[vfio-users] How to choose a compatible motherboard?

[Corey Larson]

Thanks for all the help, everyone! I really appreciate it.

So, to summarize and make sure I have condensed all this info properly,
the consensus seems to be that:

  1. Current Skylake CPUs are a bad choice for vfio builds (because of a
  lack of ACS).
  2. Xeon E5 CPUs are good. E3 and Core iX CPUs are bad for vfio
  (because of a lack of ACS).
  3. Look for motherboards that explicitly list VT-d as a feature. ASUS
  boards seem to be wonky. People seem to have good success with ASRock
  boards.
  4. Configurations that rely on the ACS override patch may act weird,
  and are less likely to be supported. Which makes sense given the
  nature of the patch.

As I was researching a build to leverage vfio, I did read AW's blog
posts, but had thought "Xeon? I'm not made of money!" After seeing it
pushed more on this list, I did more research and found that some of the
"entry-level" Xeons (specifically the E5-1620 V3) are very much within
the realm of regular people.

Additionally, from those links to the HW lists, it seems that the an
ASRock (in my case, a X99 Extreme4 since its cheaper than the 6, thanks
for the pointer Nick) paired with a Xeon E5-1620 V3 is a practical and
cost effective solution.

Thanks again!

On Wed, Oct 21, 2015, at 11:26 AM, Corey Larson wrote:
> I am in a position where I can do a new build with this technology in
> mind. How do I go about picking a motherboard that will have the best
> compatibility to do vfio?
> 
> Currently, my plan is to use this board:
> https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/H170-PRO-GAMING/specifications/. I
> plan to add an additional GPU (NVidia GTX 960) for the guest, and use
> the integrated Intel graphics to drive Linux. I also plan to make use of
> OVMF to avoid the Intel VGA arbitration patch.
> 
> I appreciate any information you can share with me to help guide me!
> -- 
> Corey Larson
> corey at eatrunco.de
> 
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