Well, they could also be Shenzhen leftovers - Intel expected much better uptake on the D1500 series on the high end, but almost no one used the D1581s...
AliExpress Mini PC Xeon D1581 $450
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I got....questions.
a) The specs on the machine only match up with some of the CPUs - it's noticeably absent on the i8750/9750H machines.
b) Which chipset are we dealing with here? And how did they mange to support the D1581 (Broadwell-DE) and the rest ('lake CPUs) on the same board?
c) Any motherboard manuals or internal diagrams? If I don't want/need that GTX1650 and want to put a Mel...nVidia ConnectX 5 in there. How do I know if it fits?
d) Does the D1581 provide "something extra"? The Xeon-Ds are supposed to have a 10GbE X552/557 NIC integrated that can support 2 ports. Any breakout support?
Okay, but seriously, this is not that great even at the price - if I gun for a Xeon-D I want support for more than 64GB of RAM (same reason why I didn't go for the HPe EC200A back when it was 150 each). And more than 1 NIC integrated (that NIC better not be Realtek or else it's not playing ball with VSphere 7). And with possibly more than one NVMe slot (or at the very least it should have PCIe 4.0). And either integrated BMC or a serial port if it doesn't have integrated video, and It better have a support package worth paying for. Also, I am not sure if I really like that Xeon-D even if its the OEM version of the D1587 (slightly faster) - it's still a 5 year old CPU and I think Win11 wants at least a "Lake" and not a "well".
My philosophy for these kinda things - if you want more CPU power, get a Ryzen. The same seller has a Ryzen 7 4800H mini-box that's kinda nice for the price and will likely beat the crap out of that old Xeon-D. Unless some variation of that board allows you to break the 2-stick, 64GB-in-total barrier with the Xeon-D and/or features the 10GbE breakout, it just seem pointless to have one. I can see the appeal of the weak Intel 'Lake CPU being rescued by the nVidia and maintaining some gaming dignity against the Ryzen APUs...but what's the point of the Xeon-D in a chassis like this, really?
@Patrick doesn't this machine remind you of the Ghost Canyon NUC9, but not as premium?
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^ this. beware of engineering samples and e-waste CPUs reballed on a night shift M/B. this is why i mentioned that none of these will support BIOS/fw updates, ever. personally i wouldnt touch it. grab a Supermicro M/B if you really want to something built around these CPUs.
personally I have a X10SDV system, from SM, and it works great as a raw I/O device/storage for NFS and the like, but for anything that taxes raw single core power, they won't impress. ex. SMB3/Samba is deadbeat on them, if you use encryption. I think I have maxed at 400MB/s peaks with a fine tuned configuration. That was against a pool of SAS3 SSDs.... so the bottleneck wasn't the HD or the lower level IO layers.
Unless you have a 150% fitting use-case for this exact machine, which I doubt, how in the world would anyone buy this at this price? This is a more complicated system than an Arduino, so you want a stream of BIOS updates to fix at least the most egregious bugs. Everything else is a dealbreaker for me.
I think, the motherboard designers of these Chinese boards for Intel U series CPUs and "abandoned" ones like E5-26xx v3 series, D series, develop their board for industrial purposes for the usages in factories at first, then the home usages of home routers/Internet cafes/broadband services for apartment buildings, then the video editing computers, and so on. So the BIOS development is quite limited and may be only for the areas above.
Since these manufacturers renew their generations very fast, their Chinese users upgrade their equipment fast too. Or they will keep in a same major OS version and never update the major versions of their applications if they don't upgrade their equipment.
Since these manufacturers renew their generations very fast, their Chinese users upgrade their equipment fast too. Or they will keep in a same major OS version and never update the major versions of their applications if they don't upgrade their equipment.
I am not sure about that entire industrial computer angle - industrial computers have a different connotation here in the US and imply expectations on reliability or resilience in a tough environment - that is, solid state, no moving parts, passive cooling, possibly metallic chassis, and etc. That’s more in line of a Diebold-Nixdorf, Kontron, DFI or Quixant. This plastic box? Eeeh…maybe I read too many ads on Aliexpress from vendors trying to pony off 12 year old ITZR gamer boards as “industrial embroidery machines”, but I am not buying the narrative.
At least in terms of that D1581, it really felt like someone is trying to get rid of a bunch of parts before their value falls off a cliff by shoehorning it into this box - I can’t figure out if it’s a waste of a D1581 (good chip in something like an X10SDV where it has the 10GbE breakouts and the RAM capacity, but totally ridiculous being here) or a waste of a cheap mini gamer board (soldered older CPU in an otherwise more modern board). Either ways, in my opinion, not a compelling value-prop.
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Some open box for the mainboard.
Another motherboard vendor of this D-1581
It is very similar to the #11 post I mentioned before.
The differences between the old desktop computer version (the #1 post) and this one are:
(1) In the spec sheet, it takes DDR4 registered ECC ram;
(2) dual mini-sas ports;
(3) BMC and VGA interface(VGA through the BMC VGA output slot);
(4) a USB 3.0 port on board.
