Key Lessons Learned
Overall, the AMD EPYC 8004 platform is one of the most intriguing out there. We get modern features like PCIe Gen5 and DDR5, but the platform is designed to be a lower-power platform. As a result, we get fewer PCIe lanes, fewer DDR5 channels, only single-socket operation, and only up to 64 cores. The TDP, however, is much lower topping out at 225W.
To us, this is a really interesting competitor for consolidation, much like we saw in our recent 1st and 2nd Gen Intel Xeon to 5th Gen Intel Xeon Consolidation piece. If one is still using Skylake/ Cascade Lake, then 2:1 socket consolidation onto AMD EPYC 8004 Siena is fairly straightforward. Zen 4c is well ahead of those older cores.
At the same time, the market automatically shrinks for a platform like this since one can step up to AMD EPYC Bergamo and push the consolidation boundaries again. Still, there are a lot of folks that can handle 300-400W per U maximum, and much less typical, but not 1kW per U. For those folks, the EPYC 8004 series is great. Also, for those that need extended temperature ranges, the PN parts may make more sense with lower TDPs as well.
Final Words
Overall, the ASUS S14NA-U12 is a really cool platform. It manages to stay relatively compact while exposing all of the AMD EPYC 8004 series PCIe Gen5 and DDR5 capacity, save the lanes being used for the onboard 25GbE.
ASUS managed to do all of this while at the same time limiting the amount of space used. The motherboard is only slightly larger than a standard ATX motherboard by 0.9″ so it will fit in many existing chassis.
Overall, the ASUS S14NA-U12 is a nice platform and one that our readers who see the newest generations of server processors and worry about power consumption should seriously look at.
![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://www.servethehome.com/asus-s14na-u12-amd-epyc-8004-siena-motherboard-review-broadcom/&media=https://www.servethehome.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ASUS-S14NA-U12-Overview-Side.jpg&description=In our ASUS S14NA-U12 review, we see how this AMD EPYC 8004 "Siena" motherboard manages to expose the platform's capabilities and add 25GbE){kind=link}
Patrick
Do you know the expected retail price and if it will be compatible with future Zen 5C?
What was the idle power consumption like?
Any MCIO cables included?
Any link to MCIO cables for attaching those NVMe drives? (I’ve read that Supermicro H13SSL only supports one drive on the MCIO 8x ports with cables, two only with a Supermicro backplane!).
Hi Patrick,
Could you please provide some info about the power consumption of the board?
Thanks,
Emil
Patrick and crew,
Do you have recommendations for 1U and 2U rack enclosures, and for PDUs, for this motherboard? Quality and choice seems to be lagging compared to gaming cases. But maybe that’s just here in Europe.
Thanks, -Bert