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Looking for some upgrade advice...

mehtaman
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Currently running a HP Microserver (N54L)... its slowly dying on me (so far 2 failed Hard Drives and I think the RAM is going).


Looking to upgrade it but can't decided if I should go for the Gen8, wait for a Gen10 (in Beta stage) orrr build my own.

 

With regards to building my own, what would a good spec be as its easy to get carried away?

 

I have seen 1 or 2 iTX boards with 6+ SATA ports but the are old and would leave me with DDR3 RAM and a 4th-5th Gen Intel CPU.

 

Any recommendations on a good mITX or mATX case

A MoBo with a minimum of 6 SATA ports (as I use 6 already)... or a good internal RAID caddy for the case.

A decent CPU / RAM combo e.g. i7-7700 or Xeon E3/E5 and 16GB RAM - Open to using AMD if they are any better.


Thanks in advance.

Budget £500-£600 / $600-$700

Current RIG: 

Motherboard:    ROG Crosshair VIII Impact
CPU:            AMD Ryzen 9 3900X @4.4GHz
RAM:            32GB DDR4 G.Skill Trident Z
M.2:            1TB Western Digital Black
GPU:            16GB Asrock 7800XT OC
Case:           Fractal Design Define Mini C
Cooler:         Corsair H115i Platinum
PSU:            Corsair CS850M

 

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Will it be used for games / workstation or just a storage? What are the requirements of hard drives?

CPU: i7-2600K 4751MHz 1.44V (software) --> 1.47V at the back of the socket Motherboard: Asrock Z77 Extreme4 (BCLK: 103.3MHz) CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 RAM: Adata XPG 2x8GB DDR3 (XMP: 2133MHz 10-11-11-30 CR2, custom: 2203MHz 10-11-10-26 CR1 tRFC:230 tREFI:14000) GPU: Asus GTX 1070 Dual (Super Jetstream vbios, +70(2025-2088MHz)/+400(8.8Gbps)) SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB (main boot drive), Transcend SSD370 128GB PSU: Seasonic X-660 80+ Gold Case: Antec P110 Silent, 5 intakes 1 exhaust Monitor: AOC G2460PF 1080p 144Hz (150Hz max w/ DP, 121Hz max w/ HDMI) TN panel Keyboard: Logitech G610 Orion (Cherry MX Blue) with SteelSeries Apex M260 keycaps Mouse: BenQ Zowie FK1

 

Model: HP Omen 17 17-an110ca CPU: i7-8750H (0.125V core & cache, 50mV SA undervolt) GPU: GTX 1060 6GB Mobile (+80/+450, 1650MHz~1750MHz 0.78V~0.85V) RAM: 8+8GB DDR4-2400 18-17-17-39 2T Storage: HP EX920 1TB PCIe x4 M.2 SSD + Crucial MX500 1TB 2.5" SATA SSD, 128GB Toshiba PCIe x2 M.2 SSD (KBG30ZMV128G) gone cooking externally, 1TB Seagate 7200RPM 2.5" HDD (ST1000LM049-2GH172) left outside Monitor: 1080p 126Hz IPS G-sync

 

Desktop benching:

Cinebench R15 Single thread:168 Multi-thread: 833 

SuperPi (v1.5 from Techpowerup, PI value output) 16K: 0.100s 1M: 8.255s 32M: 7m 45.93s

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12 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Will it be used for games / workstation or just a storage? What are the requirements of hard drives?

Good question...

 

So its a home media server at present 4x 2TB drives (using windows storage space to give me some resilience).

1x 1TB Drive for the OS - Windows Server 2016 Standard

1x 1TB Drive for backups of OS drive (Veeam Endpoint Backup Free)

 

I use the windows server side for remote access, storage pools etc.

MicroServer is linked up to the TV for the ability to view photos/videos/steam content

 

I would consider going virtual with ESXi but I've sort of 'shot myself in the foot' by using storage spaces on my data drives.

Not sure how I would migrate all my data off, format the drives and then use them in vmWare instead and I don't fancy buying a load of drives as that would send the budget sky high.

Current RIG: 

Motherboard:    ROG Crosshair VIII Impact
CPU:            AMD Ryzen 9 3900X @4.4GHz
RAM:            32GB DDR4 G.Skill Trident Z
M.2:            1TB Western Digital Black
GPU:            16GB Asrock 7800XT OC
Case:           Fractal Design Define Mini C
Cooler:         Corsair H115i Platinum
PSU:            Corsair CS850M

 

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5 minutes ago, mehtaman said:

Good question...

 

So its a home media server at present 4x 2TB drives (using windows storage space to give me some resilience).

1x 1TB Drive for the OS - Windows Server 2016 Standard

1x 1TB Drive for backups of OS drive (Veeam Endpoint Backup Free)

 

I use the windows server side for remote access, storage pools etc.

MicroServer is linked up to the TV for the ability to view photos/videos/steam content

 

I would consider going virtual with ESXi but I've sort of 'shot myself in the foot' by using storage spaces on my data drives.

Not sure how I would migrate all my data off, format the drives and then use them in vmWare instead and I don't fancy buying a load of drives as that would send the budget sky high.

In this case even a low end CPU is fine. Why would you need an i7 / AMD equivalent?

