ASRock Intros Xeon W-3500 and W-2500 series Support for its Intel W790 Motherboards

[btarunr]

Leading global motherboard manufacturer, ASRock has announced that its W790 series workstation motherboards, including the W790 WS and W790 WS R2.0, now support the newly released Intel Xeon W-3500 series and Xeon W-2500 series processors. This enables consumers to experience the superior performance of the latest Intel Xeon series processors.

The ASRock W790 WS series workstation motherboards feature up to 2 TB DDR5 ECC RDIMM support, PCI-Express 5.0 expansion slots, USB4/Thunderbolt 4 and Dual 10 Gbps Ethernet. A flagship-class 14-layer PCB and 20+2 phase CPU VRM ensures ultimate performance and superb reliability, even when subjected to the most demanding sustained workloads.



For more information on ASRock Intel W790 chipset motherboards, visit this page.

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[Chaitanya]

Single U.2 interface seems a bit odd choice.

Also board has 3x PCIe power inputs which will be bit for most PSUs.

 

[Gigaherz]

Also board has 3x PCIe power inputs which will be bit for most PSUs.

Almost every board I ever owned has that. Did you see the powerdraw of those xeons especially when ocd?

 

[Scrizz]

Single U.2 interface seems a bit odd choice.

Yeah, I'd love to get two.

 

[ncrs]

The ASRock W790 WS series workstation motherboards feature up to 2 TB DDR5 ECC RDIMM support, PCI-Express 5.0 expansion slots, USB4/Thunderbolt 4 and Dual 10 Gbps Ethernet.

I love when the marketing department writes statements like that. Only the "W790 WS" model has 2x 10G while the supposedly improved (as the name suggests) "W790 WS R2.0" has 1x 10G and 1x 2.5G. One could argue that "up to [...] Dual 10 Gbps Ethernet" is technically true, but still a bit sleazy...
There are other differences between those models like significantly reduced VRM heatsink area of the latter model.

 

[Chaitanya]

Almost every board I ever owned has that. Did you see the powerdraw of those xeons especially when ocd?

yeah, remember reviews showing these CPUs drawing close to 1kW of power. Its shameful Intel cannot even compete in WS segment.

Yeah, I'd love to get two.

Asus on their recent WS boards may have abondened U.2 but they are offering Slim SAS(PCIe 4x4) and in case of AM5 based WS board dual Oculink connectors.

 

[efikkan]

Single U.2 interface seems a bit odd choice.

What's even more odd is the fact that it's connected to the chipset, so you're not going to see anything close to those advertised speeds, as anything on the chipset will share bandwidth. Hooking up something "fun" like a Kioxia CM7-R/CM7-V would be a total waste.

Then, even more wasteful is the fact that 16 of those beautiful CPU PCIe 5.0 lanes are "wasted" by being tied to M.2 slots, slots which are sitting underneath any PCIe cards and will be terribly cooled and can't be used with M.2 22110 SSDs.
Motherboard vendors need to understand that pure PCIe slots are way more useful (and cheaper to make), as they can be used for anything. I.e. there are plenty of options to turn a PCIe 16x into four M.2 slots with cooling.

Also board has 3x PCIe power inputs which will be bit for most PSUs.

If you were to buy something like this, you'd buy a powerful PSU.
Just for fun, using Seasonic's calculator, putting in a fairly "basic" workstation with a w5-2455X (12-core), RTX 4070 and some drives yields about ~650W of power draw, so the least people should buy is 850W (and probably Platinum rated too…).

I love when the marketing department writes statements like that. Only the "W790 WS" model has 2x 10G while the supposedly improved (as the name suggests) "W790 WS R2.0" has 1x 10G and 1x 2.5G. One could argue that "up to [...] Dual 10 Gbps Ethernet" is technically true, but still a bit sleazy...
There are other differences between those models like significantly reduced VRM heatsink area of the latter model.

I wish they cut away all gimmicks.
Like the 10G Aquantia NIC, it's not like this is anywhere close to a Intel X550 or X710, which is what workstation users would want if they want 10G Ethernet.
And the WiFi? Come on, let's be serious.
Luckily they have introduced the slightly cost reduced WS 2.0 board which at the very least cut away one 10G NIC and the WiFi.

For those living in the US, this board can be bought for as little as $500 (compared to $900-1000 for comparable boards), which if anything is a very fair price (not as cheap in my area, but still cheaper than most others). That is, assuming the quality, reliability and long-term support of these are comparable to the likes of Asus and Supermicro.

