My new Desktop

[istoOi]

Hello everybody,

after over 5 years it's time for a new desktop pc. I already heave chosen the necessary components, wich i think they fit best for me. But i'm interested in your opinion and maybe you have some suggestions for me.


Overview:
My first choice for gaming was always console. Started with Nintendo NES and endet with PS3. But sinze i'm came across with Steam i want to switch from console to pc gaming.
But i'm not a hardcore gamer which needs 120FPS at 4k and so on. My old Radion HD 3800 makes an ... jea... acceptable job .
Im also interested in virtualisation. So minimum quad core CPU with HT and a butload of RAM is required. I'm not sure how the final setup will be.
I will try vmware vSphere, wich theoretically can be run on a non-server enviroment or Qubes-OS/XEN with gpu thoughput to a steam-os vm.... Maybe just a setup with type 2 hypervisor... not rly sure yet.
Besides that, i want to try out M.2 SSD for host OS.


My planed setup:

1) The case
I have not much room and i want to put it in a cabinet (open front, w 550mm, h 570mm, d 370mm).

My choice is the "Thermaltake Core V21" with window. The power switch and audio/usb ports are on the side, so i can put it sideways in and still have easy access tho them.

 

2) CPU
I'm not interested in overclocking so a Intel Xeon CPU is a cheap solution. I think the Intel Xeon E5-1620 v3, 4x 3.50GHz fits.

 

3) Graphics card
I choose a mid-class graphics gard from last year - MSI R9 270 Gaming 2G
It has a similar performance to the 270x, but it's cheaper and uses less energy (only one 6pin connector)
If it'S nessecery, the R9 series is also compatibel/tested with XEN GPU passthrough.

 

4) Motherboard
Now there are a couple of MB's with M.2, but most of them have ohnly 2 PCIe lanes, wich gives not a great performance boost compared to SATA III.
I only found one µATX Board wich has a x4 M.2 connector - the ASRock X99M Extreme4.
I know there is some rumor that Asrock uses some non-standard solutions wich can end in incompatibility with ohter hardware or using non windows os. I heard the same things about Asus too but my last PCs had all ASUS MB's and i never had any problems with these.
 

5) Memory / RAM
Beside Vendor, size and compatibility, nothing realy matters. My choice is simply Crucial DIMM Kit 32GB (4x8GB), DDR4-2133.

 

6) CPU Cooler
Corsair Hydro Series H90. Ready to go watercooling system with 140mm radiator.


7) Fan for Corsair Hydro radiator
I have only two reqirements: silent + pressure. My choice is a Noctua NF-A14 PWM 140mm in pull configuration.


8) Primary Drive
M.2 x4 has a max bandwith of 32Gb/s, but there is no M.2 SSD out there that can use it. Most of them are only made for 5 to 10 GB/s.
The fastest customer M.2 SSD is the Samsung XP941 with 16GB/s. My choice is the XP941 128GB.

9) Aditional Drives
SSD and HDD from my old System. The SSD is good as new.


10) Backup / Archiv Datastore
A NAS would be great, but in terms of costs, two interal HDD's in a RAID 1 configuration is enaugh. I don't need a high performance RAID. THe onboard solution should be enaugh.
My choice: 2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 1TB, SATA 6Gb/s

11) Power supply
450 watt should be enaugh, even if the whole system runs at 100% (will never happen).
The case is build for a may 200mm PSU.
My choice: Sea Sonic SSP-450RT 450W ATX 2.3
- Haswell support
- 2x 6+2 PCIe
- 4x SATA (MB has a spetial SATA power connector, so total of 5 Drives possible)


12) Case fans
Two aditional Arctic F14 - 140mm on top (blow out) and maybe one in the bottom should be enaugh to crate a nice airflow.

The case has a 200mm fan included in the front. If it's silent enaugh, it can still sit there. If not, may i replace it with two 140mm arctic.

[GarnetDevil]

A quad-core X99 Xeon doesn't make any sense, you can get LGA1150 Xeon, much cheaper, also dat R9 270

 

I hope you didn't order the parts yet, there are lots of rooms for improvement here, also can you give us the budget, I'll work around for you

[istoOi]

Hi GarnetDevil.

thx 4 reply. I did'nt order any part yet and it still can become a compleat different setup with the help of the community

I have a budget up to 1.500 - 2.000 Euro. The System above costs are about 1.500 Euro.

 

Basicly i see two options. With M.2 or without.

Whithout, there are indeet much more and cheaper options for a few hundet bucks.

 

Even with M.2 x2, there are cheap systems with LGA 2011 and Z97 chipset from all big vendors. But ther is not a huge differnece between SATA III  and M.2 x2.

A coulple month ago i found only one MB that has a M.2 x4 connector. The Asrock Z97 Extreme6. Unfortunately, no µATX Board from Asrock or any other vendor.

Then they come up with the X99M Extreme4. Again, no other vendor found with a M.2 x4. I think there is also no Z99 available.

 

 

 

... also dat R9 270

Grafic cards are rly not my specialty. No games or movie watching on pc in the past. Now this stuff gets more important for me. If you have anyone have any better suggestion, i will give it a try.

[RJSX1]

Hi GarnetDevil.

thx 4 reply. I did'nt order any part yet and it still can become a compleat different setup with the help of the community

I have a budget up to 1.500 - 2.000 Euro. The System above costs are about 1.500 Euro.

 

Basicly i see two options. With M.2 or without.

Whithout, there are indeet much more and cheaper options for a few hundet bucks.

 

Even with M.2 x2, there are cheap systems with LGA 2011 and Z97 chipset from all big vendors. But ther is not a huge differnece between SATA III  and M.2 x2.

A coulple month ago i found only one MB that has a M.2 x4 connector. The Asrock Z97 Extreme6. Unfortunately, no µATX Board from Asrock or any other vendor.

Then they come up with the X99M Extreme4. Again, no other vendor found with a M.2 x4. I think there is also no Z99 available.

 

 

 

 

 

Grafic cards are rly not my specialty. No games or movie watching on pc in the past. Now this stuff gets more important for me. If you have anyone have any better suggestion, i will give it a try.

At least get a 970, you're spending a lot of money and getting a cheap graphics card.

[istoOi]

At least get a 970, you're spending a lot of money and getting a cheap graphics card.

"...you're spending a lot of money..."  and thats a reason for me to look where i can save money. I don't see the advantage to spend over two times more money on a graphic card (and maybe a stronger powersupply), to get more power that i don't even need.

 

And in the case i want to run a setup with XEN and gpu passthrough, only nVidia quadro supports that. Yea, Its possible to flash the Bios of cheaper nVidea cards if they build on the same chip, but thats to much experimenting for me.

[istoOi]

I made a search for M.2 PCIe Adapter Cards for use in a cheaper system. There are some with x4 but it seems that it's not possible to boot from these.

 

Because my old System getting a bit annoying i will order the Parts tomorrow or next week.