Buying a Xeon?

thegloaming · Oct 4, 2017

I'm looking at CPUs to set up a server at home (no gaming, just trying to do a load of other things on it).

Would it make sense to go for an older or even recent Xeon?

Some of the deals I have seen are:

- Xeon E5-2670 + Intel BOXDX79TO MB (total about $283)
- Xeon E5-2670 (x2) + ASRock EP2C602-4L/D16 MB (total about $587)
- Xeon X5670 ($98)

[Or might I be better served going for a Xeon E3-12xx (v5 or v6)?]

kanewolf · Oct 4, 2017

Why do you believe a Xeon is the best choice for CPU? Any CPU can function as a server.

An idea of what functions you want to implement, or what your requirements are, beyond "a load of other things" could help us with guidance.

thegloaming · Oct 4, 2017

kanewolf :

I'm looking to setup a headless Linux server at home, and I figured that it's probably better to have a server CPU (as I see the Xeon to be, but I could be wrong) than a non-server CPU. Plus it seems to have lower power usage, and since the server is always on that was a consideration. And preferably a setup with little to no noise at all.

I intend to use this for a lot of learning and experimentation - from Linux as a server OS to applications in different areas. These would likely be a media centre (AV storage and streaming, EPG), home automation and security, web server, email server, VPN, a personal 'dropbox', programming (mostly Python and R initially), data storage, transformation, and analysis. And other things as I learn and find out new things.
And eventually I hope to do more hardcore stuff like Machine Learning (NLP or real time video/image processing) and perhaps crypto-currency mining. This will likely need a system where I can later add powerful GPUs.

I figured I probably would end up needing to do different things in parallel, and so a better multi-threaded/multi-core CPU would be handy for that. And so I thought, yeah, Xeon.
Not the right conclusion? :/

kanewolf · Oct 4, 2017

I would recommend physically different hosts (maybe VMs) for most of what you want.

Your home infrastructure should be segregated from your play (however that is defined) area. A low power embedded host would be a good choice for the intrastructure -- The quad core Celerons similar to this -- https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157513&ignorebbr=1 is perfect for an "always on device"

Then get a used workstation list a HP Z800 or something if you want a play rig.

thegloaming · Oct 5, 2017

Indeed, segregation makes much sense.
I like the idea of running things either on VMs or containers on the same server. This would provide a great learning platform and experience.

I started looking at a segregated NAS setup (+media streaming/transcoding), and FreeNAS looks the way to go. However, the forums say it is much better to run FreeNAS on bare metal rather than in a VM. This NAS would also be a real 'production' level system, while all the other things would initially be more in the 'play/learn/develop' domain. So, clearly these 2 need a separation now, and as other things move from the 'play/learn/develop' domain to production, then I could find the appropriate solutions for separation, security, and the like.

The best option I see at the moment indeed is to setup 2-3 different physical hosts (all headless) - one dedicated completely for FreeNAS (+Plex +MythTV +...) and the other as a Linux server (initial focus on programming, data analysis, email server, web server, and ownCloud).
I think the home automation part might come a bit later, and I might start that off on a Raspberry Pi3.

I'm still reading up on desired FreeNAS hardware configs, and generally see that it should be 2-4 cores with a lot of RAM (12GB+) and of course a lot of physical storage (.TB? 8TB? more?). A Xeon is likely overkill here, and perhaps I could take a motherboard with an LGA 1151 socket, start out with an i3 or i5, and if later needed change it to a i7/Xeon on the same socket?

For the other play Linux server, it seems that I will need to be able to learn and run apps in a few containers, and sooner or later I might need to have some running in VMs. That would imply multiple cores and enough memory (RAM + HDD/SSD) for dedicated applications. Would this best be a Xeon based system (I think Celeron wouldnt be powerful enough here)?

lperreault21 · Oct 5, 2017

thegloaming :

Indeed, segregation makes much sense.
I like the idea of running things either on VMs or containers on the same server. This would provide a great learning platform and experience.

I started looking at a segregated NAS setup (+media streaming/transcoding), and FreeNAS looks the way to go. However, the forums say it is much better to run FreeNAS on bare metal rather than in a VM. This NAS would also be a real 'production' level system, while all the other things would initially be more in the 'play/learn/develop' domain. So, clearly these 2 need a separation now, and as other things move from the 'play/learn/develop' domain to production, then I could find the appropriate solutions for separation, security, and the like.

The best option I see at the moment indeed is to setup 2-3 different physical hosts (all headless) - one dedicated completely for FreeNAS (+Plex +MythTV +...) and the other as a Linux server (initial focus on programming, data analysis, email server, web server, and ownCloud).
I think the home automation part might come a bit later, and I might start that off on a Raspberry Pi3.

I'm still reading up on desired FreeNAS hardware configs, and generally see that it should be 2-4 cores with a lot of RAM (12GB+) and of course a lot of physical storage (.TB? 8TB? more?). A Xeon is likely overkill here, and perhaps I could take a motherboard with an LGA 1151 socket, start out with an i3 or i5, and if later needed change it to a i7/Xeon on the same socket?

For the other play Linux server, it seems that I will need to be able to learn and run apps in a few containers, and sooner or later I might need to have some running in VMs. That would imply multiple cores and enough memory (RAM + HDD/SSD) for dedicated applications. Would this best be a Xeon based system (I think Celeron wouldnt be powerful enough here)?

My uncle has a server for some of that stuff

he runs this: https://pcpartpicker.com/product/CsTmP6/amd-cpu-eme450gbb22gv
and it does not go under load so i would look into a celeron, pentium, or a AM4 Athlon.

But, it is up to you, A zeon would be the best, but overkill and expensive

thegloaming · Oct 5, 2017

Thanks for all the info and thoughts. In the meantime I have been doing some more thinking, reading, and discussing, and that has caused me to pivot from my last approach (to what looks like the one I will go with).

Instead of starting out with a separate physical FreeNAS, I want to set this up on the Linux server and play around with it for a while. If it looks good over time but the performance is flaky, then I would move it to a separate physical setup. Until then, I would have this and other stuff as above running in VMs and/or containers mostly.

Running FreeNAS in a VM necessitates a few things - PCI passthrough (VT-d) as well as ECC RAM (preferably).
This essentially brings me to have only the Xeon (and possibly Ryzen) CPUs as feasible options.

I'm studying some options for possible CPUs and motherboards - would you have thoughts on what might be a reasonably good config?

thegloaming · Oct 15, 2017

(Bumping this up to ask about the CPU, as the motherboard is sorted)

I'm decided to go for a Xeon 26xx processor for this server that I am building.
This would mostly be used for running some VMs (FreeNAS, home automation), software development, data analysis and such (thus, it helps me to have more cores to split the workload over, rather have having fewer faster cores, IMHO).

My preference is the E5 2670, but I'm finding it hard to get that here in India (at a reasonable price).
So, I'm contemplating the E5 2660 or E5 2650.

I've looked at CPUboss and some performance comparison sites (by the numbers), but I'm also hoping to get insights from people who have used these CPUs.
- Is there a big difference in performance of these latter 2 CPUs?
- Would there be a big difference between the v1 and v2 versions?
- And would I get any significant power saving if I used these instead of the 2670?

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