Server Hardware on a Semibudget Build

[bloodthirster]

I've been needing some new server hardware for my in home server for a while.  I have a dual westmere Xeon system which has been slowly failing lately...  I'm trying to keep it under 1k.  I have a case, PSU, storage, etc.  I just need CPUs/MB/RAM/CPU cooling.  My needs are:

- 10Gb networking (have the NICs)

- video card slot

- two NVME slots (or through adapters)

- slot for storage controller

- if old MB slot for USB 3

- one extra slot for future needs

- ECC

 

Since a Ryzen won't do (not enough PCI slots), a threadripper is too expensive, Intel will be too expensive especially since I want a HW meltdown fix it least.  This leaves me with an Opteron system.  I was thinking two 16 core CPUs and 64GB of RAM (ddr3 ecc) to start off with.  

 

Does this sound sane?  I do SW and HW dev, photography editing, some video rendering,  plus normal stuff like NAS (ZFS), VM host, etc. 

 

Thoughts? Ideas?

[ki8aras]

3 minutes ago, bloodthirster said:

I've been needing some new server hardware for my in home server for a while.  I have a dual westmere Xeon system which has been slowly failing lately...  I'm trying to keep it under 1k.  I have a case, PSU, storage, etc.  I just need CPUs/MB/RAM/CPU cooling.  My needs are:

- 10Gb networking (have the NICs)

- video card slot

- two NVME slots (or through adapters)

- slot for storage controller

- if old MB slot for USB 3

- one extra slot for future needs

- ECC

 

Since a Ryzen won't do (not enough PCI slots), a threadripper is too expensive, Intel will be too expensive especially since I want a HW meltdown fix it least.  This leaves me with an Opteron system.  I was thinking two 16 core CPUs and 64GB of RAM (ddr3 ecc) to start off with.  

 

Does this sound sane?  I do SW and HW dev, photography editing, some video rendering,  plus normal stuff like NAS (ZFS), VM host, etc. 

 

Thoughts? Ideas?

do u mean under 1k for cpu mobo and ram?

[bloodthirster]

10 minutes ago, ki8aras said:

do u mean under 1k for cpu mobo and ram?

Yes, those are the only parts (well, CPU cooling too) that I'd need to buy. 

[SupaKomputa]

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/X370-XPOWER-GAMING-TITANIUM/Specification

 

6 PCIe Slot (you need 4), 3x16/x8, 3x1

2 NVME x4

 

[ki8aras]

Just now, SupaKomputa said:

https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/X370-XPOWER-GAMING-TITANIUM/Specification

 

6 PCIe Slot (you need 4), 3x16/x8, 3x1

2 NVME x4

 

not enough pcie laness

[ki8aras]

1 minute ago, bloodthirster said:

Yes, those are the only parts (well, CPU cooling too) that I'd need to buy. 

well then threadripper isnt that unreasonable unless you need crazy amounts of ram or cpu performance

[SupaKomputa]

 

24 PCIe lanes from the CPU.

8 Pcie lanes from the chipset.

 

- 10Gb networking (have the NICs) - 1x4 (chipset)

- video card slot - 1x8 (CPU), x8 is enough for most gpu.

- two NVME slots (or through adapters) - 2x4 (CPU)

- slot for storage controller - 1x8 (cpu)

- if old MB slot for USB 3 (plenty of USB3)

- one extra slot for future needs - 1x4 or x1 (chipset)

[Brooksie359]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Threadripper 1900X 3.8 GHz 8-Core Processor	$310.34 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Noctua - NH-U14S TR4-SP3 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler	$79.90 @ Amazon
Motherboard	ASRock - Fatal1ty X399 Professional Gaming ATX TR4 Motherboard	$364.98 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill - Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$85.98 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill - Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$85.98 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$957.18
	Mail-in rebates	-$30.00
	Total	$927.18
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-02-20 15:37 EST-0500

 

[Brooksie359]

If you want to go a little bit over 1k you could do this 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD - Threadripper 1920X 3.5 GHz 12-Core Processor	$424.79 @ B&H
CPU Cooler	Noctua - NH-U14S TR4-SP3 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler	$79.90 @ Amazon
Motherboard	ASRock - Fatal1ty X399 Professional Gaming ATX TR4 Motherboard	$364.98 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill - Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$85.98 @ Newegg
Memory	G.Skill - Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$85.98 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1071.63
	Mail-in rebates	-$30.00
	Total	$1041.63
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-02-20 15:44 EST-0500

 

[Jarsky]

PCI-E lanes can be shared for general devices, and GPU's PCIe 3.0 x8 is equivelant to PCIe 2.0 x16 pretty much which is about 8Gbit....even an RTX2080Ti only see's about a 5-8% performance drop on x8 vs x16.

 

How many cores are you after? 

I upgraded my server from a dual westmere (2 x X5650's) to the X299 platform because I dont really need the cores, and it destroys my old server. 

