First time building

[JinK]

Hello,

After researching, I decided to buy the combo from natex dual e5 2570 cpu. I have selected pc chassis, psu, gpu, and hard drive. I am wondering if there are other things I need to buy, like cables, etc. What I am worried is that how am I going to make PC work after building it? Thanks..

 

[OBasel]

What chassis gpu and drives? You may need sata or sas cables. Did you get heatsinks and fans to cool the cpus?

 

[John Titor]

I highly recommend that you list all of the components you're planning on using so that we can give you informed advice.

Also, I see no mention of a motherboard which is a must-have bit of info.

Since you mentioned PSU, GPU, and "hard drive" (singular/not-plural), it sounds like this is going to be a workstation build, correct?

 

[JinK]

Thank you for your reply. This will be built purely for multi-boxing.
CPU/MOBO/RAM
- Intel S2600CP2J Motherboard Dual E5-2670 SR0KX 64Gb. PC3-12800R
PSU
- 110-B2-0750-VR EVGA SuperNOVA 750 B2 750W 80 PLUS Bronze ATX12V & EPS12V Power Supply - Desktop Power Supply - SuperBiiz.com
Chassis
- Rosewill Rise - ATX Full Tower Gaming Computer Case - Supports Up to E-ATX MBs, Dual PSUs, and Up to 7 Fans - Newegg.com
GPU
- Jet.com - Prices Drop As You Shop
SSD
- SanDisk 120GB SSD Plus SATA III 2.5" SDSSDA-120G-G26 B&H
Cooler (2)
- Noctua NH-U9DXi4 90mm SSO2 CPU Cooler - Newegg.com

I am certainly open for any cheaper options for psu, cooler, etc.

 

[John Titor]

Perfect! It seems like a solid setup. That PSU should have extra power cables for pretty much any power requirements your board you'll need (it's a great semi-modular PSU!), so power shouldn't be an issue.

Do you know if your motherboard will include SATA cables?

Also, will you be adding any other storage? (more HDDs or SSDs? Any non-embedded raid-controllers?)

 

[JinK]

Perfect! It seems like a solid setup. That PSU should have extra power cables for pretty much any power requirements your board you'll need (it's a great semi-modular PSU!), so power shouldn't be an issue.

Do you know if your motherboard will include SATA cables?

Also, will you be adding any other storage? (more HDDs or SSDs? Any non-embedded raid-controllers?)

I am not sure if SATA cables are included... I am assuming they are not. How many do I need to purchase?
And for storage, what I am planning to do doesn't require much storage, so I am trying to save money here.. If I get a chance, I would love to upgrade to 250 gb ssd

 

[JinK]

Is it cheaper to buy barebone from dell or hp? What I am concerned is the noise that workstation barebone might create. Does anyone know how loud it is?

 

[viv]

Is it cheaper to buy barebone from dell or hp? What I am concerned is the noise that workstation barebone might create. Does anyone know how loud it is?

actually, dell workstations are pretty good with sound. I too was recommended to get a barebone dell for a workstation build.

 

[JinK]

actually, dell workstations are pretty good with sound. I too was recommended to get a barebone dell for a workstation build.

which one did u purchase?

 

[John Titor]

@JinK sorry for the late response. I've never bought a motherboard that didn't come with atleast a few SATA cables, but I'm not sure about Intel boards. If you did buy that board, I'd recommend buying 4 or 5 SATA data cables just to have on hand (just in case), since you can probably get 4 or 5 of them for $1 each.

As for HP workstations, you would want to buy the HP Z820. It's compatible with Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors I believe, and has 2 sockets. As for the noise, it's pretty minimal, plus you could opt for the water-cooling option. The only problem with getting one of these would probably be the cost but eBay might have a cheap bare-bones system you could use.

If you could let me know how much money you plan to spend, I could link you a few workstations on eBay. I personally prefer custom builds, but If your okay with a tower (non-rackmount) workstation, the Z820 is what I'd pick.

 

[JinK]

@JinK sorry for the late response. I've never bought a motherboard that didn't come with atleast a few SATA cables, but I'm not sure about Intel boards. If you did buy that board, I'd recommend buying 4 or 5 SATA data cables just to have on hand (just in case), since you can probably get 4 or 5 of them for $1 each.

As for HP workstations, you would want to buy the HP Z820. It's compatible with Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors I believe, and has 2 sockets. As for the noise, it's pretty minimal, plus you could opt for the water-cooling option. The only problem with getting one of these would probably be the cost but eBay might have a cheap bare-bones system you could use.

If you could let me know how much money you plan to spend, I could link you a few workstations on eBay. I personally prefer custom builds, but If your okay with a tower (non-rackmount) workstation, the Z820 is what I'd pick.

Thanks for your response! I really appreciate it. I am planning to spend only about $800-900, because this pc will only be used for multiboxing, nothing else. Before I start building my first pc, I am just exploring other people's ideas to see if there is any cheaper option (around 600-700). I really don't mind if it's a tower or rackmount, as long as it doesn't create noise like a tank and fulfills its purpose.

