Tyan Tempest i5400XT

When the Intel Quad-Core "Clovertown" Xeon processors were introduced in late 2006 we had reviewed (among other motherboards) the Tyan Tempest i5000XT (S2696) motherboard. We had found this i5000X-based motherboard to work incredibly well with Linux and it ended up being awarded with our Editor's Choice Award for its impressive feature-set, Linux compatibility, and top-notch performance. It has been a while since last looking at a Tyan motherboard, but with the emergence of Intel's Wolfdale and Harpertown processors requiring new motherboards, today we are looking at the Tempest i5400XT S5396 motherboard. The Tempest i5400XT is similar to the i5000XT, but it's been upgraded to the new Intel 5400 MCH.

Features:

Processor
- Dual LGA771 sockets
- Supports up to two Intel Xeon Processors
- Xeon 5000/5100/5300/5400 CPUs Supported
- Dempsey, Woodcrest, Clovertown, Wolfdale, Harpertown CPUs
- 1.33 / 1.06GHz FSB
- VRD 11.0

Chipset
- Intel 5400 MCH + 6321ESB Chipset
- Support for 1.33 / 1.06GHz FSB
- Winbond W83627EHG Super I/O Chip

Memory
- Eight 240-pin DDR2 FB-DIMM sockets
- 4 memory channels
- Supports ECC DIMMs
- Maximum of 64/32 GB DDR2-533/667

Expansion Slots
- Two (2) PCI Express x16 slots
- One (1) PCI Express x8 slot
- Two (2) PCI-X 133/100MHz slots
- One (1) PCI 32-bit 33MHz slot
- Total six expansion slots
- Supported PCIe Add-On Cards

System Management
- ADI Hardware Monitor with PECI circuit
- CPU thermal & voltage monitor support
- Five (5) fan headers (4-pin configuration)

Power
- EPS12V/SSI (24+8+4X1 pin) power connectors

Integrated LAN Controllers
- Intel Gigabit from 6321ESB (w/ dual ports "Gilgal" 82563)
- Two RJ-45 ports with LEDs

Integrated PCI 1394
- TI TSB43AB22 1394a controller
- 1394a channel for rear (connector)
- 1394a channel for front (header)

Integrated Audio
- HDA link
- RealTek ALC888 controller (High Definition Audio)
- Line-in, Line-out, Mic-in rear ports
- Front panel audio header
- CD-in, Aux headers (4-pin configuration)
- SPDIF in/out connector in rear

Integrated Serial ATA II
- Six (6) SATA-II ports running at 3.0 Gb/s
- RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 support in Windows

Integrated SAS
- LSI 1068E SAS Controller
- PCI-E x4 interface to 6321ESB
- Eight SAS Ports

Server Management
- Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) from daughter card M3291
- Tailored for IPMI 2.0 specification
- Supports remote power on/off and reset (IPMIover-LAN)
- Server Management Daughter card via built-in 2x25 header

Trusted Platform Management (TPM)
- Infineon SLB9635TT 1.2

BIOS
- PhoenixBIOS on 8Mbit Flash ROM
- Support APM 1.2, ACPI 2.0
- Serial Console Redirect
- PXE via Ethernet, USB device boot
- PnP, DMI 2.0, WfM 2.0 Power Management
- User-configurable H/W monitoring
- Auto-configuration of hard disk types
- Multiple boot options
- 48-bit LBA support

Form Factor
- SSI / Extended ATX (12" x 13")

Regulatory
- FCC Class B (DoC)
- European Community CE (DoC)

Contents:

Tyan has been using the same motherboard packaging for years, but frankly we don't have a problem with it from the many Tyan motherboards we have tested. Included with the Tempest i5400XT motherboard were three molex to dual Serial ATA power adapters, one USB 2.0 expansion header, serial expansion header, two Tyan driver CDs (one containing the manual), six Serial ATA data cables, I/O panel, ribbon FDD cable, and one ribbon IDE cable. The i5400XT is available in two models (S5396A2NRF and S5396WA2NRF), with the difference between the two being that the S5396WA2NRF offers an LSA 1068E SAS controller. This Serial Attached SCSI controller supports up to eight drives. The SKU we have for testing is the Tyan S5396A2NRF.