Budget 51-70k Mid level INTEL processor based server for memory hogging apps

[kekerode]

Hi Guys ... need your valuable inputs in upgrading my desktop computing machine to server class machine.:yes:
Main constraint with my current config is maximum amount of RAM which is 24GB only and it's already running out :annoyed:
I need CPU/Mobo with at least 32GB non-ECC (cheap memory ) memory support which I should be able to expand in future.
Please help me here :hail:

Q: What is your budget?
70k

Q: What is your existing hardware configuration (component name - component brand and model)
CPU - Intel i7 920 D0
Motherboard - DFI LP UT X58-T3eH8
GPU - XFX 9400 GT
RAM - 6 x CMZ4GX3M1A1600C9
Monitor - Dell SP2208WFP
SMPS - Corsair HX850
Cabinet - HAF 922

Q: Which hardware will you be keeping (component name - component brand and model)
GPU - XFX 9400 GT
RAM - 6 x CMZ4GX3M1A1600C9
Monitor - Dell SP2208WFP
SMPS - Corsair HX850
Cabinet - HAF 922

Q: Which hardware component are you looking to buy (component name). If you have already decided on a configuration then please mention the (component brand and model) as well, this will help us in fine tuning your requirement.
CPU - Intel i3/i5 quad core latest server class with HT , VT-x , VT-d
Motherboard - any compatible motherboard with support of more than 32GB non-ECC memory

Q: Is this going to be your final configuration or you would be adding/upgrading a component in near future. If yes then please mention when and which component
Yes, will upgrade the following within 6 months
RAM - total 32GB

Q: Where will you buy this hardware? (Online/City/TE Dealer)
Mumbai
Open to online purchase/Bangalore/Mumbai/TE Dealer

Q: Would you consider buying a second hand hardware from the TE market
Yes

Q: What is your intended use for this PC/hardware
Business software Processing (non 3D),
4-5 days 24x7 operation in a month
VMWare

Q: Do you have any brand preference or dislike? Please name them and the reason for your preference/dislike.
As far as Indian warranty is available no brand preference. But strictly no AMD suggestions because of software's compatibility issues.

Q: If you will be playing games then which type of games will you be playing?
None

Q: What is your preferred monitor resolution for gaming and normal usage
None. 99.99% of time will be doing RDP.

Q: Are you looking to overclock?
No

Q: Which operating system do you intend to use with this configuration?
Windows 7 64 bit
Linux - RHEL/SLES/VMWare

 

[stormblast]

you should go for x79 platform
i7 3930k + asrock x79 extreme6 = 53800/-
there are other boards from asus and gigabyte as well. check them out

cpu is 6core and the board has 8 memory slots which can take 64gb (quad channel memory)

 

[Jakob]

If op is not going to overclock then-
i7 3820-18k
GIGABYTE GA-X79-UD5-18k
Gskill Ripjaws OR Corsair Xms3 4X4GB 1600mhz-7k
Would be good enough.

you should go for x79 platform
i7 3930k + asrock x79 extreme6 = 53800/-
there are other boards from asus and gigabyte as well. check them out

cpu is 6core and the board has 8 memory slots which can take 64gb (quad channel memory)

 

[stormblast]

If op is not going to overclock then-
i7 3820-18k
GIGABYTE GA-X79-UD5-18k
Gskill Ripjaws OR Corsair Xms3 4X4GB 1600mhz-7k
Would be good enough.

actually ya you are right. i forgot about the 3820. op is mentioned that a quad would be fine. this makes more sense.

just be sure checkout all the poor customer reviews of ud5 before investing in it, which is why i said asrock. you could checkout asus boards, they are very solid.

 

[ALPHA17]

Intel Core i7 3820 ~18500/-
ASUS P9X79 ~19000/-
G.Skill RIPJAWS 4GB x4 1600MHz modules ~6500/-

I suggest ASUS because of the following reasons --

• A mature UEFI that works better than all its competitors have put forth, here is a review,
• widespread availability; it is available on flipkart, most competing boards from MSi and Gigabyte are not available OR are only available at the metros,

Note: A few more things that came to mind --

• As you already have 3x Vengeance RAM modules, you can get another 4GB Vengeance RAM module to save money.
• If you feel like buying a third party cooler to keep your CPU cool, do look at the Noctua NH-U12P SE2. The only issue it will have is the tall Vengeance heat-spreaders.

Hope this helps, Cheerio!!

 

[stormblast]

^^ i think minimum a pro board from asus is needed for server use.

 

[ALPHA17]

^^ i think minimum a pro board from asus is needed for server use.

Any particular reason? Because even the non-PRO version is fully loaded in my views [I can be wrong], lacks the LED-debugger, onboard Reset CMOS switch, START and RESET switch [which the OP will not use].

The build quality is also pretty spiffy. Has a good pair of heat-sinks, all checks out for me.

