ASRock Rack 1U10E-ICX2 Power Consumption
Regarding base power consumption, we were a bit over 450W maximum with the Intel Xeon Gold 6330’s and over 540W with the Platinum 8368 CPUs. That was a fairly large base load without accelerators or a full set of drives.
The 1.6kW Delta power supplies seem as though they are plenty for this configuration. One can easily add several hundred watts of devices over what we have, but it seems like this is an area where ASRock Rack built in a bit of a buffer.
STH Server Spider: ASRock Rack 1U10E-ICX2
In the second half of 2018, we introduced the STH Server Spider as a quick reference to where a server system’s aptitude lies. Our goal is to start giving a quick visual depiction of the types of parameters that a server is targeted at.
This is an interesting platform because we get a good amount of CPU density, and memory density is fairly high as well. The system is clearly focused on high-performance NVMe SSD installations versus low-cost and low-performance capacity storage. There are many servers in this segment, and it is great to see ASRock Rack competing in it.
Final Words
This server, at the time of reviewing it, is still marked as “Preliminary” on the ASRock Rack website. When we started testing the ASRock Rack 1U10E-ICX2, we were told that this is a server that is close to shipping, and it may be by the time this review goes live. Overall, for an early production sample, this server performed well. Part of that is clearly the maturity of the 3rd Gen Intel Xeon “Ice Lake” platform.
Many will rightly point out that this review will go live between the AMD EPYC 9004 “Genoa” and 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable “Sapphire Rapids” launches. Something that is very important to remember is that the new platforms with PCIe Gen5, CXL, and DDR5 cost quite a bit more for just the barebones server. In addition, the DDR5 pricing will keep many focused on DDR4/ PCIe Gen4 platforms for the time being. We expect Ice Lake servers to sell well into 2024 and likely beyond.
Overall, the ASRock Rack 1U10E-ICX2 performed well in our testing. It is also great to see ASRock’s entry into more custom form factors in this generation. There were even small bits like a nice latch on the chassis lid and toolless drive trays and PCIe risers that make this generation much more serviceable than previous generations of ASRock Rack 1U servers. This is a great direction for the company.
Regarding the extra PCIe x16 slot:
Maybe one of these fits:
https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=RB1U2M2_G4
https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=RB1U4M2_G4
If you aren’t going to throw out your servers/workstations every 8 to 12 months to buy new ones. Stay Far away from Asrock. Their support is awful. Almost like they are advised against providing any form of service for products older than a year. Huge part of buying these products at their high prices is to be able to used them as long as possible. We have had so many Asrock servers and now server boards die for the past 2 years. Especially their EPYC line. God awful company.