Cons: I've started with BIOS 1.0a. Six months later, after burning 2.0a, we have some slight improvement in usb functionality-- but nowhere near right. The problem appears to be the complexity and responsibility of a UEFI BIOS to actually enumerate USB 3.0 devices, and emulate USB 2.0 as well, and the inability of AMI to meet the specs. Since there are so few BIOS makers, Supermicro really has no options to fix this, unless AMI decide to get it right. In practice, this means:
1. Abandon the idea that devices plugged into different motherboard ports don't interact with each other, and with the boot process.
2. Scratch your head, swap plugs, hubs, and devices ad-infinitum, and give up.
3. Install an Inatek or other vendor 7 port USB card. Anything based on the Fresco Logic chipset does everything that Intel/AMI cannot. Except: boot into BIOS, which brings us to the next point.
4. You might expect that every usb keyboard will get you into the BIOS. Not! Happy Hacker keyboards don't. Discover which of your keyboards works for this.
Are we done yet? No!
5. You won't be able to boot into the BIOS if any other device is plugged into any other motherboard USB port. You'll get the famous 5-beep code, and the machine will continue into OS boot all the while you're pounding away at 'DEL'.
Confusing? Yeah! Excusable? Noooo Wayyyy!!!

Other Thoughts: The whole ball of wax is just a continuation of a nasty industry habit: writing specs that can't be fulfilled in practice until long after the product is obsolete, if ever. Once you learn to expect things to be partly broken you'll be 'very happy' with this board.

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Pros: One of the only 2-CPU boards supporting SLI. I only have it running one CPU for now, but it's rock solid.
Customer service seems responsive and helpful.
Lots of fan headers.
The RAM slots are far enough away from the top PCIe slot that a half-length PCIe card can fit with no problem.

Cons: Now the problems with actually getting SLI up and running:
Unlike SLI-certified boards, this one does not come with an SLI bridge, so you'll have to buy one separately. Even then, though, I couldn't get the video card driver to see that the two cards were capable of SLI. It looks like BIOS 2.0 doesn't actually support SLI. I e-mailed Supermicro, who responded (in 12 minutes!) with a beta BIOS and instructions on how to flash it. The beta BIOS then worked perfectly.
Other minor issues:
- The manual lists level 1-4 for 'Supermicro Hyper-Speed', but only 1 and 2 were available for me. (just for info: the level is the percentage BCLK overclock, so level 2 runs the BCLK at 102MHz instead of 100MHz)
- With only one CPU, the only way to use SLI is with the video cards right next to each other, which raises the temperature of the top one dramatically.
- Although there were a lot of fan headers, the actual fan speed control is lacking. (Setting it to 'optimal' seems to work OK, but I wish there were more options)
- Stickers on the power connectors say 'both 8pin required for heavy load configuration,' implying that you don't always need both, but the manual says you must use both or your warranty is void.
- The I/O shield has PS/2 and 9-pin serial cutouts, but the board does not have those connectors.

Other Thoughts: This board seems rather expensive for what is essentially a bunch of wires between a few connectors. The only real chip on it is the C612 chipset. I'm used to 'enthusiast' boards with extra USB ports, M.2 slots, WiFi, and other add-ons for this price.
I definitely would have liked some M.2 slots for this. 8 PCIe lanes from CPU1 go unused - they are reserved for the RAID controller on the X10DAC version of this board.
All in all, there were no major surprises. Despite the downsides, I'd still get this board again. Took off 1 star due to SLI issues and price/value.

Pros: I started out with the Asus Z10PE-D8WS, but it wouldn't post,
and as I had a past experience with a sabertooth board I changed to Supermicro MDB-X10DAI, just to find out I would really like this one, supporting SLI and Hyper speed. Unfortunately the Newegg website didn't list this one under the Dual 2011-3 options, nor the Asus board actually. The best option is to look for the C612 Chipset.
Both SuperMicro boards posted right away and in spite
of my limited amount of server board builds all their default set ups made it really easy to put it all together.
You need to down load the driver disc, but it all worked flawless.

Cons: None

Supermicro X10dax Usb Controller Driver Download

Usb Controller Driver Free Download

Introduction

The Supermicro X10DAi workstation motherboard is one of three products in this class. These are X10DAi, X10DAC, and X10DAX.

The basic motherboard is the X10DAi, which we will review here. The X10DAC adds an LSI 3008 SAS3 (12Gbps controller) and enhanced network ports. The X10DAX adds overclocking features (BCLK only).

All three motherboards support dual Intel E5-2600 v3 (Socket R3) Haswell-EP processors based on Intel's 22nm processing Technology. Supermicro designed these motherboards as balanced solutions that deliver performance, power efficiency, and feature load.

Using the PCH C612, the X10DAi motherboard supports Intel's Node Manager 3.0, Intel Management Engine, and new DDR4 with speeds up to 2133MHz. The end result is the X10DAi is optimized for workstation platforms used for graphics applications and engineering CAD drawings. The key features of the X10DAi workstation motherboard are:

• Dual HSW EP E5-2600 v3 (Socket R3 up to 160W), QPI up to 9.6GT/s
• Intel C612 chipset
• 16 DIMM, 1TB Reg. ECC DDR4 up to 2133 MHz
• Three PCIe 3.0 x16, two PCIe 3.0 x8, one PCIe 2.0 x4 (in x8 slot)
• Intel dual i210 GbE
• 10 SATA3, 11 USB Ports (6 USB 3.0)
• 7.1 HD audio
• 6x USB 3.0
• Thunderbolt AOC support
• 12' x 13' E-ATX Form Factor

This motherboard can handle up to 160W processors, which allows it to run the E5-2699 v3 (16 core) CPUs. Having ten SATA ports is very common on the new platforms, so you should have no issues with storage options.

This board also includes eleven USB ports, and six of those are USB 3.0. This allows a large number of external devices to be connected. We always seem to need more USB ports on our workstations, and the X10DAi is equipped to handle that. 7.1 HD audio and Thunderbolt AOC support are included to round out the features on the X10DAi.

PRICING: You can find the Supermicro X10DAi (Intel C612) Workstation Motherboard for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing, but can change at any time. Click the link to see the very latest pricing for the best deal.

United States: The Supermicro X10DAi-O (Retail Pack) retails for $403.00 at Amazon, and the Supermicro X10DAi-B (Bulk Pack) retails for $395.00 at Amazon.