Single-board computers (SBCs) of the 3.5″ form-factor have gained tremendous popularity for diverse embedded applications that demand a blend of high performance and extensive peripheral support. These applications often include digital signage, edge inferencing solutions, retail applications, and IoT gateways, all of which require processors and components capable of performing across a wide temperature range. The chassis and cooling solutions contribute to the system’s overall ruggedness and the elimination of moving parts.
The Supermicro X13SRN-H-WOHS is one such 3.5″ SBC, featuring an Intel Core i7-1370PE processor from the Raptor Lake-P series, soldered directly onto the board and equipped with vPro for enhanced management capabilities. This board boasts considerable I/O support, including a SlimSAS PCIe expansion slot, catering to various needs. Supermicro extends a complete solution by incorporating this SBC into the actively-cooled SYS-E102-13R-H box PC. Though not all motherboard ports are utilized in this setup, the available connections should meet most application requirements.
A closer examination of the SYS-E102-13R-H reveals Supermicro’s decision to use the X13SRN-H-WOHS board within the CSE-E102TF2 enclosure, a compact case featuring a single 40 x 40 x 15 mm cooling fan, alongside support for external WLAN antennas and neatly arranged cut-outs for the board’s external I/O ports. The simplicity of the design places the power button on the front, with additional functionalities accessible at the rear.
Despite being marketed as an IoT SuperServer, the device does not support ECC memory or in-band ECC, a reflection of its basis on a 3.5″ SBC configuration. However, it compensates with vPro and AMT for remote management capabilities and includes Supermicro’s ‘SuperDoctor’ monitoring utility for integration with Nagios, facilitating centralized oversight of infrastructure.
The configuration de-prioritizes certain I/O capabilities present on the internal board, such as numerous USB and SATA ports, and a SlimSAS PCIe slot for further expansion, opting instead to provide two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports, and two NBASE-T RJ-45 connectors capable of up to 2.5 Gbps each.
Included with the main unit is a lockable 12V 7A (84W) DC power adapter and the necessary mounting hardware, while access to the SSD and RAM slots is through a panel on the underside, held by four screws. The system accommodates three M.2 slots and a nano-SIM slot, offering considerable expansion possibilities.
The review unit featured 2x 16GB DDR5 SO-DIMMs and a PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe drive, despite the system’s support for PCIe 4.0 x4 drives in the M.2 slots, underlining the unit’s high-performance credentials and its suitability for a range of deployment environments, as evidenced by the wide-temperature operation rating of the supplied SSD and RAM.
Further analysis of the system’s setup and platform provides valuable insights into its capabilities and performance in real-world applications.
