Merging server and windows 10


Recommended Posts

Hi all, this is my server system at the moment, built over a year ago using very cheap 2nd motherboard, memory and cpu's.

 

M/B: Supermicro - X8DTL
CPU: Intel® Xeon® CPU L5520 @ 2.27GHz
HVM: Enabled
IOMMU: Enabled
Cache: 256 kB, 1024 kB, 8192 kB
Memory: 12 GB (max. installable capacity 192 GB)
Kernel: Linux 4.9.30-unRAID x86_64

 

This my windows 10 PC, now 4 or 5 year old and starting to show its age.

Motherboard Asus P8Z77-V LX
Memory Corsair CM3B4G2C1600L9 2x4GB
8GB DIMM DDR3 clocked @ 1600 MHz

GPU Nvidia GTX 650 Ti
Cpu Intel Core i5-3570K
LGA1155, 1 CPU, 4 cores, 4 threads Base clock 3.4 GHz, turbo 4.1 GHz
OS Windows 10
 

Now I'm thinking of building a new server and running windows as a vm (I already have a windows vm running on my current server as a little experiment).  

 

I do a bit of video editing and play the odd game and maybe have a couple of plex streams running sometimes and would be running maybe 10 or so dockers in unraid.

 

My i5-3570k is overclocked and running at 4.1Ghz, so my new build would need to have the same or better processing power. Now because its an unraid server I presume I would have to go for a xeon as these are the only intel cpu's that support ecc memory?

 

How many cores/threads & Ghz would be needed? Also I don't want to spend a fortune on a cpu.

I noticed the new xeon w-2125 https://ark.intel.com/products/126708/Intel-Xeon-Processor-W-2125-8_25M-Cache-4_00-GHz

or the xeon w-2135 https://ark.intel.com/products/126709/Intel-Xeon-Processor-W-2135-8_25M-Cache-3_70-GHz but its getting expensive.

 

Any thoughts, help, advice greatly appreciated.

 

 

Edited by Mylo75
Link to comment

Many CPU's other than Xeon support ECC, I am running an unRAID server with a Pentium G3260 which supports ECC, you just have to do your research and find the right CPU for you that supports ECC. I would not recommend overclocking for an unRAID server, too many variables can lead to an unstable environment. What resolution are your Plex streams, 720 or 1080p? It does sound like you might want to go for a six core or 8 core CPU as you would want to likely dedicate at least two physical cores to your Windows VM, then a couple to Plex etc.

Link to comment

If you can wait a little while, I would.  The latest generation of Intel chips isn't widely available yet, including the workstation chips you linked above and the newest Coffee Lake chips announced last week.  Right now your choices for high end chips with support for ECC are a high end Xeon E3 or an E5.  (There are many lower end chips as well, as ashman70 pointed out.)  If you need to buy right now I'd either go with high end E3, or a Xeon E5-16xx chip for 6+ cores and high clock speeds - but that might be expensive and the landscape should look pretty different over the next couple of months.

Link to comment

They haven't been announced yet, but they've accompanied prior generations of the Core processors... Whether we get new E3's, or actual availability of the workstation versions of the new SP Xeon's you linked above, though - there's some great new stuff coming and given the market pressure Ryzen is creating we may get decent pricing.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.