 

[Wirko]

Here's the ASRock Rack SPC741D8-2L2T/BCM, another board by the same manufacturer, same E-ATX size, with the same socket and number of DIMM slots, but arranged so that there's space for PCIe slot #1 closest to the CPU. Quite important if you want to equip it with several wide GPUs.

Apparently it's impossible to design an ATX or EATX board with a LGA4677 socket and a PCIe slot in position #1, closest to the CPU. This is quite a constraint for those who need three 3-slot-wide or four 2-slot-wide GPUs.

 

[efikkan]

Here's the ASRock Rack SPC741D8-2L2T/BCM, another board by the same manufacturer, same E-ATX size, with the same socket and number of DIMM slots, but arranged so that there's space for PCIe slot #1 closest to the CPU. Quite important if you want to equip it with several wide GPUs.

Apparently it's impossible to design an ATX or EATX board with a LGA4677 socket and a PCIe slot in position #1, closest to the CPU. This is quite a constraint for those who need three 3-slot-wide or four 2-slot-wide GPUs.

That's a server board for Xeon scalable, not compatible with Xeon-W, and it has the typical server orientation of the CPU socket (for typical rack cooling), which adds a tiny amount of space. It doesn't have a gigant VRM on top either, which a workstation board could do too if they dropped overclocking support. But it goes to show that this "tiny" VRM circuitry there with a proper heatsink (not a giant useless metal blob), can supply enough to a CPU that draws a sustained 350W.

 

[ypsylon]

What's even more odd is the fact that it's connected to the chipset, so you're not going to see anything close to those advertised speeds, as anything on the chipset will share bandwidth. Hooking up something "fun" like a Kioxia CM7-R/CM7-V would be a total waste.

Yes you'll if it's Gen4 drive. W790 DMI is x8 Gen4 lanes not regressed Gen4x4 like on TRX50/WRX90. Micron 7400/7450/9400 work just fine on TRX40/WRX80 (also x8 lanes DMI) Gen4 chipset wired SFF-8639/M.2 adapter. By definition Gen5 drives are no go on old SFF-8639 which at most can support Gen4 speeds with right cable. For CM7-R you need MCIO for trouble free experience and W790 boards came out before MCIO was certified. AFAIK MCIO was prototyped in mid-2022.

Anyway Xeon W 2500/3500 is basically 2022 technology refreshed in 2024 at ludicrously high price compared to TR7xxx + TR9xxx on the horizon.

Shame on Intel for not giving users access to Gen5 Emerald Rapids which would at least be actual, big improvement given tripled cache subsystem and vastly better power efficiency with medium core counts for workstation segment.

 

[efikkan]

Yes you'll if it's Gen4 drive. W790 DMI is x8 Gen4 lanes not regressed Gen4x4 like on TRX50/WRX90.

I know, but my point was, this shares bandwidth with everything connected to the chipset, including NICs, USB, SATA and any other PCIe devices, so the real world bandwidth will be a lot less.

Anyway Xeon W 2500/3500 is basically 2022 technology refreshed in 2024 at ludicrously high price compared to TR7xxx + TR9xxx on the horizon.

Do you mean for the highest model or per core?
Xeon W has a lower bar of entry, and you have to remember that Sapphire Rapids' cores are much faster.

Shame on Intel for not giving users access to Gen5 Emerald Rapids which would at least be actual, big improvement given tripled cache subsystem and vastly better power efficiency with medium core counts for workstation segment.

And if I'm not mistaken, the next gen Granite Rapids will be using Redwood Cove(used in Meteor Lake) rather than Lion Cove, right?
So, when the Xeon W version launch probably next year, it will still be a generation behind where it should be…

 

[Wirko]

That's a server board for Xeon scalable, not compatible with Xeon-W, and it has the typical server orientation of the CPU socket (for typical rack cooling), which adds a tiny amount of space. It doesn't have a gigant VRM on top either, which a workstation board could do too if they dropped overclocking support. But it goes to show that this "tiny" VRM circuitry there with a proper heatsink (not a giant useless metal blob), can supply enough to a CPU that draws a sustained 350W.

And here I thought Intel isn't doing that crazy segmentation thing between WS and server chips on the same socket ... oh well, if AMD can do it, so can we, right?