I used to use AMD CPUs exclusively but switched to Intel about 20 years ago. I haven't really kept up with AMD since they acquired ATI. I think that was mostly because Nvidia was the king of GPUs, AMD CPUs didn't play as well with Nvidia CPUs they did ATI, and Intel was getting better. Anyway, I am looking to upgrade my server within the next year or two, no immediate plans. I see a lot of discussion about Ryzen and Threadripper. Additionally, it seems every time there is a CPU security vulnerability discovered it only affects Intel processors. Maybe that's just a perception thing.

 

My initial thinking was to get an i9 (and motherboard) when the time comes but now I'm wondering if I should consider something from AMD. What I want is a server with a lot of RAM and cores/threads, and preferably SATA ports without expansion cards but that is secondary. I want to be able to have a gaming VM with a good GPU but enough RAM and cores/threads to have more VMs if I need without having to shut some off and shuffle resources. I also am doing more 4k content in Plex so I want it to handle that. I don't know anything about recent AMD offerings really, other than just the names. Does anyone have any bullet points or suggestions on what to focus my research on for my needs and how they compare to i9? Any issues with UnRAID I need to be aware of, such as onboard GPU passthru? Anything I should consider with the motherboard or RAM as well? I don't want to settle on the CPU only to have some unforeseen limitations in motherboard chipset or something.

Edited September 19, 20196 yr by bobbintb

youmight wait for 3950x， which supposed to release at beginning of Oct

5 hours ago, trott said:

youmight wait for 3950x， which supposed to release at beginning of Oct

Thanks, I'll keep an eye out for that. Do you have a Ryzen yourself? I'm mostly interested in hearing about how it works with UnRAID. I know passing through the integrated GPU to a docker is only possible with certain Intel chips. I'm wondering about any other types of "gotchas" I'd have to worry about, other than just comparing specs.

I am using a Ryzen 3600 now in my new build. No problems so far caused by the CPU or chipset.

Edited September 20, 20196 yr by jordynegen11

On 9/20/2019 at 7:52 AM, jordynegen11 said:

I am using a Ryzen 3600 now in my new build. No problems so far caused by the CPU or chipset.

Do you use it for Plex? Currently I have a gaming VM with a GPU passthru and the integrated GPU from the CPU is used for Plex. But from what I understand only certain Intel processors can passthru the integrated GPU to a docker container.

29 minutes ago, bobbintb said:

Do you use it for Plex? Currently I have a gaming VM with a GPU passthru and the integrated GPU from the CPU is used for Plex. But from what I understand only certain Intel processors can passthru the integrated GPU to a docker container.

ryzen do not have integrated GPU