First server on the server platform

[david1602]

Hello,

I figured that I’d be best off asking at L1Techs when it comes to server grade hardware. I want to build a server next year that actually uses server hardware for a change. I was thinking of going with an AMD EPYC 7302P or 7402P, but that shouldn’t make the gigantic difference. The more I dig into the whole topic, the more confused I am. I’m either looking in the wrong places or I can’t really find many motherboards for that specific socket. I have found the MZ32-AR0 from Gigabyte, and I’m not sure if I shouldn’t be going for something from Supermicro or something like that.

I’ve looked at the board and I’m just thinking “wat?”. What is that OCP 2.0 mezzanine slot good for?
What board should I be going for? It should be reasonably priced (<$1000)… if that’s reasonable.
Do the EPYC CPUs only accept ECC RAM?
What would be my best bet to get some SATA drives up in that bad boy?
I’ve seen expansion cards that stated 8x SATA, but only had 2x SAS (?) ports. How do these play together?
Is it possible to cool that CPU with something like a highend Noctua cooler?
I’m definitely not going for redundant PSUs, so I’d just go with a normal ATX PSU. Are there any issues with that, assuming I do size it appropriately?
I’m not gonna go for 1U or 2U or something, I’m gonna go with a bigger (server?) case that I can easily fit a tower cooler in.
The HDDs (at least 6, might want to fit 12-16 or so) have to go somewhere too, and I was wondering whether to do that with some kind of drive shelf (are there smaller ones? I’ve seen the 36 Bay in the GN / L1T video) or getting a rack case that has enough slots.

On the consumer platform I’d say I know a few things, but I feel so helpless with all of these server questions right now. Sorry if this is chaotic, please let me know if I can provide any more info that helps you determine optimal solutions.

Thank you.

[gordonthree]

Might want to look at prebuilt servers based on Rome. There don’t seem to be many good diy options yet. Why hamstring the 7000 series in a pcie 3.0 board designed for older processors.

HPE, Gigabyte, Supermicro all have some very attractive offerings.

[david1602]

Do you mean they have attractive offerings for boards or prebuilts? The MZ32-AR0 I mentioned supports PCIe 4.0 already, and Rome.

[gordonthree]

HPE has a complete Epyc Rome server for sale right now that costs less than the CPU alone.

As far as I know that Gigabyte board is vaporware, have you found a retailer?

[david1602]

oh you’re correct, my bad. There’s one store in Austria (I’m sitting in Germany, which I should have mentioned) that is listed, but it’s not available.

I have looked at RECT which seems to be a retailer in Germany. I can get the following specs for about 10K EUR, does that seem like a reasonable deal in general, or am I paying a hefty extra?

I’m looking at HPE as well right now. Since we’re gonna buy it as a business, we’re considering leasing as well, due to the financial hole we’d open with the 3-year write off period.

[hem]

Here’s a list of 10 or so SP3 socket motherboards.

https://geizhals.de/?cat=mbsp3

[david1602]

Thanks I’ve checked exactly that out, but my issue with that is that most of them don’t have 16 RAM slots or are dual socket boards. It sounds like the prebuilt that gordon suggested isn’t such a bad route to go with.