Looking into 2 CPU Epyc motherboards

[fartingotter]

I’m looking to replace my current ancient machine (quad x 4 core Opterons!) finally, and I’ve found some good candidates:

Gigabyte MZ72-HB2
Tyan S8253GM4NE-2T
Supermicro H12DSi-NT6

2 have SATA and SAS, 1 only SATA
All have 10 GB networking, 16 DIMM slots and lots of PCIe x16 (one has a x32).

My question is: Am I overlooking something? Obviously price and availability are things I need to be aware of, but since I mostly need a bunch of disk drives and future capability of lots of cores (hence dual socket), and I plan on “sparsely” populating things on initial purchase (I don’t have $10K) just to get something reasonably quickly. This is probably going to be a long term purchase (last computer was a 2002 build with a Tyan MB that worked fine for 15 years), and so I’m interested in opinions on my MB choice since I haven’t built anything new at this level in a while.

I do have a software license issue to worry about, so I will be going for fewer cores and highest clocks initially on a single CPU with intent to add another of the same spec maybe next year.

Thanks!

[twin_savage]

The Tyan is the only board with an intel 10gbe controller there, so if super wide driver support is a concern that might sway your choice. Not to say there won’t be driver support on the broadcom chip, but historically it has been more problematic.

Also I don’t think any of the boards support SAS natively, the physical ports on some of the boards just have SAS in their name.

[Dutch_Master]

Given your budget restraints I’d advise against taking on the full blown EPYC 7000 series and investigate the 3000 series SoC chips instead. Much more reasonably priced,but at least here in Europe not easily obtainable.

I’d suggest 2 candidates for a first look:

1. Gigabyte MJ11-EC0 (link)
2. Asrock Rack EPYC3451D4U-2L2T2O8R (link)

As an alternative, try the (new-ish) Gigabyte MC12-LE0 (link) Not EPYC, it’s socket AM4, but undoubtedly much friendlier priced than an EPYC board. Be it that the 3000 series board come with SoC (=CPU) already installed.

The MJ11-EC0 board doesn’t have a ton of connectivity, but at 8 cores is surely much friendlier for your S/W licence budget then the full EPYC 7000 series CPU’s. The Asrock board does have more connectivity (including 2x 10Gb network) as well as cores (16c/32t) but it also costs a pretty penny more. Whereas the MJ11-EC0 goes for approx 500 euro (I should know, I ordered one last week ), the Asrock board had a price tag of USD 2k on Newegg (<- link!) fairly recently

Of course, all of that is w/o RAM and storage and in case of the MC12-LE0 you’d also need a AMD 5000 series CPU.

HTH!

[fartingotter]

Thanks for the info @Dutch_Master, I didn’t know about those embedded options, those are great!

The only problem I see with them is they are significantly slower (~2-2.7 Ghz compared to 3+) and still use up almost half of my budget (based on a quick search for NA availability) for everything without having any upgrade capability; so in 2-3 years I’d have to completely replace my computer again. Since I’m looking for something that could last ~5-8 years (start small and upgrade annually), I don’t think this is the option for me at the moment.

FYI: I can find bundles with the Tyan board and 2 CPUs (16 core, no RAM) for something in the $3k range right now (no memory, case, etc…), so a good starting point.

If I need something smaller in future, I will definitely remember your options because that’s such an awesome idea that I didn’t know about and didn’t even consider!! I’m really glad I asked my question here!

Thanks!

[fartingotter]

Thanks for the confirmation @twin_savage, I was thinking the same thing based on different reviews I’ve seen about embedded 10Gbe. The other thing I was thinking was to add 10Gbe with a card and get one with very good drivers when I need it. Tyan does have a different mode S8253GM4NE with only 1Gbe that is the same minus 10Gbe that also looks interesting.

[Quension]

@fartingotter

initially on a single CPU with intent to add another

In the Opteron days, the CPU had the memory controller on package, but not much else. Each socket provided compute and RAM, but all of the I/O came from the chipset on the board.

EPYC is a full SoC, meaning it provides all the I/O (primarily in the form of PCIe), and there is no external chipset. The board is more like a gigantic adapter to turn PCIe lanes into physical slots, ports, and other functionality. Each socket provides compute, RAM, and I/O.

So when planning this out, pay close attention to the board documentation, particularly the block diagrams.

For the Tyan S8253GM4NE-2T, the second socket powers the last 3 PCIe slots, the SFF-8654 NVMe “U.2” ports, the 7-pin SATA ports, and the rear USB ports. With only one EPYC installed, you’ll have 1 PCIe x16 slot, the PCIe riser slot, no SATA or NVMe, and have to attach the front panel if you want any USB at all.

For the Supermicro H12DSi-NT6, the second socket powers 2 PCIe slots, 4 of the 7-pin SATA ports (+ the two DOM ports), the 2 SFF-8654 NVMe ports, and a USB header. With only one EPYC installed, you’ll still have 4 PCIe slots, 4 SATA ports, the M.2 connector, and rear panel USB.

There will be tradeoffs like this for every dual-SP3 board.