AsRock Rack X470D4U2-2T Micro ATX Server Motherboard AM4 Ryzen & Ryzen 7nm PGA1331 AMD X470 Dual 10 GLAN

Pros: Legit data center grade hardware.

Cons: It's always out of stock everywhere.

Overall Review: I have a small "home lab" with a few always-on devices and I am using this motherboard for a Debian Linux server which runs a handful KVM VMs. Prior to getting this, I had a generic, consumer grade MSI AM4 motherboard with a passively cooled video card and a Lantronix KVM-over-IP for remote management.

Using a proper IPMI motherboard like this is so much nicer! First of all, the power draw and the heat is lower, it's only 25W on idle and the CPU is 4C cooler. THe IPMI interface is also much more powerful than Lantronix, i.e. you can turn the server on/off, flash BIOS, read hardware sensor readings, etc. The web interface is much nicer looking than Supermicro's too.

The only minor complaint is that on the first boot, the board spent about a minute initializing the BMC and then the screen went dark. After cycling the power, it turned on but couldn't boot from the NVMe drive. After resetting the BIOS to the factory-default mode, it finally booted. Maybe I've gotten a used board? Not sure... Now it works great.

Pros: 3rd gen Ryzen compatible, dual 10G LAN, IPMI

Cons: Very basic IPMI controls, poor automatic fan speed control, no manual fan speed control

Overall Review: I was very excited to see ASRock come up with this concept! Ryzen is a great CPU and this motherboard attempts to cover the needs for a server. But the fans go fast slow fast slow fast slow.... Very annoying! Unlike all of my Supermicro motherboards, the IPMI offers zero control over the fans.

If Supermicro ever comes out with a similar board I’ll most likely switch back.