Advice for a workstation CPU

[Underscore]

Hey guys (and gals!),
As the title suggests I am looking for some advice on a CPU for a build I am putting together. Right now the build is only theoretical so I am not locked down to any platform or any generation yet. There are a few caviats though.

1. I will be using this machine as a workstation running Linux (Ubuntu).

2. I need as many cores/threads as possible. More cores = more better in my case.

3. I don't care if it is last gen or even 8 generations old. The CPU in my current work station is an AMD fx(?) 8350 from 2012 and its working pretty amazingly.

4. Probably the biggest caviat of all, I am a student and hence on a pretty skrappy budget. So I am preferably looking at stuff in the 200-250 CAD range.
5. Maybe not even an issue but I figured I'd throw it in here, the CPU has to be able to support atleast 32GB of RAM

6. Would like for the CPU to be atleast 8 cores, 16 threads, as the previous one was an 8 core. The cores don't have to be super fast, in this case quantity is better than quality(quality being speed here).
EDIT: The speed is actually more or less insignificant. As long as it runs at around 2.5 - 3+ Ghz the speed does not matter. I'd much rather invest in more cores or just a plain cheaper CPU at that point.

I am a FX artist working in a software called Houdini which is fairly well multithreaded both in normal operation and interfacing but also in its simulations and its renders, hence why more cores=more better.
The reason for this build is that in the times we are in I am working from home, no shock there. But because of this I have lost access to the oportunity to work on multiple computers at once. This is fairly significantly hampering my progress as starting a simulation will pegg all my CPU cores to 100% and start drastically filling my RAM for the next 20 minutes to 2 hours. In that time I can do absolutely nothing. So my hope would be to get an equivilant/preferably stronger machine that I could then switch to and continue working.

I have been poking around web stores aswell as craigslist and ebay looking at CPU but to be honest the naming scheemes for alot of these CPU's feel like a hot mess to me and I am having a hard time telling which CPU is two years old vs. three years old and if the prices I am seeing for them on the used market is actually normal or just straight up 500% what they should be. Not to mention the fact that I only know of a very limited number of CPU's, maybe there are whole lineups out there that I've not heard of but that would fit my needs perfectly.

So I am coming to you guys in the hopes that you guys have far greater and wider knowledge on the different skews and lineups of CPU's out there and might be able to help me find something that could fit my needs.

Thank you so much for the read, I know it probably got alittle ranty in the middle there. Any tips or comments are much appriciated.
P.S. Sorry if asking for 8+ cores for 200 CAD is absolute madness...

[Jeppes]

You could find a 2700(x) with that money. But youll need to spend another 250cad if not more for a motherboard and 32gb ram.

[CopiWasTaken]

Try getting an old or used Xeon, the AMD Ryzen 1700 is 160 used on ebay as well.

[Quackwich]

2 minutes ago, Jeppes said:

You could find a 2700(x) with that money. But youll need to spend another 250cad if not more for a motherboard and 32gb ram.

Do note that the 2700x doesn't come with an integrated GPU, so you'd need to buy a GPU too.

[Underscore]

2 minutes ago, Jeppes said:

You could find a 2700(x) with that money. But youll need to spend another 250cad if not more for a motherboard and 32gb ram.

Hmm, the motherboard and RAM should be fine(ish). The full budget is around 800CAD.

I guess it would be worth mentioning though that for most of the tasks I need it for, mainly simulations. While the higher core speed helps, it's really heavily contingent on the most amount of cores possible.

[Underscore]

2 minutes ago, ItzCopiouz said:

Try getting an old or used Xeon, the AMD Ryzen 1700 is 160 used on ebay as well.

Hmmm, the 1700 for some reason is one I did not look at. Only looked at the 1800. Don't know why I did not think to look at the 1700.
Would you happen to have any xeon's in mind? Been looking for some on ebay but most of the ones I've found, even if they seem to be quiet old are still going for 300-500 USD.

[Underscore]

3 minutes ago, Quackwich said:

Do note that the 2700x doesn't come with an integrated GPU, so you'd need to buy a GPU too.

Good to know! I do have a GPU here that I was thinking of using if the CPU did not have integrated graphics or I could not just run it of the motherboard directly. Its an old 750 ti but all it really needs to do is give me a 1080 screen so it'll probably do.

[Quackwich]

Just now, Underscore said:

Good to know! I do have a GPU here that I was thinking of using if the CPU did not have integrated graphics or I could not just run it of the motherboard directly. Its an old 750 ti but all it really needs to do is give me a 1080 screen so it'll probably do.

