I9-9900K or 3900X for an UnRAID Server

[davidst95]

Hi, I a desktop with a desktop a I9-9900K and RTX 2080 (non-super).   I purchased a AMD Ryzen 3900X and motherboard for a UnRAID Server.   After looking at both setups I don't know which CPU I should use for my desktop and which one for UnRAID.   On the UnRAID Server I plan to run a couple of VMs and a couple of dockers.   If anyone could tell me which CPU I should use which I would be greatly appreciated.   I keep going back and forth.   Both setup has 64GB DRR4 3600Mhz of RAM.   Thanks!

David

[RAM555789]

Depends on the purpose of the VMs really. Even though AMD is kickass at multicore performance, I would still value Intel's stability over it for things like important VMs. AMD Ryzen is still relatively new, and has a LOT of BIOS updates, and while it's a lot more stable and compatible with just about everything unlike when it first launched I would still stick with Intel.

[Dravinian]

3 minutes ago, RAM555789 said:

Depends on the purpose of the VMs really. Even though AMD is kickass at multicore performance, I would still value Intel's stability over it for things like important VMs. AMD Ryzen is still relatively new, and has a LOT of BIOS updates, and while it's a lot more stable and compatible with just about everything unlike when it first launched I would still stick with Intel.

I disagree, it would depend on the purpose of the desktop.

 

Either one of those CPUs is going to be overkill for "a couple of VMs".  I run a couple of VMs on an i7 4790k.

 

What do you intend to do on the desktop? Play games? browse the web? Watch TV/Movies/Youtube? Compile Code? Render 3d Models? Edit and encode 4k movies?

 

Without knowing that I don't see how anyone can give you an opinion on which you should use in the server.

[davidst95]

Hi, thanks so much for the replies.   I used my desktop main with Windows 10 for programming for work (mainly c#/python) using one or two Ubuntu VMs.   On my downtime I play games such as Star Wars the last Jedi and GTAV.   I will be purchasing the new Microsoft Flight Simulator next month.   I would rather have a desktop with better performance over a better server.   In my UnRAID setup I plan to mainly run a Plex Server, NextCloud and Pi-Hole.   I have a GTX 1660 TI to use with the Plex Server for transcoding.  I was thinking about using the I9-9900K in the UnRAID Server because I could use Intel Quick Sync for Plex and I could sell the GTX 1660 TI.   Thanks gain.

 

David

[Dravinian]

50 minutes ago, davidst95 said:

Hi, thanks so much for the replies.   I used my desktop main with Windows 10 for programming for work (mainly c#/python) using one or two Ubuntu VMs.   On my downtime I play games such as Star Wars the last Jedi and GTAV.   I will be purchasing the new Microsoft Flight Simulator next month.   I would rather have a desktop with better performance over a better server.   In my UnRAID setup I plan to mainly run a Plex Server, NextCloud and Pi-Hole.   I have a GTX 1660 TI to use with the Plex Server for transcoding.  I was thinking about using the I9-9900K in the UnRAID Server because I could use Intel Quick Sync for Plex and I could sell the GTX 1660 TI.   Thanks gain.

 

David

I think you will be sacrificing a very small amount of gaming performance (like 5%) 'generally' by going AMD 3900x (it is better than the 3950x but still not as good as a 9900k for gaming).

 

My only hesitation would be regarding Flight Sim, I think you should probably ask in the Gaming Section whether there is any significant impact from AMD vs Intel - there might be people who hang there but don't have servers and the title wouldn't draw them here.

 

This is not a game that makes the usual benchmarks, so I don't have any information on the performance hit and sometimes the hit can be as high as 15% between the 3900x and the 9900k (rare cases), but if that game is one of those, then it might form part of the consideration for you.

 

I do think that quicksync will help you with the hardware (hw) transcoding, but bear in mind that if you intend to use FreeNAS you will struggle with hw encoding on an i9.

 

If you are not running FreeNAS then depending on your use case, the GPU could handle the hw transcoding with the AMD just fine (I run a GPU and AMD doing hw transcoding on a Plex server on windows).

 

I can see why you flipped back and forth to be honest.

 

If it comes to it, flip a coin, I don't think it will really make a difference.

[davidst95]

58 minutes ago, Dravinian said:

I think you will be sacrificing a very small amount of gaming performance (like 5%) 'generally' by going AMD 3900x (it is better than the 3950x but still not as good as a 9900k for gaming).

 

My only hesitation would be regarding Flight Sim, I think you should probably ask in the Gaming Section whether there is any significant impact from AMD vs Intel - there might be people who hang there but don't have servers and the title wouldn't draw them here.

 

This is not a game that makes the usual benchmarks, so I don't have any information on the performance hit and sometimes the hit can be as high as 15% between the 3900x and the 9900k (rare cases), but if that game is one of those, then it might form part of the consideration for you.

 

I do think that quicksync will help you with the hardware (hw) transcoding, but bear in mind that if you intend to use FreeNAS you will struggle with hw encoding on an i9.

 

If you are not running FreeNAS then depending on your use case, the GPU could handle the hw transcoding with the AMD just fine (I run a GPU and AMD doing hw transcoding on a Plex server on windows).

 

I can see why you flipped back and forth to be honest.

 

If it comes to it, flip a coin, I don't think it will really make a difference.

 

Thanks for all the info.   I think I'll stay with my current desktop with the I9 and use the 3900X for Unraid.

 

David