cpu for drivepool/scanner

[Ryo]

hi all im rebuilding my fileserver / media server and im thinking of going intel. my main reason is I have the file server and then I have 3 laptops accessing it. will the cpu in the server make a difference on how quickly I can balance my pool and also how quickly I can run scanner? im thinking of rebuilding with a socket 1150 Celeron to start and then upgrade as I can afford.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

...what CL-type of DDR3-1600 is this...you won't notice any real-world difference between 1600-CL11 and 1333-CL9.

 

 

+1 for ECC ...on S1150 even the Celerons will support it, but the proposed MSI Desktop mobo chipset will not 

Intel's website will list if the CPU supports ECC.

Pentium: http://ark.intel.com/products/80792/Intel-Pentium-Processor-G3450-3M-Cache-3_40-GHz

Celeron: http://ark.intel.com/products/78954/Intel-Celeron-Processor-G1830-2M-Cache-2_80-GHz

 

And it seems that most (if not all) of the haswell line seems to support ECC. Which is fantastic. So this depends on the motherboard, mostly. 

 

whats better the ripjaws or the ares ram?

don't really think I need ecc for my needs just want a cpu that will last me the next 3-5 years like my phenom did and the xeon fits well

as of now im running ddr 3 1600 gskill ripjaws but wanna eventually go to 32gb ram. so ? is ripjaws or ares

I think the ripjaw is better, actually. But I never compared to the two. I got the Ares RAM with the AMD system I was using. The CPU burned (literally), but the RAM checked out fine. 

 

However, I do use a heatsink that is rather low to the motherboard, so the RipJaw's higher profile heatsink wouldn't work with my system. (The only large, after market heatsink that would really work well in my rackmount case was the Noctua NH-C14, in case you're curious). 

 

A quick look at Newegg shows that there doesn't seem to be any difference here. So it's entirely personal choice. The difference being the heat sink/spreader on the RAM.

 

 

 

 

However, while I don't mean to be pushy here, if you are buying RAM, check out the ECC stuff anyways. You may find it for about the same price. If you do, it is worth picking up the ECC for the increased stability. If not, well, you have a good idea of how much it would cost in comparison, if you ever decide to switch.

[Ryo]

do I have to worry about Direct x 12 compatability for windows 10 with the xeon chip I want E3-1275v3 wich is listed as dx 11.1?

[Christopher (Drashna)]

I'm not sure, but from a quick look, it does appear that it will support DirectX 12. 

But don't quote me.

[Ryo]

should I wait for newer cpu's to come out? or will the E3-1275V3 support win 10 ok

[p3x-749]

....AFAIU the DirectX feature is for playback, not for transcoding...what will be your usecase behind that?

Building an all-in-one is something that has been thought of by many as the ultimate goal...I've been there, done it and learned that you should not put all eggs into one basket.

 

Rule of Thumb: when building a server, you don't need much GPU power..building a renderer, you will need GPU power.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Building an all-in-one is something that has been thought of by many as the ultimate goal...I've been there, done it and learned that you should not put all eggs into one basket.

That really depends on how the basket was built and is handled.  

And how good your backups are.

 

But about the GPU stuff, you're absolutely correct. Transcoding is usually handled by the CPU and not the GPU, unless you're using specific stuff that calls on it (not common).

[p3x-749]

Yes, you're right about that.....security is a thing, not to be underestimated 

For my home use scenario, the thing that made me pull the all-in-one apart and rebuild dedicated boxes was my electricity bill.

 

I found that each individual service was not needed all the time, but only every once in a while, maybe only for 2hrs a day..however, 

usage pattern in the family of each service was so unique, that I was forced to run the big box in 24x7 mode.

 

After running a kill-a-watt with logger for some time, I found that this thing would cost me 1Mwh per year on electricity...an increase of my bill/consumption by 30%.

And at prices of 0.25(euro)cent per kwh, this is a huge amount of money, year over year.

 

.... I converted everything to smaller desktop based boxes, supporting S3/WOL, and my electricity bill was down by another 800Kwh again....investments paid off within the year   .

The only 24x7 services I still run are on my router or a dedicated ARM-based box..even my renderers are based on Android boxes nowadays.

Both these things increase the WAF a lot, too 

 

...returning to the OP...running a NAS/Server with a lot of disks is different from running a desktop (hence the GPU thing)...firing up the desktop will not prevent the disks from spinning, adding wear&tear and electricity cost.

I am still not seeing the UseCases or rather I feel the UseCase from the first post is much different from the one that seems to demand a large GPU.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Yes, you're right about that.....security is a thing, not to be underestimated 

For my home use scenario, the thing that made me pull the all-in-one apart and rebuild dedicated boxes was my electricity bill.

