Supermicro A3SSV-16C-SPLN10F Onboard NICs
Something we wanted to go into with this platform was also just how many NICs there are.
We have some ports on the Intel i350 NIC.
We also have Intel E822-C 1GbE NICs.
That is despite one seeing the Marvell PHY on the board.
The Intel E822-C also has a SFP option for the 25GbE ports.
Some folks will love having different NIC IP in the same platform since using the onboard E822-C NIC can be less expensive. Others will want all NICs to be the same controller(s) so the platform is the same across all 1GbE NICs. We thought we would point this out in case someone is in one camp or another.
Final Words
Next up, we are going to take this platform and review it in the SYS-110A-16C-RN10SP, a full system built around the motherboard. We will have power consumption in that review, but it is certainly a far cry from the <40W Atom systems we have seen previously.
Overall, this is a really interesting platform. With a 10nm 16-core CPU and built-in QuickAssist acceleration and 25GbE, this is one where we know many network appliance folks have been very interested in the system. On the other hand, as Intel Foundry moves into the 18A era next year, it feels like we are getting due for an update. One of the biggest challenges to that is that Intel usually upgrades these SoCs with new generations of networking technology, from 1GbE, to 10GbE, to 25GbE/ 100GbE. So it may be some time before we see not just chips, but platforms based on those chips with the new parts.
Still, if you have been using this familiar FlexATX form factor and want a 25GbE E-core platform, then the Supermicro A3SSV-16C-SPLN10F is a cool option. The street price is often $1300-1400 for the motherboard and around $2200-2300 in full systems. At the same time, with a 16-core processor and 25GbE built-in, that is where pricing is these days, given inflation if you want a 25GbE appliance.
We have the full server review coming, but this was a lot to cover and we know our readers like to see these motherboard reviews.
Why won’t the VGA port die already? It must be the oldest technology on this MB by far, and the only analog connector surviving to this day (beyond the occasional 3.5mm audio jack).
@Dave because most crash carts still have vga connectors and USB-A cables.
Still, they could’ve gone with a DisplayPort connector and a VGA dongle? Then you get the option of DisplayPort, HDMI or VGA.
Holy shit, that IDLE power is insane, what is intel doing?
My Ryzen Pro 5750G idles ~19 Watts (whole system) with a B550 mobo and 128 GB of RAM.
Here package power alone is >20 Watts…. and while I get that those NICs might be hungry, the SoC should not suck that much power.
I wonder how much of the idle power is the 25G networking? Perhaps it can be disabled to test.
Maybe interesting to know…. Freebsd 13 or Opnsense does not run on this board -> bug
Proxmox with passthrough NIC to Opnsense is a workaround.
With regards to the idle power, I think nerds would want a deep dive into that. It probably varies a great deal based on different kernel parameters and whether there are network links established or not.
Please please review it as a network appliance, at least to the point of measuring its ability to move packets between interfaces using pfsense or the like, as a router and as a firewall
Dave, because it works under almost any circumstance. Surely you’ve been in the situation where your DP or HDMI connection won’t display because nothing was connected at boot.
pfSense does 9Gbps routing 4Gbps firewall on a C3338R 2-core. Firewall jumps to 8.61G on C1110 4-core. Using that ratio: this is what, a 32Gbps firewall?
Too much perf for pfSense
fwiw the x12sdv series also has high idle power figures. Whether this is a process issue, BMC, related to SFP28 networking capabilities or otherwise – I do not know.
Please can you do an idle power and how far can you go down, incl tuning with the kernel part, when you review the full server system.
27.6W idle? Funny, that almost exactly what the Xeon E5-2650L v3 in my toy server uses all 24 threads pegged (non-AVX load tho I think). At idle it draws about 1W. Same for *any* Intel CPU I’ve come across actually, as long as you enable power save and C-states and whatnot.