Alternatives to Ryzen 3900x for home server?

[soupyfrood]

For about $1200 I can get a 3900x/motherboard/64GB ECC. Is there anything else I should be considering that's comparable in performance, price, and power efficiency? Usage is an all-purpose home file/media/plex/homelab/game server.

Xeons don't seem to have the cores or single-threaded performance without costing way too much. Secondary market isn't cost effective unless you're back in the E5 v2/v3 generation, unless I'm missing something. But I'll be honest, Intel's product naming gives me headaches. Xeon E D W T F...

 

[ramblinreck47]

For about $1200 I can get a 3900x/motherboard/64GB ECC. Is there anything else I should be considering that's comparable in performance, price, and power efficiency? Usage is an all-purpose home file/media/plex/homelab/game server.

Xeons don't seem to have the cores or single-threaded performance without costing way too much. Secondary market isn't cost effective unless you're back in the E5 v2/v3 generation, unless I'm missing something. But I'll be honest, Intel's product naming gives me headaches. Xeon E D W T F...

Outside of the E-2288G and a C246 motherboard, there’s not really anything close that will give you high single thread performance as well as ECC for a comparable price.

 

[AndrewX192]

I just started on a build with a C246 motherboard and Xeon E-2136. I wanted to build with E-2288G instead, but I couldn't find any retail availability from a well-respected seller. The closest other options I evaluated were the Xeon D-1541 and AMD EPYC 3251. If you haven't given those a look, I'd encourage taking a look, depending on your needs.

 

[ramblinreck47]

I just started on a build with a C246 motherboard and Xeon E-2136. I wanted to build with E-2288G instead, but I couldn't find any retail availability from a well-respected seller. The closest other options I evaluated were the Xeon D-1541 and AMD EPYC 3251. If you haven't given those a look, I'd encourage taking a look, depending on your needs.

Essentially, all E-2200 series CPU's are pretty rare and way overpriced. I was originally planning on doing a E-2278G build but man, the price you pay for a CPU that is basically at the top performance for its socket is just not worth it...if you can even find one.

The Xeon D-1541 and EPYC 3251 are both good CPU's but they have low single thread performance, low total passmark score, and are really expensive. You get hyperthreading with lots of cores but that's about it. OP is best to stick with an AMD build.

I really think the only thing keeping these AM4 CPU's from really taking over the home server market is just more selection when it comes to motherboards with IPMI. I know Supermicro isn't ever planning on doing a AM4 board but they would absolutely sellout almost instantly if they did.

 

[AndrewX192]

I assume you looked at the ASRock Rack x470d4u already? I looked at that early on, but ruled it out due to the issues people were reporting with the IPMI dropping off the network and other general Ryzen issues (e.g. RDRAND problems).

Otherwise, aside from the E-2100 series (e.g. E-2136) I don't think there's a good option for the low idle power consumption, lower-price and reasonably high-performance market. I look forward to a refresh of EPYC embedded and perhaps the Xeon D, but for now it appears the Xeon E-2100 is the "sweet" spot.

 

[Speedster]

Usage is an all-purpose home file/media/plex/homelab/game server.

Running which OS? If you want to use hardware accelerated video decoding and encoding in Plex under Linux you're limited to Intel GPUs. There is support for nVidia encoding (not decoding) if you have a video card, but then you're using the CPU to decode the video.

 

[ramblinreck47]

Running which OS? If you want to use hardware accelerated video decoding and encoding in Plex under Linux you're limited to Intel GPUs. There is support for nVidia encoding (not decoding) if you have a video card, but then you're using the CPU to decode the video.

Nvidia Decoding and Encoding is fully supported in Linux for Plex now.

 

[ramblinreck47]

I assume you looked at the ASRock Rack x470d4u already? I looked at that early on, but ruled it out due to the issues people were reporting with the IPMI dropping off the network and other general Ryzen issues (e.g. RDRAND problems).

Otherwise, aside from the E-2100 series (e.g. E-2136) I don't think there's a good option for the low idle power consumption, lower-price and reasonably high-performance market. I look forward to a refresh of EPYC embedded and perhaps the Xeon D, but for now it appears the Xeon E-2100 is the "sweet" spot.

I was thinking the same as you for the X470D4U but it looks like they’ve fixed a lot of the issues as of late (depending on your use case). It’s still very much a work in progress and not as fully fleshed out as a Supermicro motherboard with an Intel CPU, but it’s the best there is for AM4 and IPMI. I think it’s just going to take them time to get it fully worked out.

 

[Jeff Robertson]

I was thinking the same as you for the X470D4U but it looks like they’ve fixed a lot of the issues as of late (depending on your use case). It’s still very much a work in progress and not as fully fleshed out as a Supermicro motherboard with an Intel CPU, but it’s the best there is for AM4 and IPMI. I think it’s just going to take them time to get it fully worked out.

I'm about to pull the trigger on an x470d4u and a 3900x myself. I have the board/ram for an e2288g but can't get one to ship for the life of me. Plus the cost is way too high for what you are getting. I'm hoping the asrock will be stable running server 2019 and the IPMI will at least mostly work.

 

[soupyfrood]

I'm using Ubuntu 19. I'm expecting to not really need HW acceleration with a fast enough modern CPU, don't really have 4K content to begin with.

I've read about the firmware issues on the x470D4U, hoping they're mostly sorted out by now, but I guess we'll see.

 

[ullbeking]

I look forward to a refresh of EPYC embedded

Me too. The 7002 series needs a lot more maturing.

... for now it appears the Xeon E-2100 is the "sweet" spot.

Oh? This is very interesting. Are the E-2100 significantly better value for money than E-2200?

 

[wildpig1234]

ryzen-9-3950x is quite a beast! It even gives TR a run for the money.

But from what i've seen of v2 cpu price of $180 for 2697 v2, the 2697 v2 in dual cpu configuration is fairly close to ryzen 9 -3950x in heavily threaded stuffs for a lot cheaper.

 

[ullbeking]

ryzen-9-3950x is quite a beast! It even gives TR a run for the money.

I have put a moratorium on myself on buying any more hardware unless I need it.

But yes, the Ryzen 9 series is pretty impressive. I'm looking for 65 W CPUs's that are available retail, but unfortunately all of the desirable ones are OEM.

But from what i've seen of v2 cpu price of $180 for 2697 v2, the 2697 v2 in dual cpu configuration is fairly close to ryzen 9 -3950x in heavily threaded stuffs for a lot cheaper.

Sure thing. I would be very interested to measure the power draw difference. I have a load of X9 boards and E5-v2's, but no Ryzen 9 to compare. So I will compare to X10 boards with E5-v4's instead, just to learn a bit about performance analysis, etc.

 

[wildpig1234]

I have put a moratorium on myself on buying any more hardware unless I need it.

But yes, the Ryzen 9 series is pretty impressive. I'm looking for 65 W CPUs's that are available retail, but unfortunately all of the desirable ones are OEM.



Sure thing. I would be very interested to measure the power draw difference. I have a load of X9 boards and E5-v2's, but no Ryzen 9 to compare. So I will compare to X10 boards with E5-v4's instead, just to learn a bit about performance analysis, etc.

dual 2697v2 vs r9 3950x: at least twice the power draw.. prob more