Supermicro SuperWorkstation 5049A-T

Description

With that single socket you do have the option of installing up to 3TB of memory, which used to be unheard of just a few short years ago. The Supermicro SuperWorkstation 5049A-T is part of the SuperWorkstation but can easily be rack-mounted in an enclosure with 4U of space available. It supports up to seven HDDs or SSDs.

Performance

You can install a single Gen 1 or Gen 2 Intel Xeon Scalable processor up to 205W. However, to support the full memory capacity of 3TB you will need to install either a Gold 5200, Gold 6200, or Platinum 8200 series processors which offer various capacities including 1TB, 2TB, and 4.5TB. Scalable CPUs supporting up to 4.5TB have an “L” suffix. Those with a “Y” suffix support up to 1TB. Gen 2 processors with an “M” support up to 1TB of memory. The Gen 1 Intel Xeon Scalable processors had two versions. The standard version with support for up to 768GB of memory, and an “M” suffix version that supports up to 1.5TB. You will need a Gen 2 Scalable CPU with an “L” suffix to support 3TB of memory. The system features a multi-output 1000/1200W Platinum level PSU that will adjust the output depending on the power standard.

Memory

Only second-generation Scalable processor with an “L” suffix will support the full 3TB and a memory speed of up to 2933MT/s. Gen 1 Intel Xeon Scalable processors with an “M” suffix will provide up to 1.5TB. Both Gen 1 and Gen 2 processors support up to six memory channels. In a four-processor arrangement there are 48 memory module slots total with each CPU supporting 12 memory module slots. For maximum performance Dell recommends installing a single memory module per memory channel.

Storage

Storage on the Supermicro 5049A-T is generous and supports SATA natively plus SAS HDDs and SSDs with an HD RAID controller. You get eight hot-swappable drive bays in front, and two 5.25-inch device bays just above with another for an optical device. The front drive bays can be secured with a key. Two of the front 5.25-inch device bays can also be replaced with a mobile rack that contains up to eight 2.5-inch storage devices, and if you are rack mounting the system the 5.25-inch control panel/drive module can be rotated 90 degrees. There are four M.2 slots on the system board using four separate PCIe Gen3 x4 slots.

Expansion

There are seven PCIe slots on the system board with 5x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots and 3x PCIe 3.0 x8 slots. The x8 PCIe slots feature a x16 mechanical length.

Management

The control panel at the top of the chassis has a bank of LEDs to indicate system status at a glance including, power, HDD activity, LAN ports 1 and 2, and temperature. For more information, Supermicro SuperDoctor 5 is available in local and remote management versions and monitors system health including temperature, voltage, power consumption and fan speed. It features a slick web-based interface and can be configured to send alerts via email or Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). SuperDoctor 5 Management Server can be used with Nagios and allows you to remotely power the system on or off. The system also supports the Intelligent Platform interface (IPMI) for remote access, monitoring, and management.

Summary

For a single processor system, the Supermicro SuperWorkstation 5049A-T supports a great deal of memory plus up to eight front-mounted HDDs or SSDs both SAS and SATA, and up to four M.2 drives directly on the motherboard. This platform comes ready to go as a tower workstation/server with integrated Ethernet ports on the back. It can also be rack mounted with an optional rail kit.