Server or Gaming System?

Hi all.

I recently bought a motherboard because, well it was a great discount.
I didn’t do any research as to what it supported so I was thinking about building a server (Linux)

Turns out the motherboard, which is a Gigabyte H170 (DDR4), supports the 7700K (Socket 1151) which seems to be a really good one for gaming still.
My current system has the Socket 2011 i7-3960X 12 core CPU. (It’s a Rampage IV: Black)

My question to all of you is, should I turn my current system into a server and build the new board as a gaming rig or keep my current setup and build the H170 with a not so expensive CPU and make that a server?

Ok, if im understanding you right, you want to know which of the 2 you should make into a server. if that is what your asking, hands down the socket 2011 system, more cores more threads and access to cheaper ram second hand ram. Plus your 7700k would be alot faster in games.

2 Likes

OK now that we’ve got the keks out of the way…
Your current 6 Core CPU isn’t that bad with a little overclock. And you have a legendary motherboard.
All you need is a decent video card and you’ll hang with all the modern games, quite nicely, and for a few more years.

So, what to do about your impulse buy of a motherboard? Frankly, return it if you can, or sell it/trade it for a better video card.

I know this is going to rustle Jimmies, but the whole home server thing is a meme. Most people don’t need one, and it’s just another system leaching power. If you don’t already know that you need one, you don’t need one.

I’d recommend getting a free used computer to try out as your first ‘server’. People are throwing away core2Quads left and right. You can easily re-prupose one of those as a server and accomplish all of your learning process on the cheap.

tl;dr: get rid of the motherboard. keep your current system.

2 Likes

Does your current system do all that you want it to do? Do you want some more proc beef? Is there something you want from the newer chipsets?

I don’t know the chipsets by heart, but if its worth the upgrade for you, sure use your current machine as a server. But with a 6 core already in hand, at that one that still seems to be on the charts for a lot of people today, it might be better to get an i3 or a cheap xeon for that H170 board and just build something that does what you want it to. Again I don’t really know the ins and outs of H170. It seems to me that was skylake right? See how many cores you can stuff into that board because if I remember correctly @wendell loved skylake for VM’s and stuff. Seems to me it did really well for that.

Dunno if that helped, but some other angle perhaps.

Agree with @NetBandit here. Virtualize a Linux server or two on your main box now to play around with. If you feel like you want to go the next step, then absolutely buy some hardware and build away (on that motherboard or some old ebay enterprise stuff). While there is no substitute for learning on actual hardware, I would argue that you can worry about that once you have gotten pretty good in a virtualized environment and want to take the next step. As @NetBandit said, more hardware just means more money and more juice for something you aren’t even sure what you want to do with.

Thanks for the replies.
The information was very helpful.

I thought I would add a little background information just for some reading material. :slight_smile:

I currently run a domain on an old HP workstation with 32G of ram but has no virtualization capabilities (I actually have two of these, but the other one isn’t running atm)

On the new server I was thinking of setting up a VM pfsence system and possibly some minecraft servers. The physical server (when it gets setup) will be headless so not worried about video. My current system has an nVidia GTX 960 which of course will go into whatever system ends up as the gaming one.

Now I’m going to do the classic “I know what I’m talking about” plugs, that I admit doesn’t mean anything considering I’m really bad at research hehe (Thanks for the correction of # of cores @NetBandit.) I’ve been playing with computers for over 20 yrs, have A+, Netowork+ and Linux+ (although the last one is not really worth mentioning as I haven’t used linux for so long I’ll be re-learning everything hehe)

Again, thanks for the replies, they gave me the information I needed to know.

tl;dr: I’ll probably slowly acquire hardware to build the H170 into a gaming rig and switch my current system into a server, this will take some time and prices will probably drop by then.

1 Like

Well what’s the linux server for?

Brilliant. Ignore all the good advice you got and build a game rig based on a 2 year old motherboard.
I swear, why do people ask questions if they are just going to do whatever the fuck anyway. :confused:

Good advise it may be, however we must remember it is his equipment, his choice.

The hardware he has chosen for a server should be more than enough for his stated uses. Perhaps overkill from what I see which isn’t necessarily a problem except for power consumption and heat generated. He should be able to run several VM’s comfortably on it which should be nice.

As for the other system, a 7700k is still one of the better CPU’s if all you care about is gaming. Unfortunately the H170 chipset will hamper his ability to overclock an unlocked chip and be a bit of a waste here. Other than that, its hard to fault this choice for gaming.

Although it can be annoying to give advise and have it ignored, some people just need to air their thoughts publicly, even have it critiqued only to better come to their own conclusions. It may be frustrating but that’s just how some folks operate.

1 Like

Not 12 core 6core 12 thread , but moot point

Depends on sever use what one should be what.

I would keep the 2011 as your gaming rig, but really depends on how demanding minecraft server is.