CPU: i7-2600K 4751MHz 1.44V (software) --> 1.47V at the back of the socket Motherboard: Asrock Z77 Extreme4 (BCLK: 103.3MHz) CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 RAM: Adata XPG 2x8GB DDR3 (XMP: 2133MHz 10-11-11-30 CR2, custom: 2203MHz 10-11-10-26 CR1 tRFC:230 tREFI:14000) GPU: Asus GTX 1070 Dual (Super Jetstream vbios, +70(2025-2088MHz)/+400(8.8Gbps)) SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB (main boot drive), Transcend SSD370 128GB PSU: Seasonic X-660 80+ Gold Case: Antec P110 Silent, 5 intakes 1 exhaust Monitor: AOC G2460PF 1080p 144Hz (150Hz max w/ DP, 121Hz max w/ HDMI) TN panel Keyboard: Logitech G610 Orion (Cherry MX Blue) with SteelSeries Apex M260 keycaps Mouse: BenQ Zowie FK1

 

Model: HP Omen 17 17-an110ca CPU: i7-8750H (0.125V core & cache, 50mV SA undervolt) GPU: GTX 1060 6GB Mobile (+80/+450, 1650MHz~1750MHz 0.78V~0.85V) RAM: 8+8GB DDR4-2400 18-17-17-39 2T Storage: HP EX920 1TB PCIe x4 M.2 SSD + Crucial MX500 1TB 2.5" SATA SSD, 128GB Toshiba PCIe x2 M.2 SSD (KBG30ZMV128G) gone cooking externally, 1TB Seagate 7200RPM 2.5" HDD (ST1000LM049-2GH172) left outside Monitor: 1080p 126Hz IPS G-sync

 

Desktop benching:

Cinebench R15 Single thread:168 Multi-thread: 833 

SuperPi (v1.5 from Techpowerup, PI value output) 16K: 0.100s 1M: 8.255s 32M: 7m 45.93s

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7 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

In this case even a low end CPU is fine. Why would you need an i7 / AMD equivalent?

Limited self control :$

Also just thinking long term (4-5yrs) a good CPU may pay off, should I look to put other PCs on to the domain set up a SOHO (Small Office Home Office ) rather than just a media centre.

Current RIG: 

Motherboard:    ROG Crosshair VIII Impact
CPU:            AMD Ryzen 9 3900X @4.4GHz
RAM:            32GB DDR4 G.Skill Trident Z
M.2:            1TB Western Digital Black
GPU:            16GB Asrock 7800XT OC
Case:           Fractal Design Define Mini C
Cooler:         Corsair H115i Platinum
PSU:            Corsair CS850M

 

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24 minutes ago, mehtaman said:

set up a SOHO (Small Office Home Office ) rather than just a media centre.

Then mid-end stuff will be more than enough since there's no games involved.

 

PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/CLYHgL
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/CLYHgL/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel - Core i5-7400 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($175.28 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: ASRock - B250M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($56.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: G.Skill - Aegis 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory  ($53.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Fractal Design - Node 804 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($89.99 @ NCIX US) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($26.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $403.23
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-07 09:26 EDT-0400

 

I don't know whether you need new drives, so I'll ignore them altogether.

I chose not to go Ryzen because that means buying a graphics card, waste of money.

This case has 10 3.5" drive bays (actually the only one with 6 or more and is mATX sized). More that enough to hold all your drives.

CPU: i7-2600K 4751MHz 1.44V (software) --> 1.47V at the back of the socket Motherboard: Asrock Z77 Extreme4 (BCLK: 103.3MHz) CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 RAM: Adata XPG 2x8GB DDR3 (XMP: 2133MHz 10-11-11-30 CR2, custom: 2203MHz 10-11-10-26 CR1 tRFC:230 tREFI:14000) GPU: Asus GTX 1070 Dual (Super Jetstream vbios, +70(2025-2088MHz)/+400(8.8Gbps)) SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB (main boot drive), Transcend SSD370 128GB PSU: Seasonic X-660 80+ Gold Case: Antec P110 Silent, 5 intakes 1 exhaust Monitor: AOC G2460PF 1080p 144Hz (150Hz max w/ DP, 121Hz max w/ HDMI) TN panel Keyboard: Logitech G610 Orion (Cherry MX Blue) with SteelSeries Apex M260 keycaps Mouse: BenQ Zowie FK1

 

Model: HP Omen 17 17-an110ca CPU: i7-8750H (0.125V core & cache, 50mV SA undervolt) GPU: GTX 1060 6GB Mobile (+80/+450, 1650MHz~1750MHz 0.78V~0.85V) RAM: 8+8GB DDR4-2400 18-17-17-39 2T Storage: HP EX920 1TB PCIe x4 M.2 SSD + Crucial MX500 1TB 2.5" SATA SSD, 128GB Toshiba PCIe x2 M.2 SSD (KBG30ZMV128G) gone cooking externally, 1TB Seagate 7200RPM 2.5" HDD (ST1000LM049-2GH172) left outside Monitor: 1080p 126Hz IPS G-sync

 

Desktop benching:

Cinebench R15 Single thread:168 Multi-thread: 833 

SuperPi (v1.5 from Techpowerup, PI value output) 16K: 0.100s 1M: 8.255s 32M: 7m 45.93s

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