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Cheap server (288GB DDR3+Xeon) is it worth? ~1200Eur budget

Im trying to build a server for deploying multiple VMs + executing some RAM hungry programs (some astronomy data models).

 

I found some "not so expensive" componentes like:

 

Supermicro rack case 1U: 250 Eur

Tyan 7012s motherboard: 120 Eur

Ram 16GB 1333Hhz 18 sticks: 720 Eur

CPU Dual Intel Xeon x5675 LGA 1366: 30 Eur

Two SSD Kingston A400 SSD SA400S37/480G: 90 Eur

 

The total price is around 1200Eur

 

I wanted to know/understand if by using "old" HW is still worth. 288GB of DDR4 RAM is way expensive, also the MB and the processors. The price increase ~3 times.

 

There is an specific purpose for this:

 

Deploying VMs to test k8s distros, deploy OpenStack, and run some RAM hungry data processing scripts.

 

 

Thanks!!

 

 

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If you need lots of RAM, go with server motherboard which uses Xeon and registered RAM.

RDIMM's are quite cheap on e-bay, since you can only use them in servers.

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Skip that setup. What you should do is get a normal used server for pretty cheap. I'd aim for a xeon v3 or something and some cheap used ecc ddr3.

 

The x5675 cpu is already over 10 years old by now and pretty darn bad at this point. So I would not use it at all.

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Yeah, the question is that if it is worth to invest 1200Eur in such "old" HW, in contrast of investing in newer HW.

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Just now, ccamacho said:

Yeah, the question is that if it is worth to invest 1200Eur in such "old" HW, in contrast of investing in newer HW.

Not for Westmere Xeons.

I have a server with the same CPUs and a ton (though not that much) of RAM, and it's fine for local stuff, but really falls down on VMs. Def. not worth 1200$

NOTE: I no longer frequent this site. If you really need help, PM/DM me and my e.mail will alert me. 

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9 minutes ago, ccamacho said:

Ram 16GB 1333Hhz 18 sticks: 720 Eur

This seems like a horrible price, don't think I've paid that much per GB for DDR3 RDIMM

 

4 minutes ago, ccamacho said:

Yeah, the question is that if it is worth to invest 1200Eur in such "old" HW, in contrast of investing in newer HW.

At that total amount no, not really. For that amount I'd be wanting LGA2011 generation not LGA1366.

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Thanks @Radium_Angel do you know if something like a Xeon E5-2650L might be a better fit for VMs? If so Ill try to get a mobo that fits two of them.

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1 minute ago, ccamacho said:

Xeon E5-2650L

That's still Sandy Bridge-era CPUs...right now, I'd be looking at the price of DDR3 RAM, do you really need 288GB of it?

As someone else said, look into the v3 line of E5-Xeons, remember, if you are pushing a lot of VMs, you need throughput and cores per VM to take advantage of all that ram, so a high core count might be beneficial. 

 

Explain, if you can, in more detail about how many VMs at one time, case use, etc. Might help us help you

NOTE: I no longer frequent this site. If you really need help, PM/DM me and my e.mail will alert me. 

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6 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

That's still Sandy Bridge-era CPUs...right now, I'd be looking at the price of DDR3 RAM, do you really need 288GB of it?

As someone else said, look into the v3 line of E5-Xeons, remember, if you are pushing a lot of VMs, you need throughput and cores per VM to take advantage of all that ram, so a high core count might be beneficial. 

 

Explain, if you can, in more detail about how many VMs at one time, case use, etc. Might help us help you

Sure thing, ie:

 

An 8-node OpenShift cluster (3 masters, 2 workers, 3 ceph) which can be around 250GB of RAM, and in other cases run some long run scripts to process data in the Hypervisor directly.

 

Im not sure if a V3 E5-x will be compatible with DDR3 modules though.

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2 minutes ago, ccamacho said:

V3 E5-x will be compatible with DDR3 modules though.

Heh, there exist some Chinese "x99" mobos that do work with DDR3, though they don't support ECC.

But plenty of v2 E5 ones do (I'm typing this on my Precision T7610 with dual E5-2643 v2 Xeons with 64GB ECC Reg DDR3 RAM the mobo supports half a terabyte if I wanted to spend that much) 

NOTE: I no longer frequent this site. If you really need help, PM/DM me and my e.mail will alert me. 