 Well, that would definitely do it.

My server pulls about 150W when idle (that's with 14 HDDs, also). 

SO I can definitely understand that.

I found that each individual service was not needed all the time, but only every once in a while, maybe only for 2hrs a day..however, 

usage pattern in the family of each service was so unique, that I was forced to run the big box in 24x7 mode.

 

After running a kill-a-watt with logger for some time, I found that this thing would cost me 1Mwh per year on electricity...an increase of my bill/consumption by 30%.

And at prices of 0.25(euro)cent per kwh, this is a huge amount of money, year over year.

 Yeah, definitely. And that's a lot of power.

.... I converted everything to smaller desktop based boxes, supporting S3/WOL, and my electricity bill was down by another 800Kwh again....investments paid off within the year   .

The only 24x7 services I still run are on my router or a dedicated ARM-based box..even my renderers are based on Android boxes nowadays.

Both these things increase the WAF a lot, too 

 

...returning to the OP...running a NAS/Server with a lot of disks is different from running a desktop (hence the GPU thing)...firing up the desktop will not prevent the disks from spinning, adding wear&tear and electricity cost.

I am still not seeing the UseCases or rather I feel the UseCase from the first post is much different from the one that seems to demand a large GPU.

Another option here, that may have helped would have been LightsOut. It's a great power management utility, and worth the money. I highly recommend it for anyone that doesn't want a 24/7 server, actually.

[Ryo]

should I definitely get a xeon or is an I7 worth looking at seeing as I saw 6 core i7 chips

tthey were xeon 6 cores

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Keep in mind that these chips also have hyperthreading, so 4 cores appears and operates as 8. A six core will show 12, etc. 

 

Also, these CPUs will probably run hotter, and use more power. Or run at lower clock speeds.

 

Again, this really depends on what all you want to do.

I run a couple of VMs in HyperV, plex, and a couple of other CPU intensive things, on my Xeon E3-1245v3, and rarely stress the CPU. 

[Ryo]

does plex rip dvds or just serve and play em?

[Ryo]

I hope that was a fair ? about plex im building my server for media streaming and im very quickly running out of room for physical dvds. so building my media server is a must as I own hundreds of dvds .

[otispresley]

does plex rip dvds or just serve and play em?

 

It does not look like Plex rips your DVD's, but this guide did come up in a lot of places in a Google search: http://hanycam-hd-clips-ingesting.overblog.com/2014/03/plex-dvd-ripper-backup-dvd-dvd-iso-video-ts-folder-to-plex-media-server.html

[Christopher (Drashna)]

does plex rip dvds or just serve and play em?

No, plex will only server and play them.

 

It does not look like Plex rips your DVD's, but this guide did come up in a lot of places in a Google search: http://hanycam-hd-clips-ingesting.overblog.com/2014/03/plex-dvd-ripper-backup-dvd-dvd-iso-video-ts-folder-to-plex-media-server.html

MyMovies is another option.

IIRC, it does have clients to play the content, but more importantly, it can be configured to automatically rip DVDs and BluRays on your server.

 

Obviously, any solution to rip DVDs will need a decent amount of CPU to do this quickly.

[p3x-749]

Obviously, any solution to rip DVDs will need a decent amount of CPU to do this quickly.

 

AFAIU the limiting factor nowadays is the fact that most optical drives have a riplock feature, preventing to read an encrypted disc faster than 2-3x, even

when the drive is advertised to read/write blanks much faster.

There are - for some drive models - non-official firmwares, where a patch removes the riplock though.

[otispresley]

AFAIU the limiting factor nowadays is the fact that most optical drives have a riplock feature, preventing to read an encrypted disc faster than 2-3x, even

when the drive is advertised to read/write blanks much faster.

There are - for some drive models - non-official firmwares, where a patch removes the riplock though.

 

This is so very true.  I switched my main PC to a NUC and ordered this external LG Blu-Ray drive that is not riplocked.  It costs more than the internal options, but I have been very happy with it.

 

I have successfully patched riplocked drives in the past, but it is risky.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

AFAIU the limiting factor nowadays is the fact that most optical drives have a riplock feature, preventing to read an encrypted disc faster than 2-3x, even

when the drive is advertised to read/write blanks much faster.

There are - for some drive models - non-official firmwares, where a patch removes the riplock though.

I've obviously been out of this game for a while, as I was not aware of the rip-lock "feature".

 

 

This is so very true.  I switched my main PC to a NUC and ordered this external LG Blu-Ray drive that is not riplocked.  It costs more than the internal options, but I have been very happy with it.

