The Supermicro X11SRA Motherboard Review: C422 based Workstation for Xeon-W

BIOS

The Supermicro BIOS we used for our testing is version 1.0 with a build date of 10-11-2017. This was the latest BIOS on the website for this board, however the newer 1.1a version is available.

For the BIOS, Supermicro uses a black background with information split into a few panels. Across the top is the date/time as well as high-level details about the CPU, installed memory, as well as CPU and chipset temperatures. Below the date/time are seven different headings where board functionality and other options can be edited. Overall, the BIOS does its job and gives users a good interface in which to manipulate the board. 

Unlike many consumer BIOSes we have looked at over the past several months, the X11SRA (or any of its variants), does not have an 'EZ Mode' but jumps right into the meat of the BIOS. Greeted by the Main screen, this section display information about the system time and date, BIOS version and memory information (capacity). 

The Advanced section displays a total of nine subsections. While many of these are familiar, including the CPU, chipset, SATA and RST configuration sections, some may not and this is due to the additional functionality on a dedicated workstation board compared to many enthusiast level boards we are used to seeing. Items such as ME firmware imagine re-flashing, as well as remote manageability features, are all located within this section. 

The Event Logs section is where users are able to edit SMBIOS event log settings as well as view the accumulated event logs from within the BIOS. 

The System Health Section displays relevant information about the system from voltages to temperatures. On the voltage side, it includes some for the CPU (VCPU, VCCSA, VDIMM, VCPU_IO, etc), as well as some from the power supply (12V, 5VCC, and more). I would like to have seen the PSU voltages and CPU/board voltages each grouped together, otherwise, no concerns here. 

The Security section is where users are able to setup BIOS-level passwords to increase security on the system itself. 

The boot section is where users are able to sort through the boot options and boot priorities. Nothing fancy here. 

It is worth noting that there are no options to adjust the fan speed profiles automatically, or any of the more modern features in BIOSes we are familiar with. However, thankfully, users can update the BIOS from the BIOS, which is something that Supermicro boards in the past were unable to do.

Software

Typically the motherboards we look at in the enthusiast space will come with several software and software utilities. Frequently we see items for RGB Lighting, audio applications, Windows monitoring and overclocking, and more. The workstation space means more business than pleasure so those types of software utilities are few and far between. Users of workstation centered motherboards such as the X11SRA simply do not need such extras. With that, the only item we have below is the driver disk and any utilities it may include along with the SuperDoctor 5 application.

We see from the image above the driver disk (which needs to be downloaded and is in .iso form - no driver disk) it covers all the basic drivers needed to get the system up and running. We see the chipset and Management Engine files, USB 3.0 drivers, as well as LAN drivers - both for the 5G Aquantia and the Intel Pro based network controllers. 

The SuperDoctor 5 software utility is a Windows-based application similar to many 'command center' like applications we are more familiar with, but without the overclocking capabilities we are used to seeing. The SD5 software monitors target nodes hardware's system health and availability in datacenters in real time. If something crosses a set threshold, administrators can be notified through the software. From the stock image above, we can see it monitors anything from fan speed, temperatures, and voltages to HDD and system memory status among other items.