Trying to predict the unknowable: E5-2630 v4 (trusted QS) vs E5-2680 v4 (the current deal we're all going bananas about)

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ullbeking

Active Member
Jul 28, 2017
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London
During my big hardware clearout, I have realized that I have a LOT of hardware that will enable me to complete projects I started but never finished, such as the following workstation. Plus I will clear out hardware that will never get used.

I now can finish this workstation plus NAS. I already have the parts for it (except for the Noctuas)
  • Supermicro X10DRi-T
  • 2x Intel Xeon E5-2630L v4 (QS from a well trusted, respected, and active member of STH community)
  • 16x 16 GB DDR4 RDIMM RAM modules for total of 256 GB
  • Supermicro Superchassis SC732D4F-903B
Assuming the assembled machine works, I'll be jumping with joy.

However, by the time I get it assembled and tested, those HOT E5-2680 v4 CPU's will be all gone. I'm wondering whether I should just bite the bullet and get them because I know I will be doing a long of CPU-bound multimedia transcoding on large amounts of my own multimedia that will be stored on the local storage.

Do you think I'll be able to get my money back on the 2680's v4 if I change my mind in a few months?

By the way, for filesystem, I'm thinking of doing this:
  • Install LSI 9300-8i HBA or something similar to connect the following drives to the system.
    • Maybe I'll need two HBA's?
  • Install 8x high capacity nearline SAS HDD's (e.g., WD Gold 4 TB, etc)
  • Use dm-cache to pair each HDD with a 100-200 GB HGST SLC SAS SSD (I have about 16 in total).
    • The goal is to reduce noise firstly; secondly to improve IO speed.
  • Use LVM for simple mirroring.
    • XFS for the filesystems.
    • I want simplicity.
I have stage 1 and 2 backup servers sorted. Stage 3 backup server will be LTO tape.