Enlarge / Maybe a dramatization of Jim Salter listening to a couple of Ryzen motherboard that explicitly and formally helps ECC RAM.
RichVintage / Getty
An terrible lot of suggestions from our Winter 2019 Server Construct Information wished to see a Scorching Rod model up to date with a Ryzen, AMD’s large comeback CPU line. Since then, ASRock has launched a Ryzen motherboard that explicitly and formally helps ECC (Error-code correcting) RAM—the X470D4U. And on high of that, Ars reader dermott steered I check out a Rosewill RSV-L4412 4u rackmount chassis.
At worst, that mixture appeared tempting sufficient to persuade me to lastly replace my very own crusty outdated Pentium G-based catastrophe restoration server. But it surely seems the outcomes are adequate to share.
Closed-door entrance view of the Summer time 2019 Server Scorching Rod, all buttoned up. (Sanoid sticker not included.)
Jim Salter
Open-door entrance view of the Summer time 2019 Server Scorching Rod. This can be a Rosewill RSV-L4412 4u rackmount chassis, with 12 hotswap bays. The blinkenlights… they soothe me.
Jim Salter
Chassis
The Rosewill RSV-L4412 regarded nice on paper. It is a large, sturdy 4u rackmount chassis—strong with out being heavy sufficient to require “crew elevate” stickers on its transport field. It is received 12 built-in hot-swap bays for SATA or SAS drives, 5 pre-installed system followers (three 120mm intakes instantly behind the drive bays and two 80mm exhausts by the ability provide), and a locking cage door on the entrance. Sadly, the one strategy to really know if a case is any good is to purchase one and use it. So, that is what I did.
I anticipated I would want to interchange the pre-installed followers, since this factor shares workplace house with me. I ended up not bothering—the followers may perhaps be a little quieter, however the ambient noise is a really livable quiet whoosh. There isn’t a vibration or bearing howl to be discovered. I’ve since recorded a number of podcasts in the identical room just a few ft away with no complaints from both my co-host or our audio engineer.
Overhead view of the Summer time 2019 Server Scorching Rod. Be aware the SFF-8643 breakout cables (blue) operating to the LSI host bus adapter.
Jim Salter
This can be a solo view of one of many trays that service the RSV-L4412’s hotswap bays. It is a three.5″ tray… but it surely additionally has mount holes for two.5-inch SSDs, no extra wanted. Good.
Jim Salter
I additionally like the development of the 12 hot-swap drive bays themselves. In sharp distinction to the pricier, heavier Supermicro chassis, there is not any unified backplane for the bays. As a substitute, three four-bay modules are socketed into the base-model chassis’ 9 5.25″ open bays. If you find yourself with a nasty port on a chassis with a unified backplane, you sometimes find yourself having to RMA your entire chassis. (It is a nightmare.)
With the RSV-L4412, you could have the choice as a substitute of merely eradicating and changing one four-bay module. Relying on how closely populated you’ve got received the system, you may even have the ability to try this whereas the server’s dwell in a pinch. The drive trays had been one other good shock—though they’re ABS plastic (not steel just like the Supermicro trays), they appear fairly sturdy. And the actual killer function right here is that the identical tray natively mounts both three.5″ drives or 2.5″ SSDs; no adapters or dongles crucial.
The RSV-L4412 is a full-sized 4u case, so it is received loads of room for no matter full-height PCIe playing cards you may need to cram in, as much as and together with huge full-length graphics playing cards. My little micro-ATX AsRock motherboard seems to be a bit of misplaced in there frankly. However for anyone who is not attempting to maximally populate a datacenter, that is a function, not a bug—more room means much less cursing and fumbling while you’re engaged on it and extra predictable and even airflow patterns whereas it runs. This can be a very forgiving case to work inside, and the structural assist bar within the middle additionally makes a fantastic place to tie off cables.
The one barely bizarre factor about this chassis includes the screws for the highest panel. The RSV-L4412 makes use of two tiny little flush-fit screws on both sides of the highest panel and none in any respect on the again. When you’re obsessive about ensuring All The Screws go in All The Locations, this will likely drive you nuts. Then again, this design permits for a really forgiving elimination and substitute of the highest panel itself, which might both be slid on and off the again, or just lifted off straight after solely half an inch slide to the rear to be able to clear the entrance lip. Even with no screws in, it feels fairly safe. There isn’t any tendency to rattle or slip, so finally I simply determined the heck with the screws.
