Best CPU in the $600 range?


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I'm looking to build my first unRAID box and would love some input regarding CPU selection.  Generally, do I want more cores and threads or higher base and turbo frequency?

 

My plans...

 

Full VM

Two or three Windows 10

 

Docker containers

Unifi Controller

Plex and related apps

Pi-Hole

 

Thank you!

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Generally folks seem to be happiest giving performance sensitive VMs dedicated/pinned cores under unRAID/KVM.  So, if you want several serious VMs it would be best to look at Xeon E5's.  Clock speed also matters, so it's a balancing act - generally with E5's the faster they are the fewer cores they have.

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47 minutes ago, tdallen said:

Generally folks seem to be happiest giving performance sensitive VMs dedicated/pinned cores under unRAID/KVM.  So, if you want several serious VMs it would be best to look at Xeon E5's.  Clock speed also matters, so it's a balancing act - generally with E5's the faster they are the fewer cores they have.

 

I'm looking at the price differences and performance between E5-2630 v4 and Ryzen 1700X and was feeling a bit confused.  I know there has been some compatibility issues with the Ryzen CPU.  Assuming those issues get resolved, is there any reason I would not pick the 1700x over the E5-2630?

 

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2758&cmp[]=2969

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I'm in a similar situation, either go with xeon, 2670s or with Ryzen. Going second hand xeon 2670s with ram and board works out similar cost to a ryzen 1700 and 32gb setup.

 

Maybe someone that has moved from xeon to ryzen would be be able to shed more light on the best option. 

 

Myself personally, I'm waiting a little longer for ryzen to establish with Unraid. 

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I was going to upgrade my server to a dual 2670 setup.

 

I'm now 10/10 going Ryzen. As I won't be upgrading for a couple of months, I'm waiting for Ryzen server (Naples) to show up. If it doesn't by the time I'm actually in need (vs. what it is currently - "want") of an upgrade, then I'll go with, probably a 1700, overclock it, and be completely happy.

 

I've been using Passmark as an extremely rough ballpark estimate of overall performance when I was comparing the plethora of Xeon options out there, trying to see if there was a more competitive option than the now-pretty-long-in-the-tooth 2670. A dual 2670 system gets you a little over 18K. A Stock 1800X gets you a little over 15K, and that's before you overclock it, so I'd expect it to - very roughly - match the performance of the dual socket system. 

 

As well as this you get far better power consumption, particularly at idle (2670 dual socket idles somewhere around 150W I believe, which is non-trivial when you're talking about 24/7 operation), a newer platform overall, with a vastly improved upgrade path.

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