Supermicro SYS-5019D-4C-FN8TP Review 1U Server with Networking

Power Consumption

Here are a few key stats we recorded with the system equipped with 4x 32GB DDR4-2400 and an Intel DC S3710 400GB SSD.

• Idle: 51.6W
• 60% Load (non-AVX): 83.1W
• AVX-512 GROMACS Load: 101.2W

We held these workloads for 20 minutes in a 17.0C data center with 55% RH on 208V power. Note, these are fairly similar to the review we did in a similar chassis, however ever so slightly different.

Since this is a 1U system, and the CSE-505-203B is never really a “quiet” server, noise is perhaps the weak point of this system. It is loud at boot which is acceptable. The three 1U fans are quiet enough at idle but the fans ramp under load to the point where this system should be kept in an equipment closet or somewhere that does not have a relatively low noise floor.

STH Server Spider: Supermicro SYS-5019D-4C-FN8TP

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.

A quick note here is that there is a bit more flexibility in the larger 1U chassis just because the sheet metal provides more room to house internal components. It also allows drives to be located away from the CPU allowing for better cooling. For rackmount deployments, this is going to be the better choice.

Final Words

Overall, this is now the third platform we have looked at based on the Flex-ATX X11SDV motherboard spanning 4 cores to 16 cores. It is also the second server with the X11SDV-4C-TP8F we have looked at, so it is probably worth making a bit of a comparison between the rackmount-focused SYS-5019D-4C-FN8TP and the more desktop-focused (but still rackmountable) E300-9D-4CN8TP.

While both platforms are around 1U tall, the E300-9D-4CN8TP is a smaller footprint for the main server. To get that smaller footprint, one moves to an external power DC power supply. Also, with the Supermicro SYS-5019D-4C-FN8TP, one gets a bit more flexibility to add expansion slots with the PCIe Gen3 x8 slot. This is enabled partially by the 2.5″ drives moving from being over the motherboard to their own area on the side of the chassis. One can alternatively expand to four 2.5″ drive mounting points here while retaining a 1U footprint. Of course, the rackmount server is also easier to rackmount. There are more installation steps required to get the E300 rackmounted.

Looking ahead, Intel has talked about Ice Lake-D but that product is slow to arrive in-market due to it sharing a 10nm process with the mainstream Ice Lake server chips. That is a challenge when chips are supply-limited. We still have some time until we will see Ice Lake-D in the market making this Q1 2018 platform still the most current generation.

Taking that next step, one has to wonder about Intel’s go-forward positioning for a segment like this. The NVIDIA BlueField-2 DPU and more pressingly in Q4 the Marvell Octeon 10 400Gbps PCIe Gen5 DPUs will have the opportunity to make an impact in this space. While many still run x86 firewalls and VPN appliances due to the software maturity, there are Arm-based platforms, even from Intel, that will bring many features such as the crypto and compression offloads and networking IP, into DPUs. DPUs may end up being the great disruptor in this segment over the next few years.

Still, these are boxes we use every day for firewalls, VPN appliances, and so forth. The flexible networking options make them extremely versatile. While we have high hopes for the next generation, this is still a machine we deployed this quarter since the review unit was one of four we purchased to deploy.