replace 6600k-based Plex server?

[ShadyHost]

Long story short - I've got my old 6600k sweating bullets 24/7 keeping my Plex server running. 

I'd like to pass on the 6600k to a friend to build a gaming PC....and get some more computing power for encoding in Plex. 

 

I have watched/read a few 'build cheap dual-socket servers using old Xeons' articles/videos and I think I might want to go that route. 

 

 

Can anyone link a few examples of board/chip combos that would outperform the 6600k by a decent amount?

 

 

I also have an RX560 in the system to help with hardware encoding but it seems to struggle with multiple simultaneous streams. 

Oh...and I also wanted to run more VMs lol.

[Electronics Wizardy]

How much do you care about power? Those dual xeon systems can cost a good amount in power to run if you have expensive power.

 

Do you have budget in mind?

 

What is your storage config.

 

Id buy a premade server. There often cheaper and garanteed to work. Look at something like a dell r720 for dual lga 2011, and a r710 for dual 1366.

[ShadyHost]

6 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

How much do you care about power? Those dual xeon systems can cost a good amount in power to run if you have expensive power.

 

Do you have budget in mind?

 

What is your storage config.

 

Id buy a premade server. There often cheaper and garanteed to work. Look at something like a dell r720 for dual lga 2011, and a r710 for dual 1366.

Power is less of a concern. 

For budget, I was thinking if I could have the whole thing running for under $500 or so that would be ideal. (edit: I only intend on replacing my 6600k/board/RAM with the dual-socket setup. Drives, PSU, case, etc.... will remain the same)

Would probably need a new power supply and if it's an older platform, some DDR3 RAM. 

 

For storage, I'm using a combination of 1, 2, and 4TB drives each with different types of media. 

 

 

 

I do seem to remember there being a lot of datacenters auctioning off their old dual-socket CPUs on ebay several years back, and that the most expensive part was getting a motherboard to run them. 

 

It's just been so long since I've looked into this.

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, ShadyHost said:

Power is less of a concern. 

For budget, I was thinking if I could have the whole thing running for under $500 or so that would be ideal.

Would probably need a new power supply and if it's an older platform, some DDR3 RAM. 

 

For storage, I'm using a combination of 1, 2, and 4TB drives each with different types of media. 

 

 

 

I do seem to remember there being a lot of datacenters auctioning off their old dual-socket CPUs on ebay several years back, and that the most expensive part was getting a motherboard to run them. 

 

It's just been so long since I've looked into this.

If you want premade, id get something like this. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-R720-16-Core-Server-2x-E5-2660-2-2GHz-16GB-8-2-5in-RPS/202426204117?hash=item2f218abfd5:g:LH4AAOSwCAlbjpiW

 

If you want diy.

 

What case do you have? You need eatx for most boards

 

Here is a good board.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SUPERMICRO-Dual-Socket-LGA-2011-E-ATX-16-DIMM-Motherboard-X9DRH-7F/183219413899?epid=1757832363&hash=item2aa8ba638b:g:2NMAAOSwDMNbHqnL:sc:FedExHomeDelivery!30303!US!-1

 

There are other cheaper ones form old workstations, but there more of a pain to use.

 

For cpu's, the e5 2670 is a good deal, you can spend more for 10 cores like a e5 2670v2. The 12 cores are very expensive though .https://www.ebay.com/itm/CM8062101082713-INTEL-XEON-E5-2670-8-CORE-2-60GHz-20M-8GT-s-115W-PROCESSOR/281457118681?hash=item418826cdd9:g:hh8AAOSwrh5bbOVs

 

For ram, you want quad channel, id get 8 dimms or 8gb so 64gb total.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Matching-Lot-8X-8GB-DDR3-DATARAM-2Rx4-8500R-7-10-E1-ECC/401578051610?hash=item5d7feac81a:g:dBcAAOSwgstbaLrk

 

You can get less if you want it cheaper.

 

 

[ShadyHost]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

If you want premade, id get something like this. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-R720-16-Core-Server-2x-E5-2660-2-2GHz-16GB-8-2-5in-RPS/202426204117?hash=item2f218abfd5:g:LH4AAOSwCAlbjpiW

 

If you want diy.

 

What case do you have? You need eatx for most boards

 

Here is a good board.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/SUPERMICRO-Dual-Socket-LGA-2011-E-ATX-16-DIMM-Motherboard-X9DRH-7F/183219413899?epid=1757832363&hash=item2aa8ba638b:g:2NMAAOSwDMNbHqnL:sc:FedExHomeDelivery!30303!US!-1

 

There are other cheaper ones form old workstations, but there more of a pain to use.

