ASRock Rack EPC621D4I-2M Motherboard Review

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ASRock Rack EPC621D4I-2M Power Consumption

Power consumption can vary a significant amount depending on processors, chassis, cooling, power supplies, HDDs, DIMMs, SSDs, and expansion cards used along with ambient temperatures and input voltage. Here we test just the base system configuration compared to some of the other recent platforms we have tested using larger consumer CPUs.

ASRock Rack EPC621D4I 2M Power
ASRock Rack EPC621D4I 2M Power

For our tests, we use AIDA64 Stress test which allows us to stress all aspects of the system. Our power tests on the ASRock Rack EPC621D4I-2M Motherboard only use the Intel Xeon Gold 6134 and 4x crucial 8GB SODIMM DDR4-2666 (32GB Total), additional storage and network options would add to these numbers.

Final Words

In our testing, we found the ASRock Rack EPC621D4I-2M motherboard intriguing. On one hand, the mITX form factor is limiting the storage, PCIe, and memory expansion options of the platform. If you have the space to use a mATX or better still, an ATX size motherboard, going bigger makes a lot of sense. Only four low capacity DIMMs limits usefulness at the edge with higher core count CPUs for virtualization. A single PCIe slot and dual 1GbE onboard networking mean one has to decide between using that PCIe slot for storage, GPUs, or high-speed networking. One may want all three, but here there is a single choice to make.

The intriguing part is what mITX can offer. It opens up possibilities of adding 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable platforms including high core counts and VNNI for AI inferencing to the edge. Appliances can be made with two NVMe SSDs, four hard drives, a boot SATADOM and provide inferencing at the edge in a compact form factor.

As CPUs get larger and have sockets designed for more I/O and higher TDP CPUs, it is becoming increasingly difficult to fit them in small packages, like mITX. The physical footprint of the socket, PCH and even basic rear I/O dictate that trade-offs must be made to fit the space. The ASRock Rack EPC621D4I-2M shows the courage the company has to make innovative products for markets that otherwise would not have solutions even if they are packed with components and involve sacrifices. This may be one of the most intriguing products of 2019 just because of the audacity of the motherboard’s design.

9 COMMENTS

  1. Pls review ASRock Rack D2143D4I2-2T or Supermicro Edge Computing/Gateway lineup like SuperServer E403-9D-8CN-FN13TP with X11SDW-8C-TP13F.

  2. “We wanted to get this review complete instead of waiting for some of the higher end SKUs like the Intel Xeon Platinum 8280 and Platinum 8276L CPUs available”
    while all of my skylake-sp supports UDIMM, my Cascade-Lake-SP don’t support UDIMM.
    in theory this can’t work…

  3. aus dem ASRock Rack PDF(EPC621D4I-2M – EPC621D6I)
    “4 DIMM slots, Supports Quad Channel DDR4 2993/2666/2400 ECC SO R DIMM, ECC SO DIMM, and non-ECC SO DIMM (Max. 64GB)”
    Es gibt SO R DIMM ????? wo ?

  4. Hello Patrick,
    There is some confusion regarding the ILM of this socket. You mention that it is square and even reference the Dynatron B13. the folks from ASRock Rack and Dynatron were saying that it was a narrow ILM. Can you confirm which type that MB uses?
    Thanks,
    jp

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