Is xeon build worth it ?

[Goka]

I am looking to build a nas server in  under a month . i am starting off with 48 tb , but wanting to future proof it so using a define 7 case that can hold up to 15 hhds with the possibly to get 180 tbs  which  seems a bit much for the moment . Ideally i will have 1 - 5 clients and not looking to do any vm's

Currently  this is what i am looking at getting , but feel it might be to much  overkill

Intel Xeon  E-2246G Hexa-core or e3- 1245 v6

Gigabyte C246-WU4

Noctua NH-L9i  CPU Cooler

Kingston 8 GB DDR4-2400 CL17  x2 ( will add 2 more sticks when needed )

1tb m.2 either wd blue  or samsung 860 evo

4 - 12 tb WD Red

Fractal Design Define 7 ATX Mid Tower Case

EVGA G5 850 W 80+ Gold

 

Edited June 8, 2020 by Goka

[Hoopster]

1 hour ago, Goka said:

Currently  this is what i am looking at getting

The E3-1245 v6 is not compatible with the C246-WU4 motherboard.  That CPU would need a motherboard with a C236 chipset.

 

The CPUs you mentioned are both socket 1151 CPUs, but, the older Xeons use the C236 while equivalent desktop CPUs use series 100/200 chipsets. The current E-21xx/E-22xx Xeons use the C246 while equivalent desktop CPUs use series 300 chipsets.  They are not interchangeable.

 

For a long time, I used an E3-1245 v5 CPU on an ASRock C236 WSI motherboard.  I recently upgraded to an E-2288G on an ASRock E3C246D4U motherboard.

 

With the E3-1245 v5, I used the Noctua L9x65 CPU cooler.  Unless you are height limited in some way (should not be an issue in the Define 7 case), I would definitely get the bigger cooler. 

 

If you go with the Xeon E-2246G I would get a bigger cooler than either of the two mentioned above.  Even though both the CPUs you mention have an 80W TDP, I can tell you that the E-22xx CPUs run hotter than the E3-12xx line.  Of course, that also depends on what kind of load they are under.  I have my E-2288G under heavy loads quite frequently and it is a space heater.

 

You say you have 1-5 clients that may be using the server, but, you don't say how the server will be used.

 

It's hard to say if it is "overkill" without knowing more about your intended use of the system.

Edited June 8, 2020 by Hoopster

[Goka]

it will be mostly a plex server , but like to make it soild as i can for room to do a vm jail if i wanted . as for the noctua cooler   i had a feeling it would be to light using a d15 in my gaming pc that is truely stunning, but thought it might be to much cooler for that cpu so i can  get the middle ground which is Noctua NH-U12S  ..

 

[Hoopster]

2 minutes ago, Goka said:

it will be mostly a plex server , but like to make it soild as i can for room to do a vm jail if i wanted . as for the noctua cooler   i had a feeling it would be to light using a d15 in my gaming pc that is truely stunning, but thought it might be to much cooler for that cpu so i can  get the middle ground which is Noctua NH-U12S  ..

 

Because my current case imposes a 146mm height limit on the CPU cooler, I am using the Noctua NH-U9S on the E-2288G.  In most cases, it is fine.  Under high  sustained loads, even with two fans, the cooler struggles to keep the CPU in the mid-80C temperature range.  Under heavy sustained loads, I have had to disable Turbo Boost on the CPU or it crashes. 

 

The NH-U12S should be fine for either CPU you are considering.  My CPU is an 8c/16t 95W TDP beast and it dissipates much more than 95 W under heavy load.

 

I run ~20 docker containers, up to 5 simultaneous Plex hardware transcoding streams and 3 lightly used (testing and experimentation) VMs.

 

That load pushed the E3-1245 v5 a bit more.  The E-2288G has double the cores and threads and it does not break a sweat (unless under the heavy sustained Boinc/F@H loads or lots of HandBrake transcodes).

 

The E-2246G will certainly give you a bit more overhead and server use expansion options.

 

In your current use case, the E3-1245 v6 is enough, but, it has less room to grow.

[Goka]

Thanks for the advise . i was worried that the e2246 was going to be way more then i needed .  will getting that for sure . Do you use a p200 for transcoding or do you find the p630 intergrated graphics does the job well enough ?

