CPU support for Supermicro X12, X13

[mindio]

Dear All,

I am planing new compact build on Supermicro X13SCH-F. Does anyone know if these really support only E-2400 series and Pentiums as per official specs? I may upgrade later to E-2400, but my current needs would be matched by any LGA 1700 i3 CPU. Same logic should apply for X12 / LGA 1200 platform...

Thanks

 

[Ericloewe]

It's hard to say, nobody really wants to be first one to test the waters. Have you tried asking Supermicro support?

 

[Etorix]

Assuming that there's no electrical incompatibility in the socket and that the BIOS does not balk, you'd still need a low TDP Core CPU, because the C26x platform is not designed for the monster desktop CPUs which can actually draw over 200% of their declared TDP. And you'll lose ECC because that is disabled in the i3—which is pretty annoying for a ZFS server.

If you have the budget for a X13SCH, there should be leftovers for a Xeon E-2400.
If you want a server with a LGA1700 Core, AsRock Rack has some W680 server boards for you, including variants with on-board 10 GbE.

The same logic applies to LGA1200, with 10th/11th gen. Core CPUs being listed on the QVL of the AsRock Rack W480D4U—but you'll still want a Xeon W-1200/1300 for ECC because Core CPUs don't do ECC in these generations. Xeon E-2300 is based on the laptop Tiger Lake platform (X12STH), so is unlikely to play nice with higher power Raptor Lake parts for desktops.

 

[mindio]

Assuming that there's no electrical incompatibility in the socket and that the BIOS does not balk, you'd still need a low TDP Core CPU, because the C26x platform is not designed for the monster desktop CPUs which can actually draw over 200% of their declared TDP. And you'll lose ECC because that is disabled in the i3—which is pretty annoying for a ZFS server.

Thanks for the reminder, I forgot to consider ECC :/
Regarding prices, X13SCH and X12STH are similar, but I like X13 much more due PCIe lanes and 2 x M.2, but even entry level E-2434 is almost the same price as the mobo.
Also interesting, if you combine Pentium G7400 and ECC memory, will it work without ECC support or won't work at all?

 

[Etorix]

Ark does not mention ECC for Pentium G7400, so the answer is likely "no".

Have you thrown Ryzen with a X570D4U, B550D4U or B650D4U into the comparison?

 

[mindio]

Ark does not mention ECC for Pentium G7400, so the answer is likely "no".

Yes, I know. But does this mean won't work at all?

Have you thrown Ryzen with a X570D4U, B550D4U or B650D4U into the comparison?

Yes, B650D4U looks ok, but I hate this PCIe4.0 x1 slot (I plan to use the lowest spec. PCIe slot for SFP+ NIC, which is normaly x4 or more), also only 4x SATA ports. I need at least 5 for my Silverstone CS351 case. So X13SCH-F checks all the boxes for me.

 

[Etorix]

B550D4U has 6 SATA ports and X570D4U, 8. It is often said that a NAS does not need the latest and greatest generation hardware.
But I should have mentioned an even better offer for Europeans:

Gigabyte Mainboard MC12-LE0 Re1.0 AMD B550 AM4 Ryzen 5000 4000 3000 Server Board NEU / NEW - Piospartslap

GIGABYTE Mainboard für AMD Ryzen 5000 Series / 4000 Series / 3000 Series P/N: MC12-LE0 Rev 1 x microATX (W244 x D244 mm) NEW / NEU Tec

www.piospartslap.de

(there's also a kit with a 1U cooler for an extra 10 E… and you can very well make an offer for 10 E less!)

 

[mindio]

Wow, that's so too good to be true, even for old stock sell-off! But the company looks legit, so made the order anyway :)

 

[Etorix]

The company is legit. The board is somewhat low-end (x1 M.2 slot, good enough for a boot drive; x16/x8+x0/x8+x4 would have been better than x16+x4), but it's a genuine server board with a BMC, hopefully working-but-not-certified ECC—and at this price, almost the proverbial given horse.
Throw in an ECC-capable Ryzen 3000/5000 or a PRO APU and you're set without breaking the bank.

An unexpected conclusion for a question about Supermicro X13SCH/X12STH.

 

[ChrisRJ]

Perhaps a bit late: What do you want to use the board for?

