EU ASRock Rack B450D4U-V1LQ5 mATX AM4

[Cruzader]

Not as fancy as the recent gigabyte board but its cheap and has the atspeed onboard gpu.

33.99€ - ASRock Rack B450D4U-V1LQ5 - AMD B450 - DDR4 Ram - mATX Motherboard Socket AM4 BTO-
289.99€ for 12 (24.15€/ea) - 12x Box ASRock Rack B450D4U-V1LQ5 - AMD B450 - DDR4 Ram BTO Motherboard Socket AM4-

Made a ticket with ASRockRack for the newer 3000/5000 bios (saw somebody else mentioning they got it from support).

 

[gb00s]

This would make an efficient and fast MooseFS metaserver self made DRBD cluster. Thanks for posting this.

 

[NablaSquaredG]

Note that this board does NOT have a BMC, the ASPEED on board only works as GPU (according to some guy on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1iij941/_/me8kh6z )

MAYBE they just overlooked something and on this board there is simply not a dedicated BMC LAN port and it's always shared with the single onboard LAN via NCSI?

 

[gb00s]

This is a custom variant of the regular X470D4U. I suppose the same difficulties like with the 3647 socket EPC621D8A we all bought from eBay. Considering planning a fast single threaded MooseFS metaserver, good thing it can bifurcation. So X16 can split to 4x4x4x4 for 4x Optane as Meta-Storage. However PCIE-5 is only good for x4 which is a bummer regarding network cards. No PCIE-4. No M.2 like the 'desktop' variant. Hmmm, ....

EDIT: corrected to the original X470D4U

 

[luckylinux]

This is a custom variant of the regular X470D4U. I suppose the same difficulties like with the 3647 socket EPC621D8A we all bought from eBay. Considering planning a fast single threaded MooseFS metaserver, good thing it can bifurcation. So X16 can split to 4x4x4x4 for 4x Optane as Meta-Storage. However PCIE-5 is only good for x4 which is a bummer regarding network cards. No PCIE-4. No M.2 like the 'desktop' variant. Hmmm, ....

EDIT: corrected to the original X470D4U

PCIe 3.0 x4 say Intel X710 or Mellanox ConnectX 4 LX (the only one I managed to get ASPM working with, although the Mellanox ConnectX 4 LX in the PCH/DMI/Chipset connected PCIe slot, **NOT** a directly CPU connected Slot) should be OK up to 8gbps/lane * 4 Lanes = 32 gbps (~ 4GB/s).

Sure you won't push 100gbps with that but if you want to keep it low power that would be out of the Window IMHO, as none of the NIC I see on the Market have ASPM support at 100gbps (the Mellanox ConnectX 4, the non-LX with 100gbps SQFP28 Ports, surely does NOT support ASPM, I tested that).

But if you want 2x10gbps, 1x25gbps or partially 2x25gbps/1x40gbps, that isn't so bad I'd say . Not super effective for NVME storage (although with 4GB/s Networking e.g. NVMeOF or NFS/iSCSI, e.g. on 4 Drives in RAID10/RAIDZ2/2x2 Mirrors, it would actually mean an Average Drive Speed of 4GB/s / 2 vdevs = 2 GB /s which is still quite High) but for SATA it's absolutely Fine.

I could squeeze 10gbps on a PCH Connected Slot shared with SATA etc on the old Supermicro X10SLM-F/X10SLL-F and that is only DMI 2.0 (so 16gbps all combined, including SATA) .

 

[Dejw]

Not as fancy as the recent gigabyte board but its cheap and has the atspeed onboard gpu.

33.99€ - ASRock Rack B450D4U-V1LQ5 - AMD B450 - DDR4 Ram - mATX Motherboard Socket AM4 BTO-
289.99€ for 12 (24.15€/ea) - 12x Box ASRock Rack B450D4U-V1LQ5 - AMD B450 - DDR4 Ram BTO Motherboard Socket AM4-

Made a ticket with ASRockRack for the newer 3000/5000 bios (saw somebody else mentioning they got it from support).

Were you able to get bios from ASRock?
Does it support Zen2 (like 4350G/4650G) architecture after update?
Do you have to have 'working system' with eg old gen CPU to be able to update bios?

Many questions but I'm looking for a board for 4350G/4650G with ECC and this will be great deal for me if board can support them.

 

[Cruzader]

Were you able to get bios from ASRock?
Does it support Zen2 (like 4350G/4650G) architecture after update?
Do you have to have 'working system' with eg old gen CPU to be able to update bios?

