Server upgrade, is the Xeon E5 2666v3 + x99 motherboard still a good kit?

[Chriexpe]

I'm currently running a SFF HP Elitedesk 800 G1 (i7 4770 + 32GB RAM) but I always had reliability issues with it, aside from very basic I/O, WoL only boots from HDD (but I need USB) and generally the server won't boot due to the RAM modules (I need to remove the last two modules for it to boot)... After some searching I found this combo on Aliexpress with Xeon E5 2666v3 + x99 motherboard, by comparing both CPUs head to head the Xeon surprisinly have almost the same single core performance as the i7 with the advantage of having more than double the cores, and this mobo possibly won't have the same isses as my current one. It seems a clear upgrade right?

 

But here am I wondering the following dilema: If I'm goint to upgrade it, why not get something actually better? Now I ask you guys any suggestion of good CPU+MOBO, it doesn't matter if it costs double of that Xeon+X99 (around $300/$400 for CPU+MOBO).

 

I don't use the server for Plex transcoding, and even if I did there would be only me using it.

There is one VM for Home Assistant.

A bunch of dockers for Reverse Proxy, authentication, DB, file manager, DVR etc.

The only really demanding thing that I run on it is Minecraft server (there might be other game server but this is the main one), which I always try to run at 32 chunks (but it's on the limit of my server).

The OS is Unraid, with 3x8TB hdd on ZFS + 500GB SSD as cache (for appdata/dockers etc.), the RAM is 4x8GB but later I'll get 4x16GB (ECC if supported). Btw by default I always leave half of the RAM for ZFS.

I also have raid card but frankly I'd would use only motherboard SATA if possible. And I don't plan in adding more storage, perhaps only swapping the SSD for NVME if the board allows it.

Power consumption isn't a problem.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Zando_]

i5 12400 and a decent B660 board should do all that (X99 doesn't support ECC either so that wouldn't have been a possibility to begin with) faster while pulling less power, especially at idle. More reliable to boot, those off-brand X99 boards are made with QA reject chipsets and components/construction of meh quality, I wouldn't put them in something I want running 24/7 with minimal problems.

 

For the i5 a more barebones board like this should work:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/W27hyK

CPU: Intel Core i5-12400 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($187.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B660M Phantom Gaming 4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $297.98
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-01-10 23:38 EST-0500

 

There are nicer built boards that also have 6 SATA ports instead of 4 (so room to add more drives without needing a PCIe add-in card), but they don't have Intel NICs and those are the best for reliability.

[Blue4130]

2 hours ago, Zando_ said:

 those off-brand X99 boards are made with QA reject chipsets and components/construction of meh quality, I wouldn't put them in something I want running 24/7 with minimal problems.

 

 

They are actually usually made from salvaged c602 / c612 server chipsets and support ECC fine. As for quality, I can't comment on all, but I've been running one for about 5 years now and it's been fine. BUT I have heard stories of people being not so lucky.

[Chriexpe]

19 hours ago, Zando_ said:

i5 12400 and a decent B660 board should do all that (X99 doesn't support ECC either so that wouldn't have been a possibility to begin with) faster while pulling less power, especially at idle. More reliable to boot, those off-brand X99 boards are made with QA reject chipsets and components/construction of meh quality, I wouldn't put them in something I want running 24/7 with minimal problems.

 

17 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

They are actually usually made from salvaged c602 / c612 server chipsets and support ECC fine. As for quality, I can't comment on all, but I've been running one for about 5 years now and it's been fine. BUT I have heard stories of people being not so lucky.

Well this might be the reason why these boards are so cheap, but I agree, perhaps It might not be reliable to leave it running indefinitely.

 

20 hours ago, Zando_ said:

For the i5 a more barebones board like this should work:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/W27hyK

CPU: Intel Core i5-12400 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($187.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B660M Phantom Gaming 4 Micro ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $297.98

Whoah I didn't thought about using a newer i5, comparing to some CPUs it's a beast in single thread! Thank you!

Also just in case, if I really wanted actual server-grade CPU and mobo, or dual CPU combos, would these Xeon be worth it? Considering my current use, I don't have experience with high-core servers.

[Zando_]

17 minutes ago, Chriexpe said:

Also just in case, if I really wanted actual server-grade CPU and mobo, or dual CPU combos, would these Xeon be worth it? Considering my current use, I don't have experience with high-core servers.

If power is cheap, yeah LGA2011 and 2011-3 CPUs can be great. They'll just suck a lot more watts and kick out a lot more heat than the suggested i5.

[Nick7]

Newer gen 'non-server' will blow away that config for less $$$ and less cores, and much less power draw.

Basically, only reason to use these days X99 socket is if you need lots of PCIe lanes and lots of PCIe slots for I/O.

 

[Blue4130]

3 minutes ago, Nick7 said:

Newer gen 'non-server' will blow away that config for less $$$ and less cores, and much less power draw.

