 - 64MB Memory Man PC100 SDRAM DIMM
Hard Drive(s): 9GB IBM Ultrastar Ultra Wide SCSI-3 HDD
Video Card(s): Matrox Millennium G200 (16MB) AGP
Video Drivers: MGA Millennium G200 Release 1677-411
Operation System(s): Windows NT 4.0 w/ Service Pack 4
Motherboard Revision: RIOWORKS PDB-S Revision C01


Windows NT Performance

  Winstone 99 Multiprocessor Performance
Business High End
Intel Pentium II 400 x 2 27.6 24.8 2.86

The Final Decision

Just recently, AnandTech was put in the position for making a decision on a new server motherboard for a web server.  Did the RIOWORKS solution ever come into consideration?   Truthfully, no.  If the most stable and reliable solution is your goal, then there are bigger fish in the sea, however be prepared to pay the cost of those bigger fish as they don't come cheap.  If you happen to be on a budget, then the PDB-S slowly but surely becomes a viable alternative. 

Your best bet is still a Supermicro solution, however the PDB-S will suffice as long as the price is right.   Do plan on a motherboard upgrade somewhere down the line with the PDB-S, as the life span of a dual Pentium II BX server in a growing internet business environment isn't nearly as long as you'd like it to be.  Success does have its downsides...


How it Rates

AnandTech Motherboard Rating

  Business
Performance 86%
Price 80%
Ease of Use 90%
Overclocked Stability 85%
General Stability 90%
Quality 88%
Documentation 75%
Reliability 85%
Overall Rating 85%

Click Here to learn about AnandTech's Motherboard Testing Methodology.

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