Looks like Entry-Level Xeon will finally get 8c/16t


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Although it was officially announced a couple of months ago and is not yet shipping, likely not until Q4, I think my next upgrade will use the Xeon E-2278G.  It's still uses the H4 1151 socket with the C246 chipset so existing MBs for the E-21xx Xeons will accommodate this chip.

 

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/193745/intel-xeon-e-2278g-processor-16m-cache-3-40-ghz.html

 

With iGPU, 8 cores (3.4 GHz/5GHz Turbo) 16 threads and an 80W TDP, it looks like a good option for Plex 4K/UHD hw transcoding without a discrete GPU.  Even better if Plex ever figures out HDR.  

 

As always, the bottleneck on these entry-level Xeons is support for only 16 PCIe lanes.  

 

There are several good C246 motherboards with IPMI if I decide I really need that (current MB lacks IMPI but I have an attached monitor).

 

Third Gen Ryzen is also under consideration, but that would require a discrete GPU and they have a higher TDP.

Edited by Hoopster
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I'm looking at the same processor for my build later this year/early next year. It's just a little outside my price range and the E-2146G would probably be way more than enough for me but all that power of the E-2278G is just hard to pass up. 

 

I too would use it primarily for Plex QuickSync transcoding but that depends on two big things happening between now and when I buy it. 

 

1. Plex needs to make the 9th gen QuickSync work in Plex on Linux. From what I've read on the Plex forums, it appears that this could be happening soon but who knows how long "soon" is. Could be a month or could be more than 6 months.

 

2. Unraid needs to move to 6.8.x which will be on a Linux kernel later than 4.19. I knows this is going to happen in the near future but the team here never gives out deadlines or roadmaps, so it could be another couple of months or longer.

 

Hopefully, in the next 6 months, those two issues get resolved. That will definitely make my decision a lot harder. Right now, though, if I was to do a build, it would be the E-2146G, which has it's QuickSync already supported in Plex and Unraid.

 

I'm somewhat taking a look at a Ryzen 5 2600 matched with a Nvidia P2000. The fact that you have to use a custom form of Unraid to make it work and NVDEC isn't fully supported in Plex yet, has me turned off of it as of right now. It's going to be an interesting rest of the year to see how far Plex and Unraid advance.

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