Complete rebuild or upgrade (AKA Intel v AMD..?)


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My current unRAID box consists of an  ASUSTeK M3N78-VM motherboard with 8GB RAM and an AMD Phenom II X4 945 @ 3000.

 

I run 9 dockers - Plex, a couple of downloaders etc , crashplan and OpenVPN and also run a Ubuntu VM dedicated to Zoneminder.

 

Most of the time, everything seems to run fine, and upgrading my cache disk to an SSD made quite a difference to the snappiness of Plex. Occasionally the CPU maxes out but I think that has been when plex has been streaming to one device and transcoding / syncing to another which is pretty rare. It seems to cope with two streams at once seems ok.

 

I would like to start playing around with VM's and would really like to get OSX up and running so I can retire my dying MBP. However, every guide I have followed fails for one reason or another and I think a lot of it has to do with RAM. If I allocate the machine 4GB or more the VM fails and it just won't run with any less. (I need to keep the Ubuntu VM running as well which has one core and 1GB RAM allocated)

 

My MB won't take any more RAM so I am trying to decide whether to:

 

1 - Upgrade to the best MB I can afford which is compatible with the AM3 socket chip I have and then gradually replace the RAM / CPU to better as and when I can afford it?

 

2 - Sell the lot on eBay and go for an Intel setup in which case do I go the a) Xeon or b) i5 / i7 route?

 

I don't currently have the cash to blow on a top of the range box but could probably go £500 - £600 now or save for a couple more months and look around the £1000 to £1500 budget.

 

My gut tells me that the intel route is the more sensible one but I don't really know why! I have been out of the PC chip world and reading about what is good and not for a few years and things really have moved on a pace!

 

 

 

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You could get an AM3+ motherboard and start a slow upgrade path.  But the 8GB you have is likely DDR2 and won't work on an AM3+ motherboard - you should check.  Personally I'd wait until you can upgrade the motherboard, RAM and CPU at the same time.  Whether you go current gen AM3+, Intel, or wait for the AMD Ryzen and the AM4 socket release in a few weeks it's probably easier to do it all together.

 

I'm purely an Intel guy so that's the way I'd go, but maybe an AMD person will chime in.

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