 

I have successfully patched riplocked drives in the past, but it is risky.

Anytime you flash firmware, it is ALWAYS risky. By it's very nature. 

[Ryo]

Is there anyway to reset my trial for drivepool and scanner because my os drive died like less than a week into my trial and now I have to wait till wed just to get the new drive...

[Christopher (Drashna)]

No need to. Since this a clean install of windows on a new hard drive, it will be considered a new machine, and give you a full trial period.

 

And I'm sorry to hear about the system disk dying. That is never a pleasant experience. 

Also, would be a good time to think about implementing a backup for the system disk (at least), so that this isn't as painful if (when) it happens in the future.

[Ryo]

hey I have a question about an AMD cpu...how do the socket FM2+  A10-7850K Kaveri core with (4 CPU + 8 GPU cores holdup to be used for Media streaming? its way cheaper than intel and my current phenom 2 945 socket AM3 is awesome but cant find am3 board for my needs don't get me wrong I love the intel xeons but that's A HUGE INVESTMENT for me. the amd is way cheaper and ive had great luck. my current rig is handleing windows 10 without issues but im wanting more sata ports and at least 2 pcie x 16 at 3.0 wich I cant get with my current board.

 

I stress im not gaming... just windows 10 stablebit drivepool and scanner and possible future stablebit products. maybe anydvd and ihomeserver and a future version of Norton antivirus... that's it.

[p3x-749]

....for streaming, this will be fine...for transcoding the media, find something that has around 1200 passmark per concurrent stream.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

It depends on the what is being used for media streaming. And more specifically, if the transcoder is designed AND optimized to use just the CPU or to use the GPU as well.

As for Plex, I'm not sure. But I think it's only CPU. So a good CPU is worth more than GPU power.

 

As for the APU CPUs.... I've been burned by AMD in the past, and too many times. They run very hot, they don't perform as well, and IMO, they aren't worth the money. 

 

As for the intel, a Core i3 or i5 would cost about the same and get you a similar or better CPU (also, depending on the board and socket, you could upgrade to a i7 or xeon later, if you so desired).

[Ryo]

my phenom 2 is still holding its own and would b plenty of power if I could find an am3 or am3+ micro atx mobo with 2-3 pci express 16 3.0 slots and 6-8 sata 3 ports

and support for 32gb ram

[p3x-749]

Hmm...I still don't understand your usecase behind all these high-end requirements.

 

IMHO there is no PCIe 3.0 interface available with the AM3+ platform, are you sure you have it with your current board?

Using S-ATA III (6Gbps) only makes sense for top-notch SSDs...a spinning disk will still not outperform S-ATA I (1.5Gbps).

With drivepool and spinning disks, you will not use up the speed of a controller card sitting in a x16 2.0 port, either.

 

 

What I do like with AM3+ though, is the ability to support ECC memory on a desktop mobo (check with the ASUS AM3+ line and the specs).

[Christopher (Drashna)]

I do agree with p3x-749 here. He's right about the hardware stuff.

 

To clarify, a PCI Express 2.0 8x (8 lane) card can handle up to 34 HDDs running at max speed (100-120MB/s) at the same time. That means you could scan that many drives at the same time, and it would barely max out the card's bandwidth. With a 16x card, or a PCI Express 3.0 8x card, that's doubled. As in 68 HDDs. 

And this is with ALL of them being maxed. As that's not a normal situation, you could fit more than that number of drives comfortably.

 

 

However, if you you want a AM3+ board... I have an ATX (not micro) board that I have laying around (the CPU burned, literally... there is a scorch mark on the top of the CPU), that I could sell you for real cheap, if you wanted. It's an ASRock 990FX Extreme3. It's missing the heat sink assembly (well, it has a noctua on connected), and I can't guarantee the stability (though I'm certain the CPU was at fault). 

 

 

And power isn't the only thing. Energy efficiency is very important too. As is heat output, as well. That's why I stay way from AMD, and make comments about getting "burned".

 

 

If you're going to be gaming on the system as well, then it's a good idea to spec out like that. But if it's "just" going to be a server, then you may want to look at the bare minimum of what you need. 

I would still say at least one or two SATA III ports (for a SSD for the boot disk), but that's not need for HDDs. 

And even if you needed the PCI Express ports, the 3.0 isn't necessary for storage (a lot of even the high end, enterprise cards are PCIe 2.x still). So you'd be buying for potential at best, rather than necessity.

 

 

Again, don't let us discourage you. But we are trying to help, and ... well, cut the fat out of the specs you're looking for. Why pay for features you're not going to use?