AMD vs. Intel for Unraid/Plex - 2020


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2 minutes ago, Mor9oth said:

Wow, that sounds like a good deal! May I ask you who this this OEM vendor is and if they ship hardware as well?

They actually sell these packages on eBay but they are only an hour away from where I live.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ASrock-E3C246D4U-Server-Xeon-E-MB-w-2288G-CPU-64GB-ECC-RAM-256GB-NVMe-SSD-WOW/193237315094?hash=item2cfdd76e16:g:OtgAAOSw7q5dv2bu

 

They indicate shipment to US only but you could always contact them.

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16 minutes ago, Mor9oth said:

I've written to the AsRock team several times, but I don't get an answer ...

I asked ASRock sales three times if the E3C246D4U motherboard (or any other C246 MB with IPMI) would support both graphics output from the AST2500 for IPMI AND the iGPU for transcoding.  They never answered me.  I finally made the same inquiry through the support contact form and got an almost immediate response from WIlliam Lee in ASRock US support.  He has always answered my questions.  He even sent me a BIOS for the E3C246D4U that supports exactly what I needed (AST2500/IPMI graphics and iGPU for transcoding).

 

Try the support channels instead of Sales.

Edited by Hoopster
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22 minutes ago, Mor9oth said:

Since I have not found a single AsRock E3C246D4U2-2L2T motherboard worldwide, I wonder if it has ever been released. Ever seen somewhere to buy?

It looks like they just announced it would be coming out very recently. If it's anything like their other motherboards, it'll probably take several more months before you actually see it available to buy on common sources like Amazon and Newegg.

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11 hours ago, Hoopster said:

I asked ASRock sales three times if the E3C246D4U motherboard (or any other C246 MB with IPMI) would support both graphics output from the AST2500 for IPMI AND the iGPU for transcoding.  They never answered me.  I finally made the same inquiry through the support contact form and got an almost immediate response from WIlliam Lee in ASRock US support.  He has always answered my questions.  He even sent me a BIOS for the E3C246D4U that supports exactly what I needed (AST2500/IPMI graphics and iGPU for transcoding).

 

Try the support channels instead of Sales.

Thanks a lot! 👍 I also wrote to support staff yesterday, let's see if I will get an answer ... 
What does this Bios "thing" mean? Is the goal to run the AST2500 graphics output simultaneously to the iGPU transcoding? Or do both not work without that Bios-Update (in Unraid)?

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12 hours ago, ramblinreck47 said:

It looks like they just announced it would be coming out very recently. If it's anything like their other motherboards, it'll probably take several more months before you actually see it available to buy on common sources like Amazon and Newegg.

Yes, it seems so ... Let's hope it doesn't take too long. I want to start the build actually not later than April or Mai. Alternatively I pick the slightly worse Motherboard: E3C242D4U2-2T. At least that's currently available ...

Edited by Mor9oth
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11 hours ago, Mor9oth said:

What does this Bios "thing" mean? Is the goal to run the AST2500 graphics output simultaneously to the iGPU transcoding?

Yes, this is the goal.  Without this BIOS update, only the AST2500 graphics for IPMI are supported and the iGPU cannot be used simultaneously for transcoding; the presence of the iGPU is ignored.  The BIOS update means both IMPI/BMC graphics and iGPU transcoding can can be used at the same time. 

 

It has nothing to do with unRAID specifically, but it is a common use case in unRAID.

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10 hours ago, Hoopster said:

Yes, this is the goal.  Without this BIOS update, only the AST2500 graphics for IPMI are supported and the iGPU cannot be used simultaneously for transcoding; the presence of the iGPU is ignored.  The BIOS update means both IMPI/BMC graphics and iGPU transcoding can can be used at the same time. 

 

It has nothing to do with unRAID specifically, but it is a common use case in unRAID.

Thank you for that information! 😀 So I will definitely need this Bios-Update too. Do you know what Version Number that Bios has? Could you maybe attach it here for everybody who will need it?

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8 hours ago, Mor9oth said:

Do you know what Version Number that Bios has?

The BIOS is version P2.10A.  I have not tried it yet as I do not yet have the board.  It is for the E2C246D4U motherboard.  I don't know if it will work on other ASRock Rack C246 motherboards.  It's probably best to get the BIOS direct from ASRock for appropriate motherboard. 

 

Here is the link I was provided to download the BIOS.

 

 

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4 hours ago, Hoopster said:

The BIOS is version P2.10A.  I have not tried it yet as I do not yet have the board.  It is for the E2C246D4U motherboard.  I don't know if it will work on other ASRock Rack C246 motherboards.  It's probably best to get the BIOS direct from ASRock for appropriate motherboard. 

 

Here is the link I was provided to download the BIOS.

 

 

Thank you! I will contact them too. Yeah, I think too it's the best to get the bios direct from AsRock. however, I am surprised they gave you an dropbox download link ...

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Hey Folks! Since I can't find any Intel Xeon E-2278G or E-2288G CPU I'm rethinking my choose and if I would go with Ryzen 3700x (+GPU) or maybe something completely else ...
So I started again comparing the Intel CPUs which include Quick-Sync and found something maybe very interesting for my build. One of my requirements was to have low power consumption but enough hardware-power for a storage and Plex Server that runs also some Dockers/Containers. My Comparison brought me to the Intel Core i9 9900T. It has a super low TDP of 35 Watt, so it should be in idle even lower, that is a great thing. The base clock is “only” 2.10 GHz but the boost clock is 4.40 GHz. Am I right that, that's enough power for my requirements? I mean the server will mostly run in idle anyway and if trans codes or other CPU powered stuff is running, 4.4 GHz should be enough, right? Any experience with it?
Since the i 9900T has the same socket (1151), it should work with the motherboards of my choice: Asrock E3C246D4U2-2L2T or E3C246D4U2-2T or E3C242D4U2-2T ... Or are there any downsides to put a desktop CPU on a Server board?

