Perhaps one of the coolest motherboards we have seen launched recently also has an enormously long model number. The ASRock Rack EPYC3451D4U-2L2T2O8R may have the longest model name we are going to see on a motherboard this year. It also has some of the most functionality we will see on an embedded motherboard. ASRock Rack is going all-in on the platform offering just about everything one could want from a platform.
ASRock Rack EPYC3451D4U-2L2T2O8R
The EPYC3451D4U-2L2T2O8R is a mATX motherboard so it is certainly larger than some other mITX motherboards we have reviewed. The reason for that becomes quickly obvious: it needs the extra size. Onboard we have a 16-core AMD EPYC 3451 CPU. You can read the AMD EPYC 3451 Benchmarks and Review to see just how much performance that solution provides. Here we get a 1 DPC configuration which means we get quad-channel memory and up to 512GB of RAM (4x 128GB.)
Onboard we get a PCIe Gen3 x8 slot and a x16 slot. That x16 slot’s lanes are shared with the MiniSAS HD and one of the Oculink connectors. There are four PCIe Oculink connectors for U.2 NVMe and one for 4x SATA devices (the SATA one is shared with the x16 slot.) Using a M.2 SSD is possible but one can also break that out to 4x SATA ports. That means one can get a total of 4x U.2 NVMe SSD ports a PCIe Gen3 x8 slot, and 12x onboard SAS ports albeit using a plethora of cabling options to get the SATA lanes out.
Storage does not stop with the SATA and PCIe lanes though. There is also an embedded Broadcom / LSI SAS3008 controller onboard which means we get 8x SAS3/ SATA III ports as well.
On the networking side, we get a lot. There is an out-of-band management port for the board. We also have two 1GbE ports via two Intel i210 controllers. There are two 10Gbase-T ports via an Intel X710-AT2. Finally, we get two SFP+ ports from the AMD EPYC 3000 series onboard MAC. The Intel NIC will have more features, but this is one of the first motherboards we have seen that uses the AMD EPYC 3000 series embedded MAC.
Final Words
Overall this is a very exciting platform. This is one of, if not the most expandable and fully featured AMD EPYC 3000 series platforms from the EPYC 3451 16-core CPU, quad-channel memory, SATA and SAS storage options, NVMe and PCIe expansion options, as well as networking. It is hard not to enjoy the excessive feature set that comes with a motherboard like this and the long model name it entails. We do not have word on pricing and availability yet.
$600? $700 maybe?
That networking mix is odd to me. What’s the point of the gigabit ports if you’ve got 4x 10GbE right next to them? And why 4x 10GbE? Surely if you need more than a bonded pair, you’d want them to either be all the same type (SFP or BaseT) or you’d want to step up to 25GbE or 100GbE. Maybe for a VM host where you want to split different traffic onto different wires (mgmt, vm, data) but that would still most likely be wanted on the same cable types.
@Jonathan: Sadly likely MUCH more. A comparable non-embedded board alone without the embedded ZEN CPU would land in the 400-500$ range minimum, likely more.
With the 16C/32T CPU embedded, we likely look at four figure prices.
Still likely much better than the Intel offerings.
Great to see Asrock Rack pushing Epyc and Ryzen so hard compared to the still very slow adoption with other brands.
Could not be happier with my X470 Asrock Rack.
For someone price concious (like me too), the DIY options are better anyway IMHO.
220€ X470 board, 4X16GB ECC Samsung RAM for 280€ (With ECC working confirmed!), a used LSI HBA and 10 Gbps NIC from Ebay, and a 100€ used Ryzen 1700 8C/16T makes a hell of a platform. Upgradeable to 16C/32T ZEN2, 128GB ECC RAM, and whatever NIC one can dream of that fits into PCIE x16.
Embedded is best for the niche usecase it is build for. For anything else, there are better (and cheaper) options that can be upgraded on top.
Still a VERY nice board.
I do the same thing on all these early reviews – skip to the end and see if pricing and availability has been announced.
If not, I don’t read the rest of the article as there is no point getting interested in vaporware.
Maybe it is just me?