Basically, only reason to use these days X99 socket is if you need lots of PCIe lanes and lots of PCIe slots for I/O.

 

And sweet juicy affordable ram. 24 ram slots? Thank you very much. Completely overkill, but hey, why not.

[Nick7]

20 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

And sweet juicy affordable ram. 24 ram slots? Thank you very much. Completely overkill, but hey, why not.

Comparing eggs and oranges. Not even apples and oranges.

 

Check OP's link for x99 motherboard he linked.

 

What you shown is server grade mobo (that does NOT fit standard ATX housing), dual socket, but is proprietary build for specific server.

 

It does not fit ATX housing, you cannot use regular ATX PSU, you need SAS backplane, etc...

[Blue4130]

35 minutes ago, Nick7 said:

Comparing eggs and oranges. Not even apples and oranges.

 

Check OP's link for x99 motherboard he linked.

 

What you shown is server grade mobo (that does NOT fit standard ATX housing), dual socket, but is proprietary build for specific server.

 

It does not fit ATX housing, you cannot use regular ATX PSU, you need SAS backplane, etc...

Oh I know. I just mean c612 and old server stuff in general. This day and age, it's an ill advised purchase for 99% of users out there, but you can't deny that having a completely silly amount of ram would not be fun to say. (And there are other boards that follow more standardized for factors, not just this proprietary intel board)

[Nick7]

It is 'fun' to use that old HW, and plug in (cheap) RAM, etc...

But if buying stuff now, for something with purpose, it's not really advised, as you say it too.

 

I used to own x79 mobo.. and was fun - having 6 16x PCIe slots (OK, not all are 16 lanes), but lots of stuff to plug in (FC adapter, SAS adapter, 2x GPU, etc...)

[Blue4130]

28 minutes ago, Nick7 said:

It is 'fun' to use that old HW, and plug in (cheap) RAM, etc...

But if buying stuff now, for something with purpose, it's not really advised, as you say it too.

 

I used to own x79 mobo.. and was fun - having 6 16x PCIe slots (OK, not all are 16 lanes), but lots of stuff to plug in (FC adapter, SAS adapter, 2x GPU, etc...)

I completely agree, the only reason why I use one is because it was my wifes, old computer that was later replaced. We've been using it for the better part of 7 years. I would never recommend someone to buy one now. There are so many better options today.

[Aragorn-]

See my recent post about rebuilding my server to use more modern hardware. I would definitely recommend the 12400/B660 route over X99, especially at the same cost.

 

https://linustechtips.com/topic/1479046-home-server-power-savings-a-recap/

Nothing your doing is particularly CPU hungry and the 12400 with its great single thread will chomp thru Minecraft, whereas those old Xeons might even be slower than your existing CPU due to lower clocks! 

And ofcourse, if you need more CPU down the line, you can drop in a 12700/13700 etc etc 

[Jerakl]

16 hours ago, Chriexpe said:

 

Whoah I didn't thought about using a newer i5, comparing to some CPUs it's a beast in single thread! Thank you!

Also just in case, if I really wanted actual server-grade CPU and mobo, or dual CPU combos, would these Xeon be worth it? Considering my current use, I don't have experience with high-core servers.

I was running a 4770k on my Mc server before, a couple years back (when the 11th gen was relatively new) I picked up an 11600k (or some form of 11th gen i5 idr for sure) on a reasonable deal at a local store and it's been good.

 

Single core is strong (which if the Mc server is your main demand is what it needs), and it has enough cores (at least for me) to run another server or something on as well. 

 

And as others have said, any xeon you'd probably get would have no nearly as good single core performance as any recent i5. 

 

I'm unsure how an amd equivalent would stack up but if you're looking for a cheap upgrade I'd +1 the i5 path. 

[wseaton]

I've been using 12100 and 12400s based Desktops for smaller server builds, and they destroy my Xeon Racks in terms of performance and power consumption. Both those chips have damn near double the per core performance of the Xeon. Pretty sad when a SQL server running on Virtualbox on a Desktop outruns a $4,000 Xeon server running VMware.

 

The only big advantage of a Xeon in my book anymore is ECC memory.

 

 

 

 

[Jerakl]

On 1/12/2023 at 12:22 PM, wseaton said:

I've been using 12100 and 12400s based Desktops for smaller server builds, and they destroy my Xeon Racks in terms of performance and power consumption. Both those chips have damn near double the per core performance of the Xeon. Pretty sad when a SQL server running on Virtualbox on a Desktop outruns a $4,000 Xeon server running VMware.

 

The only big advantage of a Xeon in my book anymore is ECC memory.

 

 

 

 

ONLY other advantage I can think of of a xeon is the potential for more cores for more VMs or smth.

That being said if you're using the server for any sort of single core performance application (i.e MC server as mentioned above) the xeon will be absolutely useless compared to even a 9th gen intel CPU.