Motherboards and unsupported servers that work with ESX 4.0 and
/ or ESXi 4.0 Installable
Lasted updated - 2010.02.19
Go to Servers and PCs Motherboards Storage Controllers Network Cards Storage
This table contains a list of systems, motherboards, storage controllers and network cards that have been tested and found to work with ESX 4.0 or ESXi 4.0 Installable. Please check out the source column for a system you are considering using as some systems will include special steps to enable ESX / ESXi to run on that system or have other issues to overcome. None of these systems are supported by VMWare for running ESX. For a list of those systems please see this link. In same cases for ESXi, the system may be booting from a USB flash drive and be using no local storage. For a list of whitebox systems that will work with ESX 3.5 and ESXi 3.5 please see this list.
If you have tested a system that is not listed here, please post a comment in the forum.
NOTE: this list includes a number of SATA controllers that provide RAID functionily via a software component in the drivers supplied with the controller. Examples would be the Intel ICH series and the nVidia MCP series. ESX 4.0 and ESXi 4.0 do not support that software RAID functionality thus you will only be able to access the individual drives connected to controllers such as these.
Other whitebox lists: VMware's Communities List http://ultimatewhitebox.com/ Wikipedia ESX Whitebox HCL
An OK in green indicates that ESX(i) installed without issues. An OK in orange indicates that a work around was required. Please check the source link for details.
| Servers / PCs | Storage Controller | ESX | ESXi | Source |
| Dell Dimension 5150 | OK | 1 | ||
| Dell Dimension 8400 | OK | 1 | ||
| Dell Dimension 9100 | OK | 1 | ||
| Dell Inspiron 530 | OK | OK | 1 2 | |
| Dell Inspiron 545 | Intel ICH9R | OK | 1 2 | |
| Dell Latitude D630 | Intel ICH8M | OK | 1 | |
| Dell Latitude E6500 | Intel ICH9M | OK | 1 | |
| Dell OptiPlex GX 280 | OK | 1 | ||
| Dell OptiPlex GX 620 | OK | OK | 1 | |
| Dell OptiPlex 740 | OK | 1 | ||
| Dell OptiPlex GX 755 | OK | 1 2 3 | ||
| Dell OptiPlex GX 760 | OK | 1 2 3 | ||
| Dell PowerEdge 840 | OK | 1 | ||
| Dell PowerEdge 1800 | Dell CERC 1.5/6CH SATA RAID Card | OK | 1 | |
| Dell PowerEdge 1950 | OK | 1 | ||
| Dell PowerEdge 2850 | OK | OK | 1 2 | |
| Dell PowerEdge R200 | Intel ICH9 | OK | 1 | |
| Dell PowerEdge SC440 | OK | 1 | ||
| Dell PowerEdge SC1420 | OK | 1 2 | ||
| Dell PowerEdge SC1435 | OK | OK | 1 2 3 | |
| Dell PowerEdge T105 | OK | 1 | ||
| Dell PowerEdge T110 | OK | 1 2 | ||
| Dell Precision 490 | Added Adaptec 2610SA | OK | 1 | |
| Dell Percision 490 | Intel 631xESB/632xESB | OK | 1 | |
| Dell Precision T3400 | OK | 1 | ||
| Dell Studio XPS 435 | Intel ICH10R | OK | 1 | |
| Dell Vostro 400 | OK | 1 | ||
| Dell Vostro 410 | OK | 1 | ||
| Dell XPS M1330 | OK | 1 | ||
| Fujitsu Siemens (ASUS) A8NE-FM | CK804 Serial ATA Controller | OK | VMware beta forum | |
