Upgrades Without a Budget Increase: ITPOD Servers Based on AMD EPYC 7003
Server Prices Are Rising Due to Memory Costs
DDR5 memory continues to rise in price. Manufacturers are allocating production capacity to HBM for AI accelerators, leading to a shortage of server DRAM on the market—a shortage that, according to the manufacturers’ own forecasts, will persist for several more years. As a result, server prices are also rising: in modern DDR5 configurations, memory has become the most expensive component of the system.
Meanwhile, customers’ budgets aren’t growing. But upgrades cannot be postponed: equipment is aging, workloads are increasing, and new tasks are emerging—primarily related to AI. IT directors must figure out how to upgrade their infrastructure without exceeding their budgets.
One of the most sensible solutions is a platform that has been virtually unaffected by the rise in DDR5 prices.
AMD EPYC 7003: A Mature Platform with Headroom
AMD EPYC 7003 (Milan) processors are among the best options on the market in terms of price-to-performance ratio. The Zen 3 architecture delivers up to 64 cores per processor and up to 128 cores on a dual-socket server. This is sufficient for dense virtualization, heavy-load databases, and GPU offloading.
- DDR4 memory. Eight DDR4-3200 channels per processor. DDR4 is significantly cheaper than DDR5 and is available from stock, and modules from the current fleet can be transferred to the new server.
- PCIe 4.0. 128 PCIe 4.0 lanes even on a single processor: enough to support GPUs, NVMe arrays, and high-speed network adapters simultaneously.
- Maturity. Drivers, firmware, and support in hypervisors, Linux, and domestic operating systems have long been well-established. Deployment proceeds predictably.
ITPOD platforms based on the EPYC 7003 series have not been discontinued. The servers are available for order as new equipment with a manufacturer’s warranty, technical support, and a spare parts inventory—unlike refurbished equipment, which many are turning to amid the shortage.
Scenario 1: Virtualization and Databases
The ITPOD-SR201-D12R-NV is a versatile 2U dual-socket server. It is designed for tasks where cores, memory, and a reliable connection to storage are critical: virtualization clusters, DBMS, 1C, container platforms, and software-defined storage.
Versatile configuration:
| Component | Configuration |
|---|---|
| Processors | 2 × AMD EPYC 7713, 128 cores per server |
| Memory | 1 TB DDR4-3200 (16 × 64 GB), all channels occupied |
| System Drives | 2 × 480 GB SSDs, RAID controller |
| Storage | 12 universal bays for SATA/SAS/NVMe; NVMe drives connect directly to the processor |
| Network | 2 network adapters, 2 × 25GbE |
| SAN connectivity | 2 Fibre Channel adapters (2 × 32 Gb/s) |
| Power | 2 redundant power supplies |
The server integrates into the existing infrastructure from day one: Fibre Channel adapters connect it to the existing storage system, and the empty slots allow for the later deployment of local or software-defined storage. 32 memory slots provide headroom for expansion up to 4 TB.
Scenario 2. GPU Server for AI, Analytics, and HPC
The ITPOD-SYR4108G-D12R-G3 is a 4U server based on two EPYC 7003 processors, designed to accommodate up to eight double-width GPUs, including the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition.
Each RTX PRO 6000 features 96 GB of video memory. Eight cards in a single chassis allow you to run large language models without a distributed cluster, and MIG technology divides each card into isolated instances for different teams and services.
Where the server is particularly useful:
- AI model inference: corporate assistants, RAG systems, document, image, and speech recognition.
- Analytics: accelerated processing of large datasets, dataset preparation, vector search.
- HPC: simulation, engineering and scientific calculations, rendering.
The server can be deployed with four accelerators, and cards can be added as the workload grows: the chassis and four power supplies with a 3+1 redundancy configuration are designed for the full configuration. The CPU in such a system prepares data and serves the GPUs, and the EPYC 7003 handles this role with ease. The platform supports PCIe 4.0: this is practically imperceptible for inference, but for training with continuous data feeding, it’s worth taking into account during planning.
Conclusion
When memory prices rise but the budget remains the same, it’s not the newest platform that wins out, but the most cost-effective one. ITPOD servers based on the AMD EPYC 7003 offer many cores, a large amount of DDR4 memory, and modern I/O at a price that allows you to upgrade now, rather than waiting for the market to stabilize.
