GIGABYTE MZ31-AR0 (SP3 EPYC) Server Motherboard Review

Bohs Hansen / 6 years ago

Final Thoughts & Pricing

Pricing

At the time of writing this review, GIGABYTE’s MZ31-AR0 can be yours for $665.00 in NA. In the UK, only one slightly used was listed at the time of review which comes in at £550.

Conclusion

What a motherboard, just think of the options you have. GIGABYTE took in the EPYC platform and created an impressive motherboard for it. The CPU option delivers a great base while the expansion options are what gives you all the options you could dream of. With 7 PCIe expansion slots, there is the option for a lot of graphics cards, storage controllers, network cards, and what else might tickle your fancy. The 128 PCIe lanes of the CPU allow you to run it all at full speed.

GIGABYTE’s MZ31-AR0 support all EPYC 7000 series CPUs as it allows for a TDP of up to 180W on the processor. With 16 DDR4 DIMM slots, you can also install an incredible amount of memory. I only had 16GB modules running, you can easily get four times that these days; and 128GB modules aren’t far in the future.

The overall board-design is well made too. GIGABYTE put what fits together in the same area. All the power connectors are in one corner and the storage connectors in another. All of the headers are located on a single side too, which makes it quick and easy to set up without the need to search for anything.

Connection Options

The connection options are simple in the amount, but advanced in the sense of what they offer. There are no slow Gigabit Ethernet ports for the normal operation. Instead, GIGABYTE added a dual 10GbE interface for fast-paced throughput. Well, there is a single Gigabit Ethernet port too, but that is for the IPMI interface. The ability to remotely control and maintain your system is something that will make any system administrators life easier. You can even upgrade your BIOS through it, without having any core components installed. Another thing to make the admin’s life easier, especially since Gigabyte’s version allows for the upgrade of multiple boards at once. Heck, upgrade your entire data-centre at once, if you want to.

With 16 SATA ports onboard, the MZ31-AR0 has a base to be a great storage system. There’s also an M.2 slot which could be well suited for an OS drive.

Of course, you can add a lot more storage drives if you install some HBA cards. With 7 PCIe slots and 128 PCIe lanes, there’s no reason not to. If you would use current 14TB drives, you’d get close to 2PB raw storage in a single system. That is, of course, assuming that you install seven 16-port HBAs into the system.

Other than that, you get a couple USB ports and enough headers for the things you might need extra. Whether it’s cooling fans, front-USB, an additional COM port, or TPM, PMBus, or IPMB, it’s all there.

A little more

The dedicated management system also comes with onboard graphics in the form of an Aspeed controller. While not powerful as such, it eliminates the need for a dedicated graphics card that only would serve to take up a PCIe slot.

What’s left to say. The motherboard is very well built and GIGABYTE only used quality components all around. From the LAN controller to the power delivery: What you’d expect and want from a board of this class. There aren’t any things you don’t need and lot of what you do want: a perfect combination.

It should be noted that longer add-in cards might require a riser cable or system. Due to the design of the motherboard with all the memory sockets and large CPU socket, there’ll be a conflict otherwise. The bottom two slots are free of this obstruction, so you can install some long cards. normal HHL cards will fit nicely in any slot without any conflict.

Pros

Support for all EPYC 7000 series processors
8-channel RAM setup with 16 slots
16 SATA ports via 4x SlimSAS and M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4
Dual 10GbE Ethernet
Aspeed AST2500 remote management controller
Nearly endless build-options

Cons

none

“GIGABYTE’s MZ31-AR0 offers nearly endless build options on a fair budget. Who wouldn’t want a system built around this motherboard? Or maybe two? Or three? I know I do!”