home server cpu

[Bartelsh]

i want to build a windows home server but i have no idea what is best for a server. does it need to be a high end cpu or is an i3 fine? is more cores better for a server? what would be a good cpu?  etc. advice is very welcome. 

[MaartenDekkers]

i3 is fine

[flibberdipper]

Depends on the use. If it's for a home server, a Haswell i3 will be more than enough. If it's for business or corporate or whatever, then I would think about an i5 maybe.

[Mecami]

You could go with a Kaveri APU as well, that way you will have decent power with integrated graphics at a very low price point.

[Bartelsh]

You could go with a Kaveri APU as well, that way you will have decent power with integrated graphics at a very low price point.

yeah but graphics is like least priority on a server

[Bartelsh]

i3 is fine

 

 

Depends on the use. If it's for a home server, a Haswell i3 will be more than enough. If it's for business or corporate or whatever, then I would think about an i5 maybe.

and what about amd?

[MaartenDekkers]

and what about amd?

AMD is schitt

[i_build_nanosuits]

FX 8 core is what i would go with...excellent multi-threaded performance for the price...perfect for servers...this is what those CPU's where designed for in the first place.

[flibberdipper]

and what about amd?

No. Just... No.

[Mecami]

yeah but graphics is like least priority on a server

Of course it is, but it's handy to have. The i3 also has an iGPU.

[EricPont]

Get the 18core xeon :-)

[coen113]

Get an i3 i would ignore the amd fanboys above

[Ratul Sen]

You can use AMD for a budget build.

Intel if you want to throw up more money.

 

AMD = AMD A4/A6 (Any Model).

Intel = Intel Pentium G2020.

 

Going with Core i3, i5 is for gaming builds.

 

Good luk with the build.  :lol:

[KingLich]

It depends on the use case. How many clients will be using it and for what? Also, what else do you plan to put in there? How fast will your storage array be?

 

I currently use a G3420 for my FreeNAS + Plex + Other plugins on a 2+1 RAIDZ. I can saturate my Gigabit network with it and can stream and transcode HD to 3 players simultaneously. I don't think it could take more than that, though.

 

GIve us your exact idea of what you want to do, and maybe we can recommend something more taylored for you. For general NAS/Media Server use, I thing an Intel G series is enough.

[Face2Face]

It depends on the use case. How many clients will be using it and for what? Also, what else do you plan to put in there? How fast will your storage array be?

 

I currently use a G3420 for my FreeNAS + Plex + Other plugins on a 2+1 RAIDZ. I can saturate my Gigabit network with it and can stream and transcode HD to 3 players simultaneously. I don't think it could take more than that, though.

 

GIve us your exact idea of what you want to do, and maybe we can recommend something more taylored for you. For general NAS/Media Server use, I thing an Intel G series is enough.

Impressive. Any idea what bitrate those HD streams are? I have noticed with the Amazon Fire TV, mostly only audio is transcoding. I set my bandwidth limit to maximum and have a wired connection, so it direct play's most 720 and 1080 movies - h.264 - mp4 and mkv.

[Bartelsh]

It depends on the use case. How many clients will be using it and for what? Also, what else do you plan to put in there? How fast will your storage array be?

 

I currently use a G3420 for my FreeNAS + Plex + Other plugins on a 2+1 RAIDZ. I can saturate my Gigabit network with it and can stream and transcode HD to 3 players simultaneously. I don't think it could take more than that, though.

 

GIve us your exact idea of what you want to do, and maybe we can recommend something more taylored for you. For general NAS/Media Server use, I thing an Intel G series is enough.

probably two or 3 users max at the same time. i want it to be able to do regular nightly backups of the connected pc's and i want to stream music and hd videos to at least two users at the same time. if your intel pentium is cabable of doing more than that then i think i might go with something even cheaper

[91Chris]

Maybe buy a used server? Old dual Xeon servers go for nothing on ebay. It's kind of overkill if all you want to do is use it as a network storage, but then they cost fuck all.

[KingLich]

Impressive. Any idea what bitrate those HD streams are? I have noticed with the Amazon Fire TV, mostly only audio is transcoding. I set my bandwidth limit to maximum and have a wired connection, so it direct play's most 720 and 1080 movies - h.264 - mp4 and mkv.

 

Around 2500kbps video and 300kbps audio (depending on the file) for the higher quality 1080p, at least that's what the file details say. I direct play to PCs as well, but I need to use Plex for other players and it transcodes a lot of stuff. The test with 3 players involved a phone, a PS3 and a PC accessing my Plex server over the web. The remote PC was actually clocking around 30Mbps network traffic during playback.

 

probably two or 3 users max at the same time. i want it to be able to do regular nightly backups of the connected pc's and i want to stream music and hd videos to at least two users at the same time. if your intel pentium is cabable of doing more than that then i think i might go with something even cheaper

 

The  G3420 is pretty cheap. I got it because it was the cheapest thing I could find with a reasonably low TDP that would support 32GB or RAM (I have 16 now, but if I add more storage I'll need to increase the RAM too because ZFS is such a memory hog). You could take a look at the G3240 Haswell Refresh that just came out. Going lower won't save you much money, I think.

 

There are also the Intel Avoton mini-ITX server platforms that perform very well, come soldered onto motherboards with great NICs and lots of SATAs and consume ridiculously little power, but they're also quite expensive. I initially wanted to use an Asrock C2550DI, but newegg refused to take my order, so I had to shop locally

 

Edit: I'm a bit worried about misleading with my questionable amount of RAM, so I'll explain. It's recommended to have at least 1GB RAM per 1TB storage with ZFS. I'm nowhere near that amount of storage yet, but I changed the RAM in my gaming PC, so the NAS inherited the old RAM (didn't want to mix and match). I only plan to go to 32 once I pass 12-16 TB of storage. That said, FreeNAS has no trouble filling the whole 16GB I currently have immediately when I write large amounts of data to the NAS. You need nowhere near that much RAM if you're not running ZFS.

Edited June 12, 2014 by KingLich

[ltguy]

FX 8 core is what i would go with...excellent multi-threaded performance for the price...perfect for servers...this is what those CPU's where designed for in the first place.

Wow... just wow. I'm speechless.  A 125 watt part in a server...  not unless you want a 24/7 space heater.

[Bartelsh]

thank you all for the support, i am going with an old server and if i can't find one cheap enough i will build my own with a G3240. thanks @KingLich