5 ms·

What's wrong with the Gigabyte MP30-AR0? http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5422#ov http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5

What's wrong with the Gigabyte MP30-AR0? http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5422#ov http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5422#... It's sold as a server board in the $1000 range, but seems to fit the bill as far as the points in the blog article are concerned.

WatchDog 10y ago
The author seemed to imply that $1000+ was too much to pay. Regardless, I did a quick search and couldn't find anyone actually selling that board or listing a price.
- lazyjones 10y ago
  > I did a quick search and couldn't find anyone actually selling that board or listing a price. Large german online store Mindfactory claims availability with 3-5 days for delivery time: http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/Gigabyte-MP30-AR0-SoC-So-BGA-Quad-Channel-DDR3-mATX-Retail_1030045.html http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/Gigabyte-MP30-AR0...
tsuraan 10y ago
I've been shopping for a low-power server board, and I absolutely want that one. The problem is, nobody seems to sell it. I can't find any notice that it's been discontinued, but every reseller that google's given me has said that the board is out of stock (I think I found one in Spain, actually, but I'd rather order from somewhere in NA). Do you know where a person can actually buy that board?
- Gregordinary 10y ago
  Not in NA, but looks like this company has one in stock: https://www.xcase.co.uk/products/gigabyte-mp30-ar0-with-appliedmicro-x-gene1-processor https://www.xcase.co.uk/products/gigabyte-mp30-ar0-with-appl...
- rwmj 10y ago
  They are definitely available in the EU. I got one from xcase.co.uk. Note there is a slightly newer variant now (MP30-AR1), although it still uses the X-gene 1. If I were you I'd wait a bit for the Cavium-based Gigabyte boards. I have pricing for these which unfortunately I'm not permitted to reveal, but it will be very competitive. The Caviums have lots of cores (48 / socket), but each core is pretty slow, like an Intel Atom. Caviums have tons of fast I/O. The challenge is to make software which can deal with this, since it's quite unlike Intel hardware (few, fast cores, slow I/O).
  - tsuraan 10y ago
    I feel like this might be going off topic, and maybe you can't discuss the specifics anyhow, but do you mean very competitive with the existing AR0/AR1 board pricing? The only Cavium-based systems I'm seeing are the full server machines, and those are listing 3 40Gbps and 4 10Gbps ethernet ports, plus the rest. That board can't possibly come in anywhere near $1000, can it? I'll be keeping my eyes open for sure, but I'm also eager to learn more :)
rwmj 10y ago
A bunch - it's using the relatively ancient X-gene 1 chip, it doesn't come with SBSA/SBBR out of the box (although it is installable), it's expensive. There are some good things though: The IPMI support is excellent, it takes 128GB of RAM, and it's a solid workhorse. Here is mine: https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2016/03/04/gigabyte-mp30-ar0/ https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2016/03/04/gigabyte-mp30-ar0/ I'm waiting for the new Cavium-based Gigabyte boards, which have 48 up to 384 (sic) cores. http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/list.aspx?s=92&p=190&v=1029&ck=102 http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/list.aspx?s=92&p=190&v=1029...
- lazyjones 10y ago
  > I'm waiting for the new Cavium-based Gigabyte boards, which have 48 up to 384 (sic) cores. Are you sure that these core counts are per board and not per server/enclosure (i.e. 384 = 8 nodes x 48 cores per node in one case)?
  - rwmj 10y ago
    Correct, the "384 core machine" is 4 blades in a 2U enclosure. Each blade has two sockets making a total of 96 cores (per motherboard). Picture: http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5460#ov http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5460#...
anoother 10y ago
We bought a Gigabyte 1U server based on one of these at my old workplace. (http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5423 http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5423) It definitely seemed a half-hearted effort from Gigabyte. Both our usual suppliers were able to source one, but the delivery date kept slipping. It did eventually arrive, months later, and by then we'd lost enthusiasm and/or found alternative ways of doing the work we'd planned for it. Given my experience with another Gigabyte board, I can't recommend using their server platforms until they show a bit more care. I know they've been doing custom integration in this space for a long time -- I remember an article about Google Nehalem servers, for example, that were OEMd by Gigabyte. And many of their efforts look like contract designs pushed out to market -- nothing wrong in that. But they need to take a lesson from Supermicro's book in terms of attention-to-detail in and end-user support before I'll consider them worthy again. Which is a shame, because their new CaviumX ARM platform looks very interesting indeed: http://www.servethehome.com/cavium-thunderx-micro-benchmarks-enterprise-arm-developers-need-machines/ http://www.servethehome.com/cavium-thunderx-micro-benchmarks...

