Building a server as my work computer? help?

[OmnicideOnline]

Ill try to summarize the whole story and get to the question quickly.  So I have an Asus X79 Delux that is now 3 years old and I believe its starting to kick the bucket.  The CPU I have is the 4930k and is only OC'd when I go do to large batch renders or render passes of various 3D work, which is maybe once in a few months, so its got a lot of mileage left on it.  I noticed not many stores have a good selection (or any selection) of cheap VGA 2011 boards since 2011-3 seems to be the current gen.  Because of this, I looked into the supermicro server boards with 2 CPU slots, and for $300-400 I could get a new one, and throw a second used 4930k in for about $150-200 which would massively help my render times and just overall seems like a better idea than spending $200-$300 on a used singe socket 2011 board.  The only problem (that I see right now) is that Ive never installed Windows server, so I have some questions....

 

Example of the board: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BRF7DAC/ref=psdc_1048424_t1_B007EDAOMK

 

The Questions:
1) Should I go for windows server 2012 or 2016 (or other)?

 

2) Do I actually need a server rack, or will these boards fit in full size towers?

 

3) will my existing Components transfer (as in do servers need ram specific for server vs desktop)?

 

3.5) I have a custom liquid cooling loop, will the blocks fit over the socket, or do servers not use the same mounting pattern?

 

4) Will it run all or most of your typical windows programs? (Very specifically Maya, 3ds Max, Zbrush, Mari, Photoshop)

 

5) Assuming my 780ti can transfer, will I be able to play games on it? and will I be able to SLI it? (does Nvidia make GPU drivers that work for servers)

 

 

Thanks in advance, Ive built many computers, but Ive never done anything server related so im pretty much 100% new to servers.  Any related server setup tutorials links etc would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Matt_98]

11 minutes ago, OmnicideOnline said:

Ill try to summarize the whole story and get to the question quickly.  So I have an Asus X79 Delux that is now 3 years old and I believe its starting to kick the bucket.  The CPU I have is the 4930k and is only OC'd when I go do to large batch renders or render passes of various 3D work, which is maybe once in a few months, so its got a lot of mileage left on it.  I noticed not many stores have a good selection (or any selection) of cheap VGA 2011 boards since 2011-3 seems to be the current gen.  Because of this, I looked into the supermicro server boards with 2 CPU slots, and for $300-400 I could get a new one, and throw a second used 4930k in for about $150-200 which would massively help my render times and just overall seems like a better idea than spending $200-$300 on a used singe socket 2011 board.  The only problem (that I see right now) is that Ive never installed Windows server, so I have some questions....

 

Example of the board: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BRF7DAC/ref=psdc_1048424_t1_B007EDAOMK

 

The Questions:
1) Should I go for windows server 2012 or 2016 (or other)?

 

2) Do I actually need a server rack, or will these boards fit in full size towers?

 

3) will my existing Components transfer (as in do servers need ram specific for server vs desktop)?

 

3.5) I have a custom liquid cooling loop, will the blocks fit over the socket?

 

4) Will it runall or most of your typical windows programs? (Very specifically Maya, 3ds Max, Zbrush, Mari, Photoshop)

 

5) Assuming my 780ti can transfer, will I be able to play games on it? and will I be able to SLI it? (does Nvidia make GPU drivers that work for servers)

 

 

Thanks in advance, Ive built many computers, but Ive never done anything server related so im pretty much 100% new to servers.  Any related server setup tutorials links etc would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

that board claims to be atx so it would fit, holes will be odd though

[Matt_98]

17 minutes ago, OmnicideOnline said:

Ill try to summarize the whole story and get to the question quickly.  So I have an Asus X79 Delux that is now 3 years old and I believe its starting to kick the bucket.  The CPU I have is the 4930k and is only OC'd when I go do to large batch renders or render passes of various 3D work, which is maybe once in a few months, so its got a lot of mileage left on it.  I noticed not many stores have a good selection (or any selection) of cheap VGA 2011 boards since 2011-3 seems to be the current gen.  Because of this, I looked into the supermicro server boards with 2 CPU slots, and for $300-400 I could get a new one, and throw a second used 4930k in for about $150-200 which would massively help my render times and just overall seems like a better idea than spending $200-$300 on a used singe socket 2011 board.  The only problem (that I see right now) is that Ive never installed Windows server, so I have some questions....

 

Example of the board: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BRF7DAC/ref=psdc_1048424_t1_B007EDAOMK

 

The Questions:
1) Should I go for windows server 2012 or 2016 (or other)?

 

2) Do I actually need a server rack, or will these boards fit in full size towers?

 

3) will my existing Components transfer (as in do servers need ram specific for server vs desktop)?

 

3.5) I have a custom liquid cooling loop, will the blocks fit over the socket?

