Upgrade itch from E5-2670 v1

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hlidskialf

Member
Apr 28, 2016
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Greetings all.
So, I had planned on adding another small system to my rack that would be a Nextcloud/Emby server and a cluster backup for Proxmox which I use on my primary system. However, my current system is one of the dual E5-2670v1 SRoK on an Intel S2600CP2 that was so popular a few years ago. Since then I've gotten very fond of the virtual environment, gotten a 24U rack, moved (My den is twice the size!) and upgraded my AV storage system to an SM 836. (Thanks again Manxam!)

I happened to mention to my Mrs. that my current system is aging, and miraculously she gave me the nod to update the system! So I'm thinking to move my E5-2670s to a backup role and look at something more modern and powerful/efficient.
Use:
Proxmox (about a dozen VMs) running things like:
  • WoW gameserver
  • BlueIris
  • About 4 workstations including my main I use for everything including gaming.
  • Sickbeard/SABnzbd
  • Guacamole service
  • General VM creation/deletion/experimentation.
Budget I'm thinking about $500-800 Canadian, but I only need Mobo RAM CPU. I'm hoping to leap into at least DDR4 and either onboard M2 card added NVMe, that kinda thing.

Open to any and all thoughts and recommendations. I've been googling a week already and am no closer to making a selection than before. I thought I'd post for a nudge in the right direction(s).
 

chaoscontrol

Member
Aug 15, 2019
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I'm not helping but I am intrigued by your statement;

and miraculously she gave me the nod to update the system
I see statements like this from time to time on this forum and places like Reddit and I really wonder how this works. Is it that money is tight that you have to discuss things like this? Or is it more of an endorsement which makes you able to buy without guilt?

I seriously doubt you guys need actual permission from the wife but you do state it like this and it makes me wonder. :)

(In my personal experience my wife doesn't really care about my homelab hobby and just tells me "that's nice honey" from time to time.)

Ontopic: Do you have any space or noise requirements for the new machine? Could it be 2 less powerful but more efficient machines instead?
 
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hlidskialf

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Apr 28, 2016
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Money's not exactly tight, but if we didn't check purchases with each other it would be. For something like this I actually have to work some overtime to pay for it as regular funds cover the bills and the extra could go to home improvements or a trip or something. So in effect, our spouse is saying that instead of spending the money on "us" she's okay if I spend it on "me".

Now, having said that everyone has different levels of affluence. If I want to spend, say $100 on a nice bottle of scotch, I don't ask and she wouldn't bat an eye. (So long as it doesn't happen too often!) But it's polite and removes potential guilt to ask about something a few magnitudes larger.

For someone else, that number might be $5k-8k. If so, that's awesome. However, the cost of living and housing is absurdly high in the Vancouver area and despite both of us having solid careers, a server upgrade is something to ask about. ;)

Hope that makes sense for ya'.

Anyways, no noise or space requirements. I have a couple 4U chassis I can use and will mod for quiet if needed. I think I rather keep it to one machine however, as I'm not running so much I would need a 3rd node, and I was hoping for a little more potential power if I'm going to upgrade. More efficient is great though. I know they trinity of power/efficiency/cost always is "pick 2 of the 3" but I'm hoping to get lucky!
 

chaoscontrol

Member
Aug 15, 2019
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Thanks for answering, it does make a lot of sense that way! Never thought about it like that. I ignorantly assumed people would do it like we do. Just to elaborate a bit more from my side;
We both have our careers and from our salary we put about 80% each into a shared account to cover bills and save money for trips etc. The remaining 20% we spend as we see fit. I never really considered a lot of people probably just throw everything on 1 big pile of money and use it the way we use our shared account. Thanks for the insight, I feel I better understand where these comments are coming from now. Hopefully without having been rude.

About the server. If you don't have any IPMI requirements AMD has some great consumer hardware at the moment. Lots of bang for buck. If you do need a serverboard it will go out of budget quickly going the AMD route. But someone else might know of a good/cheap board. A newer Xeon-D board will be more efficient but would cost a lot and not really upgrade the performance in a meaningful way. Sorry I couldn't be more of a help!
 
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hlidskialf

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Apr 28, 2016
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Going DDR4 and separate node, I'm thinking 64GB would give me a nice amount of headroom. I have 128GB on my current-soon-to-be-secondary system and that will take any offload needed.
 

Marsh

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May 12, 2013
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E5 v3 CPU are onsale now. But the systemboard is not.
DDR4 is down to $35-40 per 16gb stick.

If you could find a reasonable price E5 v3 systemboard or system.
 

hlidskialf

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Apr 28, 2016
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I'm looking into that. Hoping to find a good used board/cpu or other combo.
Anyone else have another suggestion or is this the best "go to"?
 

hlidskialf

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Apr 28, 2016
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After a likely embarrassing amount of research into cost/power/need I've decided to go with an E5-1650 and a SM x10sra-f board. (I'd love if there was a model with onboard sfp+ but searches for a -tp variant comes up nil for me.)
Now to keep scouring eBay for a good deal or one of their coupon days to make it worthwhile. Unless I find someone here's looking to sell. (The Buy and Sell forums are damn addictive!)
Thanks for all the help, folks. Cheers.
 

Marsh

Moderator
May 12, 2013
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Currently in great deal forum, $95 shipped barebone 1U E5 v3 dual CPU with 10gbe server.
BO accepted as low as $80.
I brought 2 1u servers.
 

hlidskialf

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Apr 28, 2016
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I appreciate the pointing but that would be problematic I think. Doesn't ship to Canada (Passport is expired so even a border hop to another address wouldn't work.) I don't need the chassis, and I understand that Dell/HP get rather propitiatory with their hardware and I prefer to whitebox my systems. Unless I'm misunderstanding something?

Edit: Oh, and I really like the bifurcation-capable PCIe x16 slots of the SM board. I plan to eventually play with some NVMe drives. ;)
 

hlidskialf

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Apr 28, 2016
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So I pulled the trigger on a X10SRM-F, paired with an E5-1650v3. Added 4x16GB DDR4 and a 1TB NVMe M2 drive. (Even got the board and ram locally, no duty fees!)

Just looking for a heatsink. Any recommendations besides the Noctura? (Not against them, just looking for variety.)
 
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Spartacus

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May 27, 2019
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Austin, TX
So I pulled the trigger on a X10SRM-F, paired with an E5-1650v3. Added 4x16GB DDR4 and a 1TB NVMe M2 drive. (Even got the board and ram locally, no duty fees!)

Just looking for a heatsink. Any recommendations besides the Noctura? (Not against them, just looking for variety.)
If you care about noise Noctua is kinda it for those Narrow ILM, theres the Dynatron and stock supermicro options if you care more about cost than noise.