Okay so I'm planning to pull a @wendell here and turn some old server hardware into my daily driver before I go off to college. I think I would have a lot of fun using the parallelization power of a 32 thread monster, which I think I would get lots of use out of for my software development, using VM's, etc. I would also like to game on it, so I'll probably just buy a new graphics card to go with it after It's all done. I have a good 5 months or so to plan and hunt for parts, probably more than necessary but hopefully enough to find a good deal on older components. I do need some advice on what would be considered the "sweet spot" for age to performance with server hardware, and also just what to look out for in general. I would also like to, if at all possible, fit it into a (presumably larger than average) ATX tower case, as @wendell did with his server build. I have access to a reasonable deal on some power edge R710's or a R900, but these may be a bit older than what is preferable, but maybe thats just me. Thoughts?
Once you get into customization of old hardware, you quickly approach the same cost of building a new system.
Let's say you get a couple Xeon CPUs for free... Good luck finding a motherboard for them. You can get into the $400 range pretty quickly. Then you have case, and a beefy power supply (one that supports dual CPUs), You might be able to save a few bucks on getting old RAM vs current DDR4 stuff.
Anyway, you can save some, but maybe just buying a gently used 4790 system off CL for $400 is a better deal?
Frankly, I think it's cheaper to go with engineering samples. And since Broadwell-E are essentially a refinement of Haswell-E you are pretty safe with that generation. Since motherboards are still current, you can find them around $300ish. DDR4 ECC memory is more, but not that bad, and you can probably get a little now and upgrade later. 12core Engineering sample CPUs are like $150ish each.
"Server" hardware usually has compatibility issues with standard desktop hardware so my approach was to use an 8C/16T ES Xeon in an X99 motherboard and then stick that in a server style case that accepted ATX components. Overall a much cheaper way to build a multi-functional system.
I hadn't initially planned on X99 but was just lucky a cheap motherboard and then an appropriate ES Xeon CPU came up on Ebay.
I have access to decommissioned HP server hardware but though very well engineered they tend to be noisy with fast but relatively small HDDs though easy to RAID but I prefer the more flexible approach below. It's currebtly coin mining with multiple GPUs and has done so for over 6 moths with zero failures.
Gigabyte X99 server build
Thanks for the responses guys, it helps a lot. @NetBandit I haven't even thought about using engineering samples so that will probably be something I will look into. @bimbleuk I also haven't thought of using a cheaper X99 motherboard with a Xeon cpu, or any consumer grade motherboard for that matter. This should help me a lot in looking for parts and for adjusting my approach, so thank you.
If you're interested, here's a write-up on my 44core Xeon (engineering sample) workstation:
https://pcpartpicker.com/b/b8LD4D
I think I may do a Xeon E5-2670 build since the cpu's are so cheap. I think that's what @wendell used too for his build. @NetBandit
Those are the ones with REALLY expensive motherboards.
Good luck finding one.
Indeed the motherboards are quite expensive, $350 or so. But that's why I'm starting so early so I can keep my eyes peeled and hopefully find a deal on a used or refurbished one. @NetBandit
Back again. It's been a while but I'm still doing the build and planning on ordering parts soon. I've picked out everything except ram, which is where I am in need of some wisdom. I have been able to find some deals on DDR3 ECC RAM on ebay from good vendors, but have been unable to find anything reasonable that is listed on the QVL for my motherboard (the ASRock Rack EP2C602). I know server motherboards are picky with ram, but is it to such an extent that it wont accept much that isn't on the QVL?
Also, I chose the E5-2670 cpu's because the full build fits perfectly within my budget. I was unable to find a better deal on anything more powerful, but if such a thing exists then please enlighten me. Thanks again for the help guys!
Here's the link to the parts list including some RAM I found on ebay. https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Zh4bf8
Hi,
the 2670s are ok for gaming, but Ryzen is better.
Be aware that you will get better gaming performance and less hassle with Ryzen!
GTA5 won't launch with 2 cpus, you'd need to disable all 16 threads of one for GTA5 to make it launch.
Single thread isn't that awesome of those 2670. 115 in Cinebench.
The Asrock is sadly better then the intel S2600cp4 that i want to get rid of so i can't recommend or advertise to you
If you are willing to take a dremel to your case, you can switch to E ATX cases with enough space or cases that you know have enough space.
