John Lee

Nov 27, 2024 | servethehome.com | John Lee

At SC24, we learned something really neat. The NVIDIA BlueField-3 has a special version, and we are not talking about the BlueField-3 SuperNIC. Instead, there is a self-hosted version for primarily storage applications. NVIDIA BlueField-3 Self-Hosted Version NecessaryAt SC24, there were a few new storage servers with a twist. Instead of sporting an x86 or traditional Arm CPU, these servers had a NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPU installed as the host processor.

Nov 11, 2024 | servethehome.com | John Lee

A few months ago, we showed you theĀ ASRock Rack GNRD8-2L2T. Over the last few weeks, we have been using one. The ASRock Rack GNRD8-2L2T is a single-socket Intel Xeon 6 motherboard with a lot going for it. There is a lot of connectivity, onboard features, and caveats, making a review a lot of fun. Let us get to it. ASRock Rack GNRD8-2L2T OverviewThe GNRD8-2L2T is a fairly large motherboard. It is a CEB (12″ x 10.5″) motherboard and that is becoming very common even for single-socket platforms.

Nov 6, 2024 | servethehome.com | John Lee

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is here, and it is just about what we would expect. Better said, it is a great eight-core processor because it uses Zen 5 along with 3D V-Cache. Realistically, this is a gaming processor, and today, on the embargo lift, you will likely see that most sites have this as a new king of gaming, especially at low resolution where CPU bottlenecks are more pronounced. For our piece, we are going to take a quick look at how it compares for non-gaming tasks.

Nov 2, 2024 | servethehome.com | John Lee

Recently, we needed a quick PDU for an L6-20R outlet. It was cheaper and faster to get a PDU that fits the outlet than to change the outlet. The Tripp Lite PDUMH20HV is a 1U PDU that uses a C20 input and has an option for an L6-20P. So we bought this one for review for just over $200 and it has worked well. We thought folks might want to see it. As a quick thanks to our STH supporters for helping with the budget to buy something like this. We purchased this unit on Amazon here (Affiliate link.)

Oct 8, 2024 | servethehome.com | John Lee

In modern AI servers, PCIe switches are commonplace in architectures as GPUs and AI accelerators need direct access to local storage, networking, the host CPUs, and even other GPUs. Years ago, a company called PLX was acquired by Avago and it is now part of the Broadcom family. For the last decade or so, PLX-based PEX PCIe switches have been the industry standard for GPU servers, storage servers, and more. Even back in 2016-2017, we reviewed GPU servers with Broadcom switches.