Introducing the 1U Supermicro SuperServer SYS-E300-9D featuring the new Intel Xeon D-2100, the only somewhat home lab friendly system announced

Posted by Paul Braren on Mar 10 2018 (updated on Mar 14 2018) in
  • CPU
  • HomeLab
  • HomeServer
  • A TinkerTry reader send this great comment early today, how timely!

    3796119984

    I'm disappointed that I don't have a great answer for Koen, at least not yet anyway.

    SYS-E300-9D-larger
    Click to visit the Supermicro SuperServer E300-9D Product page.

    For folks who don't need much storage and don't mind 1U fan noise, the only system based on the Xeon D-2100 that seems somewhat suited for home labs is the affordable 4 core Supermicro SuperServer SYS-E300-9D that can go all the way to 512GB memory (DDR4/2666MHz) some day, discussed below. This article shows the research I did along the way, with a careful look at each aspect of the announcements. I'm also excited to announce I have some hands-on testing planned, but I haven't yet heard when my system will arrive.

    If you haven't already learned about the technical details of the Intel Xeon D-2100, you should read my article that analyzes industry coverage first:

    intel-xeon-d-2100-announced

    The Intel Xeon D-2100 isn't so much as a successor to the successful Broadwell-based Xeon D-1500 line, but more of a complementary, higher-end offering, expanding the range of options available to OEMs, featuring greatly increased expansion possibilities. Both product lines continue onward in parallel, and both are based on Intel® 14 nm Technology.

    All-Xeon-D-2100-X11-Supermicro-products

    March 2015 - The Xeon D-1540 is announced

    The first Xeon D was the Xeon D-1540, an 8 core offering announced March 2015, and first shipping in volume by Supermicro in July, but I got my hands on mine on June 25, 2015, which may have been one of the very first ever produced.

    Feb 2016 - Many second generation Xeon D-1500 CPUs announced

    This big launch included the popular Xeon D-1541, which finally offered full SR-IOV too, marking the start of a big uptick in Xeon sales, and validating that the platform was here to stay. Supermicro led the Xeon D market with a variety of systems, that all wildly exceeded anything the Intel NUC could offer, including full VMware vSphere 6.0, and/or 6.5 support from a huge variety of shapes and sizes from various known and unknown OEMs.

    Feb 2018 - New Xeon D-2100 models announced

    I've added some product hyperlinks and pictures of the systems and motherboards being announced in the press releases below, but the text itself is unchanged.

    Note that both press releases below link to the Embedded Solutions Brochure, but that older PDF is still from October 2017. The product pages for the SuperServers themselves are only starting to surface, with several just saying "Coming Soon" on the Supermicro Xeon D-2100 X11 UP (Uni-processor) page, with a Mar 10 2018 screenshot of that page seen at right, click twice to really zoom in.

    See also the entire portfolio of SuperServer systems and motherboards based on Xeon D-1500 and Xeon D-2100 at:

    Press Release Highlights

    Now let's roll-up our sleeves and dive into the two recent press releases by Supermicro that feature Xeon D-2100. Highlighted are the parts that are of most relevance to the admittedly niche home lab / virtualization enthusiast market that seeks out lots of memory and CPU cores, along with high speed networking soldered right into reasonably efficient and quiet form factors that these SoC designs offer. Stick with me here, you'll also find a detailed summary of my feelings about these these announcements below.


    press180207_Edge_Computing_Network
    • Supermicro Expands Edge Computing and Network Appliance Portfolio with New High Density SoC Solutions
      Feb 07 2018 at Supermicro Press Releases

      Mini-ITX platforms based on the New Intel® Xeon® D-2100 SoC (System-on-a-Chip) Processor for compact high-performance, low power, feature rich embedded and IoT (Internet of Things) applications
      SAN JOSE, Calif., February 7, 2018 — Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI), a global leader in enterprise computing, storage, networking solutions and green computing technology, today announced several new additions to its edge computing and network appliance portfolio based on the new Intel® Xeon® D-2100 SoC (System-on-a-Chip) processor.

