Hardware prices

[whipdancer]

I know it has been a while since I priced an upgrade, but it really seems like hardware prices have gone way up.

I was looking at a Ryzen/i7/i5 Kaby Lake setups and I don't think I can build what I consider a high value/performance base (MB + CPU + 32GB RAM) for under $600 or so. I'm pretty sure I probably spent half that on my last build.

The mb's seem to start at $150, but most I priced were around 180-190.

CPU's started around $290.

RAM started around $250.

I'm really just curious. I was reading about the new Ryzen cpu's and they make a compelling argument - but I can't remotely justify a new MB/CPU/RAM upgrade if these prices are correct.

Any good sources for older architecture (LGA-1155, DDR3 stuff) besides ebay?

[SSD]

Yes - it sort of makes sense that prices are up. Laptops, tablets and even phones have taken over the mainstream. The traditional PC buyers are mostly gamers, techees, miners, and media server junkies like us. And there have been sharp price increases in RAM, GPUs, and CPUs. CPUs have gotten a lot more powerful with Ryzen and more modern Intel with 6, 8, 10 ... up to 18 cores.

 

It is going to cost upward of $2k to get a modern system with 8+ cores, MB, 64G RAM, and decent GPU.

 

The prior generation is available on eBay as you said. Sometimes people here are selling, but for whatever reason, unRAID forums have not been a hotbed of resale activity. If you WTB, you might post what you are looking for. I am actually looking to sell my Xeon 1270v3 (4x3.5GHz hyperthread cores), ASRock MB w/ IPMI, and ECC RAM in the near future as I'm completing an upgrade of my server. If interested, PM me. It's all assembled and burned in and known to work with unRAID and passthrough GPU and USB. I'd even sell in a Antec 900 case ready for 3 5in3 modules to create a 15 drive server. Otherwise I am planning to sell on eBay where I'd have to piece part it out.

[whipdancer]

Thanks for the confirmation that I'm not crazy (in this respect, at least). I am tempted... sent you a PM.

[tential]

I just stumbled across this reddit thread which basically compiles all the Xeon stuff you need to make an amazing build.

 

Looks like this guy has GREAT build recommendations.  He has direct links to which ebay people to use too which is helpful for people like me who don't know the ebay ropes.  Looks like they have a discord and stuff too.  He has his own subreddit too.

[whipdancer]

Thanks for the info!

[SSD]

These systems can be a good bargain. But remember you are getting pretty old technology that can tend to run loud and consume quite a bit of power. They also tend to be made for rack mount which may or may not be your preference.

 

Also, we are talking about single core performance at or near 2GHz, compared to more modern processors, most of which are near double that. Some applications are optimized for multi-core and really take advantage of that parallel processing capability - others are not. So a program that runs single threaded is going to run slower. Also, you won't get quicksync from these older systems, so transcoding will be the brute force method. You're probably also limited to PCIe 2.0 (maybe 1.1?).

 

These are great bang for the buck, but make sure it is what you want. A bargain is not a bargain if you are not going to be happy in the long term.

 

 

[tential]

Yes, I should have clarified that for me, my workloads it's not too bad.  The Threadrunner system there has an ivybridge level decacore processor with a max turbo of 3.6 Ghz.  For me, I only game, run simple background processes, and run windows VMs/kodi vms.  It's probably overkill to get the https://ark.intel.com/products/75277/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-2680-v2-25M-Cache-2_80-GHz

But for the price and the performance, I really can't believe the value.  As a 4770k user, I can give up a small bit of CPU performance for gaming to have the flexibility of having my hardware in my server (but my needs are gaming!)

That's a 3.6 Ghz boost, great for gaming.  The E5 Sandybridge is on par with the 7900x (Skylake) actually for gaming in a lot of benchmarks.

 

If you don't want to use ebay OP, you can use aliexpress(more expensive), but that guide really changed my mind on using ebay.  There are so many completed builds in his personal subreddit, it gives you some confidence.

 

What's your workload though?  Like @SSD said if you need newer features, then it might not work for you.  I wouldn't worry too much about the rackmount part though.  The guide recommendations are actually made for people who don't want to rackmount.  I like rackmounting personally, the forced organization is a blessing for me.

 

Also @SSD

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/server-motherboards/server-board-s2600cp.html

PCI Gen 3.0 I believe?

The guide surprised me man.  The core count, speed, etc.  The amount of new features you lose out on isn't too bad.  It's got good coolers for quiet operation and the power consumption isn't much more than the i7.  It's no v3 (Haswell) like yours but I'd say Ivybridge isn't much further behind.  From tomshardware's review of the e5, the top of the line ivybridge model consumes ~70 watts more than the top of the line i7.  

Numbers here:

 

Not sure why Tomshardware didn't put x2 on their Xeon systems, but it's in their test setup section.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/xeon-e5-2600-v2-ivy-bridge-ep-benchmarks,3714-9.html (more power consumption numbers here)

My needs are really brain dead dumb though and I'm still learning a lot about this every coming minute as I look around.

 

After a lot of research though OP, and I could be completely wrong, I don't think you lose out on much going with an Ivybridge vs Ryzen.  I think the cost savings more than justify any small features you lose out on, and the amount of PCI expansion slots on that mobo allows you to add the features back in as needed.  My focus is "Good enough" gaming performance though, so that's why I think these are great deals.

[whipdancer]

Luckily for me, I don't game on my PC.  My needs are strictly Media storage, some media related Docker's, and backup. Probably the most taxing thing I do is a Plex server.  I have considered creating a web server VM for R&D type stuff - but not much beyond that.

Really appreciate the insight from all parties.  I'm probably going to budget for a major rebuild next year.