Thinking About Hardware Upgrade(s). Looking For Input/Advice


plumphish

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Hello.

 

Been a very extremely happy unRAID user for several years now, with the following hardware:

 

  • unRAID 6.2.3 Pro
  • AMD FX-8120 (Passmark)
  • ASRock 990FX Extreme4
  • 16 GB RAM
  • Gigabit ethernet
  • 11 Array Drives - 9 Data, 1 Cache, 1 Parity
  • 2 Unassigned drives (See below)
  • Antec 1200

 

And I run the following software:

 

  • Array size - 25TB (4TB Parity) (Used for NAS purposes). 750GB Cache
  • Unassigned Drives - 1 for Windows VM (80GB SSD); 1 for MythTV (500GB)
  • VM 1 - Windows (hosted on unassigned drive above) for basic use, Allocated 2 cores 4GB RAM. RDP connection. (no passthru)
  • VM 2 - Asterisk. (Running Debian). Allocated 2 cores 1 GB Ram. VNC/'Headless'
  • VM 3 - Ubuntu x64. Allocated 2 cores 4GB RAM. Does not always run, only when needed. VNC connection
  • ~18 Dockers - Including but not limited to: OpenVPN (very important), MythTV, MariaDB, Apache, Nextcloud (in Apache), netdata, htpmanager, etc. (no transcoding). Normally, I have about 12 running at any given time.

 

With that being said, I am starting to see the age of my hardware. I do get occasional emhttp hang, when I am doing something intensive (coping large files to/from array, MythTV encoding to mp4), etc.) and I am starting to think that the FX-8120 is starting to show its age. So I am trying to decide if it is worthwhile to upgrade, based on my needs.

 

If I did upgrade, I would like:

  • IPMI
  • Onboard Video (easier passthru for GPUs, not the onbaord of course)
  • Lower power consumption
  • Another Windows VM for the wife
  • LibreELEC VM

 

So if I upgrade, I was looking at:

 

  • Xeon E5-2683 v3Passmark Ebay there ~$350 x2 = $700
  • SUPERMICRO MBD-X10DRL-I Newegg ~$330
  • 64GB of some ECC Ram. Newegg ~$400
  • I have no idea if I will need to upgrade the PSU. I believe the one I have in there is 850W but need to check

 

Because the Antec 1200 is limited to ATX boards, it severely limits what I can get. I only found 2 on Newegg, one with IPMI and one without. I have a spare Cosair 800D that fits E-ATX, but cannot hold as many HDDs... I am also not completely sold on the E5-2683, due to its low clock speed (although 14 cores sounds very nice). Socket LGA 2011-3 for future-proofing-ish (you can never future proof). I stayed away from the E5-2670 due to an older socket & higher power consumption (although there a hell of a lot cheaper)

 

Does it make sense for a nice 'hardware refresh', or I can live out with my current hardware for a few more years? If yes, what hardware should I be looking at?

 

Thanks for looking!  8)

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You mention that you are limited by the space in the Antec 1200.  If you are buying dual CPUs with a retail value of nearly $4,000, the geek code clearly states that under sub-paragraph b (rules for cases when installing > 48 vcpus) that you can simultaneously upgrade to whatever freaking case you want!!  ;D

 

Seriously, you're talking about going from 6,500 Passmarks to 36,000 Passmarks and 8 AMD quasi cores to 28 true Intel cores and 56 vcpus.  It would be great the multi-VM/Docker setup you propose, and for virtually anything else you throw at it except for gaming (due to the low clock speed).

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With some further reflection:

 

The reason I referred to your AMD FX as having quasi-cores:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/06/amd_sued_cores/

 

For me 2.0GHz would be a little slow for interactive desktop use.  It's been quite a while since I had anything that slow in front of me.  It's fine for server based processing but might be a little frustrating for the two interactive Windows VMs if you do anything demanding. 

 

Despite the fact that your use case heavily favors having lots of cores available, if it were me I'd be willing to give up some cores in order to get a higher clock speed - a minimum of 2.4GHz and preferably 2.6GHz or higher.  The thing is, the E5-2683 is at a very favorable price/performance point on eBay (as you know).  I'd probably do a little more fishing to see what I could find.

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You mention that you are limited by the space in the Antec 1200.  If you are buying dual CPUs with a retail value of nearly $4,000, the geek code clearly states that under sub-paragraph b (rules for cases when installing > 48 vcpus) that you can simultaneously upgrade to whatever freaking case you want!!  ;D

 

Seriously, you're talking about going from 6,500 Passmarks to 36,000 Passmarks and 8 AMD quasi cores to 28 true Intel cores and 56 vcpus.  It would be great the multi-VM/Docker setup you propose, and for virtually anything else you throw at it except for gaming (due to the low clock speed).

 

O man, this cracked me up!! You are 100% right!

 

I think I have decided to hold off for now...As tdallen mentioned that clock speed is a little on the low side, and i do not need that many cores. Will I game on this rig in the near future? No, but I would like the possibility. Time to go look around for some alternatives. I'll post back when I see something

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