Advice on used hardware

[ReXX]

Hi there

I have the possibility to buy this used hardware for 1500$

CPU: 2x Intel Xeon "E5-2643" LGA2011 V3 ES version 12x 3.2-3.6 GHz (Dual CPU, E5-2643v3)
Cooler: 2x Artic Freezer i30 CO (Dual)
Hard drive: 256GB SSD SATAIII + 2x 1TB 5400 rpm
RAM: Samsung 8GBx4 (32gb) ECC DDR4
Motherboard: Supermicro X10DRI (For servers)
Chassis: Nox Hummer Zero black
Sound card: Asus Xonar DX
Graphic card: AMD HD7850

I think it is a good deal ?

I will add this hardware I already own:

Samsung Evo Pro 840: 250GB
2 x 2TB WD Red Pro
2 x 2TB WD Greens
Nvidia 770GTX

Can this be used for the following without much issues: ?

Proxmox 4
2 x Win 10 gaming VMs (Fallout 4, GTA 5, Need for Speed, Sims, Batman Arkham Knight)
1 x Storage VM, such as Rockstor, OpenMediaVault, FreeNas (Haven't decided yet)
Docker support
Plex Media Server. Max 2 streams at once.
OpenVPN server
PXE server for reinstalling family/friends pc's
Web server, just for a blog and vacation photos
Owncloud
Random test OS, such as Windows Server 2012/2016, Test Win10's for testing software, would be nice with snapshots or similar, Xpenology, would like to try OSX if possible.

Currently using a Synology DS214play with the 2 x 2TB WD Reds in Raid0.
Which would be shutdown and services moved to Proxmox as docker or VMs.

My original plan was to buy this as brand new (which is also 1500$)
Asus X99-E WS/USB 3.1 (Have read alot of good things about this board)
Xeon E5-1650 v3
32GB ECC RAM

 

[RTM]

The single threaded performance is not the same, but you can probably save quite a lot of money by buying e5-2670's (v1).
Example (you can probably find better prices):
CPU: 2 x $65
Motherboard: $260
64GB RAM: $179

For $570 (add a few hundred dollar for heatsinks, PSU and case) you get twice the amount of RAM and cores, but lower CPU clock frequency.
Of course I have no idea if the single threaded performance is sufficient for the games you listed, but there's a good chance it will.

 

[T_Minus]

That price seems to be about what you can put it together for yourself... $320 each CPU (ebay/japan), $300-350 for motherboard (new/warranty).

I would never want to run all of that stuff on system you want to game on, let alone have 2 people game on... not saying it won't handle it just doesn't "feel" right to rely on it for other needs and then use games the #1 thing that crash computers, etc... that's a lot to update/re-do if it crashes and messes up a #1 of VMs, etc...

 

[ReXX]

I would never want to run all of that stuff on system you want to game on, let alone have 2 people game on... not saying it won't handle it just doesn't "feel" right to rely on it for other needs and then use games the #1 thing that crash computers, etc... that's a lot to update/re-do if it crashes and messes up a #1 of VMs, etc...

Thanks for the answers.

But if a VM crash, it should be contained to that VM, and not take the entire host with it ?
I dont have any hard crashing on my Win10, not saying it never happens. I do have apps that crash but it does not take Win10 with it.

The only things "required" to be running is 1 Win10 VM, and the storage VM of course.
The rest can take downtime. We are only my girlfriend and I.

I will take a look on ebay, to see If I can get a good deal, though I prefer to buy from within my country (Denmark)

 

[Jeggs101]

Yea what can end up happening is that the video card (or something) has an issue and implodes the virtualization host.

How are you thinking of doing 2x gaming VMs? vGPU? Pass-through?

 

[ReXX]

How are you thinking of doing 2x gaming VMs? vGPU? Pass-through?

I would passthrough the AMD HD7850 GPU to one VM and the Nvidia 770GTX to the other.

I dont know if there is a difference in core threads vs hyperthread threads, but I think I would assign 4 threads to one Win10 VM and 8 to the other VM. That still leaves 12 threads to run other stuff.

I have just read on the power consumption and can see each CPU takes 135Watts.
Would that mean it runs at 270watts just being idle ? Thats alot.

 

[RTM]

I have just read on the power consumption and can see each CPU takes 135Watts.
Would that mean it runs at 270watts just being idle ? Thats alot.

If the TDP is 135W it does not mean that the CPU idles at that.
The TDP is an indicator of the maximum amount of heat the CPU can disperse, it can be considered a guidance for heatsink designers to make sure that their heatsinks are able to sufficiently cool a CPU.
Theoretically a CPU may even use more electricity than 135W for short periods of time and still be coolable.