Ultra Gaming / NAS / Docker Apps Server

 

I am in the process of finalizing a build list for my killer gaming box that will pull duty as my NAS as well as run a number of Docker apps. I am curious if anyone has any input, or warning on any of the parts I am thinking about. I am also torn between going UnRaid 6.x baremetal or as a guest under ESXi ( concerned about not using Xeons in that case ). Currently my budget is around $4000 or less, depending on what I decide for drive sizes and other components. I will be posting some questions that I can't seem to find answers to in the forums, and linking those question threads back into this build thread. My ultimate hope is that this new server can run all that I have discussed, and yet have little to near zero impact on my gaming performance.

OS at time of building: Either UnRaid 6.x or ESXi

CPU: i7 5960x ( overclocked to 4.5Ghz via closed loop liquid cooling )

GPU: EVGA NVIDIA GTX 980Ti Hybrid ( closed loop liquid cooling ) ( already owned, it is amazing! )

Motherboard: ASUS RAMPAGE V EXTREME ( not 100 % on this )

RAM: 64GB ( 8x8 DDR4 2400mhz ) or 128GB ( 8x16 DDR4 2400Mhz ) probably Corsair Dominator Platinum, but still determining best choice.

Case: Undecided yet, Cooler Master, Fractal, or possibly custom designed.

Drive Cage(s): N/A

Power Supply: Corsair AX1200i

SATA Expansion Card(s): N/A

Cables: N/A

Fans: Noctua of various types

 

Parity Drive: 1x SATA 7200RPM 6TB or 8TB ( Haven't locked down which model )

Data Drives: 4x SATA 7200RPM 4TB ( Haven't locked down which model )

Cache Drive: 2x Samsung 850 Pro 1TB OR 2x Samsung 850 Pro 512GB and 1x Samsung 850 Pro 1TB

Total Drive Capacity: No idea as it is in flux.

 

Primary Use: Gaming Rig / NAS / Docker Apps Server

Likes: TBD

Dislikes: TBD

Add Ons Used:

Docker Containers: JIRA / Confluence / Bitbucket Server / PostgreSQL / Plex Server / Crash Plan / Sickbeard / Sabnzdb

Future Plans: TBD

 

Boot (peak): TBD

Idle (avg): TBD

Active (avg): TBD

Light use (avg): TBD

 

NOTES:

Windows

I plan on having a Windows 10 VM with almost all of the hardware pushed to that VM ( the GPU and 6 of the 8 cores of the CPU ) along with the lion share of the memory ( at least 32 to 48GB )

 

Docker Apps

The current concept is to use Docker containers for JIRA / Confluence / Bitbucket Server / PostgreSQL as that should be more light weight then spinning up a full instance of Centos 7.x, as long as I can route the communication appropriately between my Docker containers, I should be fine.

The actual load on these various Docker containers should be fairly low as my dev team is only me and 3 other guys.

I plan on pinning 2 of the 8 cores of the i7 5960x to be available to the various Docker containers.

I plan on if possible to have the dockers live on the SSDs but the Bitbucket Server data store ( git repos ) to live on the large array.

 

Plex Server / Sickbeard / Sabnzdb

Hopefully this should be a non concern, as I have a 2011 Mac Mini handlingSickbeard and Sabnzdb, as well as Plex Server ( including transcoding ), and if that little box can do it, this one should have ZERO problem.

 

I will be continuing to improve on this thread as I narrow down the actual build, plus post my decision making process along the way.

 

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I mentioned this in your PM, but will post it here also.

 

The ram size that you want to implement is worrisome for non ECC memory.

While you may not have errors in testing (definitely run Memtest for a while to confirm), you significantly increase the chances with 8 DIMM's installed vs 4.

 

Since the X99 chipset supports quad channel memory, 4 would be the 1 DIMM per channel situation and definitely be less likely to have errors (some could still happen and without ECC will be uncorrected and unknown, but I don't want to start that debate).

 

There is some really good documentation out there in regards to the signal degradation with adding additional DIMM's above the 1 per channel recommendation.

 

I'm not exactly "hip" anymore (I'm also not that old, but had no clue who Linus was until recently), however I have no clue why you'd even need that much memory for a gaming rig.

Things may have changed from my last look, but is 16GB system memory vs 32GB or 64GB actually make a difference in FPS when gaming?

I know 8GB used to be recommended, kind of assumed (and would look if I had this concern personally) 16GB to be a good balance.

