EXPIRED ASRock D2143D8UM 330 GBP OBO

[RTM]

The ASRock D2143D8UM is a mATX board with a Xeon D-2143IT (8 cores) SoC.
Notably it does not come with any ethernet interfaces (not counting the one for IPMI) and needs a mezzanine (not sure if it is OCP standard) cards or separate PCIe for that.

ASRock D2143D8UM Server Motherboard Intel D-2143IT 2.2Ghz 8 Core CPU IPMI DDR4 | eBay

Support DDR4 2133/2400/2666 4-channel Max. 512GB ECC UDIMM, R DIMM, LR DIMM. Integrated IPMI 2.0 with KVM and Dedicated LAN (RTL8211E). Fitted with D-2143IT CPU 2.2Ghz 8 Core + 16 Threads. View Our Categories.

www.ebay.com

The seller also has a 1U server with RAM and a NIC for 480 GBP OBO:

ASROCK 1U Server S4P2143 Intel D-2143IT CPU @ 2.20GHz 32GB 2x 10GB Emulex LAN | eBay

ASRock B2B Mainboard S4P2143. CPU: Xeon D-2143IT 8Core - 16 Threads. Storage: NONE. View Our Categories.

www.ebay.com

While the first listing does not mention it specifically, I suspect that the board is rebranded by Datto, as the board has the same "s4p2143" text on the print as the one in the second listing (where Datto is printed). The reason why I mention this, is that people have had issues updating BIOS and IPMI on other of their rebranded boards.

EDIT: Seller lowered price from 410 to 330 GBP (but may be willing to go lower, I paid 300 for one)

 

[bob_dvb]

Nice but a little too rich for my blood.

 

[RTM]

I bought one of the boards (for 300GBP), here are some of my notes:

• Boots Ubuntu 20.04.1 just fine
• As expected board is related to Datto
• Asrock do not provide any BIOS/IPMI updates for the D2143D8UM, so flashing to "original" firmware is not an option
• IPMI uses the usernameassword combination admin:admin
• IPMI sends out DNS requests related to datto.com, so it may try to initiate actual connections to their systems if they are allowed internet access
  • IMHO this is a poor security practice, given that IPMI systems are rarely updated and generally should be considered vulnerable, it is best to keep them segregated from everything and unable to initiate outgoing connections (especially to the internet).
• CPU heatsink needs a fan (Haven't bought something just yet, but will probably try an 80x80 FAN)
• Mezzanine is OCP style, I bought a X520-DA1 OCP NIC that fits (I haven't tested it just yet with a cable, but it is recognized by the system)
  • Though the rear bracket holes did not line up with the single port on the NIC (thus the bracket needs to be removed or altered)

A sidenote: The seller has lowered the price to 330GBP, I will be editing the original post.

 

[bob_dvb]

At £300 I am more tempted, but I should resist.

I have a dual 1541, but I don't need that much. I could sell my 1541 and buy this instead....

 

[bob_dvb]

Damn, I low-balled them at £290 and they accepted, now I have to figure out what to do next!

 

[RTM]

Damn, I low-balled them at £290 and they accepted, now I have to figure out what to do next!

Sounds like they might have accepted an even lower offer, but oh well £290 is not bad at all.

Let me know if you figure out a good way to mount a fan on the heatsink (other than using zipties), I haven't had time to install or order a fan for it.
Also, while I have an OCP NIC installed and am not looking to replace it, it would also be interesting to hear what you chose to install there (if anything).

 

[bob_dvb]

I have used a wood screw to fix a 60mm fan to the heatsink. It actually looks good and doesn't really hurt the heat sink.

I have put in a CX341A, it does not line up with the IO Shield which hurts a bit.

I need to find some Sff-8643 to Sata connectors to get started because I have Sff-8086 at the moment.

Do you have a pin out for the panel connectors, the silk screen is confusing me, I got power working but I am not confident.

 

[bob_dvb]

At first test my board appears to be DOA!

I am just getting POST 00, anyone know how long I should wait for it to progress beyond that? Is it minutes or seconds? My last ASRock board didn't take long to get beyond 00.

Bob

 

[RTM]

You can find the pinout in the manual on page 19:

https://download.asrock.com/Manual/D2143D8UM.pdf

My board does not take a long time to boot (compared to consumer grade stuff sure, but for a server board no), and as I recall there is something on the screen most of the time.

I suggest (if you have not already) trying some of the following things

• Check behind the motherboard, are there any standoffs behind the board that are not in use? they may be shorting out something
• Did you connect both the 24pin and 8 pin power connectors from your power supply?
  • Consider trying a different power supply
  • Consider reseating all power connectors
• Does the video output something meaningful to explain the problem? (if you do not have VGA connected, use IPMI)
• What memory sticks are you using? (the Micron stuff that I am using is AFAIK regular RDIMMs, butfor all I know the board may have issues with other types)
  • You may want to try different RAM sticks
  • You may want to try using only one stick of RAM (in the first slot) to rule out issues with your RAM sticks
• If you have already connected your CX341A, consider disconnecting it
• You may want to try a CMOS reset

Generally speaking if you are having issues you should try to reduce the number of possible error sources as possible, by disconnecting everything that is not required.

 

[bob_dvb]

Returning it as DOA, I tried lots of resets, even put it out of the case and just had power and A1 RAM, still POST "00"

 

[wywywywy]

Same seller now has a 64GB one with a dual 10GbE card and a 240GB SSD, listed at £540.

Anyone tried low-balling them yet?

 

[wywywywy]

Ok I just submitted £300 and it got rejected.

Probably not going to offer more because I've got a short rack and this won't fit without transplanting to another case anyway.

 

[autoturk]

anybody check idle power consumption on one of these (w/o drives)? I have the chance to get one locally but not sure if it's worth it.

 

[autoturk]

anybody check idle power consumption on one of these (w/o drives)? I have the chance to get one locally but not sure if it's worth it.

I ended up biting the bullet. Here are some measurements with a kill-a-watt meter on 110v with only an NVMe connected

- IPMI only: 10 W
- BIOS: 83 W
- VMWare with two HDDs - 66 W
- VMWare w/o HDDs - 50 W

All-in-all not amazing, but not too bad.

 

[Cruzader]

Ive been considering a stack of these with how often they keep appearing as the 1U server at 249-299.

But that idle wattage is higher than the much cheaper v4 xeon nodes i was considering this instead of.