Supermicro AS-E301-9D-8CN4 Power Consumption
We used our pair of Extech TrueRMS Power Analyzer 380803 units to take measurements at different points of the Supermicro AS-E301-9D-8CN4 use on 120V power in the embedded lab. Embedded platforms tend to spend more time at the edge in offices rather than in higher power data centers, hence why we do our testing at a lower voltage. Here are the figures:
- Power off BMC only: 4.7W
- OS Idle: 33.7W
- 100% Load: 71.8W
- Maximum Observed: 97.4W
With three fans, the Supermicro AS-E301-9D-8CN4 uses more power than some other configurations. If one has less storage and never plans on installing an add-in card a fan can be removed with impact to power consumption.
Still, the Supermicro AS-E301-9D-8CN4 performs well and at a lower power level than many of the Intel Xeon D-2100 performance competitive solutions. In the embedded market, low power is key. It is not quite at the Intel Atom power consumption levels but it is competitive with the Intel Xeon D-1500 and newer Xeon D-1600 series.
We wanted to take a moment here and discuss noise. The solution is too loud to have sitting on one’s desktop. On one hand, this is a high-performance CPU and a lot of components in a small box. On the other hand, using a 1.5U design, based on a 1U design, means that the Supermicro AS-E301-9D-8CN4 is still using 40mm 1U fans for cooling, not larger quieter units.
STH Server Spider: Supermicro AS-E301-9D-8CN4
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.
The Supermicro AS-E301-9D-8CN4 is not meant to be the densest platform. Instead, it is intended to be compact in size. To this end, it achieves its goal.
Final Words
Overall, we think that the Supermicro AS-E301-9D-8CN4 makes a great AMD EPYC 3000 test platform. If you have a small cluster setup for testing based on the Supermicro CSE-E300 chassis, adding a Supermicro AS-E301-9D-8CN4 to the mix will be easy. For embedded appliance makers, we think this is a great option, but wish that Supermicro offered more SKUs. The design means that we think that this can be used as a reference with other M11SDV and even Intel-based platforms.
At under $1000 street price, we think this is a solid solution, but wish that Supermicro had a SKU variant that was a few dollars more but included everything (e.g. brackets, cables, and adapters) to make a fully functional system. We can see Supermicro’s channel partners and end users getting the systems and then wanting the optional features to fully configure the servers. A $1025 street price that had everything but without having to look-up individual pieces would be excellent and relatively easy to accomplish.
Another small point is that there are entirely too many screws in this design. It may be by a margin of four, but it is still too many. We like that Supermicro went to tool-less 7mm SSD installation, that is great. At the same time, we hope that innovation to remove screws extends past SSD installation to make these boxes more serviceable. Replacing a SATA DOM in the field will take at least eight screws to remove, then re-install. At the same time, we like features like the locking DC power supply.
If you are looking for a desktop/ appliance version of an AMD EPYC 3000 series server that is not tied to a rackmount, we like the Supermicro AS-E301-9D-8CN4. Adding additional storage over CSE-300 based offerings is a welcome design direction in this space.
On every hardware metric it is rather limited: but it has fairly fast CPU cores for it’s power budget.
Like it’s brethren it is very cute and it looks nice sitting on a bench but I have a difficult time understanding why it exists. What am I supposed to use it for?
@emerth industrial applications where you need some compute on the edge such as factories/oil/chemical. From my perspective this is direct competition for the like of HPE Edgeline 1000 type of applications but at a lower cost.
The 40mm fans I don’t quite understand, at 1.5U height it’s ~66mm high so 50mm or even 60mm fans would have been possible. It could also have used the additional height for a top down 80mm or 120mm cooler for low noise applications (and a custom shroud for airflow).
I’m not OP. But this is madness
https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/c5ssva/a_very_tiny_lab
I ordered one of these from Newegg.
It DOES NOT come with:
1. PCI-E 90 degree riser card
2. ANY hard drive cages – and I have yet to figure out the part number for those
It only comes with one SAS power cable, so you can’t actually hookup 4 drives – only 2… And the cable used isn’t available on Supermicro’s store…
What a MESS.
What a MESS!
Jason, we mentioned in our review that we had a pre-production unit with some parts labeled as optional. I think this is great feedback and will send it to the team. I agree it would be good either to have this as everything in the box or an additional SKU with all of the accessories. Maybe even a note on the product page for optional components like in some other Supermicro servers.
Do you know if it’s works with ESXi 6.7? I know it’s not officially supported yet, but it would be nice to know for homelab purposes.
@Marcelo, yes it working well with ESXI 6.7.
Anyone know where can get the PCI e Riser?
Hello,
I have been looking for a mini homelab server for a while, and I don’t have a choice between the sys-e200 8d, e300 8d / e301 8d?
which would be best for an sccm lab, networking and securty?
Like Jason, I also ordered one of these from Newegg. Mine also DID NOT come with:
1. PCI-E 90 degree riser card
2. ANY hard drive cages
I reached out to SuperMicro support, and got the following part numbers for these:
1. PCI-E Riser card: RSC-RR1U-E16
2. Dual 2.5” drive bay: MCP-220-30101-0N
I will say that so far this server has been fantastic as a light virtualization host.
Thanks Mark. I read this article before your comment and also had communication with Supermicro about it. Part numbers for the cables are:
Thin SATA cable: CBL-0483L
Power cable. Although I don’t know what this is. A y-cable or whatever: CBL-PWEX-0983
It runs much more quiet than i expected. It sits in the next room, just 3m away and i can barely hear it when the door is open. Power usage is only 32W, idling with an AOC-S40G-I2Q 40G card and two SATA SSDs.
One more note: If you’re looking a for a power efficient server for your homelab, don’t be fooled by the TDP value. I own two of these and an E300-D8, which I wanted to try hoping with the lower TDP of 35W (vs. 55W of the Epyc 3251) it would consume less power when idling. The E300-D8 idles at about 36W without PCIe card and with two SATA SSDs
Supermicro seems unwilling or unable to supply the drive cages. I need six. Got one from a shop, ordered another 3, which got cancelled, because of availability. Another official supplier is taking more than two months and says they don’t know why it’s taking so long. On top the product team Supermicro promised to update the product page to list the optional parts two months ago, but didn’t even after reminding them about it. It seems this box doesn’t get any love from them.
I have the same issue no cage only 2 fans supplied & a single Sata Cable to hookup. I am thinking of engineering my own HDD cage. I can do with 2 fans