 

If you can't lower your memory requirements, and since you titled this "NOT Budget Friendly" I'd go for an ECC setup, like an E3 or E5.

As we have talked about (in PM) the E5 would certainly be recommended for ACS on root ports, however if you only were running 1 VM, it likely wouldn't matter much anyhow and you wouldn't really need it.

Things may have changed from my last look, but is 16GB system memory vs 32GB or 64GB actually make a difference in FPS when gaming?

I know 8GB used to be recommended, kind of assumed (and would look if I had this concern personally) 16GB to be a good balance.

 

FWIW, I have 16 GB of Ram and wish I had 32 GB. I am running 3+ VMs at any given time and 5+ dockers and the RAM idles around 70%. If unRAID starts to do memory intensive processes it will actually kill one of my VMs (this doesn't happen very often but still can be annoying).

Thanks for response, both in our PMs and here. I am a developer at Blizzard Entertainment, as well as I do my own game development on the side ( hence the server Docker apps are used for that purpose ( with a great daily backup strategy ). The large amount of ram, like 64GB, allows me to have many tools open under Windows, such as Maya, Unreal Engine, Visual Studio 2015, Photoshop, and the ram gobbler Chrome. It also gives me alot of wriggle room as JIRA / Confluence / Bitbucket Server / PostgreSQL all enjoy having a decent amount of ram allotted to them. In the end I may only end up with 32GB to 40GB free for me to use under my Windows VM out of the original 64GB. 128GB is probably just going to be too much, and pushes me to the edge of my budget. It could be said that you can never have enough ram. As far as ECC is concerned, I have 2 older machines, 1 retired, the other is going to be retired.

 

Both use ECC memory, and neither has ever thrown an ECC bit parity warning. I haven't ruled out going the Xeon route, but I am a little sad as I would be looking at a $2000 Xeon to come close to what I would get out of the i7 5960x, all so I could have ECC memory. Not sure it is really worth it in the end as programs / OSes crash more often from shoddy programming as compared to a 1 bit memory error.

Things may have changed from my last look, but is 16GB system memory vs 32GB or 64GB actually make a difference in FPS when gaming?

I know 8GB used to be recommended, kind of assumed (and would look if I had this concern personally) 16GB to be a good balance.

 

FWIW, I have 16 GB of Ram and wish I had 32 GB. I am running 3+ VMs at any given time and 5+ dockers and the RAM idles around 70%. If unRAID starts to do memory intensive processes it will actually kill one of my VMs (this doesn't happen very often but still can be annoying).

 

I agree, and I more meant per VM if it is to be used for intensive tasks (ie gaming).

I had 16GB (total) before, and it just wasn't enough with similar use case as yours.

Could it work, yes, but I always felt somewhat confined.

 

Thanks for response, both in our PMs and here. I am a developer at Blizzard Entertainment, as well as I do my own game development on the side ( hence the server Docker apps are used for that purpose ( with a great daily backup strategy ). The large amount of ram, like 64GB, allows me to have many tools open under Windows, such as Maya, Unreal Engine, Visual Studio 2015, Photoshop, and the ram gobbler Chrome. It also gives me alot of wriggle room as JIRA / Confluence / Bitbucket Server / PostgreSQL all enjoy having a decent amount of ram allotted to them. In the end I may only end up with 32GB to 40GB free for me to use under my Windows VM out of the original 64GB. 128GB is probably just going to be too much, and pushes me to the edge of my budget.

 

Understand, just keep that in mind if you plan on using 8 sticks.

Your likelihood of having errors or issues will increase significantly in comparison to 4.

Since cost isn't the main driver, and if you need that much ram, I'd get the Xeon, but your research/testing will dictate your choice here.

 

Makes sense, my usage is a bit different then most, and yea, more then 16GB of ram is wasted if someone was purely only playing a game in my opinion.

 

As for going Xeon, the motherboard choices are the same for me X99 if I go single cpu, but the cost vs performance of the Xeon just isn't there. Especially as I will overclock my i7 5960x a bit.

As for the number of sticks, yea I agree, like anything the more items you have the more change you have for a problem. The cost increase of going 4x16 DDR 2400Mhz dimms would be something I would have to debate on. My current machine has 8 non-ecc dimms and has been rock solid ( DDR3 2100Mhz ). Either way food for thought for me, appreciate the warning.