In Win 805 and 303 for example and in my case.
Just to clarify, i'm from germany and therefore my price expectations are shiftet.
I'd have to pay 100€ per cpu.
I heard that you can get the 2670 for less then 60$. Maybe look out for an auction.
I looked at your ebay and your Ram choice looks reasonable.
looks like prices went up a bit.
The PSU is a good choice though, should have enough CPU power cables.
EVGA G3 550 and 650 don't, had to figure that out the hard way.
Cheers Rage
Thanks for the help! I will say that finding the right case was a bit difficult as the options are limited. I also should have stated that since I make the post, I decided that this machine would mainly be a workstation, not much gaming will likely go on but I'll still probably throw in my old GTX 960.
For $1200 I'd figure out a way to get at least a Ryzen 1700 (cheapest 8 core), as much RAM as you can afford with the rest being pretty basic/minimal parts.
If not that, I'd consider some of the dual e5-2670 used dell systems that are on ebay. I see R620 and R720 systems all the time in the $900-$1200 range, loaded out with 128GB DDR3 ECC.
i thought about a 1700x system, but I was torn between that and the server. If I'm not really worried about gaming, which system is preferable?
I have seen some of the deals you were talking about on ebay, however it's not exactly a deal for my situation. The most I can find on ebay is something along the lines of a $900 R720 with 64GB or 128GB DDR3 ECC and no HDD, whereas I can find a motherboard, CPU's, and 64GB ram for around $650ish individually (depending on the ram), not to mention that I cant even place the R720 mobo in a regular full tower ATX chassis, which is a necessity for my situation (going to college). Really I think it comes down to whether or not a build like this would be better than a ryzen system for a linux workstation rig.
I have an ASRock Rack EP2C602-4L/D16 with two 2670s. Fantastic board, lots of crazy bios options. Matter of fact my current setup is almost the same as your parts picker setup and have been using it as a daily for a while now using Arch with passthrough for gaming on win10 when needed. A Ryzen based machine would perform better for gaming no doubt. It is also considerably newer than the dated Sandy Bridge based 2670s but I know they are still having issues with their IOMMU grouping. The C602 wont give you the same headache.
That being said If i were to build this machine again I would just go straight up and get a Ryzen based system as I imagine it is a lot easier to work with it terms of upgrades & "Future proofing" - Yea old server hardware is fun and a learning experience, and I can run like 20 odd VM's simultaneously thanks to my 128GB of RAM, and anyone I know who is PC literate turns their heads when they see two Hyper 212s, and yea I can perform multicore tasks light years faster than all of my mates. Doesn't change the fact its a dead chipset though and my only option for 3 odd years down the track is to tear out the Mobo + CPUs + RAM + USB Card + Sound Card because I wont have uses for them once I get a new chipset.
I made exactly this choice last month. I went with ryzen. Still getting things all set up (and, as you can see on the pcpartpicker, I am going to be upgrading over time), but I think I'll be happy.
Of course, I don't game much; this is primarily a workstation for programming and virtualization, so I couldn't answer that part of the question.
I'm glad you all shared your opinions. In that case I will likely go for the ryzen build.
I should also mention that RAM for this thing cost quite a bit of cash. But if you're looking at prices for ECC memory you probably already know this.
My stuff is Hynix 1600Mhz 8gb ECC DIMMs and from memory (lol) it cost more than the motherboard (When I got my board the 2670 craze had just begun and board prices were beginning to rise steeply as a result).
After a few months a my PC decided to take a big dump whilst reformatting a Hard Drive and for some reason when the machine reset it had killed 2 DIMMs in channel H, the PC would still boot however (Not sure if this is exclusively a server board robustness thing). I replaced the two sticks however which cost about 60 bucks AUD.
If I was to buy the RAM from the same ebay seller as last time to fully equip this machine it would cost me $578 AUD ($427 USD). For that level of cash I could buy a set of DDR4 2400MHz Corsair Platinum in 32GB flavor and still have change left over and 32GB would be plenty for day to day stuff.
Point is its old stuff and you're better off buying new kit, and although I can overclock it if I disable ECC it still doesn't hold a candle to DDR4 for the price.
that's another thing — I already have a ton of DDR3 ECC ram, which would have kept my costs down a lot.