ASRock Rack X470D4U Build Report (AM4 Server Board)

[LTCM]

When I built my Freenas box I wasn't interested in running many VMs or plex transcoding. As my homelab and media collection has grown that has changed. I needed more processing horsepower which meant going with an E3-1200 v5/6, neither of which is attractive from a value standpoint. $260 for a four core processor in 2019?

The AMD AM4 Ryzen cpus have never had ECC memory disabled. The consumer motherboards have not certified ECC but that's not do to the cpus lacking the feature. And then no onboard graphics, no IPMI...until now.

Prior Build:
X11SSM-F
i3-6100
32 gb ECC 2133 (Off the memory list)
Chenbro 40700
8x 8TB in Raid2z
3 Mirrored SSD vdevs
IT Flashed HBA
10gbe pcie card

New Build
x470D4U
Ryzen 7 1700x (8 Core, 3.8 ghz boost)
RGB!!!!
Everything else is the same

One downside is the existing memory I had is not on the ASRock QVL list, but it hasn't seemed to be a problem so far. One issue I ran into was I had to boot the system three times to get Freenas to load- but I'm pretty sure that was because my front panel cables were not installed correctly (installing a new board without unracking the server isn't ideal). I haven't tried the IPMI yet, but I could if someone wants to see the interface. I've done everything from the web gui so far.

So there you have it, over 2.5x the passmark score of my i3-6100 using a real server motherboard. CPU was $160 and the cooler as $18. Motherboard is expensive for what it is, $260. If anyone has any questions or testing they want completed let me know.

 

[m_lind]

Super cool new build! Finally
I am very curious about the Ryzen 7 prossesor, especially how it works in combination with the Freenas 11.2. U4
I have been looking at a Ryzen 7 server for quite some time.
Just like you, I don't think it's worth the money for a old four core Xeon processor.
Due to a lack of ryzen 7 experiences in this forum, I did not dare to take the step yet

So please Keep me informed of your findings and share your experiences!

 

[Chris Moore]

If you are interested in an AMD build, and you want actual server hardware, you might take a look at this build:

Successful Build with AMD Epyc and Supermicro H11SSL-i
https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...cro-h11ssl-i-do-freenas-11.63854/#post-490815

It just has no RGB lighting to make it run faster....

 

[HofkoSK]

My old homeserver with i3-3220T with P9D WS going to silicon heawen and new build for home use is with R5 2600. After build I tested FreeNAS for my interest and it works :)(with RGB effects on Asus MoBo)

What is the server consumption, please?

 

[drinking12many]

Not bad, Id like to see a few more PCI-E slots so full ATX, and maybe some M.2 slots but not bad. I have been debating once Ryzen Gen 3 comes out at moving my 1700 to be my freenas box and retiring my 8320 which has done ok for my media/VM/Jail use. I currently have 4 NICs and a IT mode sas card in mine so it would be nice to have a board with more x8 or x4 slots I dont really need X16 .

More like this but ugh the price of EPYC CPUs https://www.newegg.com/asrock-rack-epycd8-amd-epyc-7000-series-processor-family/p/N82E16813140010

 

[Arwen]

The price of EPYC 7000 CPUs includes;

• 8 memory channels, (though vendors may not implement them all on smaller boards)
• 128 PCIe 3.0 lanes, (even with dual socket, though 64 lanes from each socket)
• Upto 32 SATA 6Gbps, (probably at the cost of a PCIe lane)
• Space for additional cache, since these server CPUs don't have graphics

What I really want to see are EPYC 3000 embedded servers, using the included 10Gbps Ethernet, (dual port preferably), and either the 8 builtin SATA 6Gbps ports. Or enough expansion to add a SAS card. Add in IPMI / BMC for remote management, then even a lowly 4 core, 8 thread EPYC would make a decent NAS server.

 

[Chris Moore]

What I really want to see are

With RGB lighting?

 

[Arwen]

With RGB lighting?

Uh, in a server?
Which may be in a distant room?
Or a closet?

 

[Chris Moore]

Uh, in a server?
Which may be in a distant room?
Or a closet?

It was meant to be a joke.

 

[Arwen]

It was meant to be a joke.

Sorry, still have a bit of headache from earlier, (caffine withdrawl).

 

[HofkoSK]

Of course, my note about RGB is only joke too. Who cares about "funny" lights in closed PC case. My target is server with low power drain, with FreeNAS or other system and in this case I would be very happy if the Supermicro would produce a board similar to the X11SDV with the Epyc 3000 CPU and at least 1 10 Gb of the lan port.

Therefore, my question about server consumption was asked ;).

 

[Chris Moore]

Therefore, my question about server consumption was asked ;).

If I was choosing an AMD compatible board, this is the one I would choose:
https://www.supermicro.com/Aplus/motherboard/EPYC7000/H11SSL-NC.cfm

Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be any integrated 10Gb interfaces on the AMD boards.

I don't generally like the Mini-ITX boards because they don't have enough expansion slots, but this is the one that I like out of that batch:
https://www.supermicro.com/Aplus/motherboard/Embedded/M11SDV-8C_-LN4F.cfm

I would just want to be able to split that x16 slot into two x8 slots so I could have a SAS card and a 10Gb card.

 

[Arwen]

@Chris Moore, from my reading, the AMD Epyc 7000 does not include any built-in Ethernet ports. Just one *ell of a lot of PCIe lanes, (128).

The AMD Epyc 3000 series DOES include 10Gbps Ethernet, but looks like Supermicro went a bit more conservative and used an Intel chip. It's also possible that the Epyc 3000 gives up PCIe lanes for each 10Gbps Ethernet port. So trading those built-in ports for a well understood, and supported external chip might make sense.

I miss the bad, old days when vendors actually had usefull design information available for anyone interested. One of my jobs was part time embedded design engineer, (title "Assistant Electrical Engineer"), and I simple wrote, called or used the web to order up design documents. Today, the web is mostly a selling tool...

 

[Junglist724]

@Chris Moore, from my reading, the AMD Epyc 7000 does not include any built-in Ethernet ports. Just one *ell of a lot of PCIe lanes, (128).

The AMD Epyc 3000 series DOES include 10Gbps Ethernet, but looks like Supermicro went a bit more conservative and used an Intel chip. It's also possible that the Epyc 3000 gives up PCIe lanes for each 10Gbps Ethernet port. So trading those built-in ports for a well understood, and supported external chip might make sense.

Every Zen die has two x16 SerDes links muxed with the PCIe controller so they can be used for inter socket infinity fabric like on a 2 socket Epyc system or for 16 lanes of PCIe. One of the x16 SerDes links on each die is also muxed with the SATA and Ethernet controllers on the onboard IO hub so you can use up to 8 lanes for 8 SATA lanes and use up lanes for gigabit or 10Gb ethernet. Each 10Gb would require 2 lanes so yeah using the integrated 10Gb would have eaten into the usable PCIe lanes. I don't think anyone has bothered to connect the onboard ethernet to a physical interface .

Epyc's expensive though so I'm more interested in Ryzen 3000 now. There's not as much detail available on IO for Zen 2 but it just came out a few days ago that the X570 chipset is just a 14nm version of the 12nm IO die on the cpu package, just with the memory controllers disabled. That means they're reusing the infinity fabric links for the x4 PCIe gen 4 link from the cpu to the chipset and using the chipset as a PCIe switch.

The IO die has to have enough infinity fabric links from the 8 core chiplet dies to handle the 24 PCIe lanes + other IO, so there's room on the X570 chipset for a wider link to the CPU. I wanna see server/workstation motherboards that sacrifice the 4 lanes typically used for the M.2 NVMe to give x8 from the cpu to chipset for even more potential IO configurations.

 

[ThreeDee]

Thread Necro ...

In an effort to go more "green" .. I ordered the ASRock X470D4U to re-purpose a 3700x I have after upgrading to a 5600x on my Windows box. It's going to replace my tried and true(nas)'d setup in sig.

| E5-2695 v2 | Noctua NH-U12S | Chinese Knock-off LGA2011 x79T (B75 Chipset) Motherboard | 64GB ECC DDR3 RDIMM's | Nvidia Quadro 400 512MB PCIe Video Card |

With the new AMD setup, I won't need a video card or the Intel NIC .. but I'll still use my HBA card because I have one SAS drive.

One question I do have .. does it make a difference using up all the onboard SATA vs HBA connectors?

anyhoo .. .I'm looking forward to playing with my new hardware and all the pennies I'm going to save in the course of a year with my new "Green"er setup .. Higher Passmark scores with the 3700x vs the E5-2695 v2 .. but about 16 less PCIe lanes .. 32GB of DDR4 ECC UDIMM's vs 64GB DDR3 ECC RDIMMS..

My Chinese knock-off motherboard has been great and if the AMD setup doesn't pan out, then I'll revert back to it.. If my new setup is as rock solid, then I'll build another box and throw my old server into it, install Windows 10 on it and sell it locally.