Home Server build with 2 Xeon E5-2690s, 256gb ram

hafdat,

It's possible that the server can be done with a quite small budget, in that you have high performance components that are surplus to the project.

The E5-2690 is an 8-core / 16 thread @ 2.9/3.8GHz and which new cost over $2,000.

http://ark.intel.com/products/64596/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-2690-20M-Cache-2_90-GHz-8_00-GTs-Intel-QPI

These are very high performing CPU's with an average Passmark CPU rating of 14340 for a single CPU and a dual average is 20775. For comparison, I use 2X Xeon X5680 6-core @ 3.47 /3.73GHz - that's 12 cores /24 threads (+50%) at nearly a +600MHz base clock speed- and these together score 15047. The E5-2690 is really good one.

Used, a E5-2690 is worth $400-$700. If you have 16X 16GB RAM modules of 1333 or 1600 ECC registered, each module can be worth $50-70.

My point is that for a home server, unless you have 15+ nodes, 5 VM/s and 20_TB of data in RAID 50 over quad LAN, use one of the CPU's and 4X 16GB of RAM, and selling the other CPU and 12X 16GB RAM modules could equal $600 + $700 or perhaps $1,300. A Quadro 600 is the perfect GPU, but you only need one, so that's a bit more for the budget. If you don't go overboard with a lot of drives in complex RAIDs, the project is quite well self-funded already.

1. Perhaps base the system on:

SUPERMICRO MBD-X10SRL-F Server Motherboard LGA 2011 R3 >$234

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813182927

2. Have a good fan /heatsink cooler .

3. A roomy mid or full tower workstation case with 5-8 drive bays.Consider the noise level of the case design in conjunction with a healthy air flow.

4. A gold rated Seasonic or Corsair 750+W power supply.

5., Configure with 64GB of RAM

6. LSI 9240 or 9260 RAID controller. I've always bought RAID controllers used and never had a failure, and that may be an option but of course they have had a lot use.

7. Drives will depend on the data size,the speed needed- RAID 0's, and the degree of data protection in the form of RAID 1's but buy enterprise drives: WD RE or Seagate Constellation ES.3. If you're running multiple VM's you may benefit from an SSD for the OS/Application /VM drive.

There's a lot of potential for this server as the first two cores of the E5-2690 run at up to 3.8GHz so a system like this with an appropriate GPU could run as a visualization workstation with a solid rendering capability. With a very fast SSD, the HD disk system tuned for the libraries, and the 3.8GHz single-threaded performance of the E5-2690 and the right GPU- even gaming could be impressive.

Good project!

Cheers,

BambiBoom

1. HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 six-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz > 32GB DDR3 ECC 1866 RAM > Quadro K4200 (4GB) > Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) > Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> Logitech z2300 > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440) > Windows 7 Professional 64 >
[ Passmark Rating = 5064 > CPU= 13989 / 2D= 819 / 3D= 4596 / Mem= 2772 / Disk= 4555] [Cinebench R15 > CPU = 1014 OpenGL= 126.59 FPS] 7.8.15

2. Dell Precision T5500 (2011) > 2X Xeon X5680 six -core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz, 48GB DDR3 ECC 1333 > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > PERC H310 / Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3844 / CPU = 15047 / 2D= 662 / 3D= 3500 / Mem= 1785 / Disk= 2649] (12.30.15)