TYAN S5542 Server Motherboard OverviewTYAN''s S5542 is a low cost and versatile ATX form factor motherboard with variants that are great for lightweight applications such as Desktop Virtualization or Object Storage. The motherboard supports Intel E3-1200v5/v6 CPUs with TDP of up to 80 watts and supports up to 64GB of Unbuffered ECC DDR4 memory. The S5542G2NR-UHE and S5542G2NR-UHE-M2 SKUs support Intel''s CPU based Iris™ Pro Graphics.Expansion and I/OThe S5542 comes in a variety of PCIe slot configurations for large variety expansion cards. A Gen3 x16 PCIe slot with x8 link allows the use of a riser card in a 1U chassis deployment. For desktop and larger chassis the (2) Gen3 PCIe x1 slots allow for additional expansion cards such as sound and video capture. Additional PCIe slots are added by the S5542GM2NR and S5542GM4NR in the form of a Gen3 x8 slot for a total of (1) x16 (with x8 link), (1) x8, and (2) x1 PCIe Gen3 slots. The S5542G2NR-UHE and S5542G2NR-UHE-M2 take this one step further and maximize PCIe utilization by adding a Gen3 PCIe x8 slot with a x4 link, totaling (5) PCIe expansion slots.Storage OptionsThe S5542 features support for Intel''s Rapid Storage Technology. Intel RST resides on the system PCH and enables the use of RAID through the onboard SATA ports without the cost of purchasing or deploying a dedicated RAID card and without the consumption of a PCIe slot. With driver support for both Windows and Linux operating systems, Intel RST allows IT administrators to greatly reduce the overall system costs incurred when using a hardware RAID solutions.The S5542 motherboard also has an optional onboard Broadcom/LSI SAS3008 controller. Available on the S5542WGM2NR SKU, the SAS3008 adds an additional eight 12Gb/s SAS ports which support the use of both SATA and SAS hard drives.With the optional Broadcom/LSI SAS controller, TYAN''s S5542 motherboard is capable of supporting up to 14 hard drives without the need of any additional controller cards. This allows for some very dense and low-cost storage servers when paired with a long depth 1U chassis, perfect for many object storage applications.Server ManagementTYAN''s S5542WGM2NR, S5542GM2NR, and S5542GM4NR SKUs include enterprise grade server management via an onboard AST2400 BMC with IPMI 2.0 and a dedicated IPMI network port. Complete with an HTML based web management portal and Java based Keyboard-Video-Mouse (KVM) redirection, IPMI allows for both the remote viewing of critical system sensors and for complete remote control of the system to be handed to remote support personnel in times of need. Management features such as IPMI help your business lower the TCO of the system by reducing the amount of time and effort expenditure needed by support technicians.