Exciting Update - HL15 Hardware Refresh in Progress – Community Feedback in Action!

Vikram-45HomeLab · May 1, 2025, 6:45pm

Hey everyone,

As many of you have recommended and supported right here on the forum — we’re excited to share that we’re officially working on a hardware refresh for the HL15! Your feedback has been instrumental in shaping our direction, and we’re now in the testing phase with some exciting updates coming down the line.

Test Platform (So Far):

Motherboard:

ASRock ROMED8-2T

CPUs Currently Being Evaluated:

AMD EPYC™ 7252 – 8 cores / 16 threads
AMD EPYC™ 7272 – 12 cores / 24 threads
AMD EPYC™ 7282 – 16 cores / 32 threads
AMD EPYC™ 7452 – 32 cores / 64 threads

These components are currently being tested internally for performance, compatibility, thermal behavior, and fit within the HL15 chassis. We haven’t finalized anything just yet, but will keep this thread updated as we move closer to selecting the final build spec.

New Feature: Integrated Dust Filter

We’re also pleased to announce that, alongside the hardware refresh, we’ll be adding a magnetic slide-in dust filter as a standard feature on all future HL15 units. The filter will be positioned behind the front panel and is designed to slide in and out easily for cleaning — no tools required.

And for all current HL15 owners, we’ve got you covered — the dust filter kit will also be available separately for purchase, so you can upgrade your existing setup with the same convenience and protection.

Thank you again for your ongoing feedback and enthusiasm. We’re looking forward to sharing more progress with you soon — and as always, stay tuned right here for updates!

DigitalGarden · May 1, 2025, 8:13pm

So how would 15 drives for this be connected? You would add an -8i HBA in one of the PCIe slots? Or can you use the oculink ports to connect 4x drives each? Without an HBA, this would be an all-SATA build and would not support SAS drives?

Do the PCIe slots support bifurcation? I wasn’t getting a match on that trying to search the docs. Multiple-NVMe carrier cards are a thing many people seem to be doing with their systems.

This seems like a capable system with entry level CPUs that are arguably more powerful than the Xeons, but this is still from about the same generation of tech as the X11SPH, circa 2017.

rymandle05 · May 1, 2025, 9:17pm

Looks like it will support some level of bifurcation, but the documentation does not specify which options will be available. Just that the default value for PCIE Slot Link Width is x16.

DigitalGarden · May 1, 2025, 10:02pm

The consensus from a Google search seems to be yes. That all 7 slots will support either; x16, x8x8 or x4x4x4x4. (So, by implication, not x8x4x4 or x4x4x8; those ones probably aren’t important, just saying.)

rymandle05 · May 2, 2025, 12:21am

All in all, I think this is a welcomed upgrade to the HL15 - especially if the refresh can hit the same price point as today. I was really impressed with the Asrock Rack motherboard I used in my custom HL8 build so I’m glad to see Asrock used here. Unfortunately, I don’t see an SFP+ version of this motherboard. That’s a bummer for me personally, but I understand the tradeoffs here. It also appears there is an upgrade path to EPYC 7003 (Gen 3) CPU’s via BIOS update which is greatly appreciated.

As I’m looking around, I’m seeing 2020/2021 for the motherboard and CPU’s for release date. I actually think this is a generation newer than the current offering. The Xeon Bronze is a 2nd Gen Scalable CPU and Intel has released four new generations since then. The EPYC 7002 is only three generations behind the latest EPYC 9005 CPU’s. Let me know if you think I’m missing or not understanding something here.

Reading the motherboard manual more closely, I’m predicting now that the Updated HL15 “Full Build” will have the PCIE Slot 2 limited to X4 to enable the additional M.2 and SATA ports. The slot is fully disabled if all those and oculink is enabled.

I don’t see an option in the manual for SATA over Oculink like Asrock Rack offers on their other motherboards so I do believe an HBA of some kind will be necessary.

This is great to hear @Vikram-45HomeLab and I’ll most likely be a customer… again. I would appreciate if 45HomeLab also consider a “complete upgrade kit” that includes the new motherboard and cpu’s to be offered here as well.

OldSoftwareGuy · May 2, 2025, 3:46am

Hopefully, that will work with the systems with Noctua fans too. If so, I’m buying!

No cooler is mentioned, but it would be nice if Noctua NH-U9 TR4-SP3 was at least an option this time. I hate worrying about CPU temps.

It appears the top-end processor the motherboard can take is the AMD EPYC 7773x processor. That thing is a beast.

Will the enclosure still be identical?