| Fujitsu Siemens Econel 100S2 | OK | 1 | ||
| Fujitsu Siemens TX150 S6 | LSI MegaRAID SAS 1078 | OK | 1 | |
| HP BL460C G1 | OK | OK | 1 | |
| HP dc5800 | OK | 1 | ||
| HP dc7600 SFF | OK | 1 | ||
| HP dc7900 | OK | 1 2 | ||
| HP dc7900 SFF | OK | 1 | ||
| HP DL145 G2 | OK | 1 2 | ||
| HP DL145 G1 | OK | 1 | ||
| HP DL360 G4 | OK | 1 | ||
| HP DL360 G4p | OK | 1 | ||
| HP DL380 G4 | OK | 1 | ||
| HP Elite 7000 | OK | 1 | ||
| HP ML110 G4 | OK | 1 | ||
| HP ML110 G5 | OK | 1 | ||
| HP ML115 | OK | 1 | ||
| HP ML115 G5 | OK | 1 2 3 4 | ||
| HP ML150 | OK | 1 | ||
| HP ML150 G6 | OK | 1 | ||
| HP ML 360 G5 | OK | 1 | ||
| HP Pavillon a6000 (Asus M2N68-LA) | OK | 1 | ||
| HP xw4400 | OK | 1 2 | ||
| HP xw4600 | OK | 1 2 | ||
| HP Z600 | OK | 1 | ||
| IBM Intellistation M Pro (6225-27G) | OK | 1 | ||
| IBM xSeries 346 | OK | 1 2 | ||
| IBM xSeries x306m | OK | 1 | ||
| IBM xSeries x326m | OK | 1 | ||
| IBM xSeries x3650 (7979C1A) | OK | 1 | ||
| Intel SR2600 | Intel ICH10 | OK | 1 | |
| Lenovo M58 | Intel ICH10 | OK | 1 | |
| NEC PM-ML7 (Intel D915 MB) | Intel ICH6 | OK | 1 | |
| Shuttle SD37P2 | Intel ICH7R | OK | 1 | |
| Shuttle SG33G5 | Intel ICH9 | OK | 1 | |
| Shuttle SG45H7 | Intel ICH10 | OK | OK | 1 2 |
| Shuttle SX38P2 | Intel ICH9R | OK | OK | 1 |
| Super Micro X7DVL | OK | 1 | ||
| Super Micro X8DTi | OK | 1 | ||
| Motherboards | Storage Controller | ESX | ESXi | Source |
| Abit IP35P | Intel ICH9 | OK | VMware beta forum | |
| ASRock 4Core1333 | OK | 1 | ||
| ASRock ALiveNF6G-DVI | OK | 1 | ||
| ASRock ALiveNF6G-GLAN | nVidia MCP 61 | OK | 1 | |
| ASRock ALIVENF6G-VSTA AM2 | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus A8N-VM CSM | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus K8N | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus K8NS Pro | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus KFSN4-DRE/SAS | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus L1N64-SLI WS/B | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus M2A-VM | ATI SB600 | OK | 1 | |
| Asus M2N SLI Deluxe | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus M2N32 SLI Deluxe | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus M2N32 SLI Premium | OK | OK | 1 | |
| Asus M2NPV-VM | nVidia MCP 51 | OK | 1 2 3 | |
| Asus M2N-E | OK | OK | 1 2 3 4 5 | |
| Asus M2N68 | nVidia MCP 67 | OK | 1 2 3 | |
| Asus M2N-LR | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus M2N-MX SE | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus M2N-MX SE Plus | nVidia MCP 61 | OK | 1 2 | |
| Asus M3A78 Pro | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus M3N78 | OK | 1 2 | ||
| Asus M3N78-EM | nVidia MCP 78 | OK | 1 2 3 4 | |
| Asus M3N78-EMH HDMI | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus M4A78 Pro | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus M4A78-E | OK | 1 2 | ||
| Asus M4A78-EM | OK | OK | 1 2 | |
