I'm currently running an AMD FX-8320 8-core CPU on a Asus M5A96 R2.0.  I'm thinking about switching over to a i7-4790k-based system.  My current system is running about 15 dockers, and one VM (my Musicbrainz server).    Currently everything seems to be running fine (I do have the occasional blip where the system where I max CPU, only noticed it more since I've been running a preclear on a Seagate Archive drive though).  Just not sure if it'd be worth it to go with the Intel setup, or if I'd not be seeing much real-world improvement.

 

I'd hate to spend the coin to upgrade to the Intel setup, and not see much return, when I could always take that and replace 2 more drive with 8tb seagates...

 

 

I'd expect a very noticeable improvement with that change.

 

The FX-8320 scores 8062 on PassMark;  the i7-4790k scores 11246.

 

On the surface, that's just a 40% gain in performance -- but remember that the i7 is achieving that performance with only 4 cores, so it's actually a 180% gain in per core performance ... i.e. an i7 core has 2.8 times the performance of an 8320 core.    You'll definitely notice a very nice improvement in overall performance.

 

 

... and to put a bit of additional icing on the Intel cake,  the Core i7-4790 achieves that performance while using 30% less power than the FX-8320 ... 88w vs. 125w => so it will run cooler and quieter.

 

There's no doubt the system will have better performance, the question remains is whether you'll notice that improvement, at least enough to feel justified in buying the upgrade.  If it's any consolation you will probably be saving a little in electricity costs with the Haswell CPU.  If your cost per kilowatt-hour is sufficiently high enough you may even be able to justify the upgrade from an energy conservation standpoint.

 

<heh, I see in preview that Gary just made that point.  Oh well, posting anyways>

I have an i3-4150 machine that's basically sitting doing nothing (teamspeak music bot, lol), I thought about turning it into a storage only box with a U-NAS NSC-800 case, JUST for storage, then set up a seperate smaller box with one or 2 drives to run my docker stuff.  Either that, or just bite the bullet and get the 4790 and a Mini-ITX board and stick it in the NSC-800 case.  Only problem is reusing the parts I have now (my current box has 4 ddr3 8gb sticks in it, most mini-itx boards only take 2, so I'd have to replace my ram as well as everything else).  Even if I went with the two box setup, I'm betting I would end up having less power usage than I do now, the machine I'm running is a power-hungry beast, lol.

 

 

I have an i3-4150 machine that's basically sitting doing nothing (teamspeak music bot, lol), I thought about turning it into a storage only box with a U-NAS NSC-800 case, JUST for storage, then set up a seperate smaller box with one or 2 drives to run my docker stuff.  Either that, or just bite the bullet and get the 4790 and a Mini-ITX board and stick it in the NSC-800 case.  Only problem is reusing the parts I have now (my current box has 4 ddr3 8gb sticks in it, most mini-itx boards only take 2, so I'd have to replace my ram as well as everything else).  Even if I went with the two box setup, I'm betting I would end up having less power usage than I do now, the machine I'm running is a power-hungry beast, lol.

 

A few thoughts ...

 

=>  With ANY unbuffered board, your memory will be more reliable if you only install 2 modules [the waveform is significantly degraded by the bus loading if you use 4 modules] ... so I wouldn't be concerned about a mini-ITX board only holding 2 modules.

 

=>  If you DO want to use 4 modules, you can probably use an extended mini-ITX board ... measure your case carefully to confirm the extra 1.7" of width won't be a problem.  This is a good choice -- it holds 4 memory modules, although you'd have to buy new memory, as it requires ECC modules:  http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=E3C224D4I-14S#Specifications

 

... it supports an i7, but you'd be better off using an equivalent Xeon, so you can take advantage of the ECC support

 

=>  If you want the "horsepower" of the 4790, I'd either (a) Get a mini-ITX board and use 2 of your 8GB modules;  or -- a better but pricier choice -- (b) buy the AsRock extended ITX board with a pair of 8GB ECC modules (or you could use 4 if you want ... at least with ECC any "hiccups" would be automatically corrected)  and a Xeon 12xx v3 processor

 

There's a thread on here (http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=32704.0) where the OP ends up modifying the case back plate to house the extended mini-itx board, I'd rather just put something in it that works without much 'work', lol.

 

Buying memory wouldn't be a huge deal, but 16g modules aren't exactly cheap.  Also looks like most Mini-itx boards only 'officially' support 16g.

 

As of right now, my system seems to be running pretty well (preclear was using about 20-25%), although I'd love to move over to that case, much smaller than my Chenbro SR107..

 

It's surprising that the ATX panel required modification for the extended ITX board.  The extended boards I've seen all had standard sized rear panels -- the boards were just 1.7" wider to accommodate the additional electronics => and the motherboard standoff mounts are in the exact same spot as standard ITX boards.

 

As for memory ... as I noted earlier, I'd just use a pair of 8GB modules => I think you'd find 16GB is plenty of RAM.

 

The case is just slightly taller than the width of the backplate, and it's mounted vertically in the case.  No room for an additional 1.7" for the board.  If the manufacturer would modify the back plate like the poster above, it'd be simple to put that board in that case, it's even got the 8097 ports on board that would handle all the slots on the case already..

 

You can see the back plate in this image:

 

Understand ... you're clearly limited to a standard mini-ITX motherboard without doing a bit of "surgery" on your case.    I'd either use a standard mini-ITX board or get a different case