During Computex 2021 in Taipei, although the event is all-digital due to the Coronavirus pandemic, GIGABYTE Server has showcased its newly revised MZ72-HBO dual-socket motherboard with support for AMD's 3rd generation EPYC 7003 processors. The GIGABYTE Server MZ72-HBO boasts support for up to 128 cores and 256 threads (64c/128t per socket), dual 10 GbE Base-T Ethernet, up to 4 TB of DDR4-3200 memory, and five full-length PCIe 4.0 slots.

In the server workspace, the use case for high-core count processors includes data centers, cloud computing, and MPI parallel programming. This is where the GIGABYTE Server MZ72-HB0 comes in, with support for up to 280 W TDP chips. This means it can support a maximum of 128-cores and 256 threads of powerful Zen 3 EPYC 7003 goodness across both AMD SP3 sockets. Each of the SP3 sockets includes eight memory slots (sixteen in total), with support for up to 2 TB of DDR4-3200 memory per processor operating in eight-channel, with RDIMM, LRDIMM, and 3DS memory types all supported. 

The GIGABYTE Server MZ72-HB0 Revision 3.0 boasts a wide variety of features, including lots of storage, with one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, four 7-pin SATA ports, and three SlimSAS ports offering support for either twelve SATA or three PCIe 4.0 U.2 NVMe drives. Included on the board is an ASPEED AST2500 BMC controller, which allows access to GIGABYTE's Management Console (GMC), and includes a Gigabit Management LAN port for remote access. Other networking capability includes a pair of 10 GbE Base-T LAN ports powered by a Broadcom BCM57416 controller. On the lower portion of the board are five full-length PCIe 4.0 slots that can operate at x16/x16/x16/x8/x8, while I/O on the rear panel includes two USB 3.0, a COM port, and a D-sub video output for the BMC.

At the time of writing, we are unsure when the GIGABYTE Server MZ72-HB0 will be available at retail, however the company has started channel distributions and we actually have a review unit in-house on our Milan test-bench. However, the previous MZ72-HB0 (revision 1.0) model with support for EPYC 7002 processors retails between $700 and $900 depending on the retailer. Due to this, we expect the newer revision 3.0 model to fall in a similar price bracket.

Source: GIGABYTE Server