      Leveraging its deep expertise in server technology, Supermicro is bringing customers some of the first Intel® Xeon® D-2100 System-on-a-Chip (SoC) processor-based solutions. The company’s X11SDV series motherboards offer infrastructure optimization by combining the performance and advanced intelligence of Intel® Xeon® processors into a dense, lower-power system-on-a-chip. Supermicro is introducing a wide range of new systems to the market including compact embedded systems, rackmount embedded systems, as well as multi-node MicroCloud and SuperBlade systems.

      With server-class reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) features now available in an ultra-dense, low-power device, Supermicro X11SDV platforms deliver balanced compute and storage for intelligent edge computing and network appliances. These advanced technology building blocks offer the best workload optimized solutions and long life availability with the Intel® Xeon® D-2100 processor family, available with up to 18 processor cores, up to 512GB DDR4 four-channel memory operating at 2666MHz, up to four 10GbE LAN ports with RDMA support, and available with integrated Intel® QuickAssist Technology (Intel® QAT) crypto/encrypt/decrypt acceleration engine and internal storage expansion options including mini-PCIe, M.2 and NVMe support.

      “These compact new Supermicro Embedded Building Block solutions bring advanced technologies and performance into a dense, low-power system-on-a-chip architecture, extending intelligence to the data center and network edge,” said Charles Liang, President and CEO of Supermicro. “With the vast growth of data driven workloads across embedded applications worldwide, Supermicro remains dedicated to developing powerful, agile, and scalable IoT gateway and compact server, storage and networking solutions that deliver the best end to end ecosystems for ease of deployment and open scalability.”

      SYS-E300-9D

      Supermicro’s new SYS-E300-9D is a compact box embedded system that is well-suited for the following applications: network security appliance, SD-WAN, vCPE controller box, and NFV edge computing server. Based on Supermicro’s X11SDV-4C-TLN2F mini-ITX motherboard with four-core, 60-watt Intel Xeon D-2123IT SoC this system supports up to 512GB memory, dual 10GbE RJ45 ports, quad USB ports, and one SATA/SAS hard drive, SSD or NVMe SSD.

      SYS-5019D-FN8TP

      The new SYS-5019D-FN8TP is a compact (less than 10-inch depth) 1U rackmount embedded system that is ideal for cloud and virtualization, network appliance and embedded applications. Featuring Supermicro’s X11SDV-8C-TP8F flex-ATX motherboard supporting the eight-core, 80-watt Intel Xeon D-2146NT SoC, this power and space efficient system with built-in Intel QAT crypto and compression supports up to 512GB memory, four GbE RJ45 ports, dual 10GbE SFP+ and dual 10GbE RJ45 ports, dual USB 3.0 ports, four 2.5” internal SATA/SAS hard drives or SSDs, and internal storage expansion options including mini-PCIe, M.2 and NVMe support.

      For more details on Supermicro’s Xeon SoC processor-based solutions, please visit www.supermicro.com/products/nfo/Xeon-D.cfm

      For more information on Supermicro’s complete line of Embedded Building Block Solutions visit www.supermicro.com/Embedded or download an Embedded Solutions Brochure.

      SYS-5039MD8-H8TNR

      Supermicro is introducing two new MicroCloud servers based on the new processors. Perfect for cloud computing, dynamic web serving, dedicated hosting, content delivery network, memory caching, and corporate applications, these systems support eight hot-pluggable server nodes in a 3U enclosure with a centralized IPMI server management port. The SYS-5039MD8-H8TNR features the 8-core, 65-watt Intel Xeon D-2141i SoC, and the new SYS-5039MD18-H8TNR features the 18-core, 86-watt Intel Xeon D-2191 SoC. Each server node for these MicroCloud systems supports up to 512GB of ECC memory, one PCI-E 3.0 x16 expansion slot, two hybrid storage drives that support U.2 NVMe/SATA3, two M.2 NVMe/SATA3 connectors, and dual GbE ports.

