BLUF: Anyone have a specific mobo recommendation that is a stable Ryzen build?  I keep reading stability nightmares, etc. Gigabyte seems to be popular. I'm hoping for 3-4 PCIe and decent IOMMU flexibility.  I was thinking x570 to hopefully allow a later upgrade to a faster Ryzen. Thanks!

 

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I started a threadripper thread a few days back, but it seems TR 3 will not be backwards compatible, which took a bit of wind out of my sails. As such, I'm looking for something a bit more futureproof than Threadripper -  especially since it looks like AMD will be killing it off after TR3 given that their normal Ryzen are fast closing the gap.

 

BACKGROUND: My MSI K9A2 Platinum has worked like a champ for a little over a decade now.  We're talking 24/7 file serving with a VM or two on the side. Lately I've continued to add more VMs and some Dockers - Plex, Sonarr, Radarr, Taultulli, DelugeVPN, Jackett, pihole, etc.  The latest edition of Live DVR and a few extra users are pushing it to the limits.  I've had the max of 8GB RAM for most of the time.  I recently upgraded the original Phenom II from x4 to an x6 1090T.  But it is tapped out for upgrades.  And with no IOMMU / GPU passthrough, I can't really use the VM as a daily driver (which is currently a major primary goal).

 

So I'm looking for the replacements. My thinking is that I can buy a decent Mobo now with a medium CPU and RAM amount.  In the future, I can incrementally upgrade both as their prices drop.  I considered some of the SuperMicro 24 bay Xeon servers flooding the market, but I currently have several 8GB drives and I can contain things to stay around the 8-9 drives total (a couple of 2TB I can ugrade over time). Plus, while many of these offer high thread count, speed isn't super without breaking the bank very easily. 

 

Going from lesser to greater in questions here:

 

OTHER Stuff:

Budget: Would like to stay under $900.

Already have: Mid-atx case (old Antex Sonata), PSU, a couple of 1070s, HBA, etc.

Cooler: I'm thinking  with a noctua cooler ($90)

Drive Bay: Newer 5 drive rack (to replace my SATA 1 Supermicro version)($100).

RAM: 32GB (2X16) four about $150 (slower speed but entry-level) (Possibly double amount for Plex RAM transcoding).

 

CPU

Ryzen 5 3600 - only 65W and pretty close to the 3600x for less heat.  Under $200.  In a few years, I'm thinking I can double my core count with a Ryzen 9 or so for likely only a few hundred more bucks off ebay.

EDIT: considering 7 2700 for higher thread count at same price. Any thoughts?

 

QUESTION 1 - CPU: Any other recommendations on CPU?  Is there a case to be made for a better price-value I should be looking at?

 

MOTHERBOARD:

That brings us to the Motherboard. So roughly $350 to work with, and I can later upgrade CPU and RAM for cheap.  My Mobo will be here to stay. 

I think I'm now thinking AMD X570 AM4 platform.

 

Reason are subject to your input, but it's new and shiny, it has PCIe Gen 4 (likely not going to matter anytime soon, but in a decade it might let me offload something else). 5G Ethernet. Biggest thing is it is more likely to be as futureproof as possible. Any other big benefits here?

 

That said, I was thinking integrated graphics so I'm not wasting a PCIe slot - but not an option with Rzyen.  So I'm thinking I can use a riser on a x1 slot (just need to be able to select primary).  Regarding PCIe slots, I currently plan 1 for HBA, 1 for Window VM (ideally two), and one for Plex HW transcoding. I believe I can kick the Plex one to a x1 with riser, as well. Which means possible another one for a second VM (me on one, kids on the other simultaneously).   I'd also like a couple of NVMe to play with.

 

QUESTION 2 - Mobo: Rough search on Newegg gives a few options. What are the other options here? What do I need to consider? I know IOMMU grouping comes in to play - any suggestions? Any brands/models with better grouping than others? 

 

QUESTION 3- timing: When do you think the ideal time to buy will be? Black Friday? Cyber Monday?  Sooner? Later?  Thanks!

 

Please let me say thank you, in advance.  While I love researching this stuff, my time is very limited right now due to travel. And I'll take the community's experience over google-ninja all day long.

 

Regards,

KermitJr

Edited November 3, 20196 yr by KermitJr
added smidge

Q1: Your choice is justifiable but note that, just like with TR2 vs TR3, AMD could simply make Ryzen 4 not backwards compatible (or selectively compatible) and then all your future proofing goes out of the window.

To be honest though, I have always thought TR was a stop-gap measure to get ultra high core count so have never thought about future proofing it.

 

Q2: picking which slot as primary GPU has been a BIOS option feature for Gigabyte mobo so that's why it's good for Unraid VM uses. IOMMU grouping is almost never certain without owning the actual board.

 

Q3: Black Friday (and Cyber Monday) is generally overrated for bleeding edge tech. Most of the times you get last-gen stuff on sale and bleeding edge stuff "on sale" after a price increase the month prior.