 

For cpu's, the e5 2670 is a good deal, you can spend more for 10 cores like a e5 2670v2. The 12 cores are very expensive though .https://www.ebay.com/itm/CM8062101082713-INTEL-XEON-E5-2670-8-CORE-2-60GHz-20M-8GT-s-115W-PROCESSOR/281457118681?hash=item418826cdd9:g:hh8AAOSwrh5bbOVs

 

For ram, you want quad channel, id get 8 dimms or 8gb so 64gb total.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Matching-Lot-8X-8GB-DDR3-DATARAM-2Rx4-8500R-7-10-E1-ECC/401578051610?hash=item5d7feac81a:g:dBcAAOSwgstbaLrk

 

You can get less if you want it cheaper.

 

 

exactly what I'm looking for!

 

a single e5 2670 seems to be roughly 50% faster than the 6600k in Passmark
so 2 would probably be plenty lol. 

 

I'll look into the memory situation and research what I need for compatibility sake. 

For the case, I don't mind making a sketch enclosure just to get it to work

[Maticks]

i looked into this whole dual xeon thing as well for my server running plex for many streams.

i discovered yes the xeons are cheap but the motherboard is pretty expensive, they also use up a lot of power those xeons and generate a decent amount of heat.

 

An actual First Gen Threadripper demolishes a dual xeon system, the 1950X isn't that expensive anymore now the second gen is out.

Also one processor to worry about not as much power only just but you get a heap more performance per core and a lot of streams.

The motherboards for threadripper 1 can be picked up very cheaply over a dual socket motherboard.

 

If you're doing any VM stuff you get a bit of extra performance and DDR4 speeds.

 

Im running at 4790k on my system and its coping but i will upgrade to threadripper when i see it hit the right price point for me, i have enough power at the moment for my stream usage.

 

 

 

 

[NelizMastr]

36 minutes ago, Maticks said:

i looked into this whole dual xeon thing as well for my server running plex for many streams.

i discovered yes the xeons are cheap but the motherboard is pretty expensive, they also use up a lot of power those xeons and generate a decent amount of heat.

 

An actual First Gen Threadripper demolishes a dual xeon system, the 1950X isn't that expensive anymore now the second gen is out.

Also one processor to worry about not as much power only just but you get a heap more performance per core and a lot of streams.

The motherboards for threadripper 1 can be picked up very cheaply over a dual socket motherboard.

 

If you're doing any VM stuff you get a bit of extra performance and DDR4 speeds.

Yes, but you'll blast past the $500 budget that way. It's just not as much bang for the buck within the given contraints. Just the memory alone costs more than the budget.

[ShadyHost]

On 9/18/2018 at 8:14 AM, Maticks said:

i looked into this whole dual xeon thing as well for my server running plex for many streams.

i discovered yes the xeons are cheap but the motherboard is pretty expensive, they also use up a lot of power those xeons and generate a decent amount of heat.

 

An actual First Gen Threadripper demolishes a dual xeon system, the 1950X isn't that expensive anymore now the second gen is out.

Also one processor to worry about not as much power only just but you get a heap more performance per core and a lot of streams.

The motherboards for threadripper 1 can be picked up very cheaply over a dual socket motherboard.

 

If you're doing any VM stuff you get a bit of extra performance and DDR4 speeds.

 

Im running at 4790k on my system and its coping but i will upgrade to threadripper when i see it hit the right price point for me, i have enough power at the moment for my stream usage.

 

 

 

 

 

On 9/18/2018 at 8:49 AM, NelizMastr said:

Yes, but you'll blast past the $500 budget that way. It's just not as much bang for the buck within the given contraints. Just the memory alone costs more than the budget.

 

 

I actually think I found a solution for this. 

My Plex machine has been chugging for a few days now converting all my movies to 'Original Quality' optimized settings. 

I tried playing back one of the finish optimized versions and even at 4k the CPU/GPU usage seems to be quite a bit less. 

4k movie file size is cut roughly in half. 

 

 

I think I'm just gonna let the machine chug through the rest of the movies. Then I'll spot check the finished files and delete the originals if I'm satisfied with the performance. 

Unfortunately I'll have to convert new movies as they're added, but at least it's cheaper than making a new system. 

 

I guess I'll just find other hardware for my friends machine. 

[KirbyTech]

1 hour ago, ShadyHost said:

 

 

 

I actually think I found a solution for this. 

My Plex machine has been chugging for a few days now converting all my movies to 'Original Quality' optimized settings. 

I tried playing back one of the finish optimized versions and even at 4k the CPU/GPU usage seems to be quite a bit less. 

4k movie file size is cut roughly in half. 

 

 

I think I'm just gonna let the machine chug through the rest of the movies. Then I'll spot check the finished files and delete the originals if I'm satisfied with the performance. 

Unfortunately I'll have to convert new movies as they're added, but at least it's cheaper than making a new system. 

 

I guess I'll just find other hardware for my friends machine. 

Coverting to a more usable codec is almost always a better solution than throwing money at the problem unless you require certain codecs for different reasons