      Supermicro’s 4U/8U SuperBlade enclosures feature blade servers that support new Intel Xeon D-2100 System-on-a-Chip (SoC) processors, including the 18-core D-2191 processor as well as the 16-core D2187NT processor with 100G Crypto/Compression. The blade servers support up to 512GB DDR4 memory, hot-plug 2.5” U.2 NVMe/SATA drives, M.2 NVMe, and 25Gb\10Gb Ethernet and 100G Intel® Omni-Path (OPA) or 100G EDR InfiniBand. Redundant chassis management Modules (CMM) with industry standard IPMI management tools, high-performance switches, integrated power supplies and cooling fans, Battery Backup Modules (BBP) make this all-in-one blade solution ideal for datacenter and cloud applications.

      press180207_Edge_Computing_Network_S

      ...


    press180227_Embedded_World_2018
    • Supermicro Introduces New Edge Computing and IoT Solutions at Embedded World 2018
      Feb 27 2018 at Supermicro Press Releases

      Supermicro showcasing industry’s broadest product portfolio of embedded servers & motherboards to support a wide range of markets from Industrial Automation, Retail, Medical, Transportation to Communications and Networking
      NUREMBERG, Germany, Feb. 27, 2018 — Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI), a global leader in enterprise computing, storage, networking solutions and green computing technology, today announced that it is highlighting new additions to its extensive edge computing and gateway product portfolio, including solutions based on the new Intel® Xeon® D-2100 SoC (System-on-a-Chip) and Intel® Atom® C3000 SoC processor at Embedded World 2018 from February 27-March 1, Nuremberg Exhibition Centre booth 1-330.

      Leveraging its deep expertise in server technology, Supermicro is introducing a full line of solutions that support the latest Intel® Xeon® D-2100 SoC processors (codenamed Skylake-D) with up to 1.6x compute performance improvement compared to the last generation. The X11SDV series motherboards offer infrastructure optimization by combining the performance and advanced intelligence of the new system-on-a-chip processors into a dense, lower-power compact solution ideal for embedded applications.

      “As the 5G era continues to emerge and Edge computing becomes more prevalent, Supermicro is ready with the industry’s best selection of embedded servers and motherboards to service a wide range of vertical markets including industrial automation, retail, medical, transportation, communication, and networking,” said Charles Liang, President and CEO of Supermicro. “With the vast growth of data driven workloads across embedded applications, Supermicro remains committed to developing powerful, scalable yet agile IoT gateway and compact server, storage and networking solutions that deliver the best ecosystems for the Edge with ease of deployment and open scalability.”

      With server-class reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) features now available in an ultra-dense, low-power device, Supermicro’s X11SDV platforms deliver balanced compute, storage and networking for the intelligent Edge. These advanced technology building blocks offer the best workload optimized solutions and long life availability with up to 18 processor cores, up to 512GB DDR4 four-channel memory operating at 2666MHz, up to four 10GbE LAN ports with RDMA support, and available with integrated Intel® QAT (Quick Assist Technology) crypto/encrypt/decrypt acceleration engine and internal storage expansion options including mini-PCIe, M.2 and NVMe support.

      For more details on Supermicro’s solutions that support high-performance Intel® Xeon® D SoC processors, please visit www.supermicro.com/products/nfo/Xeon-D.cfm.

      In addition to these new solutions in compact box and 1U rack systems, Supermicro is also showcasing the latest low-power Intel® Atom® embedded solutions in fan-less compact box, short-depth 1U rack and mini-tower systems. For more information on these diverse low-power products, please go to: www.supermicro.com/products/nfo/Atom.cfm.

      Supermicro is demonstrating fan-less modular solutions using passive cooling techniques that can operate in extreme temperature and provide protection from dust ingress and condensation with IP51 (Ingress Protection) certification, too. The industrial grade compact enclosure designs provide modular expansion housing ultra-small form factor 3.5” SBC or 2.5” Pico-ITX designs with integrated DC power support, storage expansion and wireless networking capabilities.

      For more information on Supermicro’s complete line of Embedded Building Block Solutions visit www.supermicro.com/Embedded or download an Embedded Solutions Brochure.

      press180227_Embedded_World_2018_S

      ...


