I’m creating a new lab to learn server OS’s (Windows with AD ect), Linux and general lab kind of stuff. This system will be on 24-7. I will not be playing any games (have my main system for that) but would like some input.
I’m debating on 2 different platforms: (Tower based system, going to sell my R710)
If you are going down the ESX(i) route, you may want to look into the chinese ‘x79’ route with sandy/ivy brige xeons.
Much much cheaper.
A single e5 2650 v2 (8 core ~3ghz) with 64gb of ram can be built for <$350. If you want dual socket with the same cpu would be roughly $150 more… or you can go 128gb of ram even.
Maybe it would be better to split into three machines? One ‘nas’ and two nodes so you could have a play with vmotion etc.
Thank you @abaxas for the input. I’ll look into some of these systems. With it being V2’s, how’s the upgrade path down the line?
That’s what has me thinking about the Z10PE-D8 WS as it handles both V3 and V4 CPU’s. The v4’s are just outside my budget now but will come down later and would be a simple upgrade IMO.
Upgrade options are not a plentiful however the initial cost is less than half for more than half the perf.
The main ‘upgrade’ is to E5-2697 v2. However those processors are currently too expensive to recommend. The e5 2650 v2 cpus can currently be bought for ~$60-$70 so offer the best bang for buck.
Another reason for choosing the older platform is the cost of EEC (reg) DDR3 memory. If you are prepared to use 1066/1333 you can often get 16gb dimms for ~$1.50 per GB.
One other thing to possibly consider: Calculate the amount of work done per watt, in order to calculate the yearly power costs. If the older Xeon system can do less work at the same total power usage, then I would go AMD. You might save money up front, but spend more on running less power efficient chips that do less work.
I know you’ve already picked out your TR board but Wendell has some videos about iommu grouping and some boards do it better than others, which to my understanding is pretty important to VM security
I personally would recommend the Threadripper over the dual xeon system. Performance in general would be better. Faster per core just makes things easier in general. Not every thing scales over many cores but they do with faster ones. Also performance per watt is better on ryzen, if you have it running 24-7 it dose make a difference on a power bill.
However if you can get the job done with a older 2011 V1 and V2 Xeons it might be a better value. I built a dual e5 2690 for blender and some video editing its a fast system that cost me $100 per cpu and $200 for the motherboard. It would not be hard to find 64 gb of ram for $100 ddr3 is very cheap now. It is about %70 as fast as a 1950x but way cheaper. Even so consider power per watt and features.
I ended up going with system one. The CPU/Memory/Motherboard only cost me around the $700 ish range.
Server Specs are as follows:
Board: Z10PE-D8 WS
CPU: 2x Intel® Xeon® CPU E5-2680 v3 @ 2.50GHz
Logical processors: 48
Sockets: 2
Cores per socket: 12
Hyperthreading: Yes, enabled
Memory: 127.88 GB
DDR4-2133
Case: Phanteks Enthoo 719 (Formerly known as Enthoo Luxe 2) case. 2 Computers in 1 case
Video Card: 980 TI
Power supply: Phanteks PH-P1200PS 80+ Platinum (Allows for 1 PS to run 2 systems)
Hard Drives: 4x 1TB Samsung 860 Evo SSD’s
Installed so far: ESXI and 1 VM running windows 10 ! Baby steps!
