Upgrade 6 year old rig


tunetyme

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I recently upgraded to ver. 6.3.2 from 4.7. I have used my server as a media server in the past and it has worked flawlessly for me. Now there is a whole new world out there with ver 6. 

I've invested about $750 so far in replacement drives and need to spend another $450 taking my system from 12 TB to 24 TB which should provide growth fro the next 4-5 years.

 

My current system is:

MSI 880GMS-45 with 4GB RAM and AMD Sempron 145 CPU.  This is in a AzzA mid tower with room for 11 drives. Currently I have 6 data drives, cache and parity. I like keeping 2 slots open for preclearing drives.  The big limatation is, there are only 6 SATA III connections. I would like to upgrade this with a PCI Express connector with 6 or 8 SATA 6 Ports (if possible).

 

Option1: keep the current MSI mobo and increase ram to 8 GB and replace CPU with an Athalon or Phenom CPU X4.  This is an inexpensive upgrade and would allow me to play with all the new toys available and determine my new requirements with all the new toys that I may want to implement.  The cost is a modest $100.

 

Option 2:  NEW mobo, ram and cpu.   My current media is entirely FLAC for audio and 80% MKV for video with a mix of other formats I've tried. I don't know how much transcoding that I would ever do which apparently is a big resource hog. As for everything else available I don't have the resources to play with it yet.

 

I use JRiver Media Center. I have both a Windows and Linux license for it and I have been using it over 10 years and love it. Check it out.  As I see it now, I may have up to 3 tv's and serious stereo sound system connected.

 

As for preferences, I generally prefer AMD (support the underdog) over Intel which I have had some support issues in the distant past.  I openly acknowledge that Intel has more horsepower under the hood. The question is do I need it or will I need it in the immediate future?  I am not a gamer at all nor will I become one. For me thousandths  of a second are not noticeable but minutes and hours are. I will pay for minutes and hours but the rest is a waste of $$$ IMO. 

 

 

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Well an upgrade is warranted - the Sempron 145 is in the lowest tier of CPU that can still run unRAID.  Your parity check times under unRAID 6 are probably going to suffer as it is a single core chip.  That said, it seems like your only requirement is to keep running unRAID and add more storage.  A CPU and RAM upgrade rather than a full mobo/cpu/ram upgrade seems like it would be fine.  Pick up an IBM M1015, Dell PERC H310, or since you don't have virtualization needs a Supermicro AOC-SAS2LP for the extra SATA controller slots you need.  The Supermicro cards have gotten a bad rap lately in some situations - the IBM and Dell are preferred, and easily available on eBay inexpensively (they are pulled from servers).

 

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+1 for Ebay cards. I just picked up a Dell PERC H310 for 53$CDN shipped. Can't beat that price :). There's a great tool on the boards for flashing it to IT. Fireball3 has created it and it works a treat. Takes 90% of the pain of flashing a controller away.

 

Keep in mind if you *do* plan on playing with virtualization, that your motherboard and chip both need to support it. I have an old x4 that claims to support it, so I know some of them do...

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I don't want to throw good money away doing an upgrade that won't allow me to play with all the new toys. I thought the limitation was transcoding, virtualization maybe something i may want to play with. I need to spend more time learning about all the new capabilities before I make a decision. With that in mind, If anyone can recommend a mobo, CPU and RAM that is a mid size Chevy that has potential for expansion to accommodate future developments I would greatly appreciate recommendations. 

 

Thanks

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I have played with virtualization but am not currently using it since docker does all I need. Putting "all my computers in one" would not have a very good WAF score, since she needs a photoshop workstation and doesn't like me "tinkering" with it. So my server runs headless.

 

The main thing you need to consider with virtualization and hardware is whether or not you need hardware passthrough. A VM can access unRAID storage and networking fine, but if you need to also allow it to have full control of a video card, for example, then you will need hardware that supports IOMMU, and not all mobo/CPU will do this. The VM Engine subforum has a lot of info for you if you think you might be interested.

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CPU horsepower will certainly be something to look at, especially if transcoding video is something you are interested in.

 

Can you give a few more specs of what you're requirements might be? What size case do you currently have? Are you open to upgrading the case? Noise tolerance? Does it live in a closet in the basement or beside your tv? As @trurl mentioned, if you're looking at virtualization, is hardware passthrough a requirement, or remoting in through another machine an acceptable situation?

 

Finally, what sort of price tolerance do you have for this project?

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I spent an hour or so with the local Microcenter tech and he came up with the following recommendation:

AMD Ryzen 7 1700                                            $330

Crucial Ballistix Sport 16 GB DDR4-2400           $115

Asus Prime x370 Pro                                          $160

                                                         Total           $605 

There may be some bundle deals coming up but this is the current retail. I think this setup would provide reasonable growth.  The tech used the high end Intel as comparison and this would be a big cost savings.  This is the 3Ghz version and he thought that the additional speed wouldn't buy me significant performance increase. I won't run out and buy this today but I will start watching for some deals.

 

Any thoughts?

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The Ryzen is brand new, read the build thread:

The chip is a monster (8 cores, 16 threads, over 13,000 Passmarks) which is cool, though you really haven't mentioned much in the way of requirements so it's not clear if you need a monster.  But if you just want one ( ? ), read the build thread for the latest.

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It's not so much that I need a monster CPU today, I am thinking that a CPU like this could last me a number of years (maybe 5 years) and over time it will be cheaper than doing another upgrade in 2 or 3 years. I am not looking for bragging rights but with this I could get a whole lot more out of my machine than I do now. The other choice I was considering was FX 8350. The downside is the 8350 is 125 watts vs the Ryzen at 65 watts.  Huge heat difference. I would definitely be able to postpone an upgrade to my power supply. That covers $160 of the $200 difference between the 8350 and the Ryzen. I will also have DDR4 RAM with about $25 additional cost. As I see it, for $75 I can get an additional 2 or 3 years use out of this board vs an 8350 rig. Seems like a bargain to me.

 

I have the 8350 in my Windows machine and I put a huge Noctua cooler on it ($80). Did I mention that the cooler is HUGE...

 

I just love rationalizing (justifying) buying a more expensive rig. I think I have talked myself into it. It didn't take long.  I'll wait a bit until all the those who are buying this chip for bragging rights are done and the offer a few discounts. I hate paying retail.  

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