The Power of Home Server Gaming: A Look at the ASRock x570 Motherboard Rack

When it comes to building a home server, one of the most important components is the motherboard. A good motherboard can make all the difference in terms of performance and power efficiency. In this article, we'll take a closer look at the ASRock x570 motherboard rack and how it's perfect for home labbing.

Adding a 200-W Power Supply to Your Home Server

Adding a 200-watt power supply to your home server is a great way to future-proof your system. This power supply can handle more powerful processors, such as a Ryzen 1700 or Intel Core i9, and still keep costs under control. With this power supply, you'll have plenty of headroom for future upgrades and expansions.

Powerful Processors for Home Server Gaming

When it comes to building a home server, you don't need the most powerful processors available. In fact, a 12- or 16-core CPU is more than sufficient for many tasks. However, if you want to future-proof your system, consider using a six- or eight-core processor instead. This will give you more flexibility and options when it comes to upgrading in the future.

Remote Management and Monitoring

One of the best features of the ASRock x570 motherboard rack is its remote management capabilities via IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface). This allows you to easily monitor and manage your home server from anywhere, at any time. With this feature, you can keep an eye on your system's performance and make adjustments as needed without having to physically access it.

Micro ATX Layout

The ASRock x570 motherboard rack is a Micro ATX board, which means it's designed for compact systems. This layout makes it perfect for home labbing, where space may be limited. With this board, you can get creative with your system design and experiment with different configurations and layouts.

Cheaper Alternatives to Expensive Motherboards

If you're looking for a more affordable alternative to expensive motherboards like the ASRock x570, consider using a sub-100 AM4 motherboard. These boards may not have all the features of the x570 rack, but they can still provide excellent performance at a lower price point.

Home Labbing with Newer Hardware

One of the best things about newer hardware is its ability to run circles around older systems. Even with an older processor like the Ryzen 7 1700, you'll have much better performance and capabilities than many legacy servers on the market. This makes it easier to upgrade and expand your home server without breaking the bank.

Memory Capacity Issues

One of the biggest challenges when building a home server is memory capacity. With older systems, getting 128 GB of DDR3 RAM was a significant achievement. However, with newer hardware, this is no longer an issue. In fact, many modern systems come with 16- or even 32 GB of RAM as standard.

Used Servers for Sale

If you're looking to upgrade your home server without breaking the bank, consider buying a used server. Many older servers are still in excellent condition and can be found on online marketplaces like eBay. Look for models from earlier generations, such as the Epic or Rome series, which may not be upgradable but can still provide great performance.

Using PCI Express to Upgrade Your Home Server

One of the most creative ways to upgrade your home server is by using a PCI Express adapter card. This allows you to add new functionality and capabilities to your system without having to purchase an entirely new motherboard or chassis. With this approach, you can get creative with your system design and experiment with different configurations and layouts.

Level One Home Server Cheat Codes

Finally, if you're looking for some home server cheat codes, consider using a motherboard like the ASRock x570 rack. This board has plenty of room for creativity and experimentation, making it perfect for those who want to push the limits of what's possible with their home server. With just a little bit of PCI Express glue, you can get from A to B and take your system to the next level.

The Synology E10 M20T1: A Great Alternative

For those who prefer a more straightforward approach to upgrading their home server, consider using the Synology E10 M20T1. This is a PCIe card that adds 10 GbE Ethernet and two M.2 slots to any device. While it's not a traditional motherboard, this card can still provide great performance and expand your system's capabilities.