 

Edited June 8, 2020 by Goka

[Hoopster]

23 minutes ago, Goka said:

Do you use a p200 for transcoding or do you find the p630 intergrated graphics does the job well enough ?

I use the integrated GPU.  It is more than adequate.  Some say they have pushed it to 10-12 simultaneous transcodes.

 

Of course, I am talking about 1080p transcodes.  For 4K/HEVC that is another story  It's WAY more resource intensive.  Avoid transcoding 4K and direct play it only if possible. 

[Goka]

ya i am talking 1080p  , 4k is to much and to much data compared to 1080

[Goka]

where did you end up ordering your  Intel Xeon E-2288G from , anyone that has the e 2446g   i am not familair with

[Hoopster]

5 hours ago, Goka said:

where did you end up ordering your  Intel Xeon E-2288G from , anyone that has the e 2446g   i am not familair with

I got my MB/CPU/RAM via a bundle on eBay.  Provantage seems to be the best source in the U.S. for the E-22xx processors.

 

Here is a link to their E-2246G listing.

[Goka]

oh nice even 20 bucks cheaper then the  bit shadier companies i was looking at and even the motherboard is cheaper then amazon , great help . Thank you for the advise and pointing me to that site

[Bradyy]

I'm reviving an older thread here... but just curious how the two of you are enjoying your builds currently? I'm currently considering either an E-2288G or E2246G with an ASRock Rack E3C246D4U.

 

Any issues this motherboard and challenges around the IOMMU groups and VM PCI passthrough? Also, are there any issues with having both IPMI (ASPEED BMC) and iGPU enabled at the same time? I'm coming from an E3-1245v5 (with iGPU) on a Supermicro board that I researched poorly (does not support iGPU at all... d'oh). I've also faced significant issues with IOMMU groups being ugly and not great for VFIO.

 

I keep toying with going over to Ryzen as you get a lot more bang for your buck right now... I'm currently leaning staying with Xeon for now as I really need this just to be rock solid system and I like the iGPU getting me out from buying something like a P2000. I really don't think any of the CPU benchmarks really factor in that iGPU.

 

Any post-purchase thoughts would help me feel better out my potential purchase 🙂  Thanks!

[Hoopster]

26 minutes ago, Bradyy said:

Any issues this motherboard and challenges around the IOMMU groups and VM PCI passthrough?

I am not passing through any hardware to a VM, but below are the IOMMU groups on the E3C246DU with an E-2288G installed.  Frankly, I would go with the E-2278G unless you really need that extra 300 MHz on the base clock speed.  The reduced TDP of the E-2278G is worth it for less heat.

 

 

26 minutes ago, Bradyy said:

Also, are there any issues with having both IPMI (ASPEED BMC) and iGPU enabled at the same time?

No issues, but you need an non-public BIOS to enable the iGPU for transcoding while also still using the ASpeed BMC.  Note, you will lose KVM output as soon as the iGPU drivers load so there will be a blank screen in the KVM and any monitor attached directly to the server.  This only happens once boot is complete so you will need to use the unRAID GUI terminal or PuTTY (or something similar) for console access.

 

This thread documents my personal experience as well as many others with the E-2288G and E3C246D4U combo.  There are also links in there to the BIOS that enables the iGPU use in addition to the BMC.

Edited December 7, 2020 by Hoopster

[Bradyy]

Thank you! This is all extremely helpful feedback. Those IOMMU groups looks much better than my current Supermicro board. Also good to hear about the iGPU/BMC. I'm not too concerned about losing the video output as I'll have a GPU passthrough mostly hooked up to the a monitor.

 

I did originally bounce between the E-2288G and E-2278G. I was leaning toward the 2288G simply because it was _slighty_ easier to find. A lot the current Xeon chips are hard to track down right now... I do agree if I had my choice, I'd go for the E-2278G.

[minuzle]

I just purchased this a couple weeks ago and I couldn't be more happy with the performance.  I did purchase different ram though as I wanted more than 16gb.  Supermicro X9DRL-iF ATX 2x E5-2690 V2 16GB IPMI 3x PCIE 3.0 x8 w/ Cooler Fan

Edited December 11, 2020 by minuzle