I am curious why the Gigabyte ME03-CE0 wasn’t selected instead, as you all have a lot of experience with it on the 45drives business side and at least the board itself is similarly priced.

jrhenderson · May 2, 2025, 4:58am

I second @rymandle05 an HW upgrade kit for existing customers would be great.

DigitalGarden · May 2, 2025, 5:13am

That’s probably fair. For example, the X11SPH is PCIE 3.0 and the ROMED8-2T is PCIE 4.0. I mainly was looking at PassMark CPU Mark by Socket Type info showing the Intel LGA3647 socket being released in 2016 and the AMD SP3 socket in 2017 and then say the Bronze 3204 in Q1-2020 and the Epyc 7272 in Q2-2020. I didn’t give full merit to AMD probably having better silicon process at that point and also forward-engineering their sockets for longer development lifespans.

I guess another angle is heat and noise. Although Epyc is awesome, I’m one of the cohort of users who need or prefer a quiet build that doesn’t put out a lot of heat. Can you cool a 120W TDP CPU quietly and efficiently? Even with a Ncotua Upgrade Kit? Now, I guess 45HL doesn’t market the current full build as quiet; people just make assumptions that they’ll be able to work with PWM until they get the units (or in my case becasue the Q30 was quiet)..

ZVeguillaCotto · May 2, 2025, 11:10am

The Power Distribution Board (PDB) should be revised.

At the very least, the PDB’s fan connectors should be revised to be 4pin-fan compatible. 4-pin fans can be used (case-by-case). 3-pin fans can still be used.
The restriction to 3-pin fans in this product is shocking. This could be achieved by changing the fan connectors. Most 4pin fan are 3pin compatible.
The PDB should have a PWM or equivalent input, where a fan header could be taken from the motherboard to it. The PDU would then pass along the signal to the fans.
(For #2 imagine the 4-pin power input "control input” in the image above added to the PDB and its signal routed to the fans)
The fan connector bracket should be revised to have the following configurations:
1. Best: 6 individual fans are independent from each other and addressable;
  This could be achieved by having all fans come back directly to a hub, with no Y splitters, only extensions.
2. Great: Fans are paired in a front and back pair:
  Bays 1-1 through 1-5 (front and midplane);
  Bays 1-6 through 1-10 (front and midplane); and
  Bays 1-11 through 1-15 (front and midplane).
  This would allow addressable fan speed for corresponding drive (in software). This could be achieved with a pair of fans sharing a Y splitter and reaching the hub directly. This would only need a 3-fan hub.
3. Good: Fans are treated as 2 groups, front (3) and midplane (3).
  This would allow some control to reduce some noise.
4. Worst: Fans are all treated equally (6).
  This would require no hub since the PDB already does this. If this were the case, the fans could at least all reach back near the PDU, so 6 fan connectors are accessible and could be swapped with a user-provided fan hub to result in option 3.1, all individually addressable with no dismantling. “Plug and Play”.
  Most of these options require a fan hub of some kind. Or the PDU PWM pass-trough in #2.
The PDB’s 20pin connector (if no hub is used) should be changed to a pin output that enables the fans to be removed. Read this as a split-in-the-middle (offset more likely) similar to the 8pin (4+4), sometimes 12pin (8+4) used by motherboards for the CPU.
This would allow users that add a fan hub to remove the unused PDU fan cables.

Example image500×500 51.3 KB

If the PDB’s output were split similar to this cable, you could remove “connector C” when not using the PDB to power/control fans.

IMO the HL15 was underdeveloped in the case fan area. 45 Drives should remediate that by:

Including an individually addressable fan hub in the unit;
Leaving the PDB to power the drives only. With the option for fan power (backup option, point 4 above);
Making the fan connectors 4pin and accessible without disassembly;
Including PWM fans, maybe as an option (something more accessible than the $300 Noctua upgrade);
Adding a 3D-printed 5mm front fans spacer for noise reduction.

In addition to the fan issues. The PDU could be beefier to better handle the drives’ power spike and perhaps even use capacitors.

When I open my case by sliding the top it often gets stuck. I suspect it has to do with the position knobs in the case being so square/sharp and/or the position holes in the top-panel being so narrow in the front. Maybe looser tolerances or bevel would reduce this issue. A “top bevel” toward the back of the panel, when screwed, seals the panel to the chassis. A “bottom bevel” toward the front of the panel, when removing auto-raises the panel.

Feel free to reach back here or privately for clarification on any point.

DigitalGarden · May 2, 2025, 12:19pm

I agree with this. A change in motherboard would be a perfect time to revisit the fan situation. The 2-wire solution has always seemed rather odd to me. They didn’t used to do that on their enterprise units (but perhaps they do now also?). I don’t know if it was just copied down from enterprise without thinking, an attempt to keep the wiring clean, or not wanting to use “costlier” PWM fans (which seems odd since you can get a PWM version of the CoolerGuys fan they do use for only about 50 cents more each or something).