    Noteworthy

    Memory

    512GB!
    With Xeon D-2100 supporting 512GB of memory, and maybe even 1TB of memory someday, you'll likely be needing to think about memory interleaving again, something you didn't need to think about on the Xeon D-1500, where you could buy 2 32GB DIMMs with your Bundle, and enjoy full speeds whether or not you used those remaining 2 slots with 2 more 32GB DIMMs later on, with no wasteful removal of the DDR4 you already invested in. This is no small thing, as DDR4 prices have risen from around $175 when I first gone mine in 2016, all the way to $375 now in 2018.

    Unbuffered DIMM support
    Wes21 days ago

    Looks like unbuffered DIMM support also went away (to be expected since Skylake-D is from higher up the chain)

    Intel

    Did Intel just (inadvertently?) throw a little shade on smaller OEMs? See Intel's February 7 2018 Press Release

    ...
    Today signals the general availability of the processor in the market, and we are working with industry leaders including Dell EMC, Ericsson, F5, NEC, NetApp, Palo Alto Net and Supermicro on to deliver solutions to our joint end-customers.
    ...

    where you'll notice Supermicro as one of the launch partners, but no mention of the Gigabyte, ASRock, and Tyan offerings that are clearly listed on Patrick's excellent Xeon D-2100 Launch Central. Oops? Perhaps they're just delayed, but at least a nod to their planned efforts would seem to have been a nice gesture. Also note that Dell EMC is listed, but I'm finding nothing out there, not yet anyway.

    Supermicro

    Mini Towers - Nothing with Intel Xeon D-2100 inside, darn!

    VMworldHackathon-BOM-1_small
    Click the image to visit William Lam's article that details the SYS-E200-8D-based BOM, used for the VMworld 2017 Hackathon. Photo Credit - William Lam

    Here's Supermicro's Mid-Tower / Mini-Tower Solutions that only show the current Xeon D-1541 based Supermicro SuperServer SYS-5028D-TN4T system. There is no good technical reason I can think of for this, given the 65 watt TDP of many Intel Xeon D-2100 CPUs fit the same thermal envelope that the SuperChassis CSE-721TQ-250B obviously handles just fine in the Bundle 2 12 core, pictured below.

    Also note that there is no SYS-E200-9D, which could have been a step-up from the popular SYS-E300-8D that's also Mini ITX, and was successfully used for the VMworld 2017 Hackathon, pictured at right.

    Pictured below, you'll see just how good the versatile mini-tower can look, with 8 or 12 cores, a much quieter (slower spinning/large) chassis fan, plenty of internal storage bays, and a PCIe slot that can accomodate up to 4 more M.2 NVMe drives. Can you tell I'm more than a bit disappointed that the Xeon D-2100 hasn't arrived in this form factor, or something like it? Ideally a quiet system with two full-height PCIe slots in a Flex ATX cube, with plenty of U.2, SATA, and M.2 NVMe storage bays. Now that would be something I'd be very interested in TinkerTry'ing, to see if it would be suitable for inclusion in a future Bundle. Supermicro, or not Supermicro.

    TinkerTry-home-lab--Feb-27-2018
    Supermicro SuperServer SYS-5028D-TN4T, resting on TinkerTry's new workbench, using only 60 watts at idle, even with several SSDs installed.

    Summary

    My take on the Intel Xeon D-2100.
    If you really need and can afford up to 512GB of RAM, or you need seamless vMotion from Xeon D-2100 to and from new systems that feature the Intel Scalable Processors (Skylake - Purley), or you need more than 12 cores, then by all means, yes, you should have a look at Xeon D-2100, available in 1U and 2U form factors. Of course, it is safer to wait for others to kick the tires first, ideally on the exact OS you're planning to run.

    For the rest of us, Xeon D-1500 is likely to continue onward as the best choice for quite some time, at least until 10 or 11 nanometer CPUs finally arrive, with Intel claiming a 3 year advantage.

    Before you ask, I'll add that currently AMD EPYC Embedded 3000 Series just doesn't seem of offer mainstream Windows and VMware vSphere support just yet, but that could change.

