Need advice for all-purpose server

[tucansam]

Hi guys.

 

I need to integrate some of my machines into one system, I have too many hobby systems to manage and I'm drawing a lot of power and generating a lot of heat (and in turn using a lot of power with AC).  I thought about going virtual, but I really just want one big iron system to run a lot of stuff on so its easier for me to manage in my ever-shrinking amount of free time.

 

I need a sab, sb, plex, light web, and an IP camera server.  And home automation down the road.

 

Plex will serve up media to some Apple devices (will need to do encoding), and a couple of TVs in the house.  I may go Roku (will need to do encoding), or I may not.  If I build a pair of small HTPCs with 1150 Celerons or Pentiums, they should be able to handle a 1080p stream with ease, and take some load off the server.  But a $50 used Roku on Ebay is hard to pass up vs building a pair of $200-300 PCs.

 

I will have 8 IP cameras within the next year, and possibly more beyond that.  It will largely depend on the camera(s)' software, but I will need four or five tablets in the house watching feeds, plus provisions for some cell phones to watch feeds when we're not at the house.  I am currently evaluating software, but something with motion detection on all cameras will be a certainty, as well as HD recording whenever possible.

 

Plex and the IP camera server have the potential to be the biggest resource hogs, clearly.

 

I was thinking about building two separate machines, one sab/sb/plex, and one cam server.  I have a 3Ghz 4-core Phenom II, and a 2.7Ghz 6-core as well.  I would need to buy two MBs, RAM, HDs, cases, power supplies, etc.  And then I have two machines to manage instead of one....

 

Or I could buy a quad Xeon/dual quad Xeon, or 12-core Opteron/dual 8/10/12-core Opteron.  The servers that are being retired from datacenters are showing up all over Ebay, and for what it would cost me to build a pair of systems (that might not be up to snuff processing power wise) I could buy a commercial system with a ton of RAM, RAID, hot swap bays, loads of cores, 2/4 gig eth interfaces, etc.

 

I can't go the 1U route, as the jet-turbine-like whine emitted from those systems' 1,000,000,000 rpm 40mm fans would result in a mutiny in my house.  Looking at some 3/4U models with larger (and theoretically quieter) fans.  All equipment will be stored on a shelving system in my equipment room, so a server with a 36" depth profile isn't gonna fly.

 

Real questions here are would I be better off with more core and less Ghz, or more Ghz and less cores?  Even if I build the system myself, a matched pair of last-gen 12-core 1.8 or 2.x Ghz Opterons are very cheap right now.  I know a Xeon based system will crush it, but I would end up with a server with more cores than I need with a ton of room to grow.  I could do a single CPU/multi core system now, and have a socket available for more cores later, should I add another service, or more cameras, or more Plex clients (likely once I get my VPN and my parents start streaming off me).

 

I am a fan of Hyperthreading, but I have long believed that more physical cores is preferred in almost every case.

 

Advice welcome.  I'm just not sure how much horsepower I need.  I am thinking something like a high-end i7 wouldn't be enough (not enough cores), and like I said, I'd really like to keep it to one system.

 

Windows 7 or Ubuntu, will totally depend on what camera software I go with.

 

Thanks.

[jbartlett]

My advice is to go overboard on capacity. You don't want to build your server and then wish you had more CPU's. It's better to have excess than not since you're still not sure which way to go.

 

FYI: Supposedly, plex doesn't do transcoding on local Roku 3 boxes.