The older desktop versions cost RMB 650-720 in year 2021-2022 on Xianyu platform(A Taobao relative app/platform for buying and selling 2nd hand stuffs).
Just as what was said above, firmware updates are the key questions on these boards.
Update:
The CPU cooler installation for a similar board(in Chinese) links:
www.azimiao.com
Alibaba link: link
It is very similar to the #11 post I mentioned before.
The differences between the old desktop computer version (the #1 post) and this one are:
(1) In the spec sheet, it takes DDR4 registered ECC ram;
(2) dual mini-sas ports;
(3) BMC and VGA interface(VGA through the BMC VGA output slot);
(4) a USB 3.0 port on board.
The older desktop versions cost RMB 650-720 in year 2021-2022 on Xianyu platform(A Taobao relative app/platform for buying and selling 2nd hand stuffs).
Just as what was said above, firmware updates are the key questions on these boards.
Update:
The CPU cooler installation for a similar board(in Chinese) links:
火神D1581 AllInOne 八盘位NAS装机小记 | 梓喵出没
为了将本博多个迷你 NAS 合为一个，减少维护成本，特购买了一块火神 D1581 主板，搭配八盘位 Mini NAS 机箱，组装了一台八盘位机器。 小记1：主板的选择 本博为了模仿蘑菇君的 All IN ONE 机器，也准备搞一个多核 PVE 机器，带一个 raid5 磁盘阵列。 恰好从 MJJ 矿渣群了解到 D1581 这款 16 核 32 线程 CPU，集成它的主板非常便宜，且还能用 REG ECC 内存，成本可以降到足够..
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Found one on ebay: D-1581CPU motherboard low-power DDR4 MATX supports 8-bay NAS small server | eBay
It has different pictures, if nothing else. Gah, I'm super tempted.
It has different pictures, if nothing else. Gah, I'm super tempted.
(Note: The HSGM brand D1581 board uses DDR3 rams, not DDR4)Update:
The CPU cooler installation for a similar board(in Chinese) links:
Alibaba link: link火神D1581 AllInOne 八盘位NAS装机小记 | 梓喵出没
为了将本博多个迷你 NAS 合为一个，减少维护成本，特购买了一块火神 D1581 主板，搭配八盘位 Mini NAS 机箱，组装了一台八盘位机器。 小记1：主板的选择 本博为了模仿蘑菇君的 All IN ONE 机器，也准备搞一个多核 PVE 机器，带一个 raid5 磁盘阵列。 恰好从 MJJ 矿渣群了解到 D1581 这款 16 核 32 线程 CPU，集成它的主板非常便宜，且还能用 REG ECC 内存，成本可以降到足够..
The HSGM D1581 board's official page(The URL is too long, and probably no further BIOS update, since the downloads are drivers only):
Someone said the CPU cooler is pretty hard to install on this board.
NBOX八盘位的ALL IN BOOM_NAS存储_什么值得买
帮大家节省时间，先把配置表发上来吧，花费2500不到，组一台理想八盘位ALLINBOOM。配置清单下面是装机过程。这次是用NBOX这个机箱来装机，之
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Is the price difference between aliexpress one and ebay one from the fee difference of platforms?
Below ebay page has the motherboard pictures of the D-1581 desktop computer. Huge difference from the server board design.
D-1581CPU motherboard low-power DDR4 MATX supports 8-bay NAS small server | eBay
Support dual channel 4 DDR4 DIMMs (REG ECC or ECC, 2133MHZ, maximum 128GB);. Support on-board motherboard diagnosis function;. Provide 2 x RS232 serial ports (COM1 is the communication interface between the built-in host and BMC);.
www.ebay.com
Below ebay page has the motherboard pictures of the D-1581 desktop computer. Huge difference from the server board design.
Intel Xeon D1581 (16 Cores 32 Threads) Mini-ITX Motherboard CPU combo, Dual LAN | eBay
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Intel Xeon D1581 (16 Cores 32 Threads) Mini-ITX Motherboard CPU combo, Dual LAN at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
ebay has almost twice the fees of aliexpress so should be the price diffrence.
As much as the D-1581 is tempting, there is starting to come more and more of the datto xeon-d boxes like this D-2143IT.
There is a few datto liquidators getting 1-2 a week with random between 4LFF or 10SFF it seems, probably tradeins.
The max 512gb ram and mezzanine to switch from typical 10gbase-t to sfp+ or qsfp makes them more tempting for me.
Also based on a solid asrock mobo so there is actualy updates etc for it.
Lack of any updates/support tends to be the problem with the random small brands in my experience, just a production run to use up chips and the product is dead to them as all sold.
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The discussion on the variances of D-1581 boards ( in Chinese language )
www.chiphell.com
又一个版本的D1581 我应该不是最后一个知道的吧 - 电脑讨论(新) - Chiphell - 分享与交流用户体验
又一个版本的D1581 我应该不是最后一个知道的吧,闲来无事搜索了下，看到有人重新开发这个U，看到这当消息的时候预售已经有一段时间了。各位18cm的彦祖觉得这东西如何？ ...,电脑讨论(新),讨论区-技术与经验的讨论 ,Chiphell - 分享与交流用户体验
www.chiphell.com