WatchDog 10y ago

The author seemed to imply that $1000+ was too much to pay. Regardless, I did a quick search and couldn't find anyone actually selling that board or listing a price.

lazyjones 10y ago
> I did a quick search and couldn't find anyone actually selling that board or listing a price. Large german online store Mindfactory claims availability with 3-5 days for delivery time: http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/Gigabyte-MP30-AR0-SoC-So-BGA-Quad-Channel-DDR3-mATX-Retail_1030045.html http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/Gigabyte-MP30-AR0...

tsuraan 10y ago

I've been shopping for a low-power server board, and I absolutely want that one. The problem is, nobody seems to sell it. I can't find any notice that it's been discontinued, but every reseller that google's given me has said that the board is out of stock (I think I found one in Spain, actually, but I'd rather order from somewhere in NA). Do you know where a person can actually buy that board?

Gregordinary 10y ago
Not in NA, but looks like this company has one in stock: https://www.xcase.co.uk/products/gigabyte-mp30-ar0-with-appliedmicro-x-gene1-processor https://www.xcase.co.uk/products/gigabyte-mp30-ar0-with-appl...
rwmj 10y ago
They are definitely available in the EU. I got one from xcase.co.uk. Note there is a slightly newer variant now (MP30-AR1), although it still uses the X-gene 1. If I were you I'd wait a bit for the Cavium-based Gigabyte boards. I have pricing for these which unfortunately I'm not permitted to reveal, but it will be very competitive. The Caviums have lots of cores (48 / socket), but each core is pretty slow, like an Intel Atom. Caviums have tons of fast I/O. The challenge is to make software which can deal with this, since it's quite unlike Intel hardware (few, fast cores, slow I/O).
- tsuraan 10y ago
  I feel like this might be going off topic, and maybe you can't discuss the specifics anyhow, but do you mean very competitive with the existing AR0/AR1 board pricing? The only Cavium-based systems I'm seeing are the full server machines, and those are listing 3 40Gbps and 4 10Gbps ethernet ports, plus the rest. That board can't possibly come in anywhere near $1000, can it? I'll be keeping my eyes open for sure, but I'm also eager to learn more :)

rwmj 10y ago

A bunch - it's using the relatively ancient X-gene 1 chip, it doesn't come with SBSA/SBBR out of the box (although it is installable), it's expensive. There are some good things though: The IPMI support is excellent, it takes 128GB of RAM, and it's a solid workhorse. Here is mine: https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2016/03/04/gigabyte-mp30-ar0/ https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2016/03/04/gigabyte-mp30-ar0/ I'm waiting for the new Cavium-based Gigabyte boards, which have 48 up to 384 (sic) cores. http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/list.aspx?s=92&p=190&v=1029&ck=102 http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/list.aspx?s=92&p=190&v=1029...

lazyjones 10y ago
> I'm waiting for the new Cavium-based Gigabyte boards, which have 48 up to 384 (sic) cores. Are you sure that these core counts are per board and not per server/enclosure (i.e. 384 = 8 nodes x 48 cores per node in one case)?
- rwmj 10y ago
  Correct, the "384 core machine" is 4 blades in a 2U enclosure. Each blade has two sockets making a total of 96 cores (per motherboard). Picture: http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5460#ov http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5460#...

anoother 10y ago

We bought a Gigabyte 1U server based on one of these at my old workplace. (http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5423 http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5423) It definitely seemed a half-hearted effort from Gigabyte. Both our usual suppliers were able to source one, but the delivery date kept slipping. It did eventually arrive, months later, and by then we'd lost enthusiasm and/or found alternative ways of doing the work we'd planned for it. Given my experience with another Gigabyte board, I can't recommend using their server platforms until they show a bit more care. I know they've been doing custom integration in this space for a long time -- I remember an article about Google Nehalem servers, for example, that were OEMd by Gigabyte. And many of their efforts look like contract designs pushed out to market -- nothing wrong in that. But they need to take a lesson from Supermicro's book in terms of attention-to-detail in and end-user support before I'll consider them worthy again. Which is a shame, because their new CaviumX ARM platform looks very interesting indeed: http://www.servethehome.com/cavium-thunderx-micro-benchmarks-enterprise-arm-developers-need-machines/ http://www.servethehome.com/cavium-thunderx-micro-benchmarks...