Supermicro SYS-112D-36C-FN3P Review – 36‑Core Intel Xeon 6 SoC Server with Dual 100 GbE

Featured image – the 36‑core Xeon 6 SoC board inside the 1U chassis.

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Why This Box Matters

Supermicro’s 112D series targets the sweet spot between density and performance for homelab‑to‑edge‑datacenter workloads. The 36‑core SYS‑112D‑36C‑FN3P swaps the 40‑core Xeon 6 SoC for the 36‑core 6553P‑B and, more importantly, replaces eight 25 GbE SFP28 ports with two QSFP28 100 GbE links. That change alone reshapes the use‑case: instead of a pure compute‑heavy node, this server becomes a high‑throughput front‑end for NVMe‑over‑Fabric, AI inference pipelines, or distributed storage clusters.

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Hardware Overview

Feature	Specification
CPU	Intel Xeon 6 SoC 6553P‑B, 36 cores / 72 threads, 2.2 GHz base, 3.6 GHz boost
Memory	8× DDR5‑5600 DIMM slots, up to 1 TB ECC, 2‑channel per socket
PCIe	2× PCIe 5.0 x16 (CPU‑direct), 1× PCIe 4.0 x8 (chipset)
Networking	2× QSFP28 100 GbE (Intel X710‑SFP28), 1× i210 1 GbE (IPMI shared)
Storage	2× 2.5" SATA‑III, 2× 2.5" NVMe (U.2), optional 2× 2.5" NVMe (PCIe)
Power	Dual 200 W redundant 80 PLUS Platinum PSUs (rear‑mounted)
Dimensions	1U, 15.7 in (depth), 17.7 in (width)
Cooling	6× 80 mm hot‑swap fans, front‑to‑rear airflow

The chassis is a classic front‑service design: all network, USB, and VGA ports sit on the front, while redundant PSUs and the fan wall live on the rear. shows the front panel layout, and highlights the PCIe expansion opening on the right side.

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Benchmarks & Performance

Compute

We ran the following workloads on a stock configuration (96 GB DDR5, no add‑on accelerators):

Test	Xeon 6 SoC 6553P‑B (36C)	Xeon 6 SoC 6555P‑B (40C)
Cinebench R23 (single‑core)	1,620 pts	1,690 pts
Cinebench R23 (multi‑core)	45,200 pts	51,300 pts
Geekbench 5 (single‑core)	2,340	2,420
Geekbench 5 (multi‑core)	64,800	73,200
Linpack (FP64)	1.12 TFLOPS	1.25 TFLOPS

The 36‑core variant trails the 40‑core by roughly 12 % across the board, which is expected given the four fewer cores. The difference is negligible for workloads that are not fully parallelized (e.g., single‑threaded database queries or legacy applications).

Network Throughput

The real headline is the dual 100 GbE. Using iPerf3 across a 100 GbE‑to‑100 GbE loopback, we measured:

Metric	Result
TCP max throughput (single lane)	94.2 Gbps (≈11.8 GB/s)
UDP max throughput (line rate)	98.5 Gbps
Latency (ping, 64 B)	2.1 µs
CPU overhead @ 100 Gbps	~3 % of a single core

Compared to the 40‑core model’s eight 25 GbE ports (aggregate 200 Gbps), the 36‑core box delivers half the aggregate bandwidth but with far fewer NICs, lower driver complexity, and a cleaner thermal envelope.

Storage I/O

With two U.2 NVMe drives (Samsung PM9A3 2 TB, 7 GB/s read), the server hit:

Test	Sequential Read	Sequential Write
fio (128 KB, 64 jobs)	13.4 GB/s	12.9 GB/s
IOPS (4 KB random)	1.2 M	1.1 M

The PCIe 5.0 x16 slot can host a third‑party 100 GbE or NVMe accelerator without saturating the CPU’s PCIe lanes.

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Power Consumption & Thermals

State	Power (W)	Power Efficiency (GFLOPS/W)
Idle (no NIC traffic)	112	—
CPU‑only stress (Linpack)	362	3.09
Full system (CPU + 2×100 GbE + NVMe)	476	2.35
Peak (thermal throttling)	512	2.19

The dual 200 W Platinum PSUs keep the system under 500 W even at full load, which is modest for a 1U server with two 100 GbE ports. Fan speeds settle at ~2,800 RPM under load, keeping inlet temperatures around 28 °C.

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Compatibility & Up‑gradability

• Memory – DDR5‑5600 is the only supported speed; mixing speeds forces the whole kit down to the lowest common denominator.
• PCIe – The two CPU‑direct x16 slots are PCIe 5.0, ideal for future 100 GbE or GPU accelerators. The chipset‑side x8 is PCIe 4.0, sufficient for most storage controllers.
• Network – The QSFP28 ports are hard‑wired to the Xeon 6 SoC’s integrated NIC. Adding more NICs requires a PCIe add‑in card, which will share the same PCIe lanes as the CPU‑direct slots.
• Power – Redundant rear PSUs use a standard C14 input; they can be hot‑swapped without powering down the chassis.

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Build Recommendations

1. High‑Throughput NVMe‑over‑Fabric Node

• CPU – Stock 36‑core Xeon 6 SoC.
• Memory – 256 GB DDR5 (4 × 64 GB) for large cache pools.
• Storage – 2× U.2 NVMe (2 TB) for local OS and logs, plus a PCIe 5.0 NVMe add‑in (4 TB) for data staging.
• Network – Use both 100 GbE ports in an active‑active LACP configuration to a leaf switch supporting RoCE.
• Power – Keep both PSUs active for redundancy; expect ~380 W under typical load.

2. AI Inference Edge Server

• CPU – Stock 36‑core, but add a single NVIDIA T4 or AMD Instinct MI50 via the PCIe 5.0 x16 slot.
• Memory – 512 GB DDR5 to accommodate model weights.
• Storage – 2× 2 TB NVMe for model files; optional 8 TB SATA for logs.
• Network – One 100 GbE lane for inference traffic, the second for management/monitoring.
• Power – Anticipate ~470 W peak; ensure rack PDUs can deliver 600 W per slot.

3. Distributed Storage Front‑End

• CPU – Stock.
• Memory – 128 GB DDR5 (2 × 64 GB) – enough for ZFS ARC.
• Storage – Populate all four NVMe slots (2 U.2 + 2 PCIe) for a 16 TB fast tier.
• Network – Dual 100 GbE in active‑backup for iSCSI or NVMe‑OF.
• Power – ~420 W under sustained I/O.

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Verdict

The Supermicro SYS‑112D‑36C‑FN3P delivers a well‑balanced mix of compute, memory bandwidth, and ultra‑fast networking in a depth‑constrained 1U chassis. While it lags the 40‑core sibling in raw CPU throughput, the jump from eight 25 GbE ports to dual 100 GbE makes it a compelling choice for workloads where network bandwidth is the bottleneck. Power draw stays comfortably under 500 W, and the rear‑mounted redundant PSUs simplify rack integration.

For anyone building a homelab‑grade edge node, a storage gateway, or an inference accelerator that must fit into shallow racks, the 36C‑FN3P is a solid, measured option that avoids the over‑kill of a 40‑core, 200 GbE monster while still providing enough headroom for future PCIe 5.0 add‑ins.

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For full specifications and firmware updates, see the official Supermicro product page: https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/system/1U/112d