Small form factor motherboard compatible with 2nd gen xeon and Optane pmem?

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technovelist

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Dec 26, 2021
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Hi all,

I was wondering whether anyone knows of a small form factor motherboard that is compatible with 2nd gen xeon processors and Optane pmem. I realize this is probably an insane idea but it can't hurt to ask.

Obviously power consumption would mean it would hardly be practical as a laptop but I'd like to be able to build a computer I could carry around rather than a 50 pound server. It just needs to fit in a rollaboard.
 
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NablaSquaredG

Layer 1 Magician
Aug 17, 2020
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2nd gen xeon = Cascade Lake?

In that case:

If you need Micro ATX
ASRock Rack EPC621D6U-2T or ASRock Rack EPC621D6U-2T16R

But keep in mind that you would have to use a kinda crazy configuration, because there are only 6 DIMM slots (so you would have memory channel(s) with only Optane in it which could lead to a worse performance in certain scenarios)

If ATX is okay you have a bit more choice, like ASRock Rack EPC621D8A or Supermicro stuff
 
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technovelist

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Dec 26, 2021
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Yes, 2nd gen xeon = cascade lake.
What I don't know is whether I could build an ATX machine that would be small enough to fit in a rollaboard.
I think everything else is doable: I already have 4x 128 GB Optane Pmem left over from an upgrade to 256s, and I shouldn't need an enormous amount of SSD storage. I wouldn't even have to use all 4 Optanes, because this would be for demos and 256 GB of Optane DIMMs should be enough for that purpose.
 
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NablaSquaredG

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Aug 17, 2020
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technovelist said:
I'm sure that's good advice but how would I benchmark it without building it? I'm not experienced as a homebrew builder, so please forgive me if that's a dumb question.
Click to expand...
You mentioned that you upgraded to 256GB Optane DIMMs - Do you have a spare platform available?

In any case, you should be able to get very close to the final performance by just taking a platform that supports Optane, use only one CPU and the memory layout you're planning for the mobile build (4 Optane + 2 normal DIMMS or 2 Optane + 4 normal DIMMs)

I don't expect a significant difference in performance between any platforms which support Optane
 
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technovelist

New Member
Dec 26, 2021
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NablaSquaredG said:
You mentioned that you upgraded to 256GB Optane DIMMs - Do you have a spare platform available?

In any case, you should be able to get very close to the final performance by just taking a platform that supports Optane, use only one CPU and the memory layout you're planning for the mobile build (4 Optane + 2 normal DIMMS or 2 Optane + 4 normal DIMMs)

I don't expect a significant difference in performance between any platforms which support Optane
Click to expand...
Thanks for your help.

I don't have a spare platform because I added more DRAM, another CPU, and switched to 8x 256 GB Optanes on my existing machine. However, the original setup on my current machine was 1x 4215 CPU with 2x 32 GBDRAM and 4x 128 GB Optanes, very similar to the the setup I'm planning for on the new machine. So if that's close enough, then I should have no problem.

I'm pretty sure I can source an Optane-capable Cascade Lake CPU for a few hundred dollars and the memory shouldn't be too bad either. So now all I need to do is find the smallest possible case for one of the micro ATX boards. Any hints on that? I've looked online but can't find anything terribly helpful.
 
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jpmomo

Active Member
Aug 12, 2018
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Cerberus case for m-atx. Or go buck wild on a custom case like this:.
Josh from NFC systems built the case for me around my xeon platinum build.
 
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