Building a badass computer....with server parts?

[Delnith]

I've been considering building a new computer with some seriously good hardware, but I've been considering old server hardware. If I were to choose to use dual Xeon E5 2670's and 64-128 GB of DDR3 ECC memory than I could have a single computer for all of my needs. I do like to game a fair bit, and am looking into using a graphics card such as a R9 290 or such on a server board and if I would have any issues.

 

Operating system and software wise, I've almost exclusively used Windows. I occassionally dabble into Linux hoping to learn more but have not yet dedicated enough energy into seriously transitioning, especially considering not all of my games are supported, but I will admit, more and more are becoming so. I would consider using virtual machines for gaming and running other OS's that I am interested in learning, as well as providing a clean coding environment for my learning.

 

If anyone has any experience of knowledge of such a build please feel free to provide me some feedback. As its looking now, it would be about $500 to get 2x CPUs, a motherboard, and 64-128GB of DDR3 ECC RAM. I have left out the PSU, CASE, and HARD DRIVEs for now because I am set on those if I need to get any. Thank you!

 

TLDR: Might build a badass computer using server hardware. Need to be able to run games, video editing, coding, VMs, entertainment, etc. Any input?

[goodtofufriday]

Do you have a motherboard in mind already? I used to do with with a dell server. Thing only had 8x pcie slots so I had to cut a slot open to place a 6990.

[samcool55]

Umm couple of things. Upgrade path might be like none at all.

Mounting a cooler might be tricky, some server motherboards have a custom mounting system so keep that in mind.

Connecting a PSU might also be a challenge because again, might be custom crap.

 

Make sure the gpu can be properly seated, i know some of them have like sticking out caps or something funny like that and might cause issues seating the gpu into the pci-e slot.

Storage is another tricky thing, so make sure it actually has SATA connectors, or you have another way to connect them.

 

It is possible but just make sure you do a LOT of research, there are a bunch of things that you need to keep in mind with server stuff compared to a normal computer.

[Delnith]

35 minutes ago, goodtofufriday said:

Do you have a motherboard in mind already? I used to do with with a dell server. Thing only had 8x pcie slots so I had to cut a slot open to place a 6990.

I'm having a tough time deciding which motherboard to go with, it seems there is no go to board and they all have some minor differences. If I could find a supermicro, ASUS, or DELL board that work then I'd likely look into that further. Any suggestions?

 

34 minutes ago, samcool55 said:

Umm couple of things. Upgrade path might be like none at all.

Mounting a cooler might be tricky, some server motherboards have a custom mounting system so keep that in mind.

Connecting a PSU might also be a challenge because again, might be custom crap.

 

Make sure the gpu can be properly seated, i know some of them have like sticking out caps or something funny like that and might cause issues seating the gpu into the pci-e slot.

Storage is another tricky thing, so make sure it actually has SATA connectors, or you have another way to connect them.

 

It is possible but just make sure you do a LOT of research, there are a bunch of things that you need to keep in mind with server stuff compared to a normal computer.

Understood that the upgrade path likely would be minimal. I'd definitely have to consider what CPU cooling would actually work. Power supplies I think would be fine as long as I research which connectors are needed. I feel that most would suffice seeing how multiple 8-pin connectors are common these days. The PCI-E slots look like they'll support a normal GPU and SATA connectors are there for sure. Likely I would get 2 small SSDs and run them in Raid 0 for my OS.

 

 

 

Again, any suggestions or input is appreciated!

[Delnith]

26 minutes ago, CUDA_Cores said:

we'll for one if you decide to go dual xeon 2670, games won't even utilize i'd say more than 4 physical cores of one of the xeons. So unless you are doing something like 3D rendering where you are actually going to use all the cores I would say get a single xeon and a single-socket motherboard instead.

True, but for running many applications, an ARK and Minecraft server, and other daily uses, I feel it would benefit overall.

[goodtofufriday]

3 minutes ago, Delnith said:

True, but for running many applications, an ARK and Minecraft server, and other daily uses, I feel it would benefit overall.

For ease and sanity why dont you run a 5.1 mac pro with dual xeons. better supported hardware and you can run Xserve or windows server.

 

If not Iill recomnmned a few dell servers

 

[Delnith]

14 hours ago, goodtofufriday said:

For ease and sanity why dont you run a 5.1 mac pro with dual xeons. better supported hardware and you can run Xserve or windows server.

 

If not Iill recomnmned a few dell servers

 

I didnt consider that before, would windows server limit my ability to run some games or no? Also was considering linux as the main OS if that would make a difference. It seems to be the server motherboards are the tricky thing to find.

[goodtofufriday]

8 minutes ago, Delnith said:

I didnt consider that before, would windows server limit my ability to run some games or no? Also was considering linux as the main OS if that would make a difference. It seems to be the server motherboards are the tricky thing to find.

If you can wield a soldering iron then you can mod the systems integrated PSU to run a 980 ti to titan. Or a lower power gpu like a rx480. You shhould be fine with windows games. You can run linux though I havent ever done it on a mac myself.  

[Delnith]

11 minutes ago, goodtofufriday said:

If you can wield a soldering iron then you can mod the systems integrated PSU to run a 980 ti to titan. Or a lower power gpu like a rx480. You shhould be fine with windows games. You can run linux though I havent ever done it on a mac myself.  

I found a motherboard that seems would be ideal for the build I initially thought of, BUT its $450 roughly which is a bit steep. The SuperMicro X9DAE, https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X9DAE.cfm

 

The only reason I am hesitant on a mac is because I'm not sure what GPU I am going to use and would not want to worry about being limited power wise.

 

I think I need to look further into what other people have done for personal workstation builds to get a grasp on what works most effectively.