Whether expanding or replacing Lab

[m4r1k]

Hey everybody,

At home, I have two labs, one based on R630s and R730s which I rarely turn on mainly due to noise, and also another smaller one, always-on, based on X10SRM-TF + 1x E5-2628L v4 and 64GB.

I have around an X10DRi. With about 1500 euro, I could bring back to life this environment pushing it to 256GB of memory + 2x E5-2680 v4.
The current X10SRM-TF + 1x E5-2628L system is used for:
- ZFS Filer
- Media center (Plex)

With the upgrade, my primary aim is to have enough resources for a proper OpenShift/K8s lab.
I was also thinking of adding a GPU for gaming .... but of course, gaming on a Xeon is not ideal.

The question is whether investing additional money on Broadwell makes sense at this point in time or if I should move to something more recent like a CascadeLake (due to some constraint, the platform has to be Intel, so Epyc is, unfortunately, not possible).

For example, RHEL8 has no official support for anything older than Haswell, investing 1.5k€ today in a 4+ years old platform sounds a bit wrong. I don't have a clear estimate for a Purley solution, but it will probably push the figure near 3k and out of budget.

Also, anybody gaming on a comparable system? If so, what's the result?

Thanks a lot!

 

[m4r1k]

Nobody?

 

[Wasmachineman_NL]

I'd say wait until next year.

 

[marcoi]

I'm not commenting on hardware but i recently virtualized OpenShift. I'm using around 40-50GB ram.
Here is a link with how i set it up on a server running ESXI. the server is dell r730 btw.

GitHub - ryanhay/ocp4-metal-install: Install OpenShift 4 on Bare Metal - UPI

Install OpenShift 4 on Bare Metal - UPI. Contribute to ryanhay/ocp4-metal-install development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

 

[i386]

Also, anybody gaming on a comparable system?

Not sure if you consider a single socket comparable: I am running windows 10 pro for workstations on a x10sra with a xeon 1630v4, 64GByte ram and a 1080ti (got it for free ) and play occasionally fps (doom/doom eternal, csgo and the wolfenstein games).
So far no differences to a consumer system

 

[m4r1k]

Thanks everybody for your answer! This is not an easy choice especially because I need the upgraded lab for OCP.
I'll go ahead and report the status in a few!

Thanks for now

 

[Rand__]

Not sure what you want to spend 1500 bucks on though?

I am fairly sure upgrading it can be done for significantly less

 

[m4r1k]

Not sure what you want to spend 1500 bucks on though?

I am fairly sure upgrading it can be done for significantly less

1250€ for 2x Xeon 2680v4 and 17x 16GB RDimm 2400MHz 2RX8

How does it look?

 

[Rand__]

Where are you buying your CPUs?
Got an email 10 mins ago where each 2680v4 is GBP ~250 (UK based).
Or if U take QS I have 2 for even cheaper

Memory - ok, if you have none to start with and need 256G then thats gonna cost you, thats true, but I would assume you can get a 16G module for 50 bucks or less nowadys, can't you?

 

[m4r1k]

Where are you buying your CPUs?
Got an email 10 mins ago where each 2680v4 is GBP ~250 (UK based).
Or if U take QS I have 2 for even cheaper

Maybe I wasn't clear earlier, 1250 euro is for the full set of 17x 16GB and also two 2680 v4.
Second hand, with 1h warranty, usually from bargain hardware. They ship super fast and these guys are pretty reliable.

Memory - ok, if you have none to start with and need 256G then thats gonna cost you, thats true, but I would assume you can get a 16G module for 50 bucks or less nowadys, can't you?

In my current mini lab there is already a 4x 16GB but with a different rank (2RX4 vs. x8 that I'll pick from bargainhardware) which cannot be mixed.

About your offer, apologies, this time around I need retail. Reason being, in the future I might integrate these retail CPUs to my other (proper) lab (mix of 630 + 730). Going QS (even tho Dell should check on the CPUID) might be a risk. But thanks for the offer

 

[m4r1k]

BTW, Anandtech has an interesting piece about ECC this month with the recommended CPU.

Best CPUs for Workstations: June 2021

www.anandtech.com

tl;dr going EPYC for me is, unfortunately, not an option. A more recent Intel architecture has the disadvantage of the sky-rocket price (ofc, when compared with the only 1.2k euro for the upgrade, reusing the X10DRi around). Kinda .... I have no much of a choice. On the bright side, I'm "throwing away" "only" 500 euro for the two Xeon (which can still be used in the other lab) as effectively anything coming out for the next year will still use DDR4 and can be reporpused

 

[Rand__]

Maybe I wasn't clear earlier, 1250 euro is for the full set of 17x 16GB and also two 2680 v4.

About your offer, apologies, this time around I need retail. Reason being, in the future I might integrate these retail CPUs to my other (proper) lab (mix of 630 + 730). Going QS (even tho Dell should check on the CPUID) might be a risk. But thanks for the offer

Ah that makes more sense; and perfectly fine, was just offering in case you wanted as cheap as possible