The Intel DC P4511 Ruler Format

Finally, if you're looking for a unique way to upgrade your home server, consider using the Intel DC P4511 ruler format. This is a short, compact form factor that doesn't have a built-in heatsink. While it's not an engineering sample, it's a production sample from a reputable manufacturer and can be used in conjunction with a traditional motherboard or chassis. With this approach, you can add new functionality and capabilities to your system without having to purchase an entirely new board or chassis.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enforeign  so I see a lot of comments and the Common Thread is oh this is perfect but it just doesn't have  enough IO On the Border it doesn't have enough networking or you know this is a great board but  it's just you know not got what I need and I want a different board or whatever when you're doing  your home lab I got to get you to think in terms of pcie lanes and where those pcie Lanes come from  and how to make that all work instead of thinking about what's your motherboard has on board which  it's nice but not necessarily relevant especially when you're coloring outside the line  more and more pcie is just a generic interconnect it could be a pcie slot it could be an m.2 it  could be a u.2 it could be an oculink connector could be a you know an sff slim SAS connector uh a  lot of the time on your phone your tablet whatever is just a physical chip that's just soldered in  but it's PCI Express Lanes everywhere 24 Lanes to the CPU it's four for the nvme 16 for the GPU and  four for the chipset in the case of ryzen the chipset uses four pcie 4.0 lanes for itself but  it provides more pcie Lanes this can be fine as long as the total bandwidth from everything coming  from the chipset can't really exceed that whole eight gigabytes per second at four PCI Express  4.0 Lanes provide that's how much bandwidth you've got with that kind of a connector so  yeah I mean you could run a PCI Express 3.0 by 8 device on a 4.0 by 4 Link through the chipset  and that would be fine there's no bottleneck there if you think about it in those terms now  the chipset also provides SATA USB networking a lot of the time and again those things are much  slower so generally not a bottleneck Alder Lake Alder Lake 12th generation from Intel 28 Lanes  eight 4.0 Lanes to the chipset not four like AMD four dedicated to an nvme and 16 to a pcie card  although ryzen 5000 7000 might change that ryzen have a trick up their sleeve that as far as I can  tell Alder Lake doesn't and that is that x16 slot can run at by four by four by four by four or by  eight by four by four and actually buy eight by four by four is a popular configuration for home  servers so you can break that x16 slot out into other things assuming that you can find the right  Hardware so z690 and b660 motherboards as I was kind of alluding to they can't do X4 X4 X4 X4 as  far as I can tell however I've been told the w680 that's a chipset for LGA 1700 for you know low-end  workstation boards can do them they launched in January but I can't buy it and it should support  X8 X4 X4 for older lakes or Plucky little I3 here could run not just by eight by eight but also by  eight by four by four but I can't get my hands on that that motherboard so but we have an example  suppose I wanted to build a network security Appliance to generate really big logs now remember  our super micro pizza box server that is maybe the perfect server for that you can get it with  up to eight onboard Nicks plus you still got the pcie slot and that pcie slot means that we can add  a 10 gigabit Nic dual 10 gig here and then now but wait what if we also need a two and  a half gigabit DMZ and we've only got eight on onboard one game ports well we can cheat  I've got this m.2 which breaks out into a two and a half gig Nick and this isn't real Tech  this is actually an Intel 225v you get these with single and dual Nick and yeah I might have to get  a little creative with the chassis but here it is it can do it remember ASRock desk meet it's only  got the one Nick what if I want two Nicks can add this to it the it's got two m.2 one in the back  one in the front this will work great on the one on the front just above the GPU it's got plenty of  clearance it'll work fine and then I've got a dual setup with my x16 slot being free but when do you  say 2.5 gig is too slow I want 10 gig all right our 10 gig card we can actually break out and  connect this pcie cart Edge connector actually to m.2 we just need an adapter cable for that m.2 to  PCI Express by four okay it's not super convenient shoving this thing in an m.2 Port but you can  use a a riser cable and the Riser cable lets you relocate things that works for x16 slots too we'll  talk about that more later cheat codes am I right now we can rock dual 10 gig on our ITX motherboard  or something like this without even using one of our pcie slots and yeah you have to get a little  creative with the mounting into placement but you've got a 3D printer and you can you know take  the back plate off here and use some creatively placed standoffs to keep it from shorting out  The Minis Forum ryzen 8 cores it's perfect it's a perfect routing Appliance for your house but it's  only got the single two and a half gig land again you can get creative with this and now you've got  a dual two and a half gig Lane that's using like 15 watts at idle it's sort of nuts now what if  you've got some fire breathing Enterprise class u.2 drives u.2 being that thick two and a half  inch form factor well guess what that's just another form of PCI Express Intel themselves  make these