Cheap Asrock WC621D8A Skylake/Cascade Lake Xeon Workstation Boards

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Roy68

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Just wanted to highlight these ebay WC621D8A Asrock boards as a bit of a bargain if you're looking to build a budget Skylake/Cascade Lake Xeon Workstation. No skin in the game, just a happy customer...

I offered £100 GBP and seller accepted £140.

www.ebay.com

ASRock WC621D8A-NL Motherboard (WC621D8A-2T variant) "BRAND NEW/NEVER USED" | eBay

BIOS Features Plug and Play (PnP), ACPI 6.2 and above compliance wake up events, SMBIOS 2.8 and above, ASRock Rack Instant Flash. Form Factor CEB. M.2 slot 1 M-key (PCIe3.0 x4 or SATA 6Gb/s) [PCH]; support 22110/2280/2260/2242/2230 form factor.
www.ebay.com

First board I've had which uses 4 CPU power connectors for a single CPU socket, I believe these boards will run the unlocked 3175X 28 core CPUs.

I'm Using with W-3235 Xeon & Noctua NH-U12S DX3647 air cooler. I have no need for 10Gb ethernet which is missing on these NL boards, just added cheap 2.5Gb PCIe LAN card and it's all good.

Interested to hear other's experiences with this board as to which other CPU options (ES, QS etc) will work with it.
 
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Bjorn Smith

Bjorn Smith

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r00t.dk
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gb00s

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Poland
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Bjorn Smith

Bjorn Smith

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gb00s said:
Bjorn, they specifically mentioned that this is a 2T-variant, which is 100% correct in my opinion.
Click to expand...
I am aware now, but I don't understand why they even mention the 2T model - its just confusing and misleading if people search for that specifc model.
 
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Roy68

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Theres more detail on the Asrock 2T web page than on the NL page (I'm assuming the NL suffix stands for 'No LAN and 2T stands for 2x Ten Gbe). 2T page includes link to board manual and CPU, RAM approved list
 
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Roy68

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Asrock.jpg

Vertical cooler isn't ideal, but it's happy enough. Haven't mounted the HDDs yet, may not bother, they're just covering holes in bottom of case:). One thing I've found in bios is that each 16x pcie slot supports 4x4x4x4 bifurcation, so may have a go at Raid 0 NVME.
The bottom 16x pcie slot is only available with Xeon W processors.
Nest step is a second GPU so this thing will render Blender like a boss.
The £12 pcie 2.5Gb LAN is below the GPU, can't see it in this pic.

Im running Linux Mint 21.2 which has Ubuntu 22.04 package base, no issues.

Noctua NH-U12S DX3647 air cooler works well and is near silent under light load, Noctua also have a larger cooler with a single fan, but I think this one is the biggest you can go without blocking top 16x pcie slot, and cooling performance is almost same as larger one. Failed to find a decent water option.
 
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michel333

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Roy68 said:
View attachment 32992

Vertical cooler isn't ideal, but it's happy enough. Haven't mounted the HDDs yet, may not bother, they're just covering holes in bottom of case:). One thing I've found in bios is that each 16x pcie slot supports 4x4x4x4 bifurcation, so may have a go at Raid 0 NVME.
The bottom 16x pcie slot is only available with Xeon W processors.
Nest step is a second GPU so this thing will render Blender like a boss.
The £12 pcie 2.5Gb LAN is below the GPU, can't see it in this pic.

Im running Linux Mint 21.2 which has Ubuntu 22.04 package base, no issues.

Noctua NH-U12S DX3647 air cooler works well and is near silent under light load, Noctua also have a larger cooler with a single fan, but I think this one is the biggest you can go without blocking top 16x pcie slot, and cooling performance is almost same as larger one. Failed to find a decent water option.
Click to expand...
you live in UK?
 
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RolloZ170

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there is NO FW download available for this variant.
but imho this is not an issue if it comes with BIOS 1.10
ASRockRack has never released a newer BIOS than 1.10 from 12/11/2019 for WC621D8A-2T
 
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NablaSquaredG

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Just be aware that this Board does not have ANY dedicated onboard networking at all. You might be able to do NIC sharing via BMC though.

RolloZ170 said:
ASRockRack has never released a newer BIOS than 1.10 from 12/11/2019 for WC621D8A-2T
Click to expand...
Although the newest (public) BIOS for EPC621D8A-2T is dated 4/25/2019, so the WC621D8A has a "newer" BIOS.

I know you're good with BIOS tools @RolloZ170 could you perhaps check which BIOS has newer microcode etc?
 
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RolloZ170

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NablaSquaredG said:
Although the newest (public) BIOS for EPC621D8A-2T is dated 4/25/2019, so the WC621D8A has a "newer" BIOS.
Click to expand...
the reason is the WC621 was build very late, 2nd gen scalables already alive.
there is no skylkae only BIOS for i.e. ES support.
NablaSquaredG said:
I know you're good with BIOS tools @RolloZ170 could you perhaps check which BIOS has newer microcode etc?
Click to expand...
microcodes are updated by OS (linux can too) that is not the issue.
but some intel ME vulnerabilities should be fixed.
 
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RolloZ170

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NablaSquaredG said:
ust be aware that this Board does not have ANY dedicated onboard networking at all. You might be able to do NIC sharing via BMC though
Click to expand...
don't think so. with missing X550 the BMC NIC is only connected with PCIe 2.1 x1 to the PCH
the missing 10G was connected to PCH too.
you are better with a PCIe NIC card, better cooling and not limited to 10G copper.
 
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Roy68

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RolloZ170 said:
the reason is the WC621 was build very late, 2nd gen scalables already alive.
there is no skylkae only BIOS for i.e. ES support.

microcodes are updated by OS (linux can too) that is not the issue.
but some intel ME vulnerabilites should be fixed.
Click to expand...
bios2.jpg

This is front screen of BIOS, not sure where I see what BIOS version I have?
 
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