 

[Etorix]

Always a good question…
I assumed pure HDD storage since needs would be covered by an i3. But the x16 slot reportedly bifurcates all the way to 4*x4 so there's room for some NVMe storage for apps/VMs with an inexpensive adapter, and there's still an open x4 slot to add a SFP+ NIC if desired.

 

[mindio]

An unexpected conclusion for a question about Supermicro X13SCH/X12STH.

Well, X13SCH is also on the way, which I will still be using for this build. Which is going to be my second proxmox cluster node with virtualized TrueNAS (replication target for primary truenas). Not sure about this approach yet, but that's the idea and probably a different topic.
My current primary server is also configured the same, proxmox runs VMs on ssd zfs pool from the first HBA, and truenas runs in VM with passed through nvme disks and second HBA with hdds.

Gigabyte board for this price can rest a bit for future ideas, maybe lower spec 3 node for high availability.

 

[DigitalMinimalist]

Throw in an ECC-capable Ryzen 3000/5000 or a PRO APU and you're set without breaking the bank.

Take a CPU - the APU iGPU does not work with this Mainboard …

MC12-LE0 (from piospartlab) + Ryzen 5600 + ECC RAM for approx. 200€ is great for a low cost TrueNAS Fileserver.
Add an ASUS Hyper M.2 to add 4x NVME (bifurcation works) and a 10GBit NIC into the PCie x4 slot (e.g. Intel X710, or X550)

 

[mindio]

Take a CPU - the APU iGPU does not work with this Mainboard …

MC12-LE0 (from piospartlab) + Ryzen 5600 + ECC RAM for approx. 200€ is great for a low cost TrueNAS Fileserver.
Add an ASUS Hyper M.2 to add 4x NVME (bifurcation works) and a 10GBit NIC into the PCie x4 slot (e.g. Intel X710, or X550)

Well about that... I was going to take Ryzen 5 3600 (which is basically the same as 5600), but cheaper. But I noticed this on Gigabyte's spec. sheet:
"NOTE: ECC support is only with AMD Ryzen™ with PRO technology"
And all "PRO" CPUs are actually APUs as far as I can tell. So I am looking for Ryzen 5 PRO 4650G, which does support ECC.
So to get ECC, you have to trade PCIe 4.0 support (which normal 3600 has) for iGPU you don't need. That's a bummer... you Gigabyte!

 

[DigitalMinimalist]

Not true…
Ryzen CPUs support ECC on the right motherboards, e.g. 5600/5700X/5800x, etc…
Non-PRO APUs do not support ECC

I even run my old 2700X with ECC (on Asrock rack).

Go for 65W CPU - 5600(non-X), 5700X ( stay away from new non-x, as no ECC support)

APUs can only do 8x4x4 bifurcation and iGPU does not work on the Gigabyte

 

[mindio]

Not true…
Ryzen CPUs support ECC on the right motherboards, e.g. 5600/5700X/5800x, etc…
Non-PRO APUs do not support ECC

So you are suggesting to ignore official spec. note?
Yes I agree, that AMD made this confusing to let board manufacturers to decide how and when to support ECC, but we are discussing specific case here.

 

[DigitalMinimalist]

https://www.amd.com/en/product/11831

Search for ecc support in full specification

 

[mindio]

Search for ecc support in full specification

Yes, thank you. "ECC Support - Yes (Requires mobo support)"
And if you read my post, mobo (officially) does not support.

But I will test this with Ryzen 5 3600 anyway, if no luck, my daughter's PC will get an upgrade :)

 

[DigitalMinimalist]

MC12-LE0 (rev. 1.x) | Workstation Motherboard - GIGABYTE Global

Single AMD Ryzen™ 5000/4000/3000 Series ProcessorsDual Channel UDIMM DDR4, 4 DIMMs2 x 1Gb/s LAN ports via Intel® I210-AT6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports1 x M.2 slot wit...

www.gigabyte.com

Motherboard supports ECC

 

[Etorix]

The specification should read "ECC support for APUs is only with Ryzen PRO".
And for non-APUs it now gets complicated, with some of the last 5000non-X lacking ECC support, but that happened long after the board was released and manfacturers rarely update product pages.