| Asus M4A78T-E | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus M4A785-M | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus M4A785T-M | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus NCCH-DL | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus P2-M2A690G | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus P5B | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus P5BV-M 3200 | OK | 1 2 | ||
| Asus P5E-VM DO | Intel ICH9 | OK | 1 | |
| Asus P5E-VM HDMI | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus P5E WS Pro | OK | OK | 1 | |
| Asus P5K | Intel ICH9 | OK | 1 | |
| Asus P5K Premium | Intel ICH9R | OK | 1 | |
| Asus P5K SE EPU | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus P5KPL-AM | Intel ICH7 | OK | 1 | |
| Asus P5KPL-VM | Intel ICH7 | OK | 1 | |
| Asus P5M2 | Intel ICH7R | OK | 1 | |
| Asus P5M2/SAS | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus P5N-D | nVidia MCP51 | OK | 1 | |
| Asus P5N-E SLI | OK | VMware beta forum | ||
| Asus P5N-EM | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus P5N32-E SLI | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus P5N-T Deluxe | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus P5NT WS | OK | 1 2 | ||
| Asus P5Q-E | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus P5Q-EM | OK | OK | 1 VMware beta forum - required Intel NIC to eliminate install errror: failed to load lvmdriver | |
| Asus P5Q-EM DO | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus P5Q-VM DO | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus P5Q SE2 | Intel ICH10 | OK | 1 | |
| Asus P5Q3 | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus P5QL-Pro | OK | 1 2 3 | ||
| Asus P6T | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus P6T SE | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus P6T WS | Intel ICH10 | OK | 1 | |
| Asus P6T WS Professional | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus P7P55 LX | OK | 1 2 | ||
| Asus P7P55D | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus RAMPAGE II GENE X58 S-1366 MATX | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus V2-M3N8200 | OK | 1 | ||
| Asus V2-P5G33 | OK | VMware beta forum | ||
| Asus Z8NA-D6C | OK | 1 | ||
| BIOSTAR NF61S-M2A | OK | 1 | ||
| DFI LANPARTY UT NF4 SLI-DR | OK | 1 | ||
| ECS A780GM-A | OK | 1 | ||
| ECS GeForce6100PM-M2 | nVidia MCP 61 | OK | 1 2 | |
| ESC P45T-A | OK | 1 | ||
| EVGA 680i | OK | 1 | ||
| EVGA X58 SLI LE | OK | 1 | ||
| Foxconn A7DA-S | OK | 1 | ||
| Foxconn G31MXP | OK | 1 | ||
| Foxconn M61PMV | nVidia MCP 61 | OK | 1 | |
| Foxconn Renaissance | Intel ICH10R | OK | 1 | |
| Note: Gibabyte MBs doesn't seem to like the default partitioning of ESXi when booting from a USB flash device. Check the forums for a solution to that problem. | ||||
| Gigabyte EP45-D3SR | Intel ICH10R | OK | 1 | |
| Gigabyte EP45-UD3 | OK | 1 | ||
| Gigabyte EP45-UD3P | Intel ICH10 | OK | 1 2 | |
| Gigabyte EP45-UD3R | OK | 1 | ||
| Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H | OK | 1 | ||
| Gigabyte GA-790GP-UD4H | OK | 1 | ||
| Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 | OK | 1 | ||
| Gigabyte GA-EG41MF-US2H | Intel ICH7 | OK | 1 | |
| Gigabyte GA-EG45M-UD2H | OK | 1 | ||
| Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3 | OK | 1 | ||
| Gigabyte GA-EQ45M-S2 | OK | 1 | ||
| Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P | Intel ICH10R | OK | 1 | |
| Gigabyte GA-K8N51GMF-9 | OK | 1 | ||
| Gigabyte GA-M52L-S3 | OK | 1 | ||
| Gigabyte GA-MA770-S3P | OK | 1 | ||
| Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 | OK | 1 | ||
| Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P | OK | 1 2 | ||
| Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-DS2H | Added Dell Perc 5/i | OK | 1 | |
| Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-US2H | OK | 1 2 | ||
| Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H | ATI SB700 | OK | 1 | |
| Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H | OK | 1 2 | ||
| Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H | AMD 790GX + SB750 (AHCI mode) | OK | 1 2 | |
| Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-UD4H | OK | 1 | ||
| Gigabyte GA-MA790GPT-UD3H | OK | 1 | ||
| Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3 | Intel ICH9 | OK | 1 | |
| Gigabyte P35-DS3L | Intel ICH9 | OK | VMware beta forum | |
| Note: Gibabyte MBs doesn't seem to like the default partitioning of ESXi when booting from a USB flash device. Check the forums for a solution to that problem. | ||||
| Intel BOXDQ45CB | OK | 1 | ||
| Intel D975XBX2 | OK | 1 | ||
| Intel DG33BU | OK | 1 | ||
| Intel DG33BUC | OK | 1 | ||
| Intel DG33TL | OK | 1 2 | ||
| Intel DG35EC | Intel ICH10 | OK | 1 2 3 4 | |
| Intel DG35DO | OK | 1 | ||
| Intel DG41MJ Mini ITX | OK | 1 | ||
| Intel DG41RQ | OK | 1 | ||
| Intel DG43GT | Intel ICH10 | OK | 1 | |
| Intel DG45ID | OK | 1 | ||
| Intel DG45FC Mini ITX | Intel ICH10R | OK | 1 | |
| Intel DP43TF | OK | 1 2 | ||
| Intel DP45SG | OK | OK | 1 2 | |
| Intel DQ35MP | OK | 1 | ||
| Intel DQ45CB | OK | OK | 1 2 3 4 | |
| Intel DQ45EK | OK | OK | 1 | |
| Intel DQ963GS | OK | 1 | ||
| Intel S3210SH | Intel ICH9R | OK | 1 2 | |
| Intel S3210SHLC | OK | 1 | ||
| Intel S3420GP | OK | 1 | ||
| Intel S5000PAL | OK | 1 | ||
| Intel S5000PSL | Added Adaptec 3805 | OK | 1 | |
| Intel S5520UR | Intel ICH10 | OK | 1 2 3 | |
| MSI GM965 Fuzzy (Mini-ITX) | OK | OK | 1 | |
| MSI IM-GM45 | Intel ICH9M | OK | 1 | |
| MSI K8N Neo4/SLI | OK | 1 | ||
| MSI K9A2 Platinum | OK | 1 | ||
| MSI K9N Neo V3 | OK | 1 | ||
| MSI K9N SLI-F | OK | 1 | ||
| MSI K9N Ultra | nVidia MCP 55 | OK | OK | 1 2 |
| MSI MS-7519 | OK | 1 | ||
| MSI P45-D8 | OK | 1 | ||
| MSI P55-GD80 | OK | 1 | ||
| MSI P965 Neo-F V2 | Intel ICH8 | OK | 1 | |
| MSI X58 Platinum I7 | OK | 1 | ||
| Super Micro C2SBA++0 Q33 | Intel ICH9R | OK | 1 | |
| Super Micro C2SBX | Intel ICH9R | OK | 1 | |