 

EVGA X299 FTW-K board (on Amazon) is $180

Intel 7800x (6C/12T) is $370

 

Then however much ram you need

 

 

 

[bloodthirster]

1 hour ago, ki8aras said:

well then threadripper isnt that unreasonable unless you need crazy amounts of ram or cpu performance

64GB of ECC RAM for TR is about 800 in itself though.  Then you have the CPU and MB. 

[bloodthirster]

47 minutes ago, Jarsky said:

PCI-E lanes can be shared for general devices, and GPU's PCIe 3.0 x8 is equivelant to PCIe 2.0 x16 pretty much which is about 8Gbit....even an RTX2080Ti only see's about a 5-8% performance drop on x8 vs x16.

 

How many cores are you after? 

I upgraded my server from a dual westmere (2 x X5650's) to the X299 platform because I dont really need the cores, and it destroys my old server. 

 

EVGA X299 FTW-K board (on Amazon) is $180

Intel 7800x (6C/12T) is $370

 

Then however much ram you need

 

 

 

Intel has Meltdown problems and x299 doesn't support ECC RAM iirc. 

[SupaKomputa]

9 minutes ago, bloodthirster said:

64GB of ECC RAM for TR is about 800 in itself though.  Then you have the CPU and MB. 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Discount-computer-HUANAN-ZHI-dual-CPU-X79-LGA2011-motherboard-with-CPU-Intel-Xeon-E5-2697V2-SR19H/

[alex75871]

13 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Discount-computer-HUANAN-ZHI-dual-CPU-X79-LGA2011-motherboard-with-CPU-Intel-Xeon-E5-2697V2-SR19H/

That looks dodgy AF. No such thing as dual socket X79.

[bloodthirster]

31 minutes ago, alex75871 said:

That looks dodgy AF. No such thing as dual socket X79.

Yup, and it's meltdown'd and doesn't have enough PCI lanes/slots.

[SupaKomputa]

6 hours ago, alex75871 said:

That looks dodgy AF. No such thing as dual socket X79.

Call dodgy as you want, no one producing new x79 anymore.
Huanan is the only one who see opportunity in the abundance of cheap multi cores 2011 server leftovers.

If OP asking for dual socket DDR3 for $1000 this is the only choice he got.

 

[bloodthirster]

9 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

If OP asking for dual socket DDR3 for $1000 this is the only choice he got. 

No, it's not the only choice I have.  I literally have a better solution than what you're suggestion in the OP.

[SupaKomputa]

7 minutes ago, bloodthirster said:

No, it's not the only choice I have.  I literally have a better solution than what you're suggestion in the OP.

what? i'm talking new motherboard.

$1000 with new motherboard, dual 12cores and 64gb.

[ki8aras]

13 hours ago, bloodthirster said:

64GB of ECC RAM for TR is about 800 in itself though.  Then you have the CPU and MB. 

do u need that much ram?

 

[bloodthirster]

9 hours ago, SupaKomputa said:

what? i'm talking new motherboard.

$1000 with new motherboard, dual 12cores and 64gb.

#1 it's from AliExpress

#2 there was never a dual core x79 to my knowledge

#3 x79 doesn't support ECC RAM IIRC

#4 not enough memory channels and DIMMs

#5 not enough PCI lanes/slots

#6 I don't mind buying used

 

A used Supermicro dual G34 board would server (pun not intended) me much better than a cheap non-official Chinese knock off.

 

3 hours ago, ki8aras said:

do u need that much ram?

 

ZFS + memory heavy applications (engineering, photo editing, etc) + VMs = I'd really rather have 64GB.  I might be able to get by with 32GB but I'd rather not. 

[alex75871]

16 hours ago, SupaKomputa said:

Call dodgy as you want, no one producing new x79 anymore.
Huanan is the only one who see opportunity in the abundance of cheap multi cores 2011 server leftovers.

If OP asking for dual socket DDR3 for $1000 this is the only choice he got.

 

You do realize there was never a dual socket X79, right? The chipset doesn't even support dual socket. Look at Intel's specification here: https://ark.intel.com/products/64015/Intel-X79-Express-Chipset

 

"Max CPU Configuration: 1"

[bloodthirster]

Got 2 CPUs, a Supermicro MB, 128GB of RAM and 2 heatsinks for about 700. 

 

Assuming everything works, that'll be all I need for a while. 

[vrod]

I was just about to recommend getting a HPE ML350 Gen8 or Dell T620... you get dual socket boards, lots of pcie lanes for s low price. And many times lots of memory with them. Supermicro is great as well!

[bloodthirster]

Yeah, I've had good luck with SuperMicro.  The thing about a lot of HP and Dell systems is that they use proprietary MB layouts which I don't want.  But yeah, everything should be here by Wednesday so we'll see. 

[alex75871]

10 hours ago, bloodthirster said:

Yeah, I've had good luck with SuperMicro.  The thing about a lot of HP and Dell systems is that they use proprietary MB layouts which I don't want.  But yeah, everything should be here by Wednesday so we'll see. 

Awesome choice. I have been using Supermicro motherboards for years and they have never let me down. Their non-proprietary layouts are great for consumer-orientated chassis better suited to home use.