The push for enhanced compute density continues, and servers like Supermicro’s 1024US-TRT, which hails from the company’s ‘A+ Ultra’ family, are designed to answer that call with generous compute capabilities paired with copious connectivity options. Supermicro designed this slim 1U dual-socket server for high-density environments in enterprise applications, high-end cloud computing, virtualization, and technical computing workloads. The platform supports up to 8TB of DDR4 memory spread across 32 DIMMs along with plenty of PCIe 4.0 connectivity, dual 10 GbE LAN ports, and up to four NVMe devices in the front bays.
The platform supports dual AMD EPYC 7003 and 7002 processors, meaning it supports up to 64 cores and 128 threads with the EPYC Milan, Milan-X, or EPYC Rome processors. Supermicro’s Intel Ice Lake X12 servers can’t match that number of cores and threads in a single platform, signifying that the 1024US-TRT offers the utmost density in its portfolio. Naturally, Supermicro competes with other OEM server vendors, like Lenovo, Dell/EMC, and HPE, in the high-volume general-purpose 1U realm with the 1024US-TRT.
AMD’s EPYC Genoa will launch later this year to compete with Intel’s incessantly-delayed Sapphire Rapids, setting the stage for either AMD’s continued dominance or an Intel resurgence. As we wait for those launches, here’s a look at some of our benchmarks and the current state of the data center CPU performance hierarchy in several hotly-contested price ranges.
Supermicro 1024US-TRT Server
The Supermicro 1024US-TRT server comes in the 1U form factor, enabling incredible density. The server supports AMD’s EPYC 7002 and 7003 processors that top out at 64 cores apiece, translating to 128 cores and 256 threads spread across the dual sockets. In addition, the platform also supports AMD’s Milan-X chips (BIOS version 2.3 or newer) that come with up to 64 cores and 128 threads paired with a once-unthinkable 768MB of L3 cache. These chips help gear the 1024US-TRT for more diverse workloads beyond its traditional target markets, expanding to technical computing workloads, too. This includes workloads like Electronic Design Automation (EDA), Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Finite Element Analysis (FEM), and structural analysis.
The 1024US-TRT has a tool-less rail mounting system with square pegs that eases installation into server racks, and the CSE-819UTS-R1K02P-A chassis measures 1.7 x 17.2 x 29 inches and slides into 19″ racks.
The server accommodates CPU TDPs that stretch up to 280W, but using chips beyond 225W requires special accommodations. As such, the server can technically support the most powerful EPYC processors, like the 7Hxx-series models, but you’ll need to verify those configurations with Supermicro.
The front panel comes with standard indicator lights, like a color-coded information light that indicates various types of failures and overheating while also serving as a unit identification LED. It also includes hard drive activity, system power, and two LAN activity LEDs. Power, reset, and unit identification (UID) buttons are also present at the upper right of the front panel, with the latter illuminating a light on the rear of the server for easy location of the unit in a packed rack.
By default, the system has four tool-less 3.5-inch hot-swap SATA 3 drive bays, but you can configure the server to accept four NVMe drives on the front panel (you use 2.5″ adaptors for the SSDs). We tested with a PCIe 4.0 Kioxia 1.92TB KCD6XLUL1T92 SSD. You can also add an optional SAS card to enable support for SAS storage devices and an optical drive. The front of the system also houses a slide-out service/asset tag identifier card to the upper left. This is important as it holds the default BMC user ID and password, enabling access to the remote management features. Popping the top off the chassis reveals two housings that hold fans. A total of eight fans feed air to the system, and each housing includes four Sunon 23,300 RPM counter-rotating 40 x 40 x 56 mm fans for maximum static pressure and reduced vibration. As expected with servers intended for 24/7 operation, the system can continue to function in the event of a fan failure. However, the remainder of the fans will automatically run at full speed if the system detects a failure. Naturally, these fans are loud, but that’s not a concern. You manage the fan speed and profiles via the BMC (not the BIOS).
Four fans cool each CPU, and a simple black plastic shroud directs air to the heatsinks underneath. Dual SP3 sockets house the two processors, which are covered by standard CPU heatsinks optimized for linear airflow.
A total of 16 memory slots flank each processor, for a total of 32 slots that support up to an incredible 8TB of ECC DDR4-3200 memory (via 256GB DIMMs), easily outstripping the memory capacity available with competing Intel platforms. We tested the EPYC Milan processor with 16x 16GB DDR4-3200 SK hynix modules for a total memory capacity of 256GB. In contrast, the Icel Lake Xeon comparison platform came with 16x 32GB SK hynix ECC DDR4-3200 for a total capacity of 512GB of memory.
The H12DSU-iN motherboard’s expansion slots consist of two full-height 9.5-inch PCIe 4.0 x16 slots and one low-profile PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, all mounted on riser cards. An additional internal PCIe 4.0 x16 slot is also available, but this slot only accepts proprietary Supermicro cards. The rear I/O panel includes two 10 gigabit RJ45 LAN ports powered by an Intel X710-AT2 NIC, along with a dedicated RJ45 IPMI LAN port for management. Here we find the only USB ports on the machine, which come in the form of two USB 3.0 headers (it’s a pity there isn’t a USB port on the front), along with a COM and VGA port.
Two 1000W 80% Plus Titanium-Level redundant power supplies with PMBus provide power to the server, with automatic failover in the event of a failure and hot-swapability for easy servicing. The BIOS is easy to access and use and offers plenty of tunable parameters, including CPU power threshold adjustments, while the IPMI web interface provides a wealth of monitoring capabilities and easy remote management that matches the type of functionality available with other types of platforms. Among many options, you can update the BIOS, use the KVM-over-LAN remote console, monitor power consumption, access health event logs, monitor and adjust fan speeds, and monitor the CPU, DIMM, and chipset temperatures and voltages. Supermicro’s remote management suite is polished and easy to use, and we can say the same about the BIOS.
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