 

4) Will it runall or most of your typical windows programs? (Very specifically Maya, 3ds Max, Zbrush, Mari, Photoshop)

 

5) Assuming my 780ti can transfer, will I be able to play games on it? and will I be able to SLI it? (does Nvidia make GPU drivers that work for servers)

 

 

Thanks in advance, Ive built many computers, but Ive never done anything server related so im pretty much 100% new to servers.  Any related server setup tutorials links etc would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

1 depending what you want it for windows 10 would be fine and £400 cheaper

3 you would probably need server ram (ECC)

4 yes

5 yes and it may not sli as most server boards are not certified for sli (could still work though)

[elmerjfudd]

Unfortunately, the i7 4930K is stated as "1S Only" on Intel ARK (http://ark.intel.com/products/77780/Intel-Core-i7-4930K-Processor-12M-Cache-up-to-3_90-GHz).  This means you can only use one of them on a single motherboard.  As far as I know (I could be wrong) you need a Xeon to be able to run multiple Intel CPUs, and not all Xeons support having multiple in one system.

 

1) This depends on the software you're using, as seen in one of the LTT videos, using Windows server might actually hurt performance in graphics applications. (Personally I'm a Linux guy, but depending on the software you're running it might not be compatible)

2) Depends on the board, the one you listed will most likely fit in any ATX case since it is listed as an ATX motherboard.  This is not the case with all server boards, but from my experience you can always get a tower case which will fit standard server motherboards.

3) Your RAM should work as long as it is the same type (so if you're using DDR3, the server board must also use DDR3).  Server boards will also support ECC memory as long as the CPU does (Xeons do support ECC, i7s do not).  If you're running a system where it's ok to reboot it every month or two, non-ECC memory should be fine (and cheaper).
3.5) The mounting looks like standard LGA2011, but I'm not sure.
4) Yes, this is OS dependent, not server vs consumer hardware dependent.

5) Yes you should be able to play games on it, but the SLI depends on the motherboard.  Since you're looking at server boards most likely no since they are not designed for gaming.  But it could still work, I don't know much about the hardware level implementation of SLI/Crossfire.

[OmnicideOnline]

Just now, Matt_98 said:

1 depending what you want it for windows 10 would be fine and £400 cheaper

3 you would probably need server ram (ECC)

4 yes

5 yes and it may not sli as most server boards are not certified for sli (could still work though)

See since Ive never even touched the server world (although one day Id love to build a render farm) I assumed server boards had to run server OS.  Are you implying that you could install a regular OS like windows 10, even though Im using a server board (So windows 10 will recognize both CPU's/sets of ram etc)

Man It feels like my first build all over again... I feel like im asking the most obvious questions here.... and thanks for the response

[Matt_98]

Just now, OmnicideOnline said:

See since Ive never even touched the server world (although one day Id love to build a render farm) I assumed server boards had to run server OS.  Are you implying that you could install a regular OS like windows 10, even though Im using a server board (So windows 10 will recognize both CPU's/sets of ram etc)

Man It feels like my first build all over again... I feel like im asking the most obvious questions here.... and thanks for the response

 

yes I have a dual lga1366 server running windows 10 just fine I think you have to use Pro though (home is limited to 1 cpu)

[OmnicideOnline]

5 minutes ago, elmerjfudd said:

Unfortunately, the i7 4930K is stated as "1S Only" on Intel ARK (http://ark.intel.com/products/77780/Intel-Core-i7-4930K-Processor-12M-Cache-up-to-3_90-GHz).  This means you can only use one of them on a single motherboard.  As far as I know (I could be wrong) you need a Xeon to be able to run multiple Intel CPUs, and not all Xeons support having multiple in one system.

 

1) This depends on the software you're using, as seen in one of the LTT videos, using Windows server might actually hurt performance in graphics applications. (Personally I'm a Linux guy, but depending on the software you're running it might not be compatible)

2) Depends on the board, the one you listed will most likely fit in any ATX case since it is listed as an ATX motherboard.  This is not the case with all server boards, but from my experience you can always get a tower case which will fit standard server motherboards.

3) Your RAM should work as long as it is the same type (so if you're using DDR3, the server board must also use DDR3).  Server boards will also support ECC memory as long as the CPU does (Xeons do support ECC, i7s do not).  If you're running a system where it's ok to reboot it every month or two, non-ECC memory should be fine (and cheaper).
3.5) The mounting looks like standard LGA2011, but I'm not sure.
4) Yes, this is OS dependent, not server vs consumer hardware dependent.

5) Yes you should be able to play games on it, but the SLI depends on the motherboard.  Since you're looking at server boards most likely no since they are not designed for gaming.  But it could still work, I don't know much about the hardware level implementation of SLI/Crossfire.

Well if this is the case than it looks like I will be buying a used discontinued board... ouch...
Thanks for the info though, Ill see if by chance anyone has done this before, but Im pretty sure I wont be finding any success.

[Technomancer__]

amd napples is coming soon so i whould wait to see

 

also 99.99% sure that linus will stick like 10 vega or titans in there just for the videos sake so he might also test sli

[dylan0150]

Use Debian. Windows Server is awful and not free.