LGA 1851 Arrow Lake "Servers"

[Vidmo]

With the W880 LGA 1851 platform close to launch was wondering if anyone has thoughts on the prospect of creating light duty servers with the Intel Core Ultra processors. Even though the reviews have been pretty lackluster for gaming on these CPUs, seems they might make decent servers since they are so much more efficient than the 12th, 13th, and 14th Gen CPUs . Plex, Emby, Blue Iris and the like would benefit from these due to major advances in Quick Sync and AVI encode/decode too. ECC is supported across the current CPU lineup.

Supermicro has the X14SAE-F coming soon.

X14SAE-F | Motherboards | Products | Supermicro

Microcenter has been selling the Core Ultra 7 265K for very good prices too.
Intel Core Ultra 7 265K Arrow Lake Twenty-Core LGA 1851 Boxed Processor - Heatsink Not Included - Micro Center

These boards would pair well with the recent articles about DDR5-5600 ECC ram and Gen5 NVMe drives.
Micron DDR5-5600 ECC UDIMM Kit Quick Look - ServeTheHome
Micron 4600 PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSD Launched - ServeTheHome

 

[Alterra]

Some thoughts in recent thread with similar subject: https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...ltra-2-ecc-mainboards-for-home-servers.46929/

W880 is somewhat interesting, but prices are creeping up again. See for example Wyniki wyszukiwania dla: x14sa . With sky high DDR5 ECC module prices it gets even worse.

Note that ECC is not supported by all SKUs, and what exactly "support" means depends on motherboard, BIOS version and operating system.

 

[Vidmo]

Thanks. I did search the forums for a few keywords but did not come up with anything. So as far as prices are concerned, we could be looking at a $500+ board? Yikes.

 

[Zerokwel]

The Micron DDR5 memory looks to be really nice but also appears to be much faster than what this new board will support.

Also as pointed out by the article the cost is quite high, as I write this it's showing up at $199 for a single 32mb module.

 

[Vidmo]

The X14SAE-F supports DDR5-5600 2RX8 ECC UDIMM, so the Micron memory would be perfect for it. Same speed as supported by the board. There are also DDR5-5600 ECC UDIMMs from Kingston that are a bit lower in cost.
PROVANTAGE: Kingston Technology KSM56E46BD8KM-32HA 32GB 5600MT/S DDR5 ECC CL46 DIMM 2RX8 Hynix A

In fact you can get the Micron memory for the same cost as the Kingston:
Micron MTC20C2085S1EC56BR - Ddr5 - Module - 32 Gb - | Beach Audio

 

[John McClane]

Nice to see the X14SAE-F at least has an ASPEED BMC so it could function as a true server board. I'm also interested in this segment (Xeon E, EPYC 4004 class), but it seems all the processors and/or motherboards are expensive or vaporware. Xeon E has been neglected since Intel moved to heterogeneous consumer CPU's. I saw the announcement for the Xeon 6300. Just wondering if we should wait for that series instead of Core Ultra.

 

[Zerokwel]

As I write this, the Supermicro X14SAE-F is still marked as coming soon. Does anyone have some insight on it's release date? Is there a common drop date like at the beginning of a new quarter or some other traditional timing that Supermicro follows..??

 

[Vidmo]

As I write this, the Supermicro X14SAE-F is still marked as coming soon. Does anyone have some insight on it's release date? Is there a common drop date like at the beginning of a new quarter or some other traditional timing that Supermicro follows..??

I reached out to an authorized SM vendor, and they had this to say about availability.

The tentative ETA for X14SAE-F is around 3rd or 4th week of March 2025.

 

[Zerokwel]

I reached out to an authorized SM vendor, and they had this to say about availability.

The tentative ETA for X14SAE-F is around 3rd or 4th week of March 2025.

Oh wow thanks you went above and beyond expectations in getting an answer. Most appreciated.

 

[Alterra]

Nice to see the X14SAE-F at least has an ASPEED BMC so it could function as a true server board. I'm also interested in this segment (Xeon E, EPYC 4004 class), but it seems all the processors and/or motherboards are expensive or vaporware. Xeon E has been neglected since Intel moved to heterogeneous consumer CPU's. I saw the announcement for the Xeon 6300. Just wondering if we should wait for that series instead of Core Ultra.

The Xeon 6300P specs are out now: Intel® Xeon® 6369P Processor (24M Cache 3.30 GHz) - Product Specifications | Intel

My first thought was that these are just like Raptor Lake E-2400. Then I noticed they actually *are* Raptor Lake chips. Hardly exciting.

 

[Vidmo]

The Xeon 6300P specs are out now: Intel® Xeon® 6369P Processor (24M Cache 3.30 GHz) - Product Specifications | Intel

My first thought was that these are just like Raptor Lake E-2400. Then I noticed they actually *are* Raptor Lake chips. Hardly exciting.

Yep, I think Patrick summed it up pretty well in his last sentence. "this seems like a “nothingburger” of a launch."
Intel Xeon 6300 Launched for Entry Servers with 2019 Core Counts - ServeTheHome

 

[Vidmo]

Looks like Arrow Lake CPUs are also have issues with running M2 slots at full PCIe5 speeds.