Glad to hear you have seen this ASRock Rack EPYC3451D4U-2L2T2O8R motherboard, so I amnow anxious for your formal review & pricing;). This sounds like a great small home lab motherboard, but I am concerned with projected 4 figure pricing.
This board would be great to use for a Vyos router. DPDK based routers like TNSR or DANOS wouldn’t be able to use the i210 gigabit interfaces though.
not sure if X570D4I-2T + 5950X will be better choice, at least it will be faster i guess ( max ram 128g )
Oh yes, there is also MiniITX version -> https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=EPYC3451D4I2-2T
I got EPC612D8U-2T8R and very happy about it: C612 with Xeon E5-v3 makes it perfect for home server. Was looking at newer mobo: EPC621D8U-2T16R, but hard to justify the cost. Here’s it’s even harder IMHO.
mATX dictates smaller footprint, but all that expandability will be wasted.
This board is pretty much precisely what I’ve been looking for (though the Ethernet ports are a bit overkill), but I’m really waiting for the next generation EPYC Embedded based on Zen 2 – probably not much of a chance given the manufacturing constraints on TSMC 7nm.
EPYC3451D4I2-2T costs ~1500$ https://www.newegg.com/asrock-rack-epyc3451d4i2-2t-amd-epyc-embedded-3451/p/N82E16813140051
This will be like ~1700$ :(
I like the spec a lot: EPYC 3541, 16 cores, U.2, SFP+. Seems to be perfect for my new home server. But I guess the cost for this “all-in-one” will be high. The EPYC3451D4I2-2T already is clost to 1500 USD.
Same as the Intel platform, the embedded system are small in size but expensive. What would be an equivalent alternative (features, power consumption) with SP3 socket or Intel E5 system?
Bit of a dog’s breakfast of options, especially on the storage side.
“Onboard we have a 16-core AMD EPYC 3451 16-core CPU”
Needs fixing.
Looks amazing for a new FreeNAS storage box. as long as the price is <1200$
I’ve been in contact with ASRock. They told me the official launch date was April 2021. Their official distribution partners are “…ASI, Ma Labs, and E-commerce partner New Egg”.
The next bit of news is that they have confirmed and published the “IT mode” firmware for the onboard SAS3008 HBA. This is great for everyone who wants to use ZFS.
LSI FW flashing method:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/446037t1c1qz5tb5iawo3/How-to-flash-LSI-3008-FW-to-IT-mode-via-UEFI.doc?dl=0&rlkey=gi8quq4ijl6qweomf6zkxifgy
LSI 3008 IT FW:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xsmr847vos6h1xw/EPYC3001D4U-2T2O8R_IT.zip?dl=0
I saw somewhere that this accepts 12V power.. Does that mean I could use a beefy brick and supply 12V and be done with all the ATX inefficiencies??
Anyone have a lead on where this can be ordered as a single part? I currently have two ASRock Rack x570d4u-2l2t’s in the homelab, and am hoping to shift my storage to this board, to do triple duty. First, as a third proxmox host to create a cluster, second I want to utilize the onboard x710-based ports for a virtualized Router (vyos) that can handle 2.5gbe and 5gbe NBase-T connectivity to next-hop devices. Lastly, as a ZFS NAS utilizing the Proxmox gui for ZFS… I just need to find one.
Just got word back from AsRock and was told Aug-Sept time frame for release with pricing around $2047.
For those in the EU, just got word from the EU distributor that it would be available around middle to end of September with a list price of EUR 1368.00 (excl VAT).
I welcome this board. If they make version without LSI controller, and without Intel controller, at adequate price, then I will grab one for my new router. It would be cheaper and more power efficient. This one is more of a versatile platform for medium size storage server or light virtualization / appliance system with plenty of flexibility, or some other server that also might require fast storage. For a router, it has some stuff too much imho. Yes, there is ASRock Rack EPYC3451D4I2-2T, but that one has no SFP+, and uses Intel NIC, instead of the integrated controller in the EPYC SoC, which I would prefer overall. Running Linux 5.10 – 5.14 now.
I just received a quote from ‘International Computer Concept’, one of ASrock Rack’s distribution partners: $1800 + $180 tax = $1980.