A 750ti will display in 1080p, no problem. However, I think you might get some bottleneck with the 2700x.

[Underscore]

Just now, Quackwich said:

A 750ti will display in 1080p, no problem. However, I think you might get some bottleneck with the 2700x.

Bottleneck as in how?

[Quackwich]

3 minutes ago, Underscore said:

Bottleneck as in how?

A GPU bottleneck is when your CPU is waiting for your GPU to finish rendering frames before sending it any more work. So basically your CPU is ready to send more frames to be rendered before the GPU has finished it's last workload.

 

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Ryzen_7_PRO_2700X/GeForce_GTX_750_Ti/0R60Jp8A/8/

 

They recommend to upgrade your GPU to at least a 1080 Ti.

[Jeppes]

 

3 minutes ago, Quackwich said:

A GPU bottleneck is when your CPU is waiting for your GPU to finish rendering frames before sending it any more work. So basically your CPU is ready to send more frames to be rendered before the GPU has finished it's last workload.

 

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Ryzen_7_PRO_2700X/GeForce_GTX_750_Ti/0R60Jp8A/8/

 

They recommend to upgrade your GPU to at least a 1080 Ti.

That has got nothing to do with his workflow.

 

 

[Jurrunio]

5 minutes ago, Quackwich said:

A GPU bottleneck is when your CPU is waiting for your GPU to finish rendering frames before sending it any more work. So basically your CPU is ready to send more frames to be rendered before the GPU has finished it's last workload.

 

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Ryzen_7_PRO_2700X/GeForce_GTX_750_Ti/0R60Jp8A/8/

 

They recommend to upgrade your GPU to at least a 1080 Ti.

and that does not apply to CPU rendering. He's using the 750ti as a display adapter mind you

[Underscore]

4 minutes ago, Quackwich said:

A GPU bottleneck is when your CPU is waiting for your GPU to finish rendering frames before sending it any more work. So basically your CPU is ready to send more frames to be rendered before the GPU has finished it's last workload.

 

https://pc-builds.com/calculator/Ryzen_7_PRO_2700X/GeForce_GTX_750_Ti/0R60Jp8A/8/

 

They recommend to upgrade your GPU to at least a 1080 Ti.

Well I am just going to be working on this machine, not gaming at all. So all I need the GPU to do is render my desktop/screen, thats it. Not going to be doing 3D renders with the graphics card at all. Its only task is making sure my screen has an image. I should'nt need a 1080TI for that, should I?

[CopiWasTaken]

16 minutes ago, Underscore said:

Hmmm, the 1700 for some reason is one I did not look at. Only looked at the 1800. Don't know why I did not think to look at the 1700.
Would you happen to have any xeon's in mind? Been looking for some on ebay but most of the ones I've found, even if they seem to be quiet old are still going for 300-500 USD.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-E5-2680-8-Core-2-70GHz-20MB-8GT-s-Server-CPU-Processor-LGA-2011-SR0KH/293316941021?hash=item444b0d54dd%3Ag%3AdUoAAOSwTvFdwyTk&LH_BIN=1

[Underscore]

5 minutes ago, ItzCopiouz said:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Xeon-E5-2680-8-Core-2-70GHz-20MB-8GT-s-Server-CPU-Processor-LGA-2011-SR0KH/293316941021?hash=item444b0d54dd%3Ag%3AdUoAAOSwTvFdwyTk&LH_BIN=1

OH! Now that is a VERY tempting offer! Wish I could get sticker shock like that more often! With that kind of a price I could even start contemplating getting two of them. Just thinking about 32 threads kinda has me drooling.

Thank you very very much good sir!

[CopiWasTaken]

Just now, Underscore said:

OH! Now that is a VERY tempting offer! Wish I could get sticker shock like that more often! With that kind of a price I could even start contemplating getting two of them. Just thinking about 32 threads kinda has me drooling.

Thank you very very much good sir!

No problem, always happy to help!

[Underscore]

18 minutes ago, ItzCopiouz said:

No problem, always happy to help!

One thing about the Xeon's though, or strictly speaking, something I'm noticing with some of the xeon motherboards, is that they only list compatability with a few GPU's, like this. Is this simply because they don't want to list every GPU under the sun or is this because the motherboard actually cannot function with any other graphics card?

[GDRRiley]

you maybe able to do a 2011 or 2011-3 xeon but boards are often hard to find.

these are all the high core, high clock 2011 xeons.

