Low-power/heat/noise SOC board?

[oguruma]

I have a small MSP and I build a few TrueNAS boxes for customers every year. I like to try and use as few different hardware configurations as possible, since that makes the logistics much more manageable for things like cold spares and parts replacement.

I've been using the Supermicro C2758, and they've been fine, but I can't help but wonder if there's anything better out there, especially since the C2758 is getting a bit long in the tooth.

I'd like something in a Mini-ITX form factor that can run passively-cooled and can handle a couple non-resource-intensive apps and maybe a small VM or two.

Should I consioder something like the AMD EPYC E3000 series? Does anybody have any other good options to consider?

 

[Arwen]

Unfortunately the AMD Epyc 3000 are also getting long in the tooth. They are first gen Epycs, and released back in Feb. 2018. The replacement series, 8000, run more power, 80 TDP watts for the least powerful one. That means active cooling is more likely a requirement. Plus, for very lightweight servers, 6 channel memory, 96 PCIe lanes and the likely higher price eliminates them from consideration.

I wish AMD would release a lower end server chip, similar to the Epyc 3000 series, and based on newer cores. But looks like the best we can get are Ryzen MiniITX boards.


Back to the original question, no, I personally don't have any suggestions.

 

[Etorix]

Your request reads straight on to Atom C3000 (A2SDi boards in the Supermicro lineup).

 

[Ericloewe]

You're still building A1SRis into new products? Cool. How's the C2000 LPC degradation been impacting you?

As for something better...

Your request reads straight on to Atom C3000 (A2SDi boards in the Supermicro lineup).

^ This. Available in 2-core (seriously cut-down I/O), 4-core (cut-down, but usable I/O), 8, 12 and 16-core (full I/O).

 

[oguruma]

You're still building A1SRis into new products? Cool. How's the C2000 LPC degradation been impacting you?

As for something better...

^ This. Available in 2-core (seriously cut-down I/O), 4-core (cut-down, but usable I/O), 8, 12 and 16-core (full I/O).

I've got over a dozen of them deployed and I'm yet to have it cause a problem.

 

[Ericloewe]

Cool, I damn near went blind fixing one of mine because Supermicro support didn't want to deal with that one, since it booted (though they did fix the one that didn't boot at all!). They're nice little boards, but the C3000 platform is just so much more usable with all the SATA ports available on the 8C and up models.