The information in this User’s Manual has been carefully reviewed and is believed to be accurate. The vendor assumes no responsibility for any inaccuracies that may be contained in this document, makes no commitment to update or to keep current the information in this manual, or to notify any person or organization of the updates. Please Note: For the most up-to-date version of this manual, please see our web site at www.supermicro.com. Super Micro Computer, Inc. ("Supermicro") reserves the right to make changes to the product described in this manual at any time and without notice.

This product, including software, if any, and documentation may not, in whole or in part, be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated or reduced to any medium or machine without prior written consent. IN NO EVENT WILL SUPERMICRO BE LIABLE FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, SPECULATIVE OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING FROM THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS PRODUCT OR DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. IN PARTICULAR, SUPERMICRO SHALL NOT HAVE LIABILITY FOR ANY HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, OR DATA STORED OR USED WITH THE PRODUCT, INCLUDING THE COSTS OF REPAIRING, REPLACING, INTEGRATING, INSTALLING OR RECOVERING SUCH HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, OR DATA.

Any disputes arising between manufacturer and customer shall be governed by the laws of Santa Clara County in the State of California, USA. The State of California, County of Santa Clara shall be the exclusive venue for the resolution of any such disputes. Super Micro's total liability for all claims will not exceed the price paid for the hardware product. FCC Statement: This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class A digital device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference when the equipment is operated in a commercial environment.

This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the manufacturer’s instruction manual, may cause harmful interference with radio communications. Operation of this equipment in a residential area is likely to cause harmful interference, in which case you will be required to correct the interference at your own expense. California Best Management Practices Regulations for Perchlorate Materials: This Perchlorate warning applies only to products containing CR (Manganese Dioxide) Lithium coin cells. “Perchlorate Material-special handling may apply. See www.dtsc.ca.gov/hazardouswaste/perchlorate” WARNING:

Handling of lead solder materials used in this product may expose you to lead, a chemical known to the State of California to cause birth defects and other reproductive harm. Manual Revision 1.1b Release Date: March 20, 2008 Unless you request and receive written permission from Super Micro Computer, Inc., you may not copy any part of this document. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. Other products and companies referred to herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or mark holders. Copyright © 2008 by Super Micro Computer, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America

Page 2

Preface Preface About This Manual This manual is written for system integrators, PC technicians and knowledgeable PC users. It provides information for the installation and use of the H8DCE serverboard. The H8DCE is based on the nVidia® nForce Pro 2200/2050 chipset and supports single or dual AMD Opteron 200 series type processors in 940- pin microPGA ZIF sockets and up to 32 GB of DDR266 or 16 GB of DDR400/333 registered ECC SDRAM. Please refer to the serverboard speciﬁ cations pages on our web site for updates on supported processors. This product is intended to be professionally installed.

Manual Organization Chapter 1 includes a checklist of what should be included in your serverboard box, describes the features, speciﬁ cations and performance of the serverboard and provides detailed information about the chipset. Chapter 2 begins with instructions on handling static-sensitive devices. Read this chapter when installing the processor(s) and memory modules and when installing the serverboard in a chassis. Also refer to this chapter to connect the ﬂ oppy and hard disk drives, the parallel and serial ports, the mouse and keyboard and the twisted wires for the power and reset buttons and the system LEDs.

procedures for the video, the memory and the setup conﬁ guration stored in CMOS. If you encounter any problems, see Chapter 3 , which describes troubleshooting For quick reference, a general FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section is pro- vided. Instructions are also included for contacting technical support. In addition, you can visit our web site for more detailed information. Chapter 4 includes an introduction to BIOS and provides detailed information on running the CMOS Setup utility. Appendix A provides BIOS Error Beep Code Appendix B lists BIOS POST Checkpoint Codes iii

Page 3

H8DCE User’s Manual Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction 1-1 Overview ......................................................................................................... 1-1 Checklist .......................................................................................................... 1-1 1-2 Contacting Supermicro .................................................................................... 1-2 1-3 Serverboard Details ........................................................................................ 1-4 H8DCE Layout ................................................................................................

1-4 1-4 Chipset Overview ........................................................................................... 1-9 H8DCE Quick Reference ............................................................................... 1-5 2200 Media and Communications Processor ................................................. 1-9 2050 Media and Communications Processor ................................................. 1-9 HyperTransport Technology ............................................................................ 1-9 1-5 PC Health Monitoring ....................................................................................

1-10 1-6 Power Conﬁ guration Settings ....................................................................... 1-10 1-7 Power Supply ................................................................................................ 1-12 1-8 Super I/O ....................................................................................................... 1-12 Chapter 2 Installation 2-1 Static-Sensitive Devices .................................................................................. 2-1 Precautions .....................................................................................................

2-1 Unpacking ....................................................................................................... 2-1 Installation Procedures .................................................................................. 2-1 2-2 Processor and Heatsink Installation ............................................................... 2-2 Installing the CPU Backplates ....................................................................... 2-2 Installing the Processor (install to the CPU#1 socket ﬁ rst) ........................... 2-2 Installing the Heatsink Retention Modules ....................................................

2-3 2-3 Mounting the Serverboard into a Chassis ...................................................... 2-4 Installing the Heatsink ..................................................................................... 2-3 2-5 I/O Port and Control Panel Connections ........................................................ 2-7 Front Control Panel ......................................................................................... 2-7 2-6 Connecting Cables ......................................................................................... 2-8 2-7 Jumper Settings ............................................................................................

2-16 Explanation of Jumpers ................................................................................ 2-16 2-8 Onboard Indicators ........................................................................................ 2-19 2-9 Floppy, IDE, Parallel Port and SATA Drive Connections .............................. 2-20 2-10 Enabling SATA RAID ..................................................................................... 2-23 Serial ATA (SATA) ......................................................................................... 2-23 Installing the OS/SATA Driver ....................................................................... 2-23 iv

Page 4