ASRock Rack Launches Tons of Intel Xeon E-2300 Series Motherboards

ASRock Rack launched a ton of new motherboards and a few servers based on the new motherboards. With the Intel Xeon E-2300 series launch, we get Socket LGA1200. That means we also need new motherboards since the new Rocket Lake-E chips are not compatible with the previous generation Intel Xeon E-2100 and Xeon E-2200 platforms. We counted six new motherboards and two new systems based on the Intel Xeon E-2300 series.

ASRock Rack Launches Tons of Intel Xeon E-2300 Series Motherboards

Of the six new motherboards, we get three mATX motherboards, two mITX motherboards, and one “deep mITX” motherboard.

ASRock Rack Intel Xeon E-2300 mATX Motherboards

The ASRock Rack E3C256D4U-2L2T is perhaps the flagship motherboard of this generation. As a mATX motherboard, ASRock Rack has room to fit all of the features it wants in this platform.

Here are the key specs for the E3C256D4U-2L2T:

• 4 DIMM slots (2DPC), supports DDR4 ECC/non-ECC UDIMM Memory
• 1 PCIe4.0 x16, 1 PCIe4.0 x4, 1 PCIe3.0 x1
• Supports 1 M.2 (PCIe3.0 x4 or SATA 6Gb/s), 1 M.2 (PCIe3.0 x4)
• 8 SATA 6Gb/s
• 2 RJ45 (10GbE) by Intel X710-AT2
• 2 RJ45 (1GbE) by Intel i210
• VGA, HDMI, Remote Management (IPMI)

As a lower-cost option based on the Intel C252 PCH, the ASRock Rack E3C252D4U-2T offers one less M.2 slot, two fewer SATA III ports, and removes the dual 1GbE ports in this mATX form factor.

Here are the key specs for the E3C252D4U-2T:

• 4 DIMM slots (2DPC), supports DDR4 ECC/non-ECC UDIMM Memory
• 1 PCIe4.0 x16, 1 PCIe4.0 x4, 1 PCIe3.0 x1
• Supports 1 M.2 (PCIe3.0 x2 or SATA 6Gb/s)
• 6 SATA 6Gb/s
• 2 RJ45 (10GbE) by Intel X710-AT2
• VGA, HDMI, Remote Management (IPMI)

If further cost reduction is required, there is the ASRock Rack E3C252D4U that utilizes two 1GbE (Intel i210) but deletes the X710-AT2 10Gbase-T from the -2T model.

Here are the key specs for the E3C252D4U:

• 4 DIMM slots (2DPC), supports DDR4 ECC/non-ECC UDIMM Memory
• 1 PCIe4.0 x16, 1 PCIe4.0 x4, 1 PCIe3.0 x1
• Supports 1 M.2 (PCIe3.0 x2 or SATA 6Gb/s)
• 6 SATA 6Gb/s
• 2 RJ45 (1GbE) by Intel i210
• VGA, HDMI, Remote Management (IPMI)

That provides three distinct levels scaling up and down in terms of capabilities. The company seems to be using this E3C252D4U motherboard in both of the 1U systems it is launching with the E-2300 series, the 1U4LW-C252, and 1U2E-C252.

Many of these platforms find their way into smaller form factor servers and NAS devices, so ASRock Rack also has mITX options.

ASRock Rack Intel Xeon E-2300 mITX Motherboards

At the higher end of the mITX scale, we get the ASRock Rack E3C256D4I-2T. One will notice that in order to get to the smaller motherboard size, ASRock Rack needed to move to SODIMMs instead of full-size DIMMs. Even entry-level Xeon platforms are starting to push the limits of the mITX form factor.

Here are the key specs for the E3C256D4I-2T:

• 4 DIMM slots (2DPC), supports DDR4 ECC/non-ECC SODIMM Memory
• 1 PCIe4.0 x16
• Supports 2 OCuLInk (PCIe3.0 x4 or 4 SATA 6Gb/s)
• Supports 1 M.2 (PCIe4.0 x4)
• 8 SATA 6Gb/s
• 2 RJ45 (10GbE) by Intel X550
• Supports ATX PSU or 12V DC-in
• Remote Management (IPMI)

ASRock Rack managed to fit both an M.2 slot as well as Oculink ports and even dual Intel X550 10Gbase-T networking in this platform. For those who do not want to use SODIMM memory or use 10Gbase-T, ASRock has another option.

The ASRock Rack E3C256D2I has two full-size DDR4 DIMM slots but that means we lose two DIMMs of capacity. We also lose the 10Gbase-T networking and instead have dual 1GbE. This seems to be a more cost-optimized platform, however, it is still using the Intel C256 PCH.

Here are the key specs for the E3C256D2I:

• 2 DIMM slots (1DPC), supports DDR4 ECC/non-ECC UDIMM Memory
• 1 PCIe4.0 x16
• Supports 2 OCuLink (PCIe3.0 x4 or 4 SATA 6Gb/s)
• Supports 1 M.2 (PCIe4.0 x4)
• 8 SATA 6Gb/s
• 1 RJ45 (1GbE) by Intel i210
• 1 RJ45 (1GbE) by Intel i219-LM
• Supports ATX PSU or 12V DC-in
• Remote Management (IPMI)

Still, for those that want full-size DIMMs and more functionality, ASRock has an option for you as well.

ASRock Rack Intel Xeon E-2300 Deep mITX Motherboards

The ASRock Rack E3C256D4ID-2T is what ASRock calls a “deep mITX” motherboard that combines the shorter mITX edge with a deeper footprint to allow for more components to be placed. One needs to be aware of this form factor when selecting a chassis as not all mITX chassis will support the extra depth.

Key specs for this motherboard are:

• Deep mini-ITX (6.7″ x 8.2″)
• 4 DIMM slots (2DPC), supports ECC/non-ECC UDIMM Memory
• 1 PCIe4.0 x16
• Supports 2 OCuLink (PCIe3.0 x4 or 4 SATA 6Gb/s), 1 OCuLink (PCIe3.0 x4)
• Supports 1 M.2 (PCIe4.0 x4), 1 M.2 (PCIe3.0 x4)
• 8 SATA 6Gb/s
• 2 RJ45 (10GbE) by Intel X710-AT2
• Supports ATX PSU or 12V DC-in
• Remote Management (IPMI)

Including a dual Intel X710-AT2 NIC here for dual 10Gbase-T is a big step in moving entry platforms forward. There are also Oculink motherboard ports for more NVMe even though there is a single PCIe Gen4 x16 slot.

Final Words

Overall, this is great coverage by ASRock Rack for the segment providing different feature and cost levels along with different motherboard form factors. Our next ASRock Rack review will be a different platform (coming very soon), but we hope to get to review one of these platforms in the not-too-distant future.