 

[John Titor]

I just looked up the current prices on Z820 machines on eBay and found some options that would work, but they would leave you in the $800-900 range for sure.

The cheapest way to go about this would probably be a custom build in my opinion, but if you're looking for an easier (but more expensive) option, then I'd say just to do something like the Z820 or an ML350 Gen8 server.

I think what you started this post with is actually a pretty good start, but I'll look around to see if there are some cheaper alternatives you might be interested in.

Quick question, have you already purchased the RAM and processors?

 

[JinK]

I just looked up the current prices on Z820 machines on eBay and found some options that would work, but they would leave you in the $800-900 range for sure.

The cheapest way to go about this would probably be a custom build in my opinion, but if you're looking for an easier (but more expensive) option, then I'd say just to do something like the Z820 or an ML350 Gen8 server.

I think what you started this post with is actually a pretty good start, but I'll look around to see if there are some cheaper alternatives you might be interested in.

Quick question, have you already purchased the RAM and processors?

No I haven't purchased anything yet. I am looking even at E5-2620's because they are generally cheaper..

 

[John Titor]

Understood. Is there a specific amount of cores that your looking for?

Also a couple of quick questions about the GPU. Do you need a graphics card for the workload you're planning on, or is that just for initial configuration/maintenance of the server/workstation? A simple/cheap card could be used instead if you don't need more than 2 displays.

I might have a workstation that fits your needs, but I'm not sure exactly how much RAM you think is best and what processors (core-count) you prefer.

 

[JinK]

Understood. Is there a specific amount of cores that your looking for?

Also a couple of quick questions about the GPU. Do you need a graphics card for the workload you're planning on, or is that just for initial configuration/maintenance of the server/workstation? A simple/cheap card could be used instead if you don't need more than 2 displays.

I might have a workstation that fits your needs, but I'm not sure exactly how much RAM you think is best and what processors (core-count) you prefer.

I already have the GPU (the one I listed above), and I need it for the workload. For multiboxing, my knowledge is that more cores = more clients, so if I have more cores, I will be able to support more clients. I don't have a specific number of cores I must have, but 8-core sounds nice. That's why I made a build around two E5-2670. Same for RAM, but RAM is cheap (64 GB is like $150) so I am not so worried..

 

[viv]

which one did u purchase?

Actually when i asked my I.T department, they had mentioned you cant go wrong with dell. their advice was a dell 7810 which can be easily purchased on ebay (refurbished). The space and air circulation is pretty good with the cases. The dual socket MB is also pretty solid. I was more inclined in building my own workstation from scratch so didnt get a barebone dell.

 

[John Titor]

When you say "multiboxing", you're referring to running video games across multiple VMs, right? Only asking because most modern games take some pretty serious GPU power to run a single instance.

As for the box I'm planning on selling, it's a single socket X99 mobo with an E5-2695 v3 (14 cores | 28 threads) and uses between 64GB and 128GB of DDR4 ECC RAM. It would be a bit more expensive than what you were planning though.

My ultimate recommendation for you is:

A - If you aren't as concerned with age/core-count, I'd just buy a super cheap HP Z800 with a couple of X5690 CPUs for cheap on eBay

B - If you want to stick with slightly newer tech with better processors, I'd stick with doing a custom build as you planned, plus...

- Maybe change your CPUs to E5-2650 to save on power & money, but still retain core-count. Here's a great link for the processors --> Intel E5-2650 v1 SR0KQ 2Ghz 8 core C2 VMware OK 95W Socket LGA 2011 Xeon CPU(S2) | eBay

- You could save some money & power on ECC DDR3 RAM by using 1333MHz DIMMs instead of 1600MHz DIMMs

- The chassis you picked is great as long as you MAKE SURE the board you buy fits ATX or E-ATX form-factor

- The power supply you picked is great. Stick with semi-modular power-supplies since they're cheaper than full-modular plus gives you options

- The heatsinks you picked are great, but you could probably get away with something cheaper unless you plan run your CPUs at 100%

- The SSDs you linked are good, but here are some 256GB SSDs that are almost the same price --> - SAMSUNG hp 256GB SSD, 761884-001 -mz7pd256hcgm-000h7-opal 2.0- | eBay

C - If you want to "go big", I can sell you a fully built, eat-that-workload-for-breakfast, destroyer of a workstation. This would definitely be more expensive, but all the components would be more recent (Haswell EP/EX, DDR4, NVMe, Etc.). I recommend this if you are crazy.

Long story short, if you are fine with older components then you should pick A, as you would likely spend between $400 and $500. If you prefer slightly newer components with more power and flexibility for your setup, I'd pick B (which I recommend), which will likely cost between $600 and $800. Lastly, if you are crazy you can pick C.

If you want any help picking components or finding good prices, let me know!