GIGABYTE G292-Z20-00 EPYC based Server review – it’s loud – it’s power hungry – it’s fast – 2x internal NVMe 2x SAS attached NVMes

G292-Z20-rev-100

• always the POSITIVE first: overall it’s an excellent machine but the user needs to know the details
• it has 1x BMC (LAN) and 2x slots for SPF fiber modules for example the SFP1G-SX-85
  • so have SPF fiber modules ready for server + a SPF module capable switch
  • it would have been nice to have had another 1000MBit or 10.000MBit copper based LAN port but well install an PCIe NIC then
• it can hold up to 8 GPUs and 2x PCIe cards
• 2x internal NVMe
• 2x SAS attached NVMes (the orange slots)
  • was able to meassure 800MByte/s sequential on both with those KINGSTON SKC3000D2048G directly connected on mobo
  • and the front panel connected KINGSTON DC 1500m (Mini) SAS connected NVMe
  • the confusing naming of those drives is “U.2 PCIe NVMe” or (Mini)SAS attached NVMes, no kidding, search for em on ebay.
• a lot of BANG for the BUCK
  • a bit too loud
  • a bit too power hungry (uses 250W in idle with no GPUs installed and 350W with all cores on 100%)
  • unfortunately those front drive panels while having nice status and activity leds, feel pretty cheaply “plastic” made

having owned a AMD workstation (so far pretty happy with it) for a while GIGABYTE is a Taiwanese brand that is associated with:

• high quality consumer hardware
• the software quality of their firmwares and drivers is “okayish” (with a bit of tinkering it usually can made to work)

so really wanted to give this thing a test drive.

what was kind of unexpected:

• the massive loudness of that thing for maximum cooling but with no proper throtteling of the FANs depending on temp?
• the (imho) pretty high power usage of 250W in idle
  • for comaprison: the Intel Board based AQUADO servers 5 years old with loads of SATA drives only used 150W (100W less!)
  • the 20 year old Dual Xeon SuperMicro servers used 300W (50W more)

Intel Xeon vs AMD EPYC vs Altra ARM CPU benchmark battle! 😀

PS: some Geekbench v6 comparisons:

• Xeon based HP HP Z4 G4 Workstation vs AMD x86 EPYC based GIGABYTE G292-Z20-00
  • price wise the HP HP Z4 G4 Workstation wins
  • performance wise they seem to be pretty “equal” but of course the 24x AMD EPYC cores outrun the only 6x Xeon cores in multi core tests
  • WHY does everyone bench performance but NEVER the associated wattage? as if that was not important?
    • luckily it can be said that the G292-Z20-rev-100 does not use much (350W) more when all CPUs Cores are at 100%
• ARM based ADLINK Ampere Altra Developer Platform (Ampere Altra Max @ 2.80 GHz 1 Processor, 96 Cores) vs GIGABYTE G292-Z20-00 (AMD EPYC 7402P @ 2.80 GHz 1 Processor, 24 Cores)
  • ADLINK Ampere Altra ARM RISC Server Workstation Developer Platform tested by   geerlingguy
    • power wise: “70W to 90W running idle” so let’s say 80W in idle <- this is good!!! 🙂
      • “With four sticks of (EEC) RAM” “was seeing about 200W of power draw under load“
      • “That’s a 35-watt difference! A stick of DDR ECC RAM uses maybe 5 or 6 watts, so two should just add 10-15W max. Where’s the other 15W coming from?”
      • src: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2023/ampere-altra-max-windows-gpus-and-gaming
    • x86 ARM gaming? not yet: the poor gaming performance “CRYSIS” jeffgeerling is talking about is (probably) due to the fact the the ARM CPU has to “emulate” some how a 86x CPU with creates A LOT of overhead
      • emulating ARM Android on x86 is the same story, LOADS OF OVERHEAD = VERY VERY SLOW X-D
    • so for gaming this the GIGABYTE G292 Z20 Server is probably the WAY BETTER machine (have still to test that)
      • as expected singlecore AMD x86 are (still) faster than ARM but the ARM has 96x cores using ~half the energy of a 24x Core AMD EPYC x86?
      • thanks for testing geerlingguy fastest (yet) CPU wise tested system of geerlingguy:
    • price wise the Ampere Altra is unfortunately pretty expensive, as there is no mass production yet?
      • 
• Apple Mac Studio 10-core M1 Max @ 3.22 GHz 1 Processor, 10 Cores
• GIGABYTE G292-Z20-00 vs Mac Studio – M1 Max 10-core
• ADLINK Ampere Altra Developer Platform vs Mac Studio – M1 Max 10-core

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