 

[stormblast]

Any particular reason? Because even the non-PRO version is fully loaded in my views [I can be wrong], lacks the LED-debugger, onboard Reset CMOS switch, START and RESET switch [which the OP will not use].

The build quality is also pretty spiffy. Has a good pair of heat-sinks, all checks out for me.

usually pro always has more heatsinks around cpu mosfets which helps in them not getting too hot as its gonna be under load for long period of time. not sure if the power phase is same in both or no.

 

[ALPHA17]

usually pro always has more heatsinks around cpu mosfets which helps in them not getting too hot as its gonna be under load for long period of time. not sure if the power phase is same in both or no.

The power Phase on the PRO edition is -- [8+2+2+2] on the non-PRO it is -- [8+2+2]; but both support ASUS DIGI+VRM.

Apart from that the overall component layout is same-same on both, although due to the OC features that are in the PRO it looks slightly cramped. The CPU area is much clearer on the non-PRO edition facilitating installation of a CPU cooler.

The I/O layout is also the same, though the PRO edition gets an added BT!GO feature.

 

[kekerode]

Thank you guys for quick inputs ... I think it's better to go with Desktop H/W

you should go for x79 platform
i7 3930k + asrock x79 extreme6 = 53800/-
there are other boards from asus and gigabyte as well. check them out

cpu is 6core and the board has 8 memory slots which can take 64gb (quad channel memory)

Can you please tell me price of i7 3930k and Asrock x79 extreme6 separately? Even I might need to upgrade CPU to 6C if too much CPU is used. But for RAM I need 32GB from beginning, so have you tried to populate all 8 slots of RAM? Is that working for you on this mobo?

If op is not going to overclock then-
i7 3820-18k
GIGABYTE GA-X79-UD5-18k
Gskill Ripjaws OR Corsair Xms3 4X4GB 1600mhz-7k
Would be good enough.

Yep i7 3820 would be my choice of processor. Not sure about UD5 as last time I had issue with components layout on UD5 and ended up taking DFI

Intel Core i7 3820 ~18500/-
ASUS P9X79 ~19000/-
G.Skill RIPJAWS 4GB x4 1600MHz modules ~6500/-

I suggest ASUS because of the following reasons --

• A mature UEFI that works better than all its competitors have put forth, here is a review,
• widespread availability; it is available on flipkart, most competing boards from MSi and Gigabyte are not available OR are only available at the metros,

Note: A few more things that came to mind --

• As you already have 3x Vengeance RAM modules, you can get another 4GB Vengeance RAM module to save money.
• If you feel like buying a third party cooler to keep your CPU cool, do look at the Noctua NH-U12P SE2. The only issue it will have is the tall Vengeance heat-spreaders.

Hope this helps, Cheerio!!

The power Phase on the PRO edition is -- [8+2+2+2] on the non-PRO it is -- [8+2+2]; but both support ASUS DIGI+VRM.

Apart from that the overall component layout is same-same on both, although due to the OC features that are in the PRO it looks slightly cramped. The CPU area is much clearer on the non-PRO edition facilitating installation of a CPU cooler.

The I/O layout is also the same, though the PRO edition gets an added BT!GO feature.

Thanks for pointing to ASUS ... I always had issue with ASUS mobo in era of P4 ... but looks much better now
Any idea about pricing of other ASUS x79 mobos?

 

[ALPHA17]

Any idea about pricing of other ASUS x79 mobos?

Well here are the prices off flipkart, the street price(s) will be lower / higher [keeps fluctuating] --
ASUS P9X79 ~18500/-
ASUS P9X79 PRO ~22000/-
ASUS SABERTOOTH X79 ~23500/-
ASUS P9X79 DELUXE ~24500/-

Hope this helps, Cheerio!!

 

[stormblast]

Thank you guys for quick inputs ... I think it's better to go with Desktop H/W



Can you please tell me price of i7 3930k and Asrock x79 extreme6 separately? Even I might need to upgrade CPU to 6C if too much CPU is used. But for RAM I need 32GB from beginning, so have you tried to populate all 8 slots of RAM? Is that working for you on this mobo?

the cpu cost is around 36-37k. also since your gonna use vt-d make sure u buy 3930k c2 revision. c1 has some bugs with vt-d which were fixed in the newer c2 revision.
board is around 17.5-18k i think. as i have mentioned the combo works out to around 53.8k

you can install 64gigs on the board. i have read online people using 64gigs on this board without problems so i assume 32gb wont be an issue.
currently i am populating 4slots with 16gb. down the line will use up the rest.

 

[kekerode]

Well here are the prices off flipkart, the street price(s) will be lower / higher [keeps fluctuating] --
ASUS P9X79 ~18500/-
ASUS P9X79 PRO ~22000/-
ASUS SABERTOOTH X79 ~23500/-
ASUS P9X79 DELUXE ~24500/-

Hope this helps, Cheerio!!

