The Supermicro SYS-E403-14B-FRN2T is an IoT server that comes in a neat form factor. Over the past few years, we have featured the Supermicro E403 platforms a few times, but we have never reviewed one. That changes with this review. This is Supermicro’s edge server capable of providing plenty of connectivity and/or GPU compute in a compact chassis. With an onboard Intel Xeon 6 CPU, there is quite a bit going on with this one. Let us get into it.
Supermicro SYS-E403-14B-FRN2T External Hardware Overview
Part of what makes this system different is its dimensions. At 4.62″ (117.348 mm) x 10.5″ (266.7 mm) x 16″ (406.4 mm), it is a neat little box. One reason it is so neat is that it is a front I/O system.
On the front left, we get redundant power supplies and also two hot-swappable 2.5″ NVMe SSDs.
Then we get two USB 3 Type-A ports. On some of the systems in the E403 series, these were USB 2 ports, but this is one that we are not entirely sure why USB versus something else here.
Next to the grounding points, we get a serial port, two more USB Type-A ports, then the out-of-band IPMI management port.
Onboard dual 10Gbase-T networking is provided by the Intel X550 chipset.
There is then a VGA port, followed by the power and status LED cluster.
One of the most useful features, by far, is the array of three full height PCIe slots.
As a fun aside, this is the same line that we did the Hands-on with the IP65-rated Supermicro Outdoor Edge System back in 2020. The idea is that this package offers a lot of flexibility for edge deployments.
Part of that is the rear. There are only fans here because this is designed to be fully front serviceable. Having all of the cables and the power supplies on the front means that these can be packed into racks that do not have enough room for someone to service behind them. This is actually a very common use case, and that is why we often see this type of configuration.
Here is just a quick look at the other side.
Next, let us get inside the server to see how it works.
And how many ports would you like? Answer = YES!
Is there any way to determine how loud they are? A nice heavy duty machine would be a nice upgrade but for an apartment the noise is my biggest factor.
Love this, looking forward to buying a used one n a few years.
Its got a real physical SERIAL PORT!!! someone knew what the nerds and geeks need!
very nice indeed, but wondering why the hot swap fans are not rear swappable
Thanks for the review. This is a system good idea, but needs a bit more development.
a) The power cable spaghetti needs to go. This is horrible, and also impedes cooling.
b) USB Type-C for video output and keyboard/mouse
c) On board 2x SFP28
d) option to remove the normal drive and PCIE raisers, and put 4x 3.5 inch drives instead. Would be amazing. Yes, not useful for telco or some edge uses, but I would really like that.
Even better if this can be done in a half of the normal rack width – could be tricky without moving the PSUs to a different location.