Xeon E-2300 is out

[Ericloewe]

Yup, it's finally new microarchitecture time for small server again.

Intel Xeon E-2300 Series Launched Rocket Lake-E for Entry Servers

Finally entry-level servers are getting a refresh. The Intel Xeon E-2300 series gets Rocket Lake-E after the desktop and workstation markets

www.servethehome.com

Supermicro has their X12ST lineup up already. It's pretty straightforward, but basic - nothing with integrated 10GbE or SAS. The tl;dr is that the board to get there is probably the X12STH-F unless you're adding a SAS controller anyway - the X12STL-F might work better in that use case.
Haven't looked at ASRock's yet.

I'll see about preparing the usual guide soon.

 

[Etorix]

On 14nm node… The 10nm humiliation goes on for Intel.

Nothing from AsRockRack or Asus yet. Gigabyte has a MX33-BS0.
10 GbE is available from Supermicro… in a proprietary form factor X12STW-TF.
Not much is made so far of the "44 PCIe lanes" put forward by Intel (20*PCIe4.0 from CPU + 24*PCIe3.0 from PCH, cheap marketing trick), which is a pity considering that the DMI*8 link could help make a good use of more PCH lanes that what is exposed.

I wonder if E-2300 are compatible with the W480/W580 motherboards for W-1300 or whether Intel has further segmented its product lines for no obvious technical reason.
Edit The other way around, Xeon W-1300 are unlikely to go well in C256 boards due to their higher TDP. I guess that Intel has indeed segmented workstation and server.

 

[Ericloewe]

Looks like both Tyan and ASRock Rack have gone in the opposite direction and included 10GbE as standard in their high-end models, with only the low-end versions getting 1GbE:

ASRock Rack Launches Tons of Intel Xeon E-2300 Series Motherboards

ASRock Rack has six new motherboards for the Intel Xeon E-2300 series spanning mATX, mITX, and deep mITX form factors

www.servethehome.com

New Tyan Tempest CX S5560 Motherboards for Intel Xeon E-2300 Series

The new Tyan Tempest CX S5560 has two motherboard flavors for the Intel Xeon E-2300 series with Intel X550 10Gbase-T standard

www.servethehome.com

Haven't checked prices for anything yet, but previous generations had the following premiums:

• 10GbE - ~100 bucks
• C2x6 with 8 SATA ports ~ 40 bucks

So it'll be interesting to see how big the jump is from the low-end to the high-end. Only Supermicro has stuff in the middle this generation, but they might be awkwardly placed.

 

[Etorix]

Fresh from the day! Thanks for sharing.

I have no need for any of these C25x boards (and too much stuff already…) but the AsRockRack lineup is very comprehensive, and their "deep mini-ITX" with four full DIMM, 10 GbE and 8 SATA should be very attractive to anyone who needs power in a small footprint. AsRockRack was already the manufacturer to follow for Ryzen-based servers, it now seems they are moving to challenge Supermicro on the Intel side.

 

[Ericloewe]

So, Asus is doing what Tyan and ASrock Rack are doing and Gigabyte is taking Suprmicro's approach:

Four New ASUS Intel Xeon E-2300 Series Motherboards

Four new ASUS Intel Xeon E-2300 series motherboards make their debut along with a new server platform and a hint at a mITX platform coming

www.servethehome.com

Gigabyte MX33-BS0 mATX Intel Xeon E-2300 Series Motherboard

The Gigabyte MX33-BS0 is a cost-optimized motherboard designed to fit the Intel Xeon E-2300 entry-level segmentation

www.servethehome.com

More of the same, to some extent, but Asus has full ATX models for some mystery use case that eludes me. With white PCIe slots to boot, to make you do a double take after thinking you just saw a legacy PCI slot on a 2021 motherboard that isn't a specialty board for legacy applications.

It's curious to see a lot of X710s being used in a 10GBaseT configuration. On-board 10GBaseT had been, until now, pretty much always handled by either the SoC+PHY or X540/X550, depending on the platform, with roughly similar feature sets. The X710 is moderately more expensive and used to be more of an SFP+ thing for users with fancier needs (like more SR-IOV virtual functions, IIRC), it's interesting to see it being used to provide basic connectivity in the Xeon-E segment. I guess that 2.5GBaseT and 25GBaseT are starting to make a bit of an impact in this segment (finally!).

What's slightly curious is that nobody is doing embedded SAS controllers. We saw this in the Coffee Lake generation, but this makes a pattern. My best guess is that nobody wants to be seen shipping an early SAS3 controller when there's SAS3.5 stuff out and SAS4 stuff coming, even if there's not much of an advantage for most users.

 

[Etorix]

Actually, Asus wants you to think you've seen two PCI slots on a 2021 motherboard
…which would be amazing even on a speciality board for legacy applications.

High performance storage is moving to NVMe. SAS is for bulk storage but I do not see these boards driving massive amounts of storage; there are Xeon-D and Scalable chips for that, with support for higher amounts of RDIMM to go with massive arrays. 6 or 8 SATA ports are more than is likely needed for prebuilt small servers with limited amounts of UDIMM RAM. My own guess is that not many customers in this segment have a strong use case for a SAS backplane and could use an embedded SAS controller.

 

[Paranoiak]

Thank you for the news ! :)

I'm waiting for the ultimate MB, Mini-ITX, 10 Gpbs ports with Xeon E-2300 series support.

I'm disappointed about ASRock, their new MB don't provide 6 SATA ports directly on board... Need to buy Oculink to SATA... (hard to find, only Supermicro store ?)

It is also vey hard to find a unique store where we can find all the parts (MB, CPU, ECC Memory). I'm linving in New Caledonia, shipping costs are very high (so as the customs), I prefer to shop ALL in one.