So recently in another post about PCIe slots (or lack there of) it kinda took me back to something I’d not thought about in a long time…buying a server board to bypass all the consumer stupidity.
So I went hunting for Ryzen Server boards and found a few from ASRock (which I don’t trust at all heh). Outside that I knew of an ASUS WS board I was looking at and thankfully didn’t buy as there are some nasty problems reported on here for my use case.
So the question is does anyone know of a board vendor making classic style boards? Like 7+ PCIe slots without all the consumer stupidity like on board Wifi, NIC, RGB, Audio etc? Even the TR4 boards I’ve looked at still largely try to be these kitchen sink crap.
Like a board from back in the day when if you wanted a modem or NIC…PCI slot, want audio? Another PCI slot…you know this CRAZY idea where YOU get to add what you want rather than having to choose from 30 consumer boards all with the WRONG array of options for what you want.
Focus was more on the AM4 side of things because while my set up is a tad nuts it’s not really TR4 nuts. I suppose now the focus will be on what any potential mentions here bring to market once AM5 or TR5 are a thing but I’m curious.
Lol there isn’t one, which is to say “WHO KNOWS!?” Since we don’t know the pricing or availability of AM5/TR5 stuff it’s all just an open question. Like I said, just IS anyone making “something” like this, then wait and see what they bring out for the new stuff, if they bring anything at all.
All the common board makers I know of either put out “gamer” garbage and the odd TR4 boards that still have enough onboard “all-in-one” stupidity to make me wish there was something else. Hey high end TR4 board with Wifi6…yeah because I want to knee cap my networking with wifi on a system like that? WTF…Trade that idiotic Wifi/BT radio for…a PCIe slot and/or $100 less
While I’ve not requested specific number of slots or specific lane configs it’s just an open question to maybe point me in the direction of keeping an eye out for a brand or potentially lesser known/hidden series of boards. For me I’d like to just have 4 GPU’s, NIC, Audio.
This is also just a curiosity as even if someone gave me the perfect suggestion I need to wait and see how things play out as in the last 2 years things have become super hostile towards multi GPU builds. No sense on blowing cash on something that will be completely unusable soon.
Ryzen is AMD’s desktop platform. Have you considered EPYC? That is the server platform.
For whatever reason, AMD has worked very hard to draw not a line, but dig a Grand Canyon sized trench between desktop and server platforms. Threadripper is like a redheaded stepchild, abandoned by it’s parents so I pretend it doesn’t currently exist.
Who wouldn’t consider that, but who can afford it. Again no budget but I’m not Lord “Bozo” Bezos. As I said my rig isn’t crazy enough to really even go TR but I had looked at TR because they were less “stupid.”
As a side note while I’d still rather be able to choose all my bits i.e. a board that allows that a lot of this would be moot if GPU’s weren’t garbage. i.e. even if I had a RTX 3090 it won’t run all my screens and has the same max resolution lock an old GTX 1XXX card…thus I need many GPU’s.
As gordonthree mentioned, since full PCIe slots are what you really need, really the only system that’s ideal for you is Epyc.
Normal ryzen is just way too limited on PCIe lanes and that won’t be changed and can’t be fixed. Threadripper is abandoned, and Threadripper pro is going to be more expensive than server stuff. But even server stuff is going to cost some coin over the consumer parts, so you either have to have some money you can burn, or be real sure it’s what you want.
I personally use an Epyc 7443p and a Tyan S8030 which has been a solid board, though the two 8i slimline sas ports are less than ideal, since getting PCIe 4.0 cables is really iffy.
For whatever reason, there’s no affordable HEDT options right now.
Intel x299 I guess was the closest? Even several years old it’s holding value.
At work we buy $3000 12 core TRP workstations from Lenovo since we need the ECC support for civil engineering type workloads … it was either than, or similarly stupidly priced Xeon workstations.
I’ve built with a few Tyan back in the Opteron days. Had really wanted to stay in the AM5 area for various reasons. This whole discussion has become much like the boards I’m trying to avoid, you have to OVER BUY to get the basics you want…going Epyc is WAY over buying for my needs, I might as well eat the cost on a “gamer” fancy board.
It’s not an AMD issue, just right now I’d rather stay AMD. This stuff is the same all around. Everything is loaded with garbo “features” that jack up the cost but then limit choice after the fact. Intel boards are just as “Gamer” hah.
Keeping in mind this is more about choice than needing high end.
rgb, audio and wifi are hardly jacking up the cost, those things are only a small fraction of the BOM for a system board. adding these features is not taking away from your pcie ports, look at a system diagram to learn why.
the boards with (multiple) 10gig ethernet on board are a bit extravagant
I have looked at the lane breakouts and and such nor am I saying they are adding 45% cost, just all adds up to crap I don’t want…hence the question. Is anyone (other than ASRock) making a server like board i.e. no “all-in-one” bs. Just a lot of modularity.
I highly doubt that when the Intel camp is the same. It’s just about marketing, not the chips they support. Frankly if Intel improves on the chips they just released I’ll be looking back in their direction but again, boards are all the same. Kitchen sink non-sense I don’t care about and or integrated bits with poor or no kernel support.
Sadly rather than people actually giving suggestions for brand/model (other than the ASRock boards) this has become some kinda Ford Vs Chevy BS and really not on topic. Muting since no one seems to be reading or actually addressing the question.
