1 or 2 CPUs

[Matt.g]

I'm putting together a media server and will have alot of movies to encode I'm trying to figure out if it would be worth getting a motherboard with 2 cpu sockets or just stick with a single socket and cpu

[tom_w141]

Depends entirely on the strength of the CPU you are considering. 1 Stronger CPU > 2 Shit ones.

[The Benjamins]

Just now, Matt.g said:

I'm putting together a media server and will have alot of movies to encode I'm trying to figure out if it would be worth getting a motherboard with 2 cpu sockets or just stick with a single socket and cpu

well that depends, what is the budget?

 

the 7900x with a OC will be faster then 2 old 4c xeons.

[tom_w141]

11 minutes ago, The Benjamins said:

7900x with a OC will be faster

Its a media server  I don't think a 7900X and the expensive custom loop needed to cool it is a contender here  

[The Benjamins]

Just now, tom_w141 said:

Its a media server  I don't think a 7900X and the expensive custom loop needed to cool it is a contender here  

ya well with a unknow budget he might as well get a Epyc 7601.

[Jurrunio]

10 minutes ago, The Benjamins said:

the 7900x with a OC will be faster then 2 old 4c xeons.

I can get multiple dual old 4c xeon setups with the same amount of money for a 7900x setup.

 

to @Matt.g it depends on what single cpu you are considering / can afford. I'd say get a single 8-or-more-core CPU, for example Ryzen 1700 set because it is much better at gaming then some dual CPU system.

[SCHISCHKA]

It's not cheaper. Compare the cost and performance to a ryzen 1700 build. Before ryzen was released I was considering Xeon but not looking at Xeon anymore now. Now I'm putting off upgrading to see threadripper total cost

[The Benjamins]

2 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

I can get multiple dual old 4c xeon setups with the same amount of money for a 7900x setup.

 

to @Matt.g it depends on what single cpu you are considering / can afford. I'd say get a single 8-or-more-core CPU, for example Ryzen 1700 set because it is much better at gaming then some dual CPU system.

I don't think he will game on his media server. but a 1700 is a good choice.

 

I have a supermicro mITX board in a 1U rack case it uses a D-1541 Xeon (8c16t 2.1-2.7 GHz) (slower then a 1700) and works great I can have more then 3 people transcode on my plex server at the same time. I have 4 - 8TB drives in a 1U encloser attached by external SAS, and the board has 2 10Gbpe ports which is nice.

[Matt.g]

I'm looking at a $2000 us budget for the build with some room to budget more if needed. I haven't decided on any single processor. I'm trying to get an idea on what the majority think would be a better option. I am planning to have up 8 people streaming at a time

[PooIs]

Are you going to need the system to transcode the video on the fly? Is the server going to be wired or wireless? How many clients will be using the server? How much storage will you need? These are some things that you want to be thinking about before you build so that you can know where to put your budget. If a bunch of people in your house are going to use it, you will want to have the machine hardwired to your network, and have more cores/threads available. If it's just you and one other person, you could get away with using a newer Pentium/Celeron system and just getting a ton of HDD capacity. This will also bring your overall power consumption down as well.

[Matt.g]

I actually have no idea if it will need to transcode on the fly. I will be uploading all my videos to the server. It will be a wired server with up to 8 clients. As far as storage im working on figuring out how much I'll need for about 300 blu-rays with extra for more. I was planning on raiding the storage. Also with this build any recommendations on hard drives to use

[Oxydoreduction]

Dual cpu could be ok for you but I would advise you to put more budget on storage and have only 1 cpu.

 

CPU wise, you could go for an e5-2620v4 and a consumer x99 board that has ECC support (AsRock makes some) and 16Gb of ECC ram.

 

For storage, I would suggest WD Red Pro drives and get 4/5 4tb drives in raid 6 (which will give you 12tb if you go for 5x4tb in raid6). 300 blu-rays will consume between 1.2tb to 1.8tb I think so you will have space for any more to add or any other media you would want.

 

Now this is just an example, the e3 v6 xeons are also to be considered for a lower cost and also reliable.

[Matt.g]

Is ECC Ram something that would be preferred on this type of system

[Oxydoreduction]

22 minutes ago, Matt.g said:

Is ECC Ram something that would be preferred on this type of system

For systems running 24/7 it's usually a bit better but it's not a question of life or death.

 

I would greatly recommend it if you use ZFS tho.

[VivashTech]

What socket type would you be using? What is your budget? and do u already own any parts?

[Matt.g]

I have a $2000 us budget with room to go up if needed. I haven't decided on a socket type yet. I havent bought any parts for this yet and anything I have laying around is more than 10 years old.

[Oxydoreduction]

Which OS are you going to run on it?

[Matt.g]

I was planning on running it on Windows

[Oxydoreduction]

Ok, Windows 10 is quite a stable OS for 24/7 use, I have set up my Remote desktop server without ECC and it works fine so far so the choice is yours for the RAM type.

My recommandations for your use is:

8 cores 16 threads (intel Xeon 2620 v4 for 419.19$ or AMD r7 1700 for 309.99$)

ECC capable board if you wish to go the ECC route afterwards (ASRock x99 extreme 4 for 199.99$, this one also takes ECC Registered if needed or ASRock AB350 Pro4 for 89.99$ which i tried ECC on and it was indeed working, I own both boards and they are nice and stable)

16Gb of DDR4 (non ECC) from Kingston (140$)

A good raid 6 capable card (aprox 300$ to 500$ from areca, LSi or Adaptec)

5x WD Red pro drives (201.99$ each or 137.05$ each for non Pro version which runs at 5400rpm)

The ATX case of your choice

A good PSU (500 to 600w (i.e. 64.90$ for the Seasonic s12g 550w))

Graphics card of your choice (no need for the big guns, any low end will do for 40-50$)

A multi port gigabit NIC would be a plus for multiple user access (if you have a switch that supports LACP)

 

The prices are from newegg.

 

I hope it will help you in making your decision.