Home Server/NAS build

Coyler wrote: »

I'm planning out my 3 GPU build. Not going to happen that soon but soon enough I'd hope. So, I want 3 separate desktops for the kids as well as various containers running plex and other items. The kids are at LEGO game and Minecraft level so 4 cores for them would be loads but perhaps budget for higher. If I want hardware transcoding for plex, I'm really looking at another GPU like the 1050 so that's 4 full PCI-E slots. Take for granted I've considered all the usuals like usb controllers, and cache drives.

So, is Threadripper my only real option here if I don't want to spend eye watering money? And do I hold out for the next gen? Discuss.

Bear in mind that consumer GPUs have a limited imposed by NVIDIA of 2 transcodes at once. If you want full hardware transcoding, a Quadro P2000 is your minimum, which is €4-500. It is more power efficient than the equivalent CPU though.

3 GPU passthrough will be a doable, but it means you'll need 4 GPUs in your system. (5, if you do end up going for a P2000). If we say you want a minimum of x8 for the gaming GPUs, then that limits your board choices a little.

Something like this could work: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Pro-WS-X570-ACE/
It's X570, so you could throw a 3900X in there (and for reference, that's a +50% improvement over my server's 1950X, in single and multi-threaded perf. It's got your 3 x8 PCIE slots, and an x1 for the unRAID GPU, and IPMI which is a god-send for remote management.

If you want to look at older stuff, 1st/2nd gen TR is massively discounted (and probably will be more so in the next month or two with TR3), or a ED says you can look at older Xeon stuff.

Serephucus wrote: »

Bear in mind that consumer GPUs have a limited imposed by NVIDIA of 2 transcodes at once. If you want full hardware transcoding, a Quadro P2000 is your minimum, which is €4-500. It is more power efficient than the equivalent CPU though.

3 GPU passthrough will be a doable, but it means you'll need 4 GPUs in your system. (5, if you do end up going for a P2000). If we say you want a minimum of x8 for the gaming GPUs, then that limits your board choices a little.

Something like this could work: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Pro-WS-X570-ACE/
It's X570, so you could throw a 3900X in there (and for reference, that's a +50% improvement over my server's 1950X, in single and multi-threaded perf. It's got your 3 x8 PCIE slots, and an x1 for the unRAID GPU, and IPMI which is a god-send for remote management.

If you want to look at older stuff, 1st/2nd gen TR is massively discounted (and probably will be more so in the next month or two with TR3), or a ED says you can look at older Xeon stuff.

Surely my best bet is X399 or whatever (X599?) the boards will be for TR3?

Are you suggesting a P2000 for the unlimited streams alone? I’m aware of the limitations of the consumer cards but not sure I’ll ever need more than 2 for the foreseeable. Even at that, I can hack that limit. But sell it to me.

IPMI is a nice to have but this is a box sitting out on the floor with three monitors attached to it. One more cable and a quick source change on one of the monitors gives me the same. I love new toys but couldn’t justify it if it was an extra cost.

What this boils down to is if I’m doing software transcoding are a few cores from a 3900X going to be as efficient as a GTX 1050. Or at least efficient enough to rule out a X399/599 board and a another GPU.

Thinking about it, most of my media doesn’t require much transcoding. And if swap the my 360 for a One that should reduce the need even more. I’m losing streaming services anyway through basic functionality so I’d kill a few birds with that move.

I just don’t want to go the X570 route and need a PCIE slot in the future but I may never need it. Of course if I do I could just sell the part I have and upgrade. Decisions, decisions.

ED E wrote: »

12 to 8 seems like such a downgrade. Or 9 if you wanna call it that.

The X570 chipset is actually capable of supporting up to 12 SATA ports. Would make for a great home server - M.2 hanging off the CPU for the OS, and 12 SATA drives with no need for an add in card.

I don't know if we'll ever see a board that implements all 12 though, most of the board manufacturers are going down the route of multiple M.2s instead.

ED E wrote: »

We've somewhat confused this thread with Coyler's request.


X570 doesn apply to what we were originally discussing, NAS style boxes, as its way up the TDP tier. Xeon D/EPYC 35xx is the name of the game.

Might be time for a fork.

Yeah, I’ll fork this to discuss multi-GPU boxen and how best to do it. I’ve since found some interesting options.