Many questions but I'm looking for a board for 4350G/4650G with ECC and this will be great deal for me if board can support them.

I got a new bios dated 29.08.2024 from their support.

But the agent did state no 4000 series in the reply.

latest BIOS only supports Matisse and Vermeer CPU(3000 series and 5000 series with no iGPU) So no 4000 series

 

[Pranja]

Can you ask them for list of supported cpus? Would be nice have full list so we know what microcode they implemented or not. As far I can see, no Renoir, but Vermeer is still been released with new models.

 

[etorix]

Regular version is B450D4U-V1L, and the "Q5" (?) means it's further crippled by removing the single M.2 slot and PCIe 3.0x8 SLOT4, so no x8x8 bifurcation of CPU lanes for two cards (say, HBA + NIC for a NAS).

 

[gb00s]

I believe this is incorrect. '-V1L' with or without Q5 has no m.2 and slot 4. The x16 can full bifurcation according to manual. Don't let the pics on Google Search fool you. Read the manual. The X470D4U is the regular version. And there are full server offers out there incl X470D4U, 32GB ram, Ryzen 5 5600, psu and case for 325 USD. At the end this could be a better deal than this stripped board.

 

[b3rrytech]

I agree with @gb00s! Looking in the manual it's pretty clear.

I ordered one to test. Should work out well with a 4x4x4x4 card plus a dual SFP+ card. Perhaps will it become a node in a Ceph/PVE cluster.
Regarding the CPU I'm more torn. Not that well versed in AMD land and I will try to build this as power efficient as possible (to a degree...).
I know that some models are more power efficient, especially the ones with a monolithic chip design (Pro?). From what I've read before, this also correlates to ECC support somewhat (?) so what CPU should I go for here?

I believe this is incorrect. '-V1L' with or without Q5 has no m.2 and slot 4. The x16 can full bifurcation according to manual. Don't let the pics on Google Search fool you. Read the manual. The X470D4U is the regular version. And there are full server offers out there incl X470D4U, 32GB ram, Ryzen 5 5600, psu and case for 325 USD. At the end this could be a better deal than this stripped board.

Any link to one of those servers?

 

[luckylinux]

I agree with @gb00s! Looking in the manual it's pretty clear.

I ordered one to test. Should work out well with a 4x4x4x4 card plus a dual SFP+ card. Perhaps will it become a node in a Ceph/PVE cluster.
Regarding the CPU I'm more torn. Not that well versed in AMD land and I will try to build this as power efficient as possible (to a degree...).
I know that some models are more power efficient, especially the ones with a monolithic chip design (Pro?). From what I've read before, this also correlates to ECC support somewhat (?) so what CPU should I go for here?



Any link to one of those servers?

Well if you want LOWEST possible Idle Power Consumption without these "Chiplets" you would need the Ryzen G-Series CPUs APUs (with ECC RAM the "Pro" Series which nobody sells directly to Private Customers and are super Expensive on Ebay).

Best of the Chiplet-less APUs Line is AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 5750G (PRO) but it will be super Expensive off eBay assuming you can even get it.

Personally I'd just get the Best of the Best of the Chiplet Bunch: AMD Ryzen 5950X with 16 Cores (2 Chiplets IIRC) , not sure if those 10-15W of extra Idle Power Consumption you would get with the Chiplet-less Design are worth the extra Cost. The Chiplet-less are also MUCH less Powerful at full load. Make sure you run your RAM NOT too fast (cannot remember if 3200 MHz max or what, but above a certain Speed the Chiplet Power Consumption exponentially increases and/or the Idle Power Saving stops working).

EDIT 1: and from a Post a bit above I think the APUs are NOT supported (although I might have misunderstood that Part)

 

[etorix]

The specifications of the B450D4U-V1L, linked above do show a single populated M.2 slot:

Other PCIe Expansion Connectors
M.2 slot​	1 M-key (PCIe2.0 x4), supports 22110/2280/2260/2242 form factor

The block diagram on the manual disagrees, but I'd need to see an actual board to find out which one is wrong, the manual or the specification page.
Anyway, this is depopulated in the bargain -V1LQ5.

Overall, this B450D4I-V1LQ5 is more reminiscent of the GIgabyte MJ11-EC1 than of the MC12-LE0: A bargain, but severly crippled. One must very carefully check whether the board is suitable for the intended application, as working around the limitations could quickly cost more than getting a more expensive but more capable board to begin with.