Intel can confirm that the PCIe Lanes 21 to 24 Gen5 root port on Intel Core Ultra 200S series processors may exhibit increased latencies compared to the PCIe Lanes 1 to 16 Gen5 root ports, owing to a longer die-to-die data path. However, any variations are contingent upon the specific workload and the capabilities of the PCIe endpoint device.

Intel Core Ultra 200 Series Motherboards Are Not Achieving M.2 Slot Gen 5 14GB/s SSD Performance | The SSD Review

 

[quada]

has anyone here purchased a W880 board yet? Doesn't seem too many have released so far.

 

[Vidmo]

I have not. From the searching I've done, the X14SAE-F does not seem to have been released yet. Makes me wonder if they ever will given all of the issues around the Arrow Lake CPUs. Maybe SM gave up on it.

 

[JimmyBlack]

I've got everything but the board (Including 64gig of 5600 Micron ECC memory. The Amazon seller decided to tell me the day before it was about to be delivered that it was not in stock (even though it said it was in stock on the amazon listing). I was pretty annoyed and told the guy what I thought about that. Apparently waiting for an ETA for more stock.

I got the Intel Core Ultra 5 Desktop Processor 235 14 cores (6 P-cores + 8 E-cores) up to 5.0 GHz. It's only 65watt, half the power of the 245. A little bit slower with the turbo (5.0ghz vs 5.2ghz) but the much lower power is better for a server than a tiny bit of extra clock.

Performance core Base clocks and Efficiency core base clocks are lower too for better idle. On chip graphics for low power transcoding.

When I can get a supermicro X14SAE-F, I will post up how it goes.

Sourcing a board is proving to be frustrating as hell.

 

[autoturk]

I just put together a w880 server based with the following

• asus w880-ace se - it was available on Amazon
• Core ultra 265k
• 2 x 48gb ddr5 ECC
• 3 x kioxia cd6-r through bifurcated PCIe slot
• 1 x Optane 905p (u.2 thru m.2 slot adapter)
• Mellanox connect x4 lx

Pulling 60 watts from the wall at idle, so take away 28 watts or so if you don't care about the power hungry storage + mellanox card.

W880 honestly feels like a solid platform (certainly better than w680) for homelab purposes. Good PCie layout + 8x4x4 bifurcation, and many more chipset PCIe lines (24, I believe) with no "if x connected, then y doesn't work" kind of tradeoffs present on typical consumer boards. Still have two free CPU fed x4 m.2 PCIe slots if I want to Frankenstein some more stuff. I'm pretty happy.

 

[kapone]

ulling 60 watts from the wall at idle

You wanna know what's funny? By your math, discarding any of the peripherals you're idling at ~32w with a 20 core CPU with 96gb RAM. This is the latest and greatest stuff in terms of DDR5, boards etc.

But...that CPU has 8 performance cores with no HT, and 12 e-cores. So...20.

Here I am testing an ancient platform...for my SAN nodes, with an X9DRX board (huge board with 11 pcie slots) and a single e5-2667 v2 with 4x32gb DDR3 RAM...This is an 8 core/16 thread 3.3Ghz base processor, so not too far from a clock perspective, and..

It idles at ~40w.

Intel really hasn't moved much, from a power consumption perspective, has it?

 

[RolloZ170]

Intel really hasn't moved much, from a power consumption perspective, has it?

intel IDLE is better than AMDs. more core need faster supply, faster = more current.
a 14900KF idles at 5Watt (only the package)
compare the performance.

This is an 8 core/16 thread 3.3Ghz base processor

a current CPU needs 2ghz to beat it (more IPC)

 

[kapone]

intel IDLE is better than AMDs. more core need faster supply, faster = more current.
a 14900KF idles at 5Watt (only the package)
compare the performance.

a current CPU needs 2ghz to beat it (more IPC)

I’m aware of all that. But the package draw is a bit of a misnomer. The package draw for the 2667 v2 says ~17w. So, yes, more, and yes IPC obviously makes a difference. But…you can get the 2667 for like $5…

 

[JimmyBlack]

I just built a server with the Supermicro X14SAE-F mainboard (was a nightmare to get this early). I used an Intel Core Ultra 5 235 CPU because it's the low power version. (6 performance, 8 efficient - 65w base, 121w turbo) Works very well. On Chip graphics Quick Sync works well for transcode, and it idles at very low power. Installed 64gig of Micron 5600 DDR5 ECC memory.

CPU sits at 4~5 watts at idle via HWinfo.

I have 6 x 8TB Samsung QVO drives as storage in a "Raid 10" storage space, and 2 x Samsung 980 Pro NVME drives for boot and scratch space.

I have a Mellanox SFP+ Card running 10gig DAC cable to my switch, it seems to run cool but I would like this system to run low power so I'll check it's power draw.

Unfortunately, it will not wake up from sleep with the Mellanox card so I will need to revisit this.

There is one bug with this board - The fans. They spin up and spin down constantly. I have a noctua CPU fan, it spins at low speed, and I the other fans freak out and spin up to make up for it. It reports an error in the Mainboard BMC ASPEED2600 management sayingthe fan periodically goes to zero rpm hence the others spinning up. This cannot be fixed with adjusting the settings. Full speed, balanced, or Silent. I have been investigating some IPMI settings that can be manually sent to the chip but it's a bit of a pain. So far no luck. It runs that cool though, I have them unplugged and only the CPU fan running.

The south bridge is fairly warm though.

Happy to answer any questions.