Building a home server

[sposim]

Hello,
my son is in college for his dr. in economics. he is using matlab and would like to build a home server for remote use and also to speed his work up. Can someone suggest what we would need for a decent cpu and mobo. If possible would like to stay about 800.00 if able to.

 

[o1die]

Newegg has alot of stuff on sale right now if you can order from them. I suggest a simple rosewill case ($29.99 shipped) with amd cpu and 785 board. Newegg has an ecs 785 ddr3 board for only $55 after rebate; they also have a corsair 650tx power supply for the same price. For the cpu, they have a phenom II 740 tri core for $68.99; you'll need a heatsink for that one. If you want to run it 24/7 and save some energy, you can go with a sempron 140 sargus amd cpu instead or Intel core i3 540 ($105) with Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2V board ($59.99). For ram, they have gskill 2x2gb of 1600 ddr3 for only $49.99 shipped, which I ordered yesterday. The gigabyte board is listed in the motherboards section. The rest of my suggestions are black friday specials listed under "IT components" on the main page.

 

[lysinger]

Hello,
my son is in college for his dr. in economics. he is using matlab and would like to build a home server for remote use and also to speed his work up. Can someone suggest what we would need for a decent cpu and mobo. If possible would like to stay about 800.00 if able to.

Matlab is a big program, I used to support it in the College PC lab. I would go with:

Win7 64bit $120
12gb ram 1333mhz DDR3 triple channel (1333mhz is the best price for the dollar, faster won't get you much) ~$230
(6 will work, but I would go for the extra as it is "cheap" nowadays)
Intel core i7950 (serious number crunching bang for the buck) ~$300
Asus or intel motherboard with integrated video ~$230
an 400watt 80+ rated power supply since this will be on all the time (PC Power and cooling is my favorite but they are pricey, OCZ makes a good one)
Western Digital caviar black hard drive 500gb $65
Cheapest case money can buy

This puts you just over $800, but you can shave some bucks off by going with 6gb ram to start.

 

[sposim]

Matlab is a big program, I used to support it in the College PC lab. I would go with:

Win7 64bit $120
12gb ram 1333mhz DDR3 triple channel (1333mhz is the best price for the dollar, faster won't get you much) ~$230
(6 will work, but I would go for the extra as it is "cheap" nowadays)
Intel core i7950 (serious number crunching bang for the buck) ~$300
Asus or intel motherboard with integrated video ~$230
an 400watt 80+ rated power supply since this will be on all the time (PC Power and cooling is my favorite but they are pricey, OCZ makes a good one)
Western Digital caviar black hard drive 500gb $65
Cheapest case money can buy

This puts you just over $800, but you can shave some bucks off by going with 6gb ram to start.

Thank you for the reply. We were thinking of running Linux on this and just using as server. I doubt that would really change anything but the o/s. I was just curious how you felt about using AMD 1055t or 1090T (6 core). Is intel better in the server environment?

Thanks again.

 

[lysinger]

Thank you for the reply. We were thinking of running Linux on this and just using as server. I doubt that would really change anything but the o/s. I was just curious how you felt about using AMD 1055t or 1090T (6 core). Is intel better in the server environment?

Thanks again.

I am a big fan of AMD and build a lot of AMD based PCs for my clients. I think these 6 core chips will fit your need perfectly.

That being said, I run a middle end Intel CPU (E8400) in my server. They are more expensive, but the performance is going to be better. Take a look at Tom's CPU charts for more info. Intel cannot touch AMD on price but they are the performance king at the moment.

Whatever you end up doing, I recommend spending a few extra bucks on a quality power supply, good fans and cpu cooler so that you don't have to replace anything for several years. Also keep the server in a cool place with good airflow in and out of the case.

Downtime is always costly so take the server down once every 6 months and clean the dust out of the case and cpu cooler. Back up your data first

 

[sposim]

according to the rankings on the site here, the intel i7950 and the amd 1090t are pretty much a dead heat. in searching the overall cost of mobo and cpu approx 100.00 less for amd. That being said, does the intel arch. work better with the server overall?? I do not mind spending the extra if it does. But if all is the same even if i' am as you a amd fan and i'd rather save, i want what will perform the best.
Thank you.

 

[lysinger]

according to the rankings on the site here, the intel i7950 and the amd 1090t are pretty much a dead heat. in searching the overall cost of mobo and cpu approx 100.00 less for amd. That being said, does the intel arch. work better with the server overall?? I do not mind spending the extra if it does. But if all is the same even if i' am as you a amd fan and i'd rather save, i want what will perform the best.
Thank you.

Both are going to work just fine as a server architecture as that has more to do with the quality of your motherboard IMHO.

If budget is your primary consideration go with the cheaper option.

If performance is your primary consideration, you may want to contact Matlab and ask them whether their program will take full advantage of multiple CPU cores or not and ask them about the 2 CPus in qeustion. I think this will help you the most in making an informed decision.

 

[rand_79]

A matlab server isnt a ftp server or something..

as far as using linux.. if you know how to setup linux and such no reason not to skip windows.

Windows would be far easier to setup for most people.

 

[sposim]

Best answer selected by sposim.

 

[popatim]

Whats the point of building him this server as opposed to just upgrading his workstation/pc to the same specs?

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey