2 systems, 2 needs, which to use where?

[Gerr]

System #1

Xeon E5-2680 v2 CPU

Chinese C602 ATX mobo

64GB DDR3-1333 ECC RAM

 

System #2

Xeon E3-1271 v3 CPU

Asus C226 ATX mobo

32GB DDR3-1600 ECC RAM

 

Use #1

Windows 2016 Server(24/7) - Plex, Blue Iris DVR, NAS, client backups, handbrake transcoding.

12 HDD's(HBA), GT 710 GPU, 450W Seasonic Gold PSU.

 

Use #1

Win 10(Hyper-V) - Virtua/productivityl Woirkstation/backup gaming system.

RX 580, ssd & 2x hdd's, 650W EVGA Gold PSU.

 

My question is which system would work best for which use?  I already have ALL hardware needed.

[Frankenburger]

The E5-2680 would be the better choice for transcoding, whereas the E3-1271 will be better for gaming.

 

With transcoding, more cores is more important. With gaming, higher clocks are more important.

 

On a side note, have you considered using Universal Media Server? It functions similarly to Plex, but is open source and more flexible.

[Gerr]

I do agree that at first glance, the Haswell system would be a better VM/Gaming system & the Ivy Bridge system would make for a better home server.  However, couple things to consider...

 

1.  The Ivy Bridge system is used hardware that is less efficient for 24/7 use while the Haswell system is all NOS hardware and is more efficient.

 

2.  Due to the odd size of the Chinese mobo on the Ivy Bridge system, I would need to purchase a new case to house all the HDD's as that mobo doesn't fit into the R4 I currently have.

 

3.  I can use either machine as the Handbrake transcoding system, just would be easier if it's on the server so I can run long multiple file jobs.

 

4.  My backup system monitor is 1080p@75hz with FreeSync powered by a RX 580 4GB.  I usually play older/weaker titles on it like Fallout 4, so the video card would be the limiting FPS factor, so either CPU would work fine.

 

5.  I will be using the bedroom system for study for F5 & Firewall certifications and will visualize multiple devices.  I am worried that 32GB of RAM might not be enough.

 

Are those reasons strong enough to reverse rolls?

[Frankenburger]

10 minutes ago, Gerr said:

Are those reasons strong enough to reverse rolls?

No. Those reasons can't justify the difference in raw horsepower between the two CPUs. In multithreaded tasks such as transcoding, the E5-2680 will be about two times faster than the E3-1271. If you want a reliable media server with the ability to transcode, a 4 core CPU simply isn't going to cut it.

[jkirkcaldy]

On 12/07/2018 at 5:39 PM, Frankenburger said:

If you want a reliable media server with the ability to transcode, a 4 core CPU simply isn't going to cut it.

I think this is not good advice. I'm running a plex server with an Intel 3770 and that works perfectly for a Plex media server, can transcode around 5-6 streams before the CPU is the bottleneck. However In this situation, everything else I would agree with. Use the E3 quad-core for gaming and the 10 core for a media server. 

 

Also here is no reason you couldn't install some VMs on the box with the E5. Plex doesn't really need that much RAM. I have no idea about the system requirements for Blue Iris but I think you could easily allocate 48GB RAM and a few cores to the VM. The way I would set it up is:

 

System #1

Server 2016/Hyper-V

Run it as the NAS/backup server

1VM for plex/handbrake 8-10 vCPU 4GB RAM

1VM for Blue Iris 4vCPU 4-8GB RAM (depends on how many cameras)

Leaves you with at least 52GB RAM for various other VM (don't forget you can over provision your CPU it's not a 1:1 allocation ratio like RAM.)

 

System #2

As you have it. you could easily have a few VM running whilst gaming and not see much of a performance hit (depending on the game/workload. 

 

 

[Frankenburger]

1 hour ago, jkirkcaldy said:

I think this is not good advice. I'm running a plex server with an Intel 3770 and that works perfectly for a Plex media server, can transcode around 5-6 streams before the CPU is the bottleneck

That also depends on the quality, resolution, and encoder you're transcoding to. You're not going to run 5-6 1080p sreams at once with H265 on a 4 core system.

 

Heck, even switching to 1080p H264 medium preset, my 4.2GHz 6850k barely transcodes at 65FPS.

[jkirkcaldy]

21 hours ago, Frankenburger said:

That also depends on the quality, resolution, and encoder you're transcoding to. You're not going to run 5-6 1080p sreams at once with H265 on a 4 core system.

 

Heck, even switching to 1080p H264 medium preset, my 4.2GHz 6850k barely transcodes at 65FPS.

No, H265 is way to CPU intensive still for my CPU. I keep most things to H264 blu-ray rips.

 

It's always the problem when people say, what specs should I use for my plex server. There are so many variables that there isn't a one size fits all answer.