Motherboard recommendation


DrBobke

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Hey Guys, 

I have been reading up a lot on this forum, as I want to build an Unraid for myself, and although I have a good idea of what I want to put into my build, I'm doubting a little about the Mobo.  I have seen a lot of posts regarding X570D4U-2L2T, which should be good, however, that is a €520 board.

When reading on Puget systems for a Lightroom editing machine (one of the uses I want to build the Unraid for), talks about a Mobo MSI MAG B550M Mortar WiFi (AMD B550 mATX), which is only around €170 (https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Best-Workstation-PC-for-Adobe-Lightroom-Classic-Winter-2020-1998/).  Is there any reason I would have to spend €350 more?

 

I want to use the Unraid for editing in Lightroom, Photoshop and Premiere pro via a VM (possibly with two people working at the same time, but usually just me).

Storage for my movies and the ability to use Jellyfin/Plex with transcoding.

Sharing photos/video via folders with family and clients.

Thinking about AMD Ryzen 9 3900 or 5900, with 32-64 GB of ECC RAM.

 

Alternatively, I have an old Mobo - https://www.gigabyte.com/be/Motherboard/GA-X79-UP4-rev-11#ov with an Intel Core i7-4930K @3.40 GHz- 3.70 and 32 GB RAM with a new (2 month old) GPU : https://www.msi.com/Graphics-Card/GeForce-RTX-2070-SUPER-GAMING-X-TRIO  That GPU could also be used for the Unraid build and I would get another GPU for my desktop - similar or possibly an more basic one, as the Unraid would take all of the computing and editing power.

 

Would be great to get your ideas and views.

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So I'm probably doing something wrong with my implementation of VMs because I never really feel that a VM is good for any sort of actual productive work... it's just too slow and clunky and less responsive than an actual PC.  And video editing?  Forget about it...….   in my view.

 

But a lot of that may be due to the limited specs of my hardware, for sure.

 

I'd probably say that by the sounds of it you do not need that ASRock board.. it's a server board with more server features that you probably don't need or want. I would save money on the board and maximize the CPU and RAM as much as you can.  64GB minimum I'd say.

 

As far as your old hardware... that i7 is about ready for the trash bin, it's decent enough for basic Unraid use but probably not for what you intend to do, and certainly doesn't compare to the Ryzens in benchmarks..  I would not use it for Unraid with your desired use case of VMs.  The graphics card might be good to have.

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Thanks a lot, Energen for your reply!

I was doubting the speed of a VM too, but after I sent a private message to another user (The_Defiance), who is using unraid in unison with a VM, running Lightroom, he replied with an amazing movie displaying his speed.  Although the server was in UK and he was in Italy, over a VPN, the speed was frankly probably better than my desktop PC, so I'm guessing the speed should be more than fast enough for editing on LAN, seeing he had to go through various routes ànd a VPN.

 

With regards to the mobo - I don't mind spending €520 for the ASRock board, if I know it'd be worth the price, but I don't like spending a lot of extra money on something that might end up being 90% overkill for my situation. Can you explain a little which extra features make the board that much more expensive?

 

Thank you in advance!

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2 hours ago, DrBobke said:

Can you explain a little which extra features make the board that much more expensive?

It's not so much about the features that makes it expensive, it's the fact that it's server hardware.   Server hardware is just more expensive, even if it has less features than consumer hardware.  One argument is, depending whether you believe it or not, is that server hardware is "more stable" than consumer hardware, in a server environment. And some of that may have gone back to the ability to use ECC RAM when consumer boards didn't have an option for ECC... a lot of consumer boards do these days, especially for AMD chips.

 

Look at the comparison between specs for these two boards... https://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare?CompareItemList=13-140-056%2C13-144-327&compareall=true

 

The AsRock board is $270 USD more expensive than the MSI board, and for that you get...

 

A) 10GBs LAN vs 2.5GB on the MSI -- this would be an improvement, a benefit, IF you have any 10gb network hardware on your LAN (expensive stuff).  Even MSI's 2.5GB can't be fully utilized without new network hardware.  (I have a 2.5GB MSI board on my PC -- 1GB network).

 

B) 8 SATA ports vs 6 on the MSI -- optionally up to 12 drives using one of the M2 slots.  Easier to run 12 drives without an expansion card.

 

C) Dual LAN ports -- not exactly useful. Or I don't know how to make them useful for myself.  Currently my SuperMicro board dual lan is set up for fail over or something like that so if the main port dies I still have network.... yeah, not really useful.  Maybe I changed it to link aggregation at one point -- doesn't seem to do anything.

 

D) IPMI  -- this is network based management of the board.. it's kind of neat, sometimes it's useful (to me) since my server doesn't have a mouse/keyboard/screen.. if I need to access it's BIOS or configuration I can use IPMI to connect to it.  This is a feature of most server boards.

 

E) NO AUDIO -- most server boards do not include audio chipsets .. so in your case wanting to use VM's ... I think you'd need/want an audio driver.. not sure.  

 

F) ASRock has 2 USB ports (only) .. MSI has a variety of ports.  If you plan on plugging anything in this could be a factor.

 

That's kind of a quick run down on the main differences between these boards.  So you can see that $270 doesn't get you much.  You get a server board with server features, not much else.

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Wow, thanks a lot for that, Energen! The breakdown helps!

A) I don't have 10 GBs yet in my house, but it's a nice feature to be able to futureproof.

B) I already ordered an HBA SAS expansion card and it is on it's way here.

C) I always thought that link aggregation would be very good to manage the speed, but maybe it's only noticeable when multiple users are asking the server?

D) That does sound interesting.  I wasn't planning on fitting the server with a screen, mouse, keyboard,... Although I technically could, as I have a spare screen and mouse/keyboard in the house.

E) This is something that would worry me - no audio.  Anyone that can comment on this? I would assume that the computer I'd be working off of, is taking care of the audio, not the server itself? For example for Premiere Pro editing,..?

F) Don't really think I'd need to plug in loads of stuff, except for the USB stick containing unraid?

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5 hours ago, DrBobke said:

I was doubting the speed of a VM too, but after I sent a private message to another user (The_Defiance), who is using unraid in unison with a VM, running Lightroom, he replied with an amazing movie displaying his speed.

VM performance can be VERY hardware specific, it's quite possible to get poor results from a build that looks better on paper. I recommend copying a working build part for part if possible.

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19 hours ago, jonathanm said:

VM performance can be VERY hardware specific, it's quite possible to get poor results from a build that looks better on paper. I recommend copying a working build part for part if possible.

Thank you for your message. I understand what you mean, but I'd like to have a little beefier setup I think.  I don't mind spending some extra money to futureproof my rig more.  I'd like to use it for the next coming years and not having to really worry about it and it still remains fast.

 

Anyone here that uses the https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=X570D4U-2L2T&fbclid=IwAR380QTwkHeAuZ8X8IK4zXsV67CE3jGxmPOukWstQcEXWOLptQFYZBokC8Q#Specifications and AMD 9 3900 or 5900 in unison with a VM and maybe even Lightroom, Photoshop and Premiere Pro?

Also, what about the audio if there is no audio port on the X570? I assume it is patched through to the machine I would be using to "log on" to the VM?

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