    My take on the Supermicro SuperServer SYS-E300-9D.
    If you need lot of memory in a compact form factor as the basis of something like a (test/unsupported) vSAN cluster, then this appears to be a good choice. This is conjecture, based purely on what's been published so far, with nobody reporting any hands-on time with this exact system just yet.

    The good

    • Intel® Mesh Architecture could make live VMware vMotion to/from Intel Scalable Processor (Skylake - Purley) systems easier
    • the RJ-45 connectors from the 2 10GBase-T LAN ports can also be used for 1GbE networking that is common in home labs
    • if you need to go past Xeon D-1500's limit of 128GB of RAM in each of your home lab cluster nodes, this could be a great choice for you, as long as it's located far from living space
    • it features a 120W DC Power Adapter (brick), which should be sufficient for whatever load you can exert by using all storage and PCIe slot options
    • from the press releases, it's nice to see fanless designs are still very much a thing at Supermicro, let's hope they make lower TDP Xeon D systems available without fans in the future, at reasonable prices
    • RDMA support (which wasn't in Xeon D-1500), can be very good for vSAN, suspected to be iWARP not RoCE)

    The not so good

    • only two 10GBase-T LAN RJ45 ports (which can do 1GbE too), this is a big step backwards from the 6 RJ45 and 2 SFP+ ports the SYS-E300-9D had, so if this is a problem for you, the bigger 1U SYS-5019D-FN8TP is a better choice, wiht twice the cores and more storage options, at roughly twice the price
    • no M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4 slot on any of the Mini ITX Xeon D-2100 systems and motherboards, this is not good, since NVMe is great for tremendously fast VMFS or NTFS datastores
    • 60 watts CPU TDP for the Intel Xeon processor D-2123IT 4-Core/8 Threads in that small CSE-E300 chassis will invariably mean some loud dB levels from those 40mm fans, even at idle, especially when compared to the SYS-E300-8D that featured a much lower 35 watt TDP
    • that external 120W power brick is likely to be quite large, based on my testing of Supermicro 84 watt power bricks
    • you'll likely still need to buy the optional riser just to PCIe cards
    • even with the riser, you can only use one of the two PCI-E 3.0 x8 (LP) slots
    • the two 10GBase-T (RJ45) jacks use slightly more power and have slightly higher latency than the SFP+ ports that the SYS-E300-8D included, which also Flex ATXs Xeon D-1521 cousin
    • severely limits storage options, which means you don't get to benefit from the wide range of storage possibilities that Xeon D-2100 offers, such as OCuLink for NVMe, given the cramped design
    • it's only 4 cores, unlike the 8 cores and up available in the full 1U rack mount SYS-5019D-FN8TP
    • still no Intel Optane Memory support, see Intel ARK under the Advanced Technologies section, see also Intel Optane SSD DC P4800X Series can be ultra fast vSAN cache, storage, or RHEL/SLES 8x memory extender using Intel Memory Drive Technology
    • still no NVDIMM support, which could be handy for vSAN
    • still no vSAN compatible embedded HBA, controller (RAID), perhaps intentional market differentiation going on here, or perhaps just not enough room for an LSI chip like the ones they managed to fit onto Xeon D-1500

    The open questions

    • the picture on the product page shows a 4 NIC AOC (Add On Card) in the PCIe slot, that's likely incorrect, given Supermicro pictures of the SYS-E300-8D show an AOC card there too that didn't ship with the system, nor was the PCIe right angle bracket included, I won't know for sure until my loaner arrives
    • it will be interesting to see if they ship the SYS-E300-9D with 3 40mm fans, since the SYS-E300-8D shipped with only 2 40mm fans
    SYS-E300-9D_open

    Supermicro Mini 1U E300-9D is the one to watch, for now...
    Check out the full specs on the product page:

    x11sdv-4c-tln2f_small

    and the Flex ATX X11SDV-4C-TLN2F motherboard it's based on here:

    I have reached out to Supermicro and Wiredzone about seeing whether a mini-tower system based on Xeon D-2100 is something they're interested in, and of course I'll let you know if I make any progress. If that sounds good to you too, please let us know by dropping a comment below.

    intel-xeon-d-2100-works-with-vmware-esxi-and-ubuntu-16-04-on-supermicro-x11sdv

    As for VMware compatibility, that's looking even easier than ESXi on Xeon D-1500, see:

    I will be testing the SYS-5028D-9D, hopefully soon

    I did get assurance that I'll be getting my hands-on a loaner Supermicro SYS-E300-9D SuperServer soon, but I don't have a date yet. You can be sure I'll be testing it like crazy, aka, TinkerTry'ing it, have a look at my previous close look at the first-in-world SYS-E200-8D and SYS-E300-8D examples here. Honestly, I currently don't even know when shipments from resellers like Wiredzone will even begin, but Wiredzone's listing currently shows "Build To Order (Ships in 3-4 Days)," so I suspect folks are receiving their pre-ordered systems soon. What's odd is that I don't even see a list of certified memory yet at the product pages at Supermicro and Wiredzone though, and there's no links to BIOS versions either. The systems are expected to ship with Spectre/Meltdown mitigation already applied though, a detail called-out by Intel in their Xeon D-2100 announcement.

    Pre-order (non-bundle/bare-bones)

    If you're not interested in waiting until this new chipset has been TinkerTry'd, it seems orders are being taken already, but the tested memory list doesn't appear to be ready just yet.

    10027798
    Click link to visit product page TinkerTry affiliate link at Wiredzone, where the price is currently $699 as of March 10 2018, but this is subject to change at any time. Keep in mind bare-bones means you'll need to buy memory and storage.

    Mar 11 2018 Update

    I have added RDMA (good), Optane Memory (no), M.2 (no), network (just two), and (unsupported) vSAN mentions to the good and bad lists above.

    972703867849920513

    This is when comments below articles and tweets are really fun for me, I love the feedback, as we share ideas and widely varying perspectives with one another. This is all armchair quarterbacking here, not until I get some actual GA level product (not engineering samples) will I be able to conclude much of anything with any real certainty.

    Meanwhile, we can look at various STH articles, and a simple Intel ARK comparison:

    between the following systems:
    SYS-E300-8D - featuring -- Xeon D-1518 - 4 Core, TDP 35 W $234
    SYS-E300-9D - featuring -- Xeon D 2123IT 4 Core, TDP 60 W $213
    SYS-5028D-TN4T featuring - Xeon D-1541 - 8 Core, TDP 45 W $581
    SYS-5019D-FN8TP featuring- Xeon D-2146NT 8 Core, TDP 80 W $641

    What you'll notice is that the 8 core Xeon D-2146NT seems to make a lot more sense if you're going to be spending over $3000 to get yourself a 128GB system, given today's RAM prices. In other words, would you really want just 4 cores at 60 Watts when $400 more gets you 8 cores, at a cost of 20 more Watts? This makes folks who are OK with the size and noise of 1U rack mount gear likely to lean toward the SYS-5019D-FN8TP, which isn't yet showing as available for pre-order at Wiredzone yet.

    So if you need small dense nodes at the most NUC-like prices (and performance), the SYS-E300-9D is appealing, especially given it's priced about the same as the SYS-E300-8D. We're not quite sure about the RAM yet though.

    If you need one beefier system and don't mind the size and noise of a 1U rack mount system, then the SYS-5019D-FN8TP may be the way to go, but keep in mind that it's SFP+ on the 10G ports, with no RJ45 model available on that system. See the list of all Xeon D-2100 (X11) systems and motherboards.

    2018-03-11_9-58-28
    Click the image above to view the Intel ARK table.

    Honestly, all of this has me not terribly excited about this Xeon D-2100 for all but the most enthusiastic of home lab buyers, since fan noise, BTU output, and the increased electric bills all conspire to prevent even the SYS-E300-9D from looking all that appealing versus the SYS-E300-8D system before it, given the 25 extra watts used. Yes, that's even accounting for the performance gains that it may offer some users, see:

    The reason I say this is based on my experience with measuring watts at idle graph, where most home lab systems left running 24x7 spend the vast majority of their time, even my used-every-day (and for this article) SuperServer Workstation. Where I live, with electricity costs over 15 cents per kilowatt hour, so this sort of delta really matters to me. Add to that the fact that running VMware tends to keep the watt burn at idle a bit higher than when running other OSs.

    4K-video-render-complete-system-at-idle

    The reason I have only focused on the mini-tower Bundles I created is simple. Buyers of the mini 1U SYS-E300-8D and SYS-E200-8D complain about noise pretty often. Most SYS-5028D-TN4T mini-tower owners brag about how quiet their system is, enjoying less than a 0.5% return rate to Wiredzone. That's pretty amazing. Anybody that puts down $2K to $3K of their own money to invest in their home lab would likely want to get the most value they can, over the next several years of active use. Ideally with many expansion options, and a high family acceptance factor. These are just some of the reasons why I'm lamenting the fact that there is no mini-tower based on the Xeon D-2100 shipping by any OEM out there, not just Supermicro. That's a long-term opportunity, but in the short term, it's just disappointing.

    With SFP+ holding diminished appeal for me personally, and with the price uplift $700 for the 16 core model versus the 12 core model, here's a BOM of my own personal idea of the dream machine. Admittedly, it might not be at all supportable with full warranty, since it uses 3rd party components out of necessity. Most of my focus has been blogging about stuff that anybody can buy, anywhere in the world. The the rough concept is to strike the right balance between performance, cost, and size, to help bridge the gap until 10nm Xeon D CPUs arrive that will likely change everything, including NVDIMM support.

    Dream Home Xeon D-2100 Lab BOM
    Draft:

    • Qty 1 X11SDV-12C-TP8F
    • Qty 1 CPU Fan (Supermicro, or 3rd party, by necessity, since none of the Supermicro Flex ATX motherboards offer active cooling)
    • Qty 1 Chassis that can hold Flex ATX motherboard with 2 full height PCIe slots (3rd party, TBD), and has at least 2 3.5 SATA3 drive bays, and 4 2.5 SATA3 bays, and/or 4 U.2 NVMe drive bays with Oculink cables
    • Qty 1 nearly silent Power Supply (Supermicro or 3rd party), at least 250 watts
    • Qty 1 32GB USB drive for ESXi (SATADOM is still pricey)
    • Qty 1 OPTIONAL M.2 NVMe drive for super speedy VMFS (or NTFS) (model TBD, ideally offering full warranty even with VMware ESXi 6.x)
    x11sdv-16c-tnl2f_top_2
    Supermicro X11SDV-16C+-TLN2F is actively cooled, see giant CPU heat sink fan. Photo courtesy of Supermicro.
    x11sdv-12c-tp8f_front
    Supermicro X11SDV-12C-TP8F is passively cooled like all their Flex ATX motherboard designs. Notice the absence of a CPU heat sink fan. Photo courtesy of Supermicro.

    See also at TinkerTry

    superservers

    tinkertry-xeon-d-1500-home-lab-links

    connecticut-vmug-usercon-2018-homelab

    meltdown-and-spectre-info

    amd-epyc-embedded-3000-series-launched

    intel-xeon-d-2100-announced

    intel-optane-ssd-dc-p4800x-series-is-storage-or-memory-with-intel-memory-drive-technology

    my-tinkertry-d-xeon-d-bundle-2-supermicro-superserver-bundle-2-of-joy

    pcie-to-m2-nvme-accessories-overview

    compare

    supermicro-superserver-sys-e200-8d-and-sys-e300-are-here

    supermicro-superserver-sys-e200-8d-and-sys-e300-pictures

    supermicro-debuts-new-compact-intel-xeon-processor-d-based-superservers
    TinkerTry First Look - world's first Supermicro SuperServer SYS-E300-8D and SYS-E200-8D unboxing!
    Supermicro SuperServer SYS-E200-8D - added 3rd 40mm fan improves cooling and reduces noise [4K]

    See also

    platform-power-consumption-first-benchmarks-intel-xeon-d-2100-series

    intel-xeon-d-2100-series-launch-central

    part-2-supermicro-superserver-e300-8d-deep-dive