Long time reader of STH here, this might be a long post so skip to the end if tl;dr.
I have been running various small workstation PCs and called them servers for many years now. I will soon get my degree in master of computer science here in Sweden and start working at my first job. I thought that now that I have a stable income I could finally buy a real server for my home lab!
Currently running Esxi 5.1 on my whitebox (AMDx4, 16gb ECC), in the future i would like to test proxmox, xen etc. The issue is weird random freezes during heavy load, lacking support for VT-d/IOMMU etc.
For the past few days I have been reading on STH to update myself on the server scene. I have come up with basically three different alternatives.
1. The C6100 from ebay
Pros: 4 nodes/servers, many cores, much ram, a really good price for the unit
Cons: Shipping cost is almost the same as for the server (to Sweden), it would probably break when shipped here (the shipping people are not that gentle), very loud (I live in a 3 room apartment)
Still this would be the real deal since I get 4 real servers to work with. However it does not seem possible to get one to Sweden.
2. Build a new machine using xeon E3 and LGA1155
Pros: Cheap alternative to E5, 3 Ghz, cheaper RAM, more low-power than E5, Ivy bridge
Cons: Limit to 4 cores, 32 GB ram, feels more like a common workstation
This is the solution im looking at now since it seems the best i can get for a decent cost. I read here on STH and thinking to use the same motherboard.
3. Build a new machine using xeon E5 and LGA2011.
Pros: More powerful hardware, support for more memory, more cores, more sockets
Cons: Sandy bridge (Q3 ivy bridge), costs more, much lower clock freq, high power consumption
Should one wait for Q3 and e5 ivy?
Goal
I want a system with IMPI, at least 32 GB ram and good performance (would be nice with more than my current 4 cores) with decent power consumption. I aim to use ZFS with VT-d on either a built in sata-controller or a M1015 i own for storage while i plan to buy SSD's for esxi datastore and maybe for ZFS ZIL and L2ARC. Other than that i run two Windows 2008, some linux (debian mostly), mineOs (for minecraft), 2 pfsense boxes. This pretty much maxes the current 16 gb memory and also the CPU starts to bottleneck during load.
Any comments are welcome. I feel like the E3 alternative does not give me that big boost compared to my current whitebox, should i wait for the E5 v2 cpus?
I have been running various small workstation PCs and called them servers for many years now. I will soon get my degree in master of computer science here in Sweden and start working at my first job. I thought that now that I have a stable income I could finally buy a real server for my home lab!
Currently running Esxi 5.1 on my whitebox (AMDx4, 16gb ECC), in the future i would like to test proxmox, xen etc. The issue is weird random freezes during heavy load, lacking support for VT-d/IOMMU etc.
For the past few days I have been reading on STH to update myself on the server scene. I have come up with basically three different alternatives.
1. The C6100 from ebay
Pros: 4 nodes/servers, many cores, much ram, a really good price for the unit
Cons: Shipping cost is almost the same as for the server (to Sweden), it would probably break when shipped here (the shipping people are not that gentle), very loud (I live in a 3 room apartment)
Still this would be the real deal since I get 4 real servers to work with. However it does not seem possible to get one to Sweden.
2. Build a new machine using xeon E3 and LGA1155
Pros: Cheap alternative to E5, 3 Ghz, cheaper RAM, more low-power than E5, Ivy bridge
Cons: Limit to 4 cores, 32 GB ram, feels more like a common workstation
This is the solution im looking at now since it seems the best i can get for a decent cost. I read here on STH and thinking to use the same motherboard.
3. Build a new machine using xeon E5 and LGA2011.
Pros: More powerful hardware, support for more memory, more cores, more sockets
Cons: Sandy bridge (Q3 ivy bridge), costs more, much lower clock freq, high power consumption
Should one wait for Q3 and e5 ivy?
Goal
I want a system with IMPI, at least 32 GB ram and good performance (would be nice with more than my current 4 cores) with decent power consumption. I aim to use ZFS with VT-d on either a built in sata-controller or a M1015 i own for storage while i plan to buy SSD's for esxi datastore and maybe for ZFS ZIL and L2ARC. Other than that i run two Windows 2008, some linux (debian mostly), mineOs (for minecraft), 2 pfsense boxes. This pretty much maxes the current 16 gb memory and also the CPU starts to bottleneck during load.
Any comments are welcome. I feel like the E3 alternative does not give me that big boost compared to my current whitebox, should i wait for the E5 v2 cpus?
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