ASRock Rack C2750D4I Review: A Storage Motherboard with Management

ASRock C2750D4I Conclusion

There are many aspects to the C2750D4I that make you sit up and think. The combination of a proper 8-core CPU (even if it is based on Silvermont rather than Haswell) at under 25W powering a GPU capable system with up to twelve SATA drives, dual Intel NICs, up to 64 GB DRAM and management control is merely part of the perspective of this review. The purpose of this motherboard was ultimately cold storage, however many users are finding regular storage uses for it.

Ganesh currently has this motherboard and is more suited to testing the storage aspects of the motherboard than I, however in this review we focused on usability and the package as well as the other system performance.

If we look at the motherboard on paper it makes for interesting reading, and that functionality comes across as positive, however there are a couple of misses. The lack of USB 3.0 might be a cause for concern should a user need to transfer a sizable amount of data that way. The motherboard offers a possibility of a dual NAS/HTPC combination in the home, however the lack of onboard audio means that other methods will have to be used in order to do the HTPC part.

The BIOS and Software stack is server focused, and it is perhaps a shame that more from the channel side was not brought over now that this is a consumer-facing product. The ability to adjust the fans in the OS would be the best place to start, as the management interface fails to offer this and leaves the BIOS as the sole place for configuration. Also updating the BIOS is not as straightforward as ASRock’s channel line.

Having a management interface on a mini-ITX motherboard is rather interesting, especially one that offers control via a Java app and can record what is happening on screen should things go wrong. While it has been said that IPMI is vulnerable to Heartbleed, the interface should not be in a public-facing environment anyway.

Users wanting a storage platform with more than 8/10 SATA devices have in the past needed to invest in a RAID card or something extravagant like ASRock’s Extreme11 series of socketed motherboards or high-end server platforms. Now that the C2750D4I is available for casual purchase at $398, there is that route for home builds. ASRock Rack, the server element of ASRock, needs to develop an understanding of what customer-facing products have to be in order for users to see its products as more than just functional. The choice of Marvell controllers will be bemoaned by some users, especially if the aforementioned reports are prevalent.

When Intel’s next line of Atom-based processors hits the market, I hope ASRock build an updated version in a similar style and take on board the comments of current users. While a niche market, the users in that market are always looking for the ideal system build for their needs and it requires some lateral thinking from the motherboard manufacturers.