I have nothing against the Noctua kit–45HL seems to be offering it at a fair price–but to be promoting it as “we had no idea how to fix this until Nocuta approached us…” is rather disingenuous.

Note that if I Google something like “ASRock ROMED8-2T fan control” there seem to have been some issues with early BIOS and/or IPMI versions missing fan related settings, so one thing 45HL will want to do is be sure all the systems are flashed with the current firmware. Also, it is unclear to me if the board supports DC fans or just PWM. It might be another situation like the X11SPH where the board only supports PWM fans.

Vikram-45HomeLab · May 2, 2025, 9:28pm

Hey everyone,

Thanks for all the great questions and feedback on the HL15 hardware refresh!

We wanted to jump in and provide a quick update on some of the key topics that have come up so far. We’re still in the middle of hands-on testing, so while we don’t have final results just yet, here’s what we can share based on current info and what’s ahead:

PCIe Bifurcation Support

We’ve definitely seen the interest around PCIe bifurcation (e.g., x8/x8 or x4x4x4x4 modes), and you’re absolutely right to ask. While the official vendor documentation doesn’t explicitly confirm support, several community reports (including Reddit threads) suggest the board does support bifurcation in practice.

That said, we’re still waiting for the test boards to arrive in-house. Once they land, we’ll run our own validation and share confirmed working configurations for those of you planning to run expansion cards or NVMe bifurcation setups.

SATA over OCuLink & Drive Connectivity

We can confirm that the OCuLink ports on the test motherboard support PCIe/NVMe only, not SATA. This is important, especially for HL15 users planning a mixed drive setup.

To ensure compatibility with SATA / SAS drives and the HL15 backplane, we’ll be using a dedicated HBA (LSI 9400 16i) and will validate it as part of the test platform.

Dust Filter Compatibility (with Noctua Fans)

Yes, we hear you loud and clear! We’re designing the new slide-in magnetic dust filter to work with Noctua fans and other common aftermarket configurations. Our goal is to make the filter fully compatible with both the stock and most commonly used fan setups in the HL15.

Thermals & Noise Levels

We’re also closely monitoring CPU temperatures and overall system noise levels under load with our various test configurations. This includes measuring thermal behavior with the Noctua fan setups, different CPUs (EPYC 7252–7452 range), and airflow profiles. We’ll share detailed temperature and noise level findings as soon as our testing is complete.

More updates to come soon — and we’ll keep this thread updated as we validate each piece of the puzzle. Thanks again for being such a passionate and constructive community!

DigitalGarden · May 3, 2025, 12:50am

I imagine there are two considerations; hitting a price point, and not cannibalizing their Enterprise and Pro servers like the AV15. The Gigabyte board is still used in their Enterprise line. And, despite your claim, I’m pretty sure one can get Rome boards and CPUs in quantity cheaper than Siena.

I’m concerned how much the price is going to go up if they have to include a discrete HBA. This will be a great refresh for some prospective new/repeat customers, but they might also price themselves out of reach for a certain class of customers attracted by the original $2K price point of the HL15 entry level full build.

tobor · May 3, 2025, 2:19pm

I feel like lots of the people that complain about price didn’t convert to paying customers, and the actually customers just want a great product that isn’t crap to hit a price point.

rymandle05 · May 3, 2025, 7:08pm

I suppose there are a few lurking around here, but I tend to think it’s more about coming to terms with macro pricing increase seen around the world. Between years of massive inflation and now tariffs, I increasingly finding myself with sticker shock - especially with electronics. It has me debating the value proposition more often and more intently. I still expect to pay for quality, but it’s just a little harder knowing what it used to cost.

HOSH · May 4, 2025, 7:28am

There is also the older Gigabyte MZ01-CE# it has the 16 SATA ports, but it is PCI-E Gen 3 for all of the slots.

Personally am still looking building two or three of the HL15 with a AMD Epyc CPU that supports PCI-e 4.0 slots and the ASRock ROMED8-2T does do that, but it was hard to find retail, or the other option was Supermicro MBD-H12SSL-series, which I could find new. So them eventually having this option out of the gate should help me out.

Plus if we make sure we have the power and cooling then an AMD Epyc 7003 upgrade down the road is an option, after they come down in price…

One wish list item I have is on the midplane for the 120/140mm cooling fans can we get the hole spacing so we can mount the fans next to each other and maybe use an AIO if there is room in the expanded 5U version? Not sure what that would do to the HDD cooling though.