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21 minutes ago, ccamacho said:

@leadeaterthanks! Do you know what is a "nice" price per GB for such amount of RAM?

Not sure, it's been a long time since I've brought any so the price might have gone up significantly due to recent issues. Sadly my purchase of it is before 2019 and that is as far back as ebay will let me see my transaction history.

 

Very quick check of ebay and I can get 16GB DDR3 RDIMM 1866 for 35.73USD per DIMM or 643.14USD for 18 of them. Might be cheaper than that with a longer look.

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28 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Not sure, it's been a long time since I've brought any so the price might have gone up significantly due to recent issues. Sadly my purchase of it is before 2019 and that is as far back as ebay will let me see my transaction history.

 

Very quick check of ebay and I can get 16GB DDR3 RDIMM 1866 for 35.73USD per DIMM or 643.14USD for 18 of them. Might be cheaper than that with a longer look.

Last time I bought DDR3 RDIMM's they were $20 a pop. Still not horrible for the density, though. Better than 32GB LRDIMMs too, lol.

PC Specs - AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D MSI B550M Mortar - 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR4-3600 @ CL16 - ASRock RX7800XT 660p 1TBGB & Crucial P5 1TB Fractal Define Mini C CM V750v2 - Windows 11 Pro

 

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awesome, Ill try to use then something around an Intel Xeon ES E5-26xx V2 trying to get it "not so expensive" (this one looks good

E5-2695V2), I'll try to find a better price on the mem sticks and one more thing.. Any mobo that has a nice price/value ratio, better dual socket?

 

I dont trust much in these kind of stuff TBH.. https://es.aliexpress.com/item/33013006288.html

Maybe this can be an option:

    - Supermicro X9DRI-LN4F+

    - Asus Z9PA-D8 up to 8 RAM sticks

    - Intel S2600IP4

    - Gigabyte GA-7PESH1

 

So far all of them discontinued at this time.

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TBH, I'd get used HP DL360 Gen8, and just load it with RAM... or Dell/IBM/other with 2011 socket and DDR3 (RDIMM) support.

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Yeah, the problem with that is that those servers are really bulky and noisy..

From Aliexpress, I found this
 

HUANANZHI X79-8D CPU LGA2011 LGA 2011 motherboard with dual processor DDR3 Suitable for server memory and server CPU
US $179.00

 

Intel Xeon Serv Processor E5-2670 V2 E5 2670 V2 CPU 2.5 LGA 2011 SR1A7 Ten Cores Desktop processor e5 2670V2 100% normal work
US $62.50

 

DDR3 32GB 1866
US $90.97x8

 

Around 1000USD ~ 800Eur

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On the other side:

 

DDR4 32GB (120x4) : 480Eur

ASRock Rack X570D4U-2L2T: 400Eur

AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 4750G: 300Eur

nvme m.2 500GB disk: 50Eur

 

Looks like a newer, **faster, less power hungry configuration, the downside is that I have way less RAM and is a bit more expensive...

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12 minutes ago, ccamacho said:

On the other side:

 

DDR4 32GB (120x4) : 480Eur

ASRock Rack X570D4U-2L2T: 400Eur

AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 4750G: 300Eur

nvme m.2 500GB disk: 50Eur

 

Looks like a newer, **faster, less power hungry configuration, the downside is that I have way less RAM and is a bit more expensive...

How much ram do you need? how much ram are you giving your simulations and vms?

 

I have one of these asrock rack systems and it works well. Id get the non g version fo the cpu though, cheaper and faster normally. And the board has a igpu built in.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello,

After a lot of reading I bought a https://www.asus.com/es/Commercial-Servers-Workstations/Z11PA-D8/ (140Eur in amazon.es so I think I hit the jackpot there)

 

Now, Ill go try sourcing some second hand DDR4 modules (in amazon.es around 130Eur each 32GB, 520Eur) and two QS CPU's (something cheap not more than 300Eur both CPUs) hopefully this wont break the bank.

 

Two nvme disks around 50Eur each (500GB will be enough).

 

This setup (im still missing the case and the heatsinks) should be around 1200Eur which is relatively new HW and not so expensive.

 

Do we know if the Z11 will work with QS CPUs?

 

 

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what programs are you doing to run exactly and do these programs utilize all cores or do they benefit more from high clock speeds?

 

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