Thanks ... ASUS P9X79 PRO or DELUXE looks like the choice

the cpu cost is around 36-37k. also since your gonna use vt-d make sure u buy 3930k c2 revision. c1 has some bugs with vt-d which were fixed in the newer c2 revision.
board is around 17.5-18k i think. as i have mentioned the combo works out to around 53.8k

you can install 64gigs on the board. i have read online people using 64gigs on this board without problems so i assume 32gb wont be an issue.
currently i am populating 4slots with 16gb. down the line will use up the rest.

Thanks for heads-up

How about this combo ... Intel E5-2620 XEON + Intel S2600CP ServerBoard ??

 

[stormblast]

Thanks ... ASUS P9X79 PRO or DELUXE looks like the choice



Thanks for heads-up

How about this combo ... Intel E5-2620 XEON + Intel S2600CP ServerBoard ??

not too sure why you want to go for dual cpu setup. not sure if it will fit in your budget. wont this require ecc ram?
just go for x79 setup

 

[kekerode]

not too sure why you want to go for dual cpu setup. not sure if it will fit in your budget. wont this require ecc ram?
just go for x79 setup

because normal x79 desktop will go upto 64GB RAM at MAX ... and this combo can take two E5-2500 series CPUs and 16 memory sticks (yes non-ecc RAM is supported as per spec sheet)

currently the applications which I am using are not much CPU hungry ... even my i7 920 is utilized at max 25-40% ... only problem is with RAM capacity

So if I go with Xeon combo then I can do RAM (non-ecc) upgrade and CPU upgrade later if required ... moreover it's possible to go beyond 64GB on this server board
And this combo is available in some 50-60k in India

what you say??

 

[rite]

Whether or not you overclock 3820 is pointless. Going for X79 only makes sense if you buy 3930k or X3960k.

Go for 3930k with Asus X79 Deluxe or the best motherboard you can afford. Try to stick to Asus or Asrock for motherboards, preferably Asus for X79.

Get 4x8GB DDR3 1600 CAS9 since 24GB is less for you. Will set you back some 30-40k just for the RAM.

CPU + MB + RAM will cost you like 1L. But if you have such hi fi requirements, then that shouldn't be an issue

 

[ALPHA17]

wont this require ecc ram?

I opened the processor specification-chart for the Xeon E5-2620 and it supports only DDR III memory modules and as far as I can recall, ECC modules were not developed after DDR II fell out of favour.

So @kekerode is not hamstrung with ECC RAM modules [OR the lack thereof]. But I agree; Will the dual CPU solution not be more expensive? What say you kekerode?

 

[stormblast]

well if more than 64gigs is required then its a nobrainer to go for the dual socket platform.
i am not too sure about this but i think to use all 16 slots i think you will require 2 cpu's installed.


you could also checkout evga
http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=270-SE-W888-KR&family=Motherboard%20Family&series=All%20Motherboards&sw=5

if you get this dual socket combo. let me know if you can run a small test for me. should just take a couple of minutes. if the results are good i too might consider this

 

[kekerode]

I opened the processor specification-chart for the Xeon E5-2620 and it supports only DDR III memory modules and as far as I can recall, ECC modules were not developed after DDR II fell out of favour.

So @kekerode is not hamstrung with ECC RAM modules [OR the lack thereof]. But I agree; Will the dual CPU solution not be more expensive? What say you kekerode?

Right now I have 24GB RAM which I can use with Xeon combo and add 2x4GB same modules to go for 32GB total with one Xeon ... this will solve my problem for now
Afterwards, I can change these modules with 8GB ones in pair to expand upto 64GB with one Xeon only (depends on price of 8GB module at that point of time)

If later CPU is utilized more (and I think it will) or need more RAM then I can add one more Xeon and more RAM ... considering this will happend after 2 years
At that time again this Xeon and RAM should be little cheaper

So considering cycle of 5 years this build ... i think it should be cheaper as no need to do upgrades frequently ... what u say about this?

well if more than 64gigs is required then its a nobrainer to go for the dual socket platform.
i am not too sure about this but i think to use all 16 slots i think you will require 2 cpu's installed.


you could also checkout evga
EVGA | Products

if you get this dual socket combo. let me know if you can run a small test for me. should just take a couple of minutes. if the results are good i too might consider this

Yes you are right if I want to go for more than 64GB then need to go for 2nd Xeon as well
This EVGA board has only 12 DIMM slots and much costlier than my needs of server ... I m going to keep my XFX 9400 GT
Similar kind of board was there for X58 chipset also if I recall correctly.

BTW guys any suggestions for E-ATX cabinet? I'll setup ready-made water-cooling this time

 

[stormblast]

atm this e-atx comes to mind. i havent used this myself but you could checkout some reviews.

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