I would appreciate your advice!

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3 hours ago, Mor9oth said:

Hey Folks! Since I can't find any Intel Xeon E-2278G or E-2288G CPU I'm rethinking my choose and if I would go with Ryzen 3700x (+GPU) or maybe something completely else ...
So I started again comparing the Intel CPUs which include Quick-Sync and found something maybe very interesting for my build. One of my requirements was to have low power consumption but enough hardware-power for a storage and Plex Server that runs also some Dockers/Containers. My Comparison brought me to the Intel Core i9 9900T. It has a super low TDP of 35 Watt, so it should be in idle even lower, that is a great thing. The base clock is “only” 2.10 GHz but the boost clock is 4.40 GHz. Am I right that, that's enough power for my requirements? I mean the server will mostly run in idle anyway and if trans codes or other CPU powered stuff is running, 4.4 GHz should be enough, right? Any experience with it?
Since the i 9900T has the same socket (1151), it should work with the motherboards of my choice: Asrock E3C246D4U2-2L2T or E3C246D4U2-2T or E3C242D4U2-2T ... Or are there any downsides to put a desktop CPU on a Server board?

I would appreciate your advice!

If you are going to go with a Core i9 series CPU, you aren’t going to really need a T-version unless you’re going to build a SFF PC or run a fanless setup. The i9-9900K will idle roughly around the same wattage that the T-version will (probably just a few watts higher). The T-version will throttle itself to a much lower upper limit than the 9900K but if your server is sitting idle a majority of the time, you won’t be anywhere close to that anyway. You will also miss out on using ECC memory since Intel decided to disable ECC support on the Core series chips (I hate that they do this). If that’s a big concern for you, then there should be no issue running a Core i9 on any of those motherboards you listed. The Core series is covered in the C246 chipset and won’t cause you to lose out on any features (besides the ECC support already mentioned).

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4 hours ago, Mor9oth said:

Hey Folks! Since I can't find any Intel Xeon E-2278G or E-2288G CPU I'm rethinking my choose and if I would go with Ryzen 3700x (+GPU) or maybe something completely else ...
So I started again comparing the Intel CPUs which include Quick-Sync and found something maybe very interesting for my build. One of my requirements was to have low power consumption but enough hardware-power for a storage and Plex Server that runs also some Dockers/Containers. My Comparison brought me to the Intel Core i9 9900T. It has a super low TDP of 35 Watt, so it should be in idle even lower, that is a great thing. The base clock is “only” 2.10 GHz but the boost clock is 4.40 GHz. Am I right that, that's enough power for my requirements? I mean the server will mostly run in idle anyway and if trans codes or other CPU powered stuff is running, 4.4 GHz should be enough, right? Any experience with it?
Since the i 9900T has the same socket (1151), it should work with the motherboards of my choice: Asrock E3C246D4U2-2L2T or E3C246D4U2-2T or E3C242D4U2-2T ... Or are there any downsides to put a desktop CPU on a Server board?

I would appreciate your advice!

What about E-2286G , 6C12T, better clocks and more overall performance than the throttled 9900T.

 

Available at Senetic in UK and possibly elsewhere.

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On 2/17/2020 at 3:57 PM, ramblinreck47 said:

If you are going to go with a Core i9 series CPU, you aren’t going to really need a T-version unless you’re going to build a SFF PC or run a fanless setup. The i9-9900K will idle roughly around the same wattage that the T-version will (probably just a few watts higher). The T-version will throttle itself to a much lower upper limit than the 9900K but if your server is sitting idle a majority of the time, you won’t be anywhere close to that anyway. You will also miss out on using ECC memory since Intel decided to disable ECC support on the Core series chips (I hate that they do this). If that’s a big concern for you, then there should be no issue running a Core i9 on any of those motherboards you listed. The Core series is covered in the C246 chipset and won’t cause you to lose out on any features (besides the ECC support already mentioned).

Thank you for your advice! Since I really want ECC-RAM in my Server, the i9 is unfortunatelly out of my decission.
I also didn’t realise that it doesnt support ECC at all (can’t understand why Intel took that decision ...)
so I guess i keep on hunting for a E-2278G or E-2288G. If neither of them should be available I guess I will pick the smaller E-2286G.

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1 hour ago, Mor9oth said:

Thank you for your advice! Since I really want ECC-RAM in my Server, the i9 is unfortunatelly out of my decission.
I also didn’t realise that it doesnt support ECC at all (can’t understand why Intel took that decision ...)
so I guess i keep on hunting for a E-2278G or E-2288G. If neither of them should be available I guess I will pick the smaller E-2286G.

Provantage in the US regularly has the 2278G in small quantities now. They currently have 1 available for $500.  I have seen them list as many as 3 in stock for a price as low as $478.  They usually sell out quickly and then get a few more in 7-14 days. I don't know if they ship Internationally.

 

I recently bought the combo of ASRock E3C246D4U MB, E-2278G CPU, 64GB ECC Samsung DDDR4 RAM, 256GB NVMe Samsung SSD linked earlier in this thread for a cost of $1099 (a steal of a deal)

 

image.thumb.png.1b0bd88b75e37516a11ab6b9f6490605.png

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