July 19, 20169 yr Opinions on the below build guys: CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2670 2.6GHz 8-Core Processor (C2 Stepping) (Purchased For £67.50) CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2670 2.6GHz 8-Core Processor (C2 Stepping) (Purchased For £67.50) CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12S 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler (Purchased For £53.98) CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12S 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler (Purchased For £53.98) Motherboard: ASRock EP2C602-4L/D16 SSI EEB Dual-CPU LGA2011 Motherboard (Purchased For £289.58) Case: Phanteks Enthoo Pro ATX Full Tower Case (Purchased For £98.98) Other: Supermicro 8-Port SAS/SATA Card (AOC-SAS2LP-MV8) (£106.92) Other: Icy-Dock MB975SP-B 5 Drive Hotswap Flexcage (£113.63) Other: 64GB (8x8GB) Memory PC3-10600R ECC DDR3-1333MHz HP (Purchased For £125.60) Other: Silverstone 5 USB Port PCIe Expansion Card (Purchased For £45.18) Total: £1022.85 This build is primarily for streaming Plex to some family members as well as running a Windows 10 VM and a multitude of dockers. I already have the CPU's on order. The Phantek Pro isn't the quietest of cases but I will be fitting it out with some noise dampening material as this will be situated in the living room. The only thing I'm worried about is noise. This is going to be a long process build especially to afford the motherboard which is darn expensive! Update #1: (19/07/2016) changed memory based on advice. Thanks gridrunner Update #2: (20/07/2016) update pricing and purchased status for purchased items Update #3: (21/07/2016) CPU's and DDR3 memory arrive. Yay! Update #4: (22/07/2016) changed motherboard to ASRock to save some cash. Have read positive things about this board. Update #5: (22/07/2016) got a gift from my wonderful cousin. Motherboard, CPU Coolers, case and USB card purchased. Wowsers! Update #6: Bought another 32GB of DDR3 to give each CPU 32GB and allow Dual Channel mode
July 19, 20169 yr http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/32GB-4x8GB-Memory-PC3-10600R-ECC-DDR3-1333MHz-HP-DELL-IBM-Apple-/141953868884?hash=item210d1c2454:g:6kIAAOSwUuFWvGyW much cheaper ram
July 19, 20169 yr Author http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/32GB-4x8GB-Memory-PC3-10600R-ECC-DDR3-1333MHz-HP-DELL-IBM-Apple-/141953868884?hash=item210d1c2454:g:6kIAAOSwUuFWvGyW much cheaper ram Excellent. Will the lower ram speed hinder me in in Windows 10 VM?
July 19, 20169 yr http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/32GB-4x8GB-Memory-PC3-10600R-ECC-DDR3-1333MHz-HP-DELL-IBM-Apple-/141953868884?hash=item210d1c2454:g:6kIAAOSwUuFWvGyW much cheaper ram Excellent. Will the lower ram speed hinder me in in Windows 10 VM? No not at all. You will not notice any difference.
July 19, 20169 yr Just curious, since plex is going to be streaming to other devices why spend the money on a video card and just use the onboard?
July 19, 20169 yr Author I assumed I'd need a dedicated to pass this through to the VM. If I'm wrong I've saved some more money!!!
July 19, 20169 yr I assumed I'd need a dedicated to pass this through to the VM. If I'm wrong I've saved some more money!!! i believe you only need a video card of your going to directly connect to it and do gaming. see
July 19, 20169 yr I assumed I'd need a dedicated to pass this through to the VM. If I'm wrong I've saved some more money!!! i believe you only need a video card of your going to directly connect to it and do gaming. see He wants to run a windows 10 vm. So if he wants to have that on its own monitor and not have to access it from another pc by vnc rdp etc to use it, then he needs to passthough a gpu. You cant use the monitor connected to the onboard for a vm. Gpu passthough isnt just for gaming. For example if you run an openelec vm then you need to passthough a gpu aswell
July 19, 20169 yr Author Thanks for clearing up the need for a dedicated GPU for my VM. I wasn't 100% sure myself. The only thing I haven't put into my build is a power supply does anyone have any suggestions for a supply that has the appropriate connections available for 2 8-pin CPU connectors. I'm not even sure what voltage I need. Time to do a bit more research I think!
