ThinkServer - GPU install - Anyone have experience?

[hawk77]

Hi everyone, I am considering the purchase of a highly discounted Lenovo ThinkServer. Here is the link:
http://www.buy.com/prod/lenovo-thinkserver-ts130-11051cu-tower-server-1-x-intel-xeon-e3-1225-3/221486664.html

My plan is to install a gpu along the lines of a 7770 and also a 400w or so power supply to keep up with the increased GPU, possibly the fanless Seasonic variety.

This rig would mostly be for using blender / rendering and the gpu would be for light gaming. Does anyone have any experience with something similar to this? I like the idea of the Xeon processor in something cheaper than $400. The sooner you could reply the better, I believe this deal is done tonight.

Thank You.

 

[hawk77]

Also, to clarify, I would be installing Windows 7 ultimate on this. Would this be able to play games decently?

 

[hawk77]

Further clarifying - I have no intention to overclock anything. This is mostly a stable workstation that could get 30fps at 1080p on most games. I have never dealt with ECC memory and I wasn't sure if this and the combination of a motherboard I have no information on would cause any bottlenecks, other headaches.

 

[choucove]

While you can play games on a server if you wish, there really is no reason to. If you are going to be playing games on the computer system, stick with a gaming system platform built for that. A server system is going to be more costly to upgrade in the future if you need to do that, you're going to have hardware that is designed with drivers specifically for server usage and server environments, not desktop usage.

For the money, I'd recommend sticking with a business-class desktop PC for what you are intending to do.

 

[hawk77]

While you can play games on a server if you wish, there really is no reason to. If you are going to be playing games on the computer system, stick with a gaming system platform built for that. A server system is going to be more costly to upgrade in the future if you need to do that, you're going to have hardware that is designed with drivers specifically for server usage and server environments, not desktop usage.

For the money, I'd recommend sticking with a business-class desktop PC for what you are intending to do.

Thanks for the reply! I have actually decided to get a Xeon e3-1230 v2 and install it in an Asus Z77 class mobo. I have not decided yet on a GPU yet, but it will almost definitely be an ATi 7000 series.

 

[hawk77]

I usually purchase AMD proccessors (so it's hard for me to dole out $330! for a 3770k) but I need something powerful with hyper threading support to use for rendering, this is how I based my choice on the Xeon.