Next flood of server hardware onto the market: considering buying from Natex.

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Elliot

New Member
Feb 16, 2017
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Hello Everyone,
I've been looking around for information on when another used selloff might happen for server hardware that is a little newer than the E5-26xxV1.

At this time I'm looking at buying a Natex workstation:
Phanteks Barebone Workstation
2x Intel Xeon E5-2670 2.60 Ghz. 8-Core SR0KX
RAM: 16x 16gb PC3L-10600
HeatSink/FAN: Dual Zalman CNPS10X ($76)
P/S: EVGA Super NOVA 850

I've been unable to find any opinions on when another big selloff might happen like the one that drove prices for E5- 26xx V1 series processors down.

Any opinions on if as of May 2017, this system is a reasonable buy for $1597 USD?

Thanks in advance.

E
 

Jeggs101

Well-Known Member
Dec 29, 2010
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New chips are coming out late Q2 and Q3 so maybe Q4 or Q1 for V2/ V3.

The only part really worth a darn in that is the 16x16GB RAM. CPU you'd be better off with an 8 core Ryzen or a single 12/14C V3. DDR4 is much more expensive and either Ryzen or V3 will save you 50W to 150W depending on your load.
 

ttabbal

Active Member
Mar 10, 2016
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I guess it depends on what you have now, and what you want to do with the new box. Sure, newer stuff is better, but I think there's a lot of life in that build, depending on your needs.

One thing to keep in mind is that any upgrade from that point, you toss the RAM as the newer parts are all DDR4. Hopefully DDR4 prices come down in the next year or so, but even then, 256GB is a fair bit of money and used DDR4 might not be very available in quantity.

People love to talk power use, but the price difference between some of the generations can buy power to run the rig for a few years in some cases. It depends on where you live and how much power costs there.
 

TangoWhiskey9

Active Member
Jun 28, 2013
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I'd have bought that in 2016. Hard in 2017. Naples will have 4x the number of cores and same number of memory slots in a single socket.

To me V1 and almost V2 is where I'd still use it, but I wouldn't buy it. You're also buying a new psu, case and everything for a CPU and mobo that were discontinued 2 years ago. At 5 yrs old capacitors start to bubble and things break. There's a great chance you won't have an issue but if you do...

V1 is headed the way of the xeon 5600 series in a few weeks when skylake and naples are launched. Since they'll both support ddr4, and there'll be upgrades for the sockets, that means you can keep using your RAM for generations beyond a V3 system.

But 256GB DDR4 used is $1600+ alone SAMSUNG 16GB PC4-2133P PC4-17000R DDR4 REG-ECC DIMM M393A2G40DB0-CPB / V05 4053162691506 | eBay
 
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Evan

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Jan 6, 2016
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Should be heaps of E5 v2's around shortly as the early ones will already start to come off lease soon.
Ddr3 especially slower stuff is cheap.

Having said his v3/v4 is where I would prefer to be buying today as ddr4 is more useful going forward , more sense and more power friendly.
 

Evan

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Jan 6, 2016
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To more directly answer the question I think it's a few hundred $$ over what I would pay on the other hand it's complete and tested so saves a lot of effort for a very powerful workstation
 

RobertFontaine

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Dec 17, 2015
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Winterpeg, Canuckistan
Darned DDR4 is still the big ticket item in price difference. I have a sweet V3/V4 motherboard that I'm sure I can find deals on cpus for but as had been said, a 16GB DIMM @ ~$110USD and I haven't heard anyone say the ddr4 comes down any time soon.

With DDR3 still running half that price and the ability to grab very nice qs v2 in the $200-$400 price range with reasonable cores and hertz it is still more practical to build a v2/ddr3 machine in the dungeon.

I still keep my eBay searches going for killer deals toward building a qs v3 but the project will simmer in the background for a long while.

In the meantime if I want a solid zfs file server the and a workhorse vm server the v2's are a lot of bang for a price and the 8 core v1's continue to be great value. If I want to get server tasks off my workstation in the dungeon this is definitely the path of least resistant.

There is a lot to be said for a working lab over a bunch of boxes piled in the corner.
 

cheezehead

Active Member
Sep 23, 2012
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Midwest, US
Unless I need a small form factor build or more power/ram than what an E5 v1/v2 build could handle. I'd still go that way just because DDR3 is cheap. The power savings with v3/v4 sku's and DDR4 don't make sense for me currently vs the added cost.
 

Klee

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Jun 2, 2016
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Unless I need a small form factor build or more power/ram than what an E5 v1/v2 build could handle. I'd still go that way just because DDR3 is cheap. The power savings with v3/v4 sku's and DDR4 don't make sense for me currently vs the added cost.

I tried my best to get away from v1's and dive right into V3 and V4 Xeons......but I just keep buying the V1's.

SO much cheaper for better performance in a lot of use cases.
 

cheezehead

Active Member
Sep 23, 2012
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I tried my best to get away from v1's and dive right into V3 and V4 Xeons......but I just keep buying the V1's.

SO much cheaper for better performance in a lot of use cases.
If you don't need the perf from the v3/v4, m-itx form factor, don't live in an area where power is expensive per kwh, or have some unusual WAF requirements it's hard to justify the v3/v4 gear. Then again long-term v3/v4 are more likely to be supported x-years from now.

Long-term with how much compute is progressing for homelab gear, beyond vendor system requirements I could see some getting rid of there racks in a few years....m-itx v4 paired with all ssd builds all in a micro-tower setup.
 

superfula

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Mar 8, 2016
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If you don't need the perf from the v3/v4, m-itx form factor, don't live in an area where power is expensive per kwh, or have some unusual WAF requirements it's hard to justify the v3/v4 gear. Then again long-term v3/v4 are more likely to be supported x-years from now.

Long-term with how much compute is progressing for homelab gear, beyond vendor system requirements I could see some getting rid of there racks in a few years....m-itx v4 paired with all ssd builds all in a micro-tower setup.
Bolded for emphasis, as those are really the two sticking points for me. I have a wire shelf rack from Amazon that I'm "allowed" to use for the homelab. I'm sure I could expand beyond that but my back just can't handle the couch. As the end of your post eludes to, I'm targeting an mitx v4 with some ssds in a small shelf.
 

Evan

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Jan 6, 2016
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Mitx or matx ?
The former is very uncommon and uses sodimm and I have not checked but probably not IPMI.
Matx has options such as supermicro x10srm which is a server class board with IPMI and also uses standard ddr4 ecc rdimm
 

superfula

Member
Mar 8, 2016
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Mitx or matx ?
The former is very uncommon and uses sodimm and I have not checked but probably not IPMI.
Matx has options such as supermicro x10srm which is a server class board with IPMI and also uses standard ddr4 ecc rdimm
Yeah I meant matx.