Edit: Update on things upcomers might want without having to search through every page of this thread
Hi everyone, I don't really know where to go with this problem anymore and I'm pretty frustrated and sad that I've decided to wait for the worst moment in time to start building my NAS when I thought about it so often in the past.
Jump to @The problem if you want to skip me yapping an intro
I've been searching for server boards on ebay/willhaben/kleinanzeigen (AT/DE/EU) and have quickly come to the realization that the situation is way more dire than I could've ever anticipated. Not sure if this is part of all the RAM, NVME and HDD storage prices going up due to AI, or if the availability of used server hardware - especially in Austria and Germany - has always been this bad.
I've learned a bunch of things about the different types of RAM, UDIMM, RDIMM, LRDIMM, Optane and cool features such as BMC/IPMI for management over the network. 10, 25, 40, ... GbE ports. ZFS file system. PLP and insane amounts of TBW on enterprise SSDs, etc.
Given all of this newly gathered knowledge, I've decided to browse for some hardware. My requirements were a somewhat modern platform that's not DDR5 - because of affordability obviously - BMC/IPMI, 2x 10GbE onboard, so there's less power draw because I wouldn't need a pcie nic. I'm wanting to use the NAS to host some services like Immich and maybe Jellyfin. But mainly I would like to back up from my main external drive to this raidz2 system nightly so it won't run 24/7.
I quickly realized that there is basically nothing available. If there is, it's super expensive. Only older platforms and DDR3 and below were somewhat reasonably prices. Everything DDR4 and up, is extremely expensive. That's why I ended up buying an AsRock E3C256D4U-2T together with a Xeon E-2324G. More below:
Because everything was so scarce, I kind of panic bought a X11SSF-W, E3-1270v6, 2x16GB ECC UDIMM RAM in one combo for 130€. Turns out one of those ram sticks included alone goes for 130€, so that was fine. I learned about proprietary mainboard formfactors this way, since I couldn't fit it into my ATX case
Please don't ask how I didn't notice in the first place. I was and still am super stressed about everything.
I found a Xeon E-2324G for the unbelievable price of 20€. So I went ahead and bought it. One thing that helped strenghten this decision was me finding a E3C256D4U-2T for only 150€ from the Netherlands. So 170€ for Mobo+CPU+(reuse RAM from X11SSW-F) was a pretty good deal for me.
@The problem
Fast forward to today: the board and CPU arrived, but the board is not POSTing. The debug digits stay at 00.
Motherboard: ASRock Rack E3C252D4U-2T (OEM, "new")
CPU: Intel Xeon E-2324G (used, seller confirmed working until removal)
RAM: 2× Micron MTA18ADF2G72AZ-2G3B1ZG 16GB DDR4-2400 ECC UDIMM
PSU: Seasonic TX-650 (confirmed working in previous system)
Things I've already tried:
Disconnected everything except CPU, RAM, PSU (no HBA, no drives, no M.2)
Tested each ECC DIMM individually in DDR4_A2 (recommended single-DIMM slot per manual) *Both ECC DIMMs confirmed working on another platform (Supermicro X11SSW-F)
Tested with non-ECC RAM (Crucial Ballistix) *doesn't boot either, but works on another platform
24-pin and 8-pin CPU power confirmed locked in
CPU socket pins visually inspected — no bent pins
Cooler re-mounted, sits firmly, all fans spinning
Standoffs placed per Define 7 manual (7 screws for mATX, one unused standoff under board with no corresponding hole — confirmed not causing a short)
CLRMOS pad shorted
ME/SPS Recovery jumper removed
VGA monitor + cable both confirmed working on another platform but no signal at all from E3C252D4U-2T
IPMI is reachable over the network but won't accept admin/admin or any other combination, unfortunately seller doesn't know the password either
Findings:
CPU Slot pins look okay
No beeping from board
The POST code stays at 00 and never advances. The BMC Heartbeat LED is blinking and STB PWR LED is glowing, so the BMC is at least partially alive (IPMI login page is reachable). But there's zero video output over VGA, which should be driven by the onboard ASPEED AST2500 independent of the CPU.
Also worth noting: this is an OEM board, and it's missing the HDMI port that's listed in the official specs. Apparently some OEM customers order batches without it? So VGA is the only video option.
What I still can't rule out:
CPU defect: I have no other compatible LGA1200 platform to test it on
Board defect: How do I rule this out and what if the board has damaged the CPU if it's broken I couldn't tell which one was broken first D:
Does this board initialize VGA output only after a certain POST stage? That would explain why IPMI works but VGA is dead.
I could buy a Supermicro X12SCZ-F for 150€ but I would also have to but a 10GbE nic which would use more power over time.
At this point I've exhausted everything I can think of and feel like giving up without a second compatible platform to test the CPU on. Is there anything else I can try? Any way to hard-reset the BMC password without BIOS access?
