AMD vs Intel, ECC vs Non ECC.... HELP


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I have an old enterprise grade server (Dell R710), but i'd like to upgrade it as its running DD3 RAM, SATA 2 etc.

 

I want to move from rack mounted to a tower (thinking Define 7 XL as it will provide space for additional drives).  I currently have 4HDD's and 2 SSD's plus the usual USB stick.

 

I've been doing some research but can't seem to find definitive answers on the following:
 

1.  Does ECC RAM really help that much, or is it a gimic?  I suspect the former.

2. It seems some mobo's unofficially support ECC memory (asus strix + amd) and mention it is subject to CPU, should i steer clear of this unsupported configuration?

3.  Does anyone have any recommendations (based on the below performance information) on CPU/RAM/Mobo combinations which are known to work and would fit correctly in a tower without modification.

4.  Any recommendations on a good HBA?

 

Additional notes:

 

I plan to install a 1080ti , 2080ti and an additional 4 hdds.

 

Workloads:

 

32 docker containers

1 windows 10 vm (2080ti will passthrough)

Would also like to achieve 4k transcoding for plex (1080ti)

 

Current performance:

 

2 x x5660 = low 2% average 13% max 79%

72 GB DDR3 = average 19% max 56%

 

Any questions let me know.

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

Edited by ONI Assassin
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On 5/15/2022 at 10:40 AM, Lolight said:

Are you sure?

Yes, I can read. He asked if ECC helps or if it’s a gimmick. Your response was pointing to offsite backup. What does offsite backup have to do with ECC memory?  Why is it people never want to answer the question they’d rather carry on with their own topics. What you feel isn’t important. Answer his question, or don’t, but don’t change the subject. 

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On 6/6/2022 at 1:52 AM, FlyingTexan said:

What you feel isn’t important.

What is important is the context of the question.

The OP has asked it in the way similar to if asking in the car world if the roadside assistance helps while driving without auto insurance.

Edited by Lolight
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@Lolight  My objective was a better understanding, you presume I had any preexisting knowledge. In your example, knowing what auto insurance or roadside assistance is in relation to a car when all i know is a car exists (it has four wheels and moves and turns and requires fuel), but noone has taken the time to explain i require at least one of the other items to drive the car.  Assuming because someone runs unraid they already have an understanding of all the concepts from disk encryption to docker to gpu passthrough and even to ecc vs non ecc ram is short sighted.  However, I thank you for highlighting my shortcomings in this subject and this only inspires me to learn more and try harder so i might help someone else in a similar predicament.  Lastly i wish you an awesome day.

 


@FlyingTexan thanks for your support, it really is appreciated.

 

I have found this thread which helps provide some insight, and this comment seems to be the one which helps the most on my initial understanding (i still have a lot to understand in this space before i pull the trigger on my purchase, but i'm currently considering a 5950x, x570 taichi, two sticks of ksm26ed8/32me as the core of the new build):

 

 

 

Thanks again both of you

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8 hours ago, ONI Assassin said:

Assuming because someone runs unraid they already have an understanding of all the concepts from disk encryption to docker to gpu passthrough and even to ecc vs non ecc ram is short sighted.  However, I thank you for highlighting my shortcomings in this subject and this only inspires me to learn more and try harder so i might help someone else in a similar predicament.

You're still missing the point.

I've posted my response trying to point it out for you that there is no short, one fit all answer!

That being the reason for your struggle to find a definitive response.

Sorry I wasn't clear enough.

There are numerous discussions on the internet with many passionate, but often misleading opinions regarding the "must have" ECC.

Spend some time reading around and see for yourself.

Don't just go over one thread (linked above) that throws many things together by the highly experienced users just to make your head spin.

Try to make an informed decision based on your priorities.

I understand your desire to get a simple one sentence answer but it's not one of those subjects.

Besides, if you're not particularly well versed in the computer hardware I'd suggest to spare yourself of the headache and go cheaper and simpler (for Unraid).

That would mean Intel and no ECC.

That would also mean that you must have a good back up for all of your important data, regardless of ECC

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On 6/9/2022 at 3:00 AM, Lolight said:

You're still missing the point.

I've posted my response trying to point it out for you that there is no short, one fit all answer!

That being the reason for your struggle to find a definitive response.

Sorry I wasn't clear enough.

There are numerous discussions on the internet with many passionate, but often misleading opinions regarding the "must have" ECC.

Spend some time reading around and see for yourself.

Don't just go over one thread (linked above) that throws many things together by the highly experienced users just to make your head spin.

Try to make an informed decision based on your priorities.

I understand your desire to get a simple one sentence answer but it's not one of those subjects.

Besides, if you're not particularly well versed in the computer hardware I'd suggest to spare yourself of the headache and go cheaper and simpler (for Unraid).

That would mean Intel and no ECC.

That would also mean that you must have a good back up for all of your important data, regardless of ECC

 

Thank you, I apologize, I didn't mean to rant, I was incredibly frustrated with the lack of simple yes no questions which result is yes or no to ECC ram, eg is your data critical, is stability an important factor etc.  Don't get me wrong, I still have a lot of reading to do but certainly from a number of YouTube videos, forum posts etc. there is no hard answer (exactly what you said) which I find really surprising because I don't consider computers an art form, but a science, so surely there's a logic diagram which helps you reach this decision.  Anyway....

 

OK, so with regards to backups, if you're backing up a file which suffered bit rot, your backup would be compromised too over a period of time.  You wouldn't know you were suffering bit rot until you accessed the file.  The question then becomes how do you identify the early onset of bit rot on a file and restore it from healthy backup?

 

Lastly by my definition, the data is not critical, however I'm sure my partner would disagree as it contains a whole bunch of home pictures and videos.  Based on that i need to take the appropriate actions to ensure the data is protected.  With this in mind, I can take a local backup to a local NAS (my old one pre UNRAID), but I was also looking at using CrashPlan via docker as an offsite backup, but I'm still concerned about the horror stories I've read relating to bit rot.  Your thoughts and guidance would be appreciated.

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10 minutes ago, ONI Assassin said:

OK, so with regards to backups, if you're backing up a file which suffered bit rot, your backup would be compromised too over a period of time. 

You can use for example btrfs (or zfs in the near future) or have checksums for all files, though checksum is not as practical for this since it won't warn of corruption on read, you'd need to manually scan the files after transferring them.

 

As for ECC, IMHO anyone who cares about data integrity should definitely use it.

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2 hours ago, ONI Assassin said:

Lastly by my definition, the data is not critical, however I'm sure my partner would disagree as it contains a whole bunch of home pictures and videos...

..I'm still concerned about the horror stories I've read relating to bit rot.

The thing is that internet contains horror stories on just about every subject you can think of.

Have two, or better three copies of all of your important data and try not to stress much over bit rot.

There are other, much more probable problems than can potentially affect your data.

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16 hours ago, Lolight said:

The thing is that internet contains horror stories on just about every subject you can think of.

Have two, or better three copies of all of your important data and try not to stress much over bit rot.

There are other, much more probable problems than can potentially affect your data.

 

Would you like to elaborate on the much more probable problems?  Any knowledge is always welcome.

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There are many ways to loose data.

The most common risk is user error, its possible that someone with access to the server accidentally deletes important information. And realize its mistake, or not.

 

We also regularly also hear on the forum about floods/power surge/etc. killing a server.

 

In those cases, Parity or ECC will not help you.

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