Choosing a new Motherboard

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MvL

Member
Jan 7, 2011
33
0
6
Netherlands
Hi,

I'm searching for a new motherboard for my server and cpu. I thinking of buying a Xeon E3-1275. I have seen this motherboard ARK | Intel® Server Board S1200V3RPL. What do you guys think of this board and cpu?

I'm going to use this server in a home environment. I'm using a Linux distro as OS. Also i want to run Plex Media Server on it (use transcoding). Maybe in the future i want to do some virtualization. I don't need a lot of sata ports cause i have a Rackmount Synology nas for storage. The motherboard will be installed in a 4u rackmount case. Do i miss something? Suggestions?
 

takeawaydave

Member
Aug 20, 2013
62
2
8
What kind of budget are you on ? I was recently in the same position as you on a pretty tight budget and so decided to drop a few generations back to a 5500 chipset and dual x5600 CPU's. All in all more bang for buck (I think) than the E3 setup.
 

TangoWhiskey9

Active Member
Jun 28, 2013
402
59
28
What kind of budget are you on ? I was recently in the same position as you on a pretty tight budget and so decided to drop a few generations back to a 5500 chipset and dual x5600 CPU's. All in all more bang for buck (I think) than the E3 setup.
Depends on what you need. The advantage you have is more cores and more memory. Can use dirt cheap L5639's and get 12x 4GB RDIMMS cheap.

E3-1275 = $250
Motherboard = $200
32GB RAM = $200
Total = 650

2x L5639 = 170
Motherboard with included IPMI = 130
12x 4GB = 180
Total = <$500

So save money and you get a 12 core, 24 thread machine with 48GB of ram. Slower per thread though.

If you do want to get an E3, make sure you have IPMI for the board. You don't really want to pay extra for it these days for a home lab.
 

talsit

Member
Aug 8, 2013
112
20
18
The 5639 has taken off in price lately. $170 was the last quote from non-Ebay source, Ebay has them in the $125ish range.

You can actually still buy, low spec lease returns with L5639 24GB RAM for ~$500 though.
 

Mike

Member
May 29, 2012
482
16
18
EU
The E3, no matter which generation, will use a third of the power a dual socket E5XXX will do. The E3-1230 is the sweet spot if you ask me, but i wouldn't say no to a 1275 :)