July 20, 20169 yr Question for you is if you actually need to use the VM via its own monitor (and mouse and keyboard). I access the VM on my server via the workstation through RDP and I can say for fact it is smooth like silk - with the benefit that I can access it via my Android tablet too. I am actually setting up another VM for she-who-must-be-obeyed so she can do her online shopping on some sites that are not tablet friendly. I would suggest, if this is not your only computer and you are not gaming, to start with RDP first. If you don't like it, you can always plop the £50 GPU on later. And not having to go through pass-through headache is awesome In term of PSU, you probably are using pcpartpicker - if so it should tell you the Wattage estimate. What you need to do is to add some "future proofing" (e.g. if you think you are going to add 3 more HDD then add the 3 more HDD to take that into account). Then pick whichever branded PSU that is equal or higher than the estimate (as close as possible). If you are going to run 24/7 then get 80+ Gold or better (I would go for Platinum minimum). However, note that your server is likely to run idle for a long time and at low % utilisation, PSU tends to be extremely inefficient. So for example a 500W Gold running at 30W can be a lot more efficient than a 1000W Titanium running at 30W. So take the 80+ rating as a rule of thumb and not a rule book. Having said the above, my server has been running Handbrake continuously for a week now so I'm pretty sure the electricity build this month is gonna be a mess.
July 21, 20169 yr Author My plan for the Windows 10 VM is to run XBMC or Plex Media Player to send untranscoded media from the server straight to the TV via the HDMI. The first components for me new build have arrived. the cpu's and memory! As I previously indicated this will be a longish build due to funding issues.
July 21, 20169 yr Author I know openelec supports XBMC but I can't find anywhere that definitively says that Plex Media player works. If I knew this I'd be all over an openelec VM
July 22, 20169 yr Author Just went for a change in motherboard to a ASRock EP2C602-4L/D16 SSI EEB Dual-CPU LGA2011 Motherboard Read some good things and has everything I need.
July 22, 20169 yr I know openelec supports XBMC but I can't find anywhere that definitively says that Plex Media player works. If I knew this I'd be all over an openelec VM I dont use plex anymore but maybe plexbmc would be suitable for you to use to access your plex server from kodi. check here http://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:PleXBMC I myself prefer emby and use the emby kodi plugin which syncs my media library across all devices easily
July 22, 20169 yr I know openelec supports XBMC but I can't find anywhere that definitively says that Plex Media player works. If I knew this I'd be all over an openelec VM I dont use plex anymore but maybe plexbmc would be suitable for you to use to access your plex server from kodi. check here http://kodi.wiki/view/Add-on:PleXBMC I myself prefer emby and use the emby kodi plugin which syncs my media library across all devices easily hmm this emby plug might make me take a look at Kodi
July 22, 20169 yr Author I've had a go with Emby before. It was alright but I firmly came down on the side of Plex which I am a longtime user of. Great news though I got a very generous gift from my cousin which allowed me to nearly complete my build of my server. I've updated the build on the first page to show the current build state. Thanks to Ian!
July 25, 20169 yr Author Various bits of kit should start arriving tomorrow. Once stuff does get to me I'll post up some pictures of the kit as well as the final build. I removed the GPU from the build as I found an old GPU laying around which will be more than sufficient. Also found a spare 800W 80 Plus Gold PSU. Saved myself some further cash there! Keen to see how your build goes. Almost identical build going myself. Good stuff. How is yours coming along?
July 25, 20169 yr Author It seems I was a bit over optimistic when it came to when my motherboard case and cup coolers will arrive I had hoped to have all the bits in place by tomorrow! The only thing that has arrived so far is a pcie USB card which has 2 external type A USB ports and a type C USB 3.1 port. It also has an internal header for connecting up my front IO panel on my case. Suppose I just need to be patient! Outstanding items purchased but not delivered: Motherboard Case CPU Coolers 2nd set of memory to take me to 64GB
July 25, 20169 yr It seems I was a bit over optimistic when it came to when my motherboard case and cup coolers will arrive I had hoped to have all the bits in place by tomorrow! The only thing that has arrived so far is a pcie USB card which has 2 external type A USB ports and a type C USB 3.1 port. It also has an internal header for connecting up my front IO panel on my case. Suppose I just need to be patient! Outstanding items purchased but not delivered: Motherboard Case CPU Coolers 2nd set of memory to take me to 64GB Oh I just hate waiting for things to arrive. Seeing the postman walk past my house on a day im sure im getting something is like having Santa miss your house at xmas when your a kid lol!!
July 26, 20169 yr Author Getting antsy now! More deliveries today. I have everything I need to build except a case and CPU coolers. Quite essential bits of kit All my hard drives are out of my old HTPC case. So I am raring to go! I don't have a dispatch email for my case yet so that's narking me off a bit. No doubt it won't arrive till next week or something.
August 6, 20169 yr Any updates? Keen to see how you got on with the HDD cage. bought a cage that didn't fit due to the coolers.
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