Network workstation/server for scientific/computational purposes

[Jerakl]

Hi all,

 

Disclaimer, this might trend more towards "workstation" build, but ideally I'd like it to be a server machine.

I've been looking into constructing a better version of my server machine, this time serving more applications than the current one.
Currently I have a 11600k and some form of basic MSI motherboard with 32gb of mid-tier RAM. At this time I really only use it to run modded minecraft servers. I've been meaning to set these up with virtualization for some time, as right now they're just running off an ubuntu desktop install with a webinterface (MineOS).

Of note, this DOES NOT have to replace the game machine. I am perfectly fine having two distinct machines for their respective purposes, but I figured I'd mention what I already have in case it could be convenient to roll it all into one machine.

Lately I've been pondering construction/obtaining a machine for scientific purposes. These would primarily be OpenFOAM (CFD) and, of course, MATLAB.
From my research OpenFOAM (and from what I can tell, CFD programs in general) just EAT memory bandwidth and as such the general consensus among OpenFOAM users is that your performance will scale with amount of memory controllers on any given CPU. This basically leads to server processors being the best choice for CFD, and is why most grad students/professors at a university are booking super computer time for their research. However, I am (for the moment) doing independent research/personal projects and as such don't have access to that (obviously - or I wouldn't be making this post lol). Essentially, even older EPYC processors (7351) nearly doubling performance of the contemporary threadripper (1950x), which checks out as the max memory bandwidth of the EPYC is ~2x (rough guess) that of the threadripper. (https://openfoamwiki.net/index.php/Benchmarks) 

According to the MATLAB website:

Quote

MATLAB performance is dependent on the presence of floating-point hardware. On many CPUs, the number of Floating-Point Units (FPUs) equals the number of CPU cores. However, on some processors, a single FPU may be shared between multiple CPU cores, potentially creating a performance bottleneck.

Choosing Hardware - MATLAB - MATLAB

 

There are two constraints I have for this (potential) project:
1. I can't really have a full on server in my room with fans spinning at 20k rpm (or however fast they go), so I'm sort of limited to hardware I could slap in some form of tower case

2. Availability is a concern. I'm mostly focused on what's available locally. This will come into play in the next section.

Here's what it comes down to - locally available (marketplace) there is a threadripper 2990wx + 1950x (colfax/zen 1 based threadrippers CPUs) available with motherboard, ram, and powersupply (essentially the entire system) for a "reasonable" price (~1000 CAD). The bundle also includes some other bits and bobs, an RTX 2060 among them. Provided everything works this seems to be a reasonable deal to meet my requirements.

However due to the performance scaling of OpenFOAM (basically) with memory bandwidth, meaning that theoretically in OpenFOAM scenarios (if we assume direct scaling off max memory bandwidth - AKA ideal conditions) the EPYC 7351 would perform ~58% better than the 2990wx, and ~67% better than the 1950x. This would tell us that the choice is obvious - just pick up an EPYC server, but I'm not sure where I can source the hardware to construct a workstation as I have the aforementioned "no actual 20k rpm fan servers in my bedroom" constraint. Ebay maybe (if trustworthy), because I saw some EPYC 7351's for ~150 CAD, but unsure about M/B and chassis support (I have a spare tower case I would ideally like to use).

The 2990WX or 1950x (because honestly the 2990wx sells used for like ~700 CAD on ebay and actually moves units, so I could essentially get the 1950x + all the other stuff for ~300 CAD lol) would probably provide adequate processing power for my needs (game server virtualization and MATLAB), but at the expense of having subpar OpenFOAM performance compared to an EPYC machine .

TL;DR:
So it comes down to this - is it practical to construct a server hardware (EPYC primarily) based tower/workstation/server machine (that isn't an actual rack unit bc I want to be able to fall asleep if it's running overnight lmao), and if so where is a good place to look for the hardware? If EPYC hardware wouldn't be cost comparable (to a full 1950x machine @ ~300 CAD, or a 2990wx machine @ ~800 CAD) for similar performance, are there other current consumer offerings I could cobble together a server machine out of that would be competitive (using a desktop AMD or intel CPU for example, as I have with my current game server machine). 

 

If there's any other info needed I'll do my best to answer, I wrote this in kind of a rush because my laptop was near death lol.

Apologies if this is in the wrong section. I intend it to be a network machine so I figured this was the best section.

 

Thanks for any advice!