 

[gb00s]

Again, don't let image web search fool you. Manual is king. To see a board from this sale follow the Reddit link.

 

[luckylinux]

The specifications of the B450D4U-V1L, linked above do show a single populated M.2 slot:

Other PCIe Expansion Connectors
M.2 slot​	1 M-key (PCIe2.0 x4), supports 22110/2280/2260/2242 form factor

View attachment 42519

The block diagram on the manual disagrees, but I'd need to see an actual board to find out which one is wrong, the manual or the specification page.
Anyway, this is depopulated in the bargain -V1LQ5.

Overall, this B450D4I-V1LQ5 is more reminiscent of the GIgabyte MJ11-EC1 than of the MC12-LE0: A bargain, but severly crippled. One must very carefully check whether the board is suitable for the intended application, as working around the limitations could quickly cost more than getting a more expensive but more capable board to begin with.

Yeah it's SEVERELY crippled:
- Only 2 onboard SATA
- No BMC or no Onboard Ethernet (couldn't really understand if we have BMC/KVM working) - even if there is, it's only 1 Port (not the "Standard" 2 Port Intel Gigabit on Server Motherboards)

So you can only do this much with the 2 PCIe Slots you have:
- Put a 10gbps/25gbps NIC in the x8
- Put an HBA in the x16 or, if it supports PCIe Bifurcation in the BIOS (I think I read conflicting Information on this one as well), you could install 2-4 M.2 x4 via a passive Adapter (or get a 50 EUR Active Adapter x8 -> x4x4 on Aliexpress, the x16 -> x4x4x4x4 costs quite a bit more)

 

[Cruzader]

Ive seen x4/x4/x4/x4 done on it but not much on what other splits it might support.

For me these will just get a 5700x/4x32gb/2x25gbe as compute nodes.
Freeing up some mc12-le0 boards for storage nodes.

And probably spec up some symbolic ryzen specs in all my unused generic 4u cases to sell them.
Easier to sell the cases/psus in a spec like that than single cases.

 

[etorix]

Only 2 onboard SATA

I see four: Two single plugs, one of which is red for SATADOM, and a set of two next to the chipset.
Still, that's not much.

No BMC or no Onboard Ethernet (couldn't really understand if we have BMC/KVM working)

The picture in eBay listing shows an ASPEED2510, so GPU only, no BMC (that would be a 2500), in accordance with the specification page. That's why AsRock Rack might not bother to add BIOS support for 4000/5000 APUs.
Better look for a MC12-LE0 if you want to build for a 4x50G or 5x50G PRO.

 

[Cruzader]

I think all the sellers dumping mc12-le0 are out of stock now, so would rather look for mc13-le0 now then imo and go am5.

I Got 15x me12-le0 but need more boards.
In lack of cheap mc12-le0 im moving my pure compute nodes onto these cheap boards to free up boards.

Looks like new promo codes for aliexpress tomorrow to grab more cpus also.

 

[luckylinux]

I think all the sellers dumping mc12-le0 are out of stock now, so would rather look for mc13-le0 now then imo and go am5.

I Got 15x me12-le0 but need more boards.
In lack of cheap mc12-le0 im moving my pure compute nodes onto these cheap boards to free up boards.

Looks like new promo codes for aliexpress tomorrow to grab more cpus also.

Can I ask what kind of computing are you doing with 15 x Ryzen Boards (plus whatever else you might have) ?

In the beginning I got a bunch of Servers to run DistCC back then when I was still using Gentoo GNU/Linux and needed faster/distributed Compiles but that plan basically went out of the Window almost immediately.

Nowadays it's mostly a lot of VMs / Containers plus Firewall Appliances, NAS, etc.

EDIT 1: and which Promos on Aliexpress ? To me those Prices seems higher than Retail

 

[luckylinux]

I see four: Two single plugs, one of which is red for SATADOM, and a set of two next to the chipset.
Still, that's not much.

The picture in eBay listing shows an ASPEED2510, so GPU only, no BMC (that would be a 2500), in accordance with the specification page. That's why AsRock Rack might not bother to add BIOS support for 4000/5000 APUs.
Better look for a MC12-LE0 if you want to build for a 4x50G or 5x50G PRO.

I'm more interested in a 5950x .

According to the Motherboard Page, the ASRock Rack B450D4U-V1LQ5 seems to be limited to 64GB of RAM though.

Although according to a Post at LTS (https://linustechtips.com/topic/1291775-msi-b450-motherboard-max-ram-support/), Zen2/Zen3 might be able to support 128GB.