| Super Micro H8DIi+-F | OK | 1 | ||
| Super Micro H8DME-2 | OK | 1 | ||
| Super Micro H8QME-2 | OK | 1 | ||
| Super Micro X6DH8 | OK | 1 | ||
| Super Micro X7DAL-E | OK | 1 | ||
| Super Micro X7DVL-E | OK | 1 | ||
| Super Micro X8DTi | OK | 1 2 | ||
| Super Micro X8DTI-F | OK | 1 2 | ||
| Super Micro X8SAX | OK | OK | 1 | |
| Super Micro X8SAX-O | OK | 1 | ||
| Super Micro X8ST3-F | OK | OK | 1 | |
| TUL TRS690-M1 | OK | 1 2 | ||
| Tyan S2912G2NR | nVidia MCP 55 | OK | 1 | |
| Tyan S2915-E | LSI 1068e | OK | 1 | |
| Tyan S2932-E (Thunder n3600M) | LSI 1068e | OK | 1 | |
| Tyan S2985 (Thunder K8WE) | OK | 1 | ||
| XFX 680i | nVidia MCP61 | OK | 1 | |
| ZOTAC GF8200-C-E | nVidia MCP 78 | OK | 1 2 | |
| Storage Controller | PCI id | ESX |
ESXi |
Source |
| 3Ware 9690 / 9650 | OK | 1 2 3 | ||
| Adaptec 1210SA | OK | 1 | ||
| Adaptec 2405 | 9005:0285 (subsystem 9005:02b6) | OK | OK | 1 2 3 4 |
| Adaptec 2405 | OK | 1 | ||
| Adaptec 2410SA | OK | 1 2 | ||
| Adaptec 2610SA | OK | 1 2 | ||
| Adaptec 2940 (aic7xxxx) | OK | 1 | ||
| Adaptec 3805 | OK | 1 | ||
| Adaptec 5405 | OK | 1 | ||
| Adaptec 5805 | OK | 1 2 | ||
| Areca 1110 | OK | 1 | ||
| Areca 1210 | OK | 1 | ||
| ATI SB600 | 1002:4380 | OK | 1 | |
| Dell PERC 5/E | Has 2 external x4 SAS ports | OK | 1 | |
| Dell PERC 5/i | OK | 1 2 3 4 5** 6 | ||
| Dell PERC 6/iR | OK | 1 | ||
| HP Smart Array B110i | OK | 1 | ||
| HP Smart Array E200 | OK | 1 | ||
| HP Smart Array P400 | OK | 1 | ||
| Intel SRCS28X | OK | 1 2 | ||
| LSI 3041E-R | OK | 1 2 | ||
| LSI 9620 | OK | 1 | ||
| LSI MegaRAID 150-4 | OK | 1 | ||
| LSI MegaRAID 300-8X LP | OK | 1 | ||
| LSI MegaRAID SAS3028E-R | OK | 1 | ||
| LSI MegaRAID SAS3041E-HP | OK | 1 | ||
| LSI MegaRAID SAS8308ELP | OK | 1 | ||
| LSI MegaRAID SAS8344ELP | OK | 1 | ||
| LSI MegaRAID SAS 9260-8i | OK | 1 | ||
| Promise FastTrak TX-4310 | OK | 1 | ||
| Promise SATA300 TX4 | OK | 1 | ||
| Silicon Image Sil3512 | OK | 1 | ||
| Silicon Image SteelVine | OK | 1 | ||
| Sun STK INT Raid | SUN re-badged Adaptec 5805 8 port 2x mini-sas PCI-E | OK | 1 | |
| Network Cards | PCI id | ESX |
ESXi |
Source |
| Asus PIKE 1078 8-port SAS HW RAID | OK | 1 | ||
| Broadcom BCM5784 | 14e4:1698 | OK | 1 | |
| Intel 82576EB Gigabit Ethernet | OK | 1 | ||
| Intel EXPI9301CTBLK CT | PCI-E | OK | 1 2 | |
| Intel Pro/1000 * | OK | 1 | ||
| Intel Pro/1000 GT | OK | 1 2 | ||
| Intel Pro/1000 MT | OK | 1 2 - issues reported with Gb switch 3 | ||
| Intel Pro/1000 MT Desktop Adapter | OK | 1 | ||
| Intel Pro/1000 PT | OK | 1 | ||
| Intel Pro/1000 XT | OK | 1 | ||
| Realtek 8168 / 8111 | OK | 1 2 | ||
| SuperMicro AOC-SG-i2 2xGigabit PCI-E | (2 x Intel 82575) | OK | OK | 1 |
| SuperMicro AOC-SG-i4 4xGigabit PCI-E | (4 x Intel 82576) | OK | 1 | |
| VIA (VT6130) GbE Adapter | OK | 1 | ||
| Storage | ||||
| FreeNAS | OK | 1 | ||
| Openfiler 2.5 | OK | 1 | ||
| Opensolaris | OK | OK | 1 | |
| Ubuntu Server 9.04 (iSCSI) | OK | 1 |
Copyright © 2009 - Dave Mishchenko