Some images:
| Thing | Description |
| IPMI credentials for OVH OEM BIOS | admin:admin123 |
| ASRock Rack provided BIOS ROM | Download on Archive.org |
| BMC Firmware provided by support? | No, but maybe this will work |
Hi everyone, I don't really know where to go with this problem anymore and I'm pretty frustrated and sad that I've decided to wait for the worst moment in time to start building my NAS when I thought about it so often in the past.
Jump to @The problem if you want to skip me yapping an intro
I've been searching for server boards on ebay/willhaben/kleinanzeigen (AT/DE/EU) and have quickly come to the realization that the situation is way more dire than I could've ever anticipated. Not sure if this is part of all the RAM, NVME and HDD storage prices going up due to AI, or if the availability of used server hardware - especially in Austria and Germany - has always been this bad.
I've learned a bunch of things about the different types of RAM, UDIMM, RDIMM, LRDIMM, Optane and cool features such as BMC/IPMI for management over the network. 10, 25, 40, ... GbE ports. ZFS file system. PLP and insane amounts of TBW on enterprise SSDs, etc.
Given all of this newly gathered knowledge, I've decided to browse for some hardware. My requirements were a somewhat modern platform that's not DDR5 - because of affordability obviously - BMC/IPMI, 2x 10GbE onboard, so there's less power draw because I wouldn't need a pcie nic. I'm wanting to use the NAS to host some services like Immich and maybe Jellyfin. But mainly I would like to back up from my main external drive to this raidz2 system nightly so it won't run 24/7.
I quickly realized that there is basically nothing available. If there is, it's super expensive. Only older platforms and DDR3 and below were somewhat reasonably prices. Everything DDR4 and up, is extremely expensive. That's why I ended up buying an AsRock E3C256D4U-2T together with a Xeon E-2324G. More below:
Because everything was so scarce, I kind of panic bought a X11SSF-W, E3-1270v6, 2x16GB ECC UDIMM RAM in one combo for 130€. Turns out one of those ram sticks included alone goes for 130€, so that was fine. I learned about proprietary mainboard formfactors this way, since I couldn't fit it into my ATX case
Please don't ask how I didn't notice in the first place. I was and still am super stressed about everything.I found a Xeon E-2324G for the unbelievable price of 20€. So I went ahead and bought it. One thing that helped strenghten this decision was me finding a E3C256D4U-2T for only 150€ from the Netherlands. So 170€ for Mobo+CPU+(reuse RAM from X11SSW-F) was a pretty good deal for me.
@The problem
Fast forward to today: the board and CPU arrived, but the board is not POSTing. The debug digits stay at 00.
Motherboard: ASRock Rack E3C252D4U-2T (OEM, "new")
CPU: Intel Xeon E-2324G (used, seller confirmed working until removal)
RAM: 2× Micron MTA18ADF2G72AZ-2G3B1ZG 16GB DDR4-2400 ECC UDIMM
PSU: Seasonic TX-650 (confirmed working in previous system)
Things I've already tried:
Disconnected everything except CPU, RAM, PSU (no HBA, no drives, no M.2)
Tested each ECC DIMM individually in DDR4_A2 (recommended single-DIMM slot per manual) *Both ECC DIMMs confirmed working on another platform (Supermicro X11SSW-F)
Tested with non-ECC RAM (Crucial Ballistix) *doesn't boot either, but works on another platform
24-pin and 8-pin CPU power confirmed locked in
CPU socket pins visually inspected — no bent pins
Cooler re-mounted, sits firmly, all fans spinning
Standoffs placed per Define 7 manual (7 screws for mATX, one unused standoff under board with no corresponding hole — confirmed not causing a short)
CLRMOS pad shorted
ME/SPS Recovery jumper removed
VGA monitor + cable both confirmed working on another platform but no signal at all from E3C252D4U-2T
IPMI is reachable over the network but won't accept admin/admin or any other combination, unfortunately seller doesn't know the password either
Findings:
CPU Slot pins look okay
No beeping from board
The POST code stays at 00 and never advances. The BMC Heartbeat LED is blinking and STB PWR LED is glowing, so the BMC is at least partially alive (IPMI login page is reachable). But there's zero video output over VGA, which should be driven by the onboard ASPEED AST2500 independent of the CPU.
Also worth noting: this is an OEM board, and it's missing the HDMI port that's listed in the official specs. Apparently some OEM customers order batches without it? So VGA is the only video option.
What I still can't rule out:
CPU defect: I have no other compatible LGA1200 platform to test it on
Board defect: How do I rule this out and what if the board has damaged the CPU if it's broken I couldn't tell which one was broken first D:
Does this board initialize VGA output only after a certain POST stage? That would explain why IPMI works but VGA is dead.
I could buy a Supermicro X12SCZ-F for 150€ but I would also have to but a 10GbE nic which would use more power over time.
At this point I've exhausted everything I can think of and feel like giving up without a second compatible platform to test the CPU on. Is there anything else I can try? Any way to hard-reset the BMC password without BIOS access?
Some images:
| Description | Image |
| CPU socket |  |
| CPU backside |  |
| 00 |  |
| Mainboard |  |
Last edited:
