I am new to workstation stuff and I want to build one with high thread count and at least a Quadro A4000 16GB to make stuff happen in UE5. I’m crazy enough to try and publish one very simple steam game to start the madness of developing video games. I am aware that I’m painfully not aware of workstation hardware, architecture, and use cases. Need help because I want cheap down and dirty workstation with redundant storage. 10tb? 20tb? I have decent knowledge of computer hardware. I know what cpu cores are, what RAM is, what 256 bit wide registers are. But if you said zraid and oculink, I’m scratching my head.
I have:
2x Xeon E5-2699 v3 SR1XD
4X 8GB DDR4 PC4 2133P Registered Memory
1 Supermicro X10DRH-iT
I understand it might be obsolete stuff. Do I need to throw it out? Do I have stuff to build off of for my purposes? If so, what do I need to add or subtract? Thanks for any help.
I hate using AI for help like this so any advice from knowledgeable people is welcomed.
You have a current build running that hardware? Or have those parts and haven’t built it up yet?
I personally don’t see any real point to on device redundant storage, I find it better to work off an internal SSD or HDD and sync/ mirror that project folder to an external NAS.
What are you using now and what limitations are you running into? Because that hardware should be more than serviceable as long as you aren’t running into memory limitation problems. Depending on your needs a newer GPU that plays nice with the software you use, plus some more RAM & a NAS would probably be a decent starting point.
Thanks for the reply. I was lucky, or subject to spontaneity, to find the RAM CPU’s and mobo, dirt cheap. That’s all I have. I’ve built many computers for others as a side hustle, but my current “system” is a laptop. Ryzen 7 and RTX 3060 mobile. The limits are more than likely obvious, but for starters it tries to fly off my desk when rendering. So, I have a need and just have the stuff listed above. So, 64 GB RAM and network storage? Again, my knowledge is limited when it comes to workstations, so I apologize.
You should probably invest as little as practical to get a decent build in that case. I would get a better 1 or 2 TB NVME with a dram cache, then for now you can use an external HDD (with the goal of something like a uGreen NAS you populate with some drives)
With a bit more time I pulled up the manual for that board, each CPU has 4 memory channels, ideally if you can use only the CPU 1 socket and then get by with the memory you have now in the A1 B1 C1 & D1 slots so your CPU has maximum memory & channels as possible. Memory is EXTREMELY expensive compared to what it was a year ago, would probably be worth it to experiment with what you have and see it’s limitations to decide if getting more memory will be good enough, or if you will greatly benefit from a platform upgrade. Be aware your motherboard is not a standard consumer ATX layout, only a handful of full tower cases can fit it or have the standoffs in the right location, not sure if you looked into that yet or not.
I don’t know what your budget or financials look like, just don’t get a cheap off brand PSU. Unfortunately the market for RAM, SSDs & HDDs and GPUs are borderline unaffordable thanks to data center demand and manufacture greed.
Thanks for the help! I’ve got a working plan, but the extra insight is very valuable. But you’re right, I see that it needs 4 RDIMMs per CPU. And the RAM is outrageous, I agree, because greed is off the charts. 32GB may be the minimum for what I’m doing, I’ll probably hit a ceiling there in render. But, I’ll be backhanded by the GPU. My budget is 1000 dollars and I doubt I can get a psu gpu and RAM with that. I do have an RX 580 laying around somewhere, so I should be able to get a taste of what it can do. But the big question is software. I have no idea how well Windows 11 or Linux is implemented when I’m using Blender, Unity, UE5 as tools, I’ll definitely have to make the one game with Windows compatibility because no one realizes how awesome Linux is, but I’d rather use it if it makes sense.
It sounds like you should invest time in learning game development before thinking of building a workstation for it.
You can get started with modest hardware - I would just try using your laptop. Or you can try using your server if you can put a GPU of some sort in there. You shouldn’t need much to learn. Once you are proficient and if you decide this still interests you, then you can think about building a workstation.
I was comfortable in 2014 using GameMaker and Unity. I’m making another game. Just don’t know what the climate is like anymore or how popular Linux is. Before it wasn’t easy trying to make something profitable on Linux distributions. But, I have gotten four more of the same exact RDIMMS for about $9 per. So, I believe I’ll be able to throw it all together and try it out. My poor RX 580 is going to be the guinea pig. But I appreciate all the help! Also building this is highly entertaining anyway. Just trying to learn more about servers and workstations.
Start with what you have, until you run into limitations and then buy stuff to fix the issues.
Throwing 10-20k or more on a workstation before you start is wasting your money.
edit:
if all you have is a laptop, start with a modern consumer desktop board and a reasonable GPU.
Dual socket xeons, especially Xeons as old as you list are going to be far slower than a modern consumer platform with 8 cores. Because of lower clocks, lower IPC, older instruction set and slow memory/buses/io/etc.
To give you an idea how slow old xeons are, my iphone is several times faster than the 6 core Xeon E3-1650v2 in my trashcan mac pro, that runs at like 3.6ghz.
It’s looking pretty insane out there for regular desktop ram. I happened across the server parts I listed, costed me about $120 fo it all including 4x8gb rdimms, so I’d figured why not.
Seems like a bigger problem for me. My laptop is becoming unstable. Might be the ram. But, because everything is soldered on, I can’t fix it. But DDR4 is even outrageous, 16 GB kits are 120 dollars, for DDR4? So the fictional Ryzen 9 and DDR5 RAM will be siting there without mobo for a long time.
I found the server parts at a garage sale for $120 I just said why not. But I get it, 12 year old 18 core xeons aren’t that fast anymore. Maybe I’ll just play around with it.
Don’t worry about it too much, if it’s from 2019 or 2020 or newer and it was a mid to higher end component from that time it will perform reasonably well. The majority of programs and use cases can do alright running on moderate spec hardware, your use case “could” benefit from high end hardware, but it doesn’t need it at least not yet.
Look at the steam hardware survey for most common components people run for gaming, the average stuff is a long way from max spec gear. You should be able to develop games on what you have, you just won’t be having a great time if you are pushing something demanding like Unreal Engine 5.
Build it up and see how it goes, then address anything that comes up as an obstacle.
Stellar, thanks for the encouragement. I’m basically improvising at this point. But I know it will be fun either way. I’ll definitely post the build on another thread. But I’m kinda greatful for a forum like this. Real people. So many people said talk to AI. But I’m old school, I much prefer people with experience over all that.
Great point. I would, but I bought that thing in 2021or 20, it’s got a stability issue somewhere and I did all the troubleshooting I could. But it’s failing Memtest. And it’s the soldered on RAM. So, it’s unfortunately, on it’s way to the grave. My 8460p from years ago still works though, lol.
If you are on a true budget saving journey, this is the best we can do in todays market, enough to get you started, still faster and way more energy efficient than your Xeon: