CPU decision help?

hello all,

new unraid build here - still learning so be gentle! looking for some advice in regards to a CPU. I've narrowed my choices down to:

Xeon e3-1271v3 w/ ASRock E3C224-4L ATX LGA1150 Motherboard

OR

xeon e5-1620v3 w/ SUPERMICRO? MBD-X10SR?H-CLN4F-O motherboard

I'm not sure i necessarily need an e5 but the LGA2011-3 motherboard options are definitely more attractive. I'm building out a norco 4224 so i'm looking for a large amount of sata connections up front. utilization will be primarily media streaming NAS with possible VM use, so I don't know if these options are maybe too aggressive? I am looking for a smooth, dependable setup with some future-proofing on the front end. any thoughts? feel free to critique mobo choice as well. thanks everyone

hello all,

new unraid build here - still learning so be gentle! looking for some advice in regards to a CPU. I've narrowed my choices down to:

 

Xeon e3-1271v3 w/ ASRock E3C224-4L ATX LGA1150 Motherboard

OR

xeon e5-1620v3 w/ SUPERMICRO? MBD-X10SR?H-CLN4F-O motherboard

 

I'm not sure i necessarily need an e5 but the LGA2011-3 motherboard options are definitely more attractive. I'm building out a norco 4224 so i'm looking for a large amount of sata connections up front. utilization will be primarily media streaming NAS with possible VM use, so I don't know if these options are maybe too aggressive? I am looking for a smooth, dependable setup with some future-proofing on the front end. any thoughts? feel free to critique mobo choice as well. thanks everyone

I can shed some light on my situation, which may help you with yours.

I am running an e3-1245v3 with an ASrock C226 motherboard.

I run a server with moderate to high needs.

- Two VM's, each with GPU passed through running windows 10

- One Linux running a small Minecraft Server

- One headless Windows server VM for Blue Iris security software

- Many Dockers, Plex, Sab, Sick, Couchpotato, Headphones, OpenVPN, Some I cant think off right now....

- ~10 HDD's for the array

I run the two Win10 VM's mostly for Plex Home Theater, though they also do the occasional gaming. Sometimes off their GPU/CPU direct, sometimes I use steam streaming from my main Gaming rig. When I am using one of the VM's, a couple of friends are streaming Plex, I can run in to utilization issues. CPU use quite high, affecting my media watching, my gaming, or my friends media watching.

Also, given the setup of my motherboard, both of my GPU's are on the same IOMMU group. This has caused me to have to run with ACS override on, which I believe has caused me some instability on my GPU VM's when I have both turned on and am using both. It is usable, but i get occasional crashed/lockups of the VM's. Lately I have not needed both VM's simultaneously, so I have turned ACS override off and have not had a single crash since.

So my setup gives me some issues in certain VM/GPU passthrough configurations, as well as some CPU limitations when my server is being taxed heavily. The heavy taxing is mostly Sunday nights, when I am home gaming/watching, a bunch of media is being downloaded, and friends are home streaming from me.

Running the e5 should alleviate the APC override type issues, as that CPU series, I am told, has some function separating all IOMMU groups properly. Speed wise, it appears to be the same.

I am currently looking for some good pricing on moving to an e5 chip with more cores, and hopefully still some decent clocks. But my usage is rather higher that normal, I would guess. The e3 served me perfectly up until more buddies started using Plex.

As was mentioned above, if you want to be certain you have proper isolation for devices (some are better at this by chance, but it is hit or miss) you need a processor that support ACS on root ports.

This would be either an E5 Xeon (ECC Memory) or an i7 "Extreme" (Non ECC) edition processor.

You have listed 2 Xeon processors, so I will assume you'd prefer this to have ECC memory (which is certainly a better idea, but not a requirement).

So if you can, and want a Xeon, I'd opt for the E5 series, whichever one in that you prefer.

E5 it is, thanks for the advice. although now i have to decide whether i want to step up to a 1650 for 6 cores or save $300 and stick with the 1620 

E5 it is, thanks for the advice. although now i have to decide whether i want to step up to a 1650 for 6 cores or save $300 and stick with the 1620 

I have been frequenting ebay to try and find a good deal on a 6+ core.... The hunt continues though haha.