Supermicro SYS-1028GQ-TRT
More actions
| Reported 10 GB | |
| CPU | 2x Intel Xeon E5-2650 v3, 256 GB DDR4-2133 LRDIMM (cuddylac997's unit) |
|---|---|
| Runs on | Bare metal |
| Gen2 link | Gen2 x4 on all four cards |
| Tested by | @cuddylac997 |
| Source | Discord message |
| Confirmations | None yet. |
A 1U dual-socket Supermicro server on the X10DGQ board that takes four double-width GPUs lying flat. Used units sold for under 200 USD in 2026, which makes it the cheapest four-card host on record. One owner runs four 10 GB cards in it at Gen2 x4 with no power-brake throttling. Nobody has posted an 8 GB card result, a P2P test or a tensor-parallel test on it yet. It is very loud.
Four 10 GB cards on record
Four 10 GB cards at 40 GB each, Gen2 x4, no power brake
cuddylac997's unit has the X10DGQ board, two Xeon E5-2650 v3, 256 GB DDR4-2133 LRDIMM and four 10 GB cards unlocked to 40 GB each (160 GB pooled, about 37.7 GiB usable per card), each linked at PCIe Gen2 x4. Idle draw is about 39-42 W per card at a 250 W limit. Under gpu-burn -tc the cards reach 216-263 W, so this chassis applies no power-brake throttling. How to check a card for the brake: HW Power Brake (PWRBRK). For the link speed see Gen2 link retrain and Gen2 by platform.
Reported 10 GB
Source: @cuddylac997, 2026-08-11
What it runs: a pruned DeepSeek V4 Flash at 48.2 tok/s
On the same four cards at about 37 GB each, cuddylac997 ran a pruned DeepSeek V4 Flash and posted 48.2 tok/s without DSpark, saying it still gave good responses. The model details are on 10 GB card.
Reported 10 GB
Source: @cuddylac997, 2026-08-12
The chassis
Four double-width cards lying flat
The 1U chassis holds four double-width cards lying flat: a large footprint, but not tall. cuddylac997 called it the cheapest option he knew: apart from the cards it needs only RAM, storage and a second PSU for redundancy. He has two, bought earlier to run P100 cards.
Reported
Source: @cuddylac997, 2026-08-13
What comes with it
programmerboi's unit came with two Xeon E5-2650 v3 ("not great, but workable"). His units have 40 Gbps interconnect, 10 GbE, PCIe 3.0 x16 slots and rails. Replacement parts are generic and cheap; the fans are standard 4-pin, and he reuses some of them in a Threadripper build. He chose the TRT (PCIe) version because the SXM version costs about 1000 USD and is hard to find.
Reported
Source: @programmerboi, 2026-08-23
Source: @programmerboi, 2026-10-18
TRT against TRT2: the X9 and X10 riser note belongs to the 4028GR
A note that "the TRT ships with an X9 PCIe riser board and the TRT2 with an X10 riser" sometimes gets quoted with this server. Humvee55 posted it about his 4U SYS-4028GR (ten GPU slots), in the same exchange where he mentioned an eBay seller who briefly sold X10 PCIe boards at the X9 price (about 200 USD) before correcting it. It does not describe the 1028GQ. The X9 against X10 board story is on Supermicro SYS-4028GR-TRT2.
Reported
Source: @scallion_9883, 2026-08-13
Noise and where to put it
Nine FAN-0163L4 fans: 74 to 85 dB
programmerboi's server runs nine FAN-0163L4 fans, which he puts at about 8x the static pressure of quieter 80 mm fans. He said it peaks at 74 dB (2026-08-23) and later that it is 85 dBA because of the fans (2026-10-09); one fan alone is enough to deafen. He runs it in colocation rather than at home. endsjeremy said he could not buy it for the noise level alone and called the low price a "deafening discount". ju5t5omedude counts it, with the Dell C4130, among cheap options that can live in a garage, though he dislikes server-class restart cycles.
Reported
Source: @ju5t5omedude, 2026-08-13
Source: @programmerboi, 2026-08-23
Source: @programmerboi, 2026-10-09
Source: @programmerboi, 2026-10-09
Source: @programmerboi, 2026-10-18
Source: @endsjeremy, 2026-10-18
Dual socket and P2P
Does the second socket get in the way?
Contested
- wakeupmbrc1: a dual-socket host still needs a PLX switch, and P2P does not work across the sockets. Source: @wakeupmbrc1, 2026-10-18
Source: @wakeupmbrc1, 2026-10-18 - endsjeremy: dual socket works when it is configured correctly, which is why big GPU servers have two; the cross-NUMA cost can be reduced by attaching the PLX switch to both CPUs. Source: @endsjeremy, 2026-10-18
Source: @endsjeremy, 2026-10-18 - programmerboi (owner): the sockets are linked by QPI, latency is very good and the QPI/NUMA overhead is relatively low. Source: @programmerboi, 2026-10-18
Nobody has measured P2P or tensor parallel on this chassis. Results on other dual-socket hosts are on P2P and Parallelism over the PCIe link.
Price and buying
Under 200 USD used
cuddylac997 paid 179 USD for his on eBay (2026-08-13). programmerboi got his prototype unit, with two E5-2650 v3, for about 190 USD and told the channel "y'all are paying too much" (2026-08-03, repeated 2026-08-23). In October he put his server with the X10DGQ at about 1170 RMB (about 175 USD) and said he got three of them for 340 USD. Dated prices for cards and hosts: Price history and market.
Reported
Source: @programmerboi, 2026-08-03
Source: @cuddylac997, 2026-08-13
Source: @programmerboi, 2026-08-23
Source: @programmerboi, 2026-10-18
Old Supermicro servers against barebones and ATX boards in Europe
Smit (EU) could not find used Gigabyte GPU barebones for less than 2000 USD, against about 1000 USD in China, and Supermicro X10DRG 10-GPU systems cost about the same 2000 USD, so he builds improvised setups instead. programmerboi's answer: use old Supermicro systems, which "work beautifully for high gpu density", avoid large-form-factor compute (he uses 1028GQs), and in Germany and the Netherlands servers come out cheaper than ATX builds.
Reported
Source: @smit1237, 2026-08-23
Source: @programmerboi, 2026-08-23
Is a four-card 1U worth it?
Contested
- bayley_w: limiting a build to four cards is not cheaper, and "is it really worth suffering an ancient 1U dual root system to save a few hundred bucks?" Source: @bayley_w, 2026-08-11
Source: @bayley_w, 2026-08-12 - programmerboi (owner of several): old Supermicro systems like this one give high GPU density at almost no cost, and he calls his "amazing" despite the noise. Source: @programmerboi, 2026-08-23
Source: @programmerboi, 2026-10-18
Open questions
Only one owner has posted CMP results on this chassis. Still missing: a second 10 GB owner reproducing the four-card Gen2 x4 result, any 8 GB card result, a P2P test across the two sockets, and host idle power. Post yours in the Discord with the numbers and a link here.