m.2 to u.2 breakout cables this is just good old standard SATA power and this is  our u.2 connection and then this goes in an m.2 slot and this is low profile maybe you've got a  camera that uses CF Express compact flash Express cards well guess what that's pcie in a little tiny  card form factor boom cheat code this thing this will break out an m.2 into you know a cable and  this will fit a standard size standard length m.2 and this is literally just just a physical adapter  that's all it is there's no electronics in here why because everything is PCI Express I've also  got the kyocsia BG5 these are kind of coming in Vogue uh you can use these but this is a  lot more than you need if you're going to rock this they actually make smaller adapters now  where this this m.2 will fit entirely inside a CF Express card the only thing that you would really  get tripped up on with a camera if you're doing this kind of a cheat code is devices that use  CF Express have a lower power ceiling the desktop computer counterparts so while Samsung makes ssds  like a PM 991 which is a very similar form factor to archeoxia the kyoksia bg4 and the BG5 that I  have here in my hand this is one terabyte and you can get this plus an adapter for on the order of  150 CF Express cards for a terabyte are much more than 150 dollars I mean these these kyoksi drives  are so Lilliputian and so power Frugal that you can even use these to upgrade the steam deck and  you would need an adapter bracket get the 256 gig steam deck upgrade with kyocsia you can do it and  have extra room of course by the same token you really can't get away with shoving a GPU into that  m.2 pcie adapter either the adapter is only rated for 25 watts not 75 Watts that a GPU is going to  demand from that pcie slot also with the mining bust that's happening now there are a lot of  similar adapters on the market that I will caution you against those suck generally uh they're only  PCI expressed by one and one lane I mean and they are usually PC Express 1.0 or PC Express 2.0 it's  kind of like the True Value Game Genie it kind of sort of would work but it kind of sort of will  glitch out later now in some servers there's also oculink cables or sff uh cables that I've showed  in other motherboard videos throughout PCI Express from one place to another above normally pleb on  our Forum actually has a lot more exotic options that they've posted on the Forum and m.2 breakout  card that has a programmable pcie redriver on them what redriving pcie signals for integrity  yeah beat me to the punch on that one so you can see all those posts on the Forum and see what a  headache it is and probably not something you want to get into but you do have the option now if you  don't have enough Lanes meaning that you know 16 or 24 or 28 Lanes is not enough for you you can  get other devices to help you mux them together high point for example is making a m.2 raid card  now and that has more m.2 connections than it has Lanes but then you can do stuff with that  well okay you can you can't really do stuff with it's just for storage but there are other devices  you can import from China that I'll just mention that as well if you want to get really creative  now I've seen people buy or not buy a motherboard specifically because of USB edge cases here's your  USB cheat code this is an internal USB hub this one's from MSI this is this is sort of nuts but  if you need more USB at the rear of your case you can combine this with these breakout cables  so this will connect to your usb2 header and then you've got more USB 2 ports and yes there are USB  3 versions of this as well so you can take your onboard you know that extra 30 pin front panel  header that your case probably doesn't have for 30 pin or four USB 5 gigabit ports at the front take  the other one to the back or route it to a hub and then have even more USB 3 connectivity at the back  you know it's as USB chipsets go motherboards will usually use a good to decent chipset and add in  pcie cards like if you get a pcie card that has USB on it those chipsets are usually the reject  ones so it's really not great and if you use the Hub then this is just a hub but it's just internal  to your computer so you don't have to manage it outside the computer so electrically they're  different things if you really needed the pcie bandwidth or the USB bandwidth to pcie then it  might be worth finding a good name brand card but in general I'd probably recommend Thunderbolt for  that use case instead because Thunderbolt chipsets are usually better and they can also do USB  Thunderbolt is cool too because you can sometimes use an external enclosure to get even more mileage  out of uh your Thunderbolt connection it's like oh you don't have to run the GPU in  there other things can work yeah you could run a 10 gig network card I did that for a while in  a system that only had Thunderbolt connections so what about cheating in other ways other than  connectivity if you're not thinking in terms of just pcie Lanes yet let's talk other m.2 stuff  what about m.2 VGA breakouts yeah there are m.2 VGA cards why does that exist well this is another  seriously underrated peripheral that should expand the possibilities for you and your imagination as  you go through it this works really well if you're building a system with a ryzen CPU that doesn't  have a built-in GPU and you want it in a small compact system some motherboards won't post if  there's a GPU that's missing or there's no GPU in the system so you can use an m.2 and you can  use an m.2 hanging off the chipset so you don't really lose anything in terms of bandwidth and  add a peripheral like your your melanox connect X5 and a PCI Express x16 slot I have got good news  about that if you're home labbing and you're doing experiments with 100 gigabit because that's what  you use at work and you want to do stuff there's not really a less expensive way to do that than  a 16 core 5950x or 12 core 5900x it's loads of fun you get all 16 Lanes to the the the network  and you've got a CPU that can actually keep up with that and yeah you can also do DIY Cooling  I've got a three pin blower fan these are super super cheap you can control the RPM to keep them  quiet but don't underestimate a blower fan why would you need a blower fan well a lot  of Enterprise stuff is designed for high airflow so this blower fan combines with this 3D printed  shroud adapter and then boom I've got cooling for a Tesla V100 this is also not super loud it can  keep that 240 watt V100 running at full turbo all the time and just barely is audible maybe you've  got a pcie slot and you need an m.2 slot there's an adapter for that you can go the other way it's  not really a problem the most disappointing thing about getting a stuff together for this video is  I've kind of had it waiting in the wings for a while and I haven't been able to get my hands on  a w680 motherboard it's w680 chipset that's for LGA 1700 these Alder Lake p-cores and embedded  systems for home labbing is going to be just as transformational as the 300 ryzen 7 1700  was when it launched weird things happen if you mix peas Peak scores and ecors you don't  have to look very far to verify that like the uh VMware esxi in your home lab it's like why are we  there are some fixes in now and VMware 7 update three I think but it's still kind of a dumpster  fire with regard to hyper threading or not hyper threading of course Linux is fine you know if  you wanted to rock the I5 or the i7 for your home lab and mix PNE course okay fine but six P cores  for esxi no e-cors at all it's a completely fine setup and you can mix and match some of  these other Technologies add 10 gig add your m.2 breakout and still have a really small form factor  Micro ATX and something like this is also a really good approach you know this thing I can this  is the x470 version which has been considerably cheaper than the x570 from ASRock rack added about  200 this is a steal for a Home Server because it's very power Frugal you can put in it you know a 12  or 16 core CPU you could put in a six or eight core CPU that's fine it has Remote Management  ipmi really good monitoring and it's Micro ATX so you've got a pretty good layout so for your home  labbing you can get really creative you don't have to have the expensive 200 motherboard a ryzen 1700  as long as it doesn't have the seg fault bug plus you know a sub 100 am4 motherboard might actually  be net cheaper than building a system like this and it's still just the same incredible  home labbing platform and the reason that I'm so excited for newer-ish hardware for your home lab  is because even at ryzen 7 1700 is going to run circles around more ancient cast off server stuff  memory capacity and things like that is a little more problematic because you know getting 128 gigs  of DDR3 from that genre not super expensive not really a big deal 128 gigs for something like this  is basically still the platform limit but then you can look for you know used Maple servers there  were a lot of servers for first gen epic that were not upgradable to Rome those are just starting to  hit eBay and you can find a super super deal I have some videos on that coming soon I did  the video on the Xeon 8124ms those are Amazon cast offs depending on the alignment of the planets and  whether or not Mercury's in retrograde you may be able to find some really good deals from Amazon or  other Enterprises that have been cast off into the the E-Waste era or cast off into you know  somewhere that you could find and incorporate that into your home server I'm Still rocking those dual  8124ms they're on a mission and they work great well fabulously well in that gigabyte chassis  it's eight dual 18 cores I got no complaints there especially for what I pay also forgot  to mention something you can look for that's an easy mode cheat code something like this this  is the Synology E10 m20t1 this is for Synology Nas but it's just a pcie card it'll work with  anything you put this in your device and you've got 10 gig ethernet plus m.2 m.2 all on one card  really two m.2 actually there's some trade-offs there but PCI Express by 8 and you get both  connections plus 10 gig ethernet it's pretty good pretty good fix this is an Intel DC  4511 ruler format this is the short not super tall ruler format that doesn't have a built-in  heatsink this is not an engineering sample this is a production sample it's from a server pull  you know it had been wiped and all that kind of stuff manufacturer date was about two years ago  and it's four terabytes but it was like 200 on the recycling scene and then this is an adapter card  to take it into u.2 it's cheating I don't have a chassis that uses a ruler format in my home  lab do you I mean most people probably don't and yet it'll work fine it doesn't physically  work fine I can't use this in a normal u.2 enclosure in fact this is only 3D printing  double stick tape country to the side of the case but uh Hey it'll work I'm Wendell this  is level one this is some home lab server cheat codes you may be able to pull it off with the  hardware you have with just a little bit of PCI Express glue to get you from A to B and  you didn't even know all right I'm signing out you can find me in the level one forums foreign\n"