All,

Just got the below spec working with ESXi 4.1 u1 (348481), thought I'd share...

Motherboard: Zotac H67-ITX-C-E Mini-ITX (socket 1155, WiFi, 6x SATA)
Processor: Intel i5-2400S (65W TDP 2nd Gen i5)
RAM: 8GB (2x 4GB DDR3 DIMMS)
Boot Disk: 1GB SD-Card (USB2)
Datastore Disks: 2x 2TB Seagate Barracuda Green SATA-600 64MB 5900RPM
Case: Chenbro ES34069 Mini-ITX case (4x removable drive bays, for a bit of future expansion if needed)

Was surprisingly straightforward. Only addition required was oem.tgz for the onboard Realtek NIC (8111/8168). I used the one on this (vm-help) site. Thanks for the effort with documenting and compiling drivers, makes installing ESX on whiteboxes, MUCH easier

http://www.vm-help.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1272

Went for the Zotac mobo a bit on a whim and without much investigation, as wanted a Mini-ITX board, low power (but with plenty of horsepower) CPU, and more than the usual 4x SATA ports. This one can take any of the new 2nd Gen 1155 processors, can take 16GB RAM (tho 8gig sticks are bit expensive atm) and comes with 7 (2x SATA3, 4x SATA4, +1 externally mounted eSATA).

Have the 2x hard disks attached to the 2x SATA3 ports and works fine, although haven't had a go at seeing of the RAID functionality will work in ESX or not, that's the next step )only want mirroring).

The case is a welcome surprise, well built and nicely laid out.

Thanks

Dan

PS. This box will replace a ESX3.5i running on an old Dell Optiplex SX270 (2GB RAM, P4 HT, etc), that I have had running for years, but that was super simple to install even back then, as it has *ordinary* Intel components that ESX is OK with.

Hey
Nice setup you have there! I'm planning on making EXSi machine on the Zotac H67 board as well but I need support for VMDirectPath.

I've googled it quite a lot but I can't find any definite answer on wether the H67 supports VT-d or not... I see that you're using the i5-2400S which supports it, but what about the mobo? Have you tried it or do you know wether the H67 supports VT-d or not?

Kind regards Richard

New to forum due to Project.
Spent along time looking @ ITX and VT + VT-d.

Your question regarding the VT-D:
The ASRock H67-ITX and the Foxconn H67S both have VT-d (Enable/Disable) in the BIOS along with Virtual Tech Support (Enable/Disable).

Karl.

Very great post!!!!
Do you think that a cheaper configuration with:

Asrock H67M-GE
4x4GB DDR3 (16GB) RAM
Intel i5-2400S CPU

will work flawlessy except for the NIC (that we can patch), without any issue and also with a green configuration (low power consumption)?

Do you know a better configuration with lower power consumption, same horsepower and similar costs?

Regards
Alessio

VMDirectPath on the H67ITX from Zotac or not? Previous post didn't actually say anything about the Zotac..