[toasty99]

So here is what I would do: Pick up two Xeon 2000 series v1 8 core CPUs. 

 

Then, you will need a motherboard. Since you are on a budget and won't be overclocking or anything like that I'd chance it with a Chinese motherboard because people have had relatively decent success rates with them. Something like this: https://h5.aliexpress.com/item/4000537131040.html?spm=a2g0n.seo-amp-search.searchResult.4000537131040

 

Then the nice part is you can use ECC ddr3 ram which is super cheap used. You can get like 32gb for $40. 

[Underscore]

8 minutes ago, toasty99 said:

So here is what I would do: Pick up two Xeon 2000 series v1 8 core CPUs. 

 

Then, you will need a motherboard. Since you are on a budget and won't be overclocking or anything like that I'd chance it with a Chinese motherboard because people have had relatively decent success rates with them. Something like this: https://h5.aliexpress.com/item/4000537131040.html?spm=a2g0n.seo-amp-search.searchResult.4000537131040

 

Then the nice part is you can use ECC ddr3 ram which is super cheap used. You can get like 32gb for $40. 

Hmm, very interesting! Not sure I would trust myself to be able to troubleshoot if something went to hell with the motherboard though. Just you average dude tech enthusiast knowledge on pc hardware. The CPU's are nice and god damn dirt cheap though, thanks!

[Jurrunio]

Problem with Xeons is that while the CPUs are cheap, the boards are hard to buy. Either they are really expensive, or they are from prebuilt systems and are really picky with everything else paired with them.

[Underscore]

1 minute ago, Jurrunio said:

Problem with Xeons is that while the CPUs are cheap, the boards are hard to buy. Either they are really expensive, or they are from prebuilt systems and are really picky with everything else paired with them.

You think thats whats up with this motherboard? That it is actually that picky on the graphics cards and only takes "RDIMM ECC" memory whatever that means.
https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-ca/sln290309/the-hardware-specifications-for-the-precision-t5600-desktop-workstation?lang=en

[toasty99]

15 minutes ago, Underscore said:

You think thats whats up with this motherboard? That it is actually that picky on the graphics cards and only takes "RDIMM ECC" memory whatever that means.
https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-ca/sln290309/the-hardware-specifications-for-the-precision-t5600-desktop-workstation?lang=en

You'd be better off buying the Chinese motherboard. The Chinese boards use off the shelf parts and normal connectors. Plenty of info online to troubleshoot them if you do run into issues. 

 

With OEM boards (especially Dell) so many things will not work. For one they use proprietary Power Supplies (not ATX), the board itself isn't atx or extended ATX (to fit it in a case have fun drilling your own holes), and there is a whole host of other issues you can run into as well. 

[Underscore]

3 minutes ago, toasty99 said:

You'd be better off buying the Chinese motherboard. The Chinese boards use off the shelf parts and normal connectors. Plenty of info online to troubleshoot them if you do run into issues. 

 

With OEM boards (especially Dell) so many things will not work. For one they use proprietary Power Supplies (not ATX), the board itself isn't atx or extended ATX (to fit it in a case have fun drilling your own holes), and there is a whole host of other issues you can run into as well. 

Hmmm, that id deffinetly good to know about the apple level of proprietary power connectors and mounting holes.

Stupid question, but does aliexpress have any kind of actually functioning return or refund? And is it possible to pay them more for faster shipping? I know it might be alot to ask of chinese listings like these. Just don't like the idea of gambling 90USD out of pocket and waiting for 4 weeks to have something doa and be shit out of luck. At that point i'd rather have it arrive faster to find it doa rather than waiting forever.

[toasty99]

11 minutes ago, Underscore said:

Hmmm, that id deffinetly good to know about the apple level of proprietary power connectors and mounting holes.

Stupid question, but does aliexpress have any kind of actually functioning return or refund? And is it possible to pay them more for faster shipping? I know it might be alot to ask of chinese listings like these. Just don't like the idea of gambling 90USD out of pocket and waiting for 4 weeks to have something doa and be shit out of luck. At that point i'd rather have it arrive faster to find it doa rather than waiting forever.

I've only bought a few very cheap things off AliExpress so I'm not the best one to answer that. I'm sure someone else with more experience with them could help more. 

 

However, you can buy a similar board on eBay if you want to pay a slight premium for peace of mind (still stuck with shipping from China). https://www.ebay.com/itm/174136424213