ASRock Rack 1U2E-C252 Intel Xeon E-2300 1U Server Review

ASRock Rack 1U2E-C252 Block Diagram

Here is a look at the platform block diagram for the server. ASRock does not have a specific server block diagram that we could find, but this is a smaller 1P system so we can just use the motherboard diagram.

One can see the C256 portions highlighted in red that are available on the higher-end chipset version. Also, we can see the Intel X710-AT2 10GbE controller here that is not in this server, but we saw the pads for it when we looked at the motherboard.

Still, this is a very straightforward server topology.

Next, let us get to management.

ASRock Rack 1U2E-C252 Management

We have gone over ASRock Rack ASPEED AST2500 management a few times already, but here is the general overview. In our hardware overview, we showed the out-of-band management port.  The management port allows OOB management features such as IPMI but also allows one to get to a management page. ASRock rack seems to be using a lightly skinned MegaRAC SP-X interface. This interface is a more modern HTML5 UI that performs more like today’s web pages and less like pages from a decade ago. We like this change.

Going through the options, the ASRock Rack solution seems as though it is following the SP-X package very closely. As a result, we see more of the standard set of features and options.

There was one feature that we specifically enjoyed. One can see there is a “Processor Hot” feature in the firmware that allows the system to throttle if an overheat situation is detected.

One nice feature is that we get a modern HTML5 iKVM solution. Some other vendors have implemented iKVM HTML5 clients but did not implement virtual media support in them at the outset. ASRock Rack has this functionality as well as power on/ off directly from the window.

Many large system vendors such as Dell EMC, HPE, and Lenovo charge for iKVM functionality. This feature is an essential tool for remote system administration these days. ASRock’s inclusion of the functionality as a standard feature is great for customers who have one less license to worry about.

Beyond the iKVM functionality, there are also remote firmware updates enabled on the platform. You can update the BIOS and BMC firmware directly from the web interface. This is something that Supermicro charges extra for.

Overall, this is a fairly standard set of out-of-band management features.

Next, we are going to look at performance before getting to our performance, power consumption, STH Server Spider, and our final words.

ASRock Rack 1U2E-C252 Performance

On the performance side, we simply wanted to test this system compared to our baseline. The Intel Xeon E-2300 series has been out for some time.

As we would expect, this server performs essentially in-line with other Xeon E-2378G systems. Having two dedicated fans over the CPU heatsink keeps the CPU cool and performance solid even as turbo frequencies can go beyond 5GHz.

Next, we are going to discuss the STH Spider and our final words.