Home lab and gaming machine
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I'm just assembling a new PC for my home lab (mostly a few VMs) and a bit of gaming. Would be a Windows 10 Pro system running a few VMs (on-demand).
Things I'm looking at
a) ECC RAM
b) Capable of running like 5 VMs at the same time (Windows Server, Linux, mostly low I/O)
c) Gaming (nothing too fancy)Current shopping list
- Intel Xeon E3-1220v5 or E3-1230v5 (~250 EUR)
- C232/C236 based mainboard (you can't run the v5 on consumer boards, and most of them don't have ECC) (~150 EUR)
- 2x8 GB RAM (~90 EUR)
- Samsung SSD (950 EVO or something like that) (~ 120 EUR each)
That would be like ~600 EUR +/- 50 EUR. Don't need to buy a GPU, got a good R7 lying around. Also got a decent PSU, casing, monitor, mouse, keyboard, licenses etc. The GPU will be replaced by an R9 480 or a GTX10x0 sometime soon.
About the mainboard: Any recommendations? I'm not sure if a SuperMicro will be good for gaming. There are some other (consumer-grade) vendors like MSI and Gigabyte with C232/C236 based mainboards. Audio should be onboard.
Is ECC worth the extra money for a home lab or should I go for a Core i5-6xxx instead? Opinions / suggestions?
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ECC only makes sense if you are going to run production workloads on it (or are testing the ECC itself.)
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@scottalanmiller said in Home lab and gaming machine:
ECC only makes sense if you are going to run production workloads on it (or are testing the ECC itself.)
Thought so too, and ECC changes the whole story. Just thought about ECC because of a few dev related things, like stabbing and poking the memory (debugging P/Invoke issues). On the other hand, I'm not doing this very often.
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I was going to recommend Stallard Tech and a workstation, but they don't normally service Germany/Europe
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@travisdh1 said in Home lab and gaming machine:
I was going to recommend Stallard Tech and a workstation, but they don't normally service Germany/Europe
I could get something from Lenovo or Fujitsu, but I don't want to spend so much money
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I guess I will just go for a decent Core i5. Consumer board recommendations (Socket 1151)? I'm not the biggest fan of ASUS...
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I like Asus a lot, always have. My current second laptop (in the desktop picture earlier today) is Asus and my new one that I get in a week or so will be an Asus as well.
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I like the Gigabyte Ultra Durable line of mobos. Have used them in my last 2 builds with no problems.
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Gigabyte and MSI would be my backup gaming machine choices.
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I'm a big fan of the Gigabyte boards (I'm running one now).
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@scottalanmiller said in Home lab and gaming machine:
I like Asus a lot, always have. My current second laptop (in the desktop picture earlier today) is Asus and my new one that I get in a week or so will be an Asus as well.
There's so much crap on their boards you have to a) pay for and b) disable. Remember the P5Q line for example?
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@momurda said in Home lab and gaming machine:
I like the Gigabyte Ultra Durable line of mobos. Have used them in my last 2 builds with no problems.
It that the UD-suffix in the product code? Like Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD3?
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Overclocking at all?
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@MattSpeller said in Home lab and gaming machine:
Overclocking at all?
Nope, no OC'ing (anymore). CPUs are fast enough today.
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@thwr said in Home lab and gaming machine:
@MattSpeller said in Home lab and gaming machine:
Overclocking at all?
Nah, I don't mind OC'ing (anymore). CPUs are fast enough today.
Mind? I think you mean bother.
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@scottalanmiller said in Home lab and gaming machine:
@thwr said in Home lab and gaming machine:
@MattSpeller said in Home lab and gaming machine:
Overclocking at all?
Nah, I don't mind OC'ing (anymore). CPUs are fast enough today.
Mind? I think you mean bother.
Sorry, yes. Had a short night.
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This is similar to what @scottalanmiller was asking the other day about using a hypervisor instead of dual booting. I haven't tried to do it that way. Maybe I'll give it a show when I'm more familiar with XenServer/Hyper-V.
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@thwr Yes, UD suffix is Ultra Durable line. I think they are up to UD4 now with the ddr4/socket 1151 spec out. The UD3 series was for ddr3/2011, 1150, etc. Oh actually theyre upto UD5 series. Damn my computer is getting old, but not slow.
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@momurda said in Home lab and gaming machine:
@thwr Yes, UD suffix is Ultra Durable line. I think they are up to UD4 now with the ddr4/socket 1151 spec out. The UD3 series was for ddr3/2011, 1150, etc. Oh actually theyre upto UD5 series. Damn my computer is getting old, but not slow.
Thanks, but I just don't want to spend like 150 EUR+ for just a board. Could easily get a C232/236 board for this
Any experience with the current line of ASRock Z170 boards? They got pretty good reviews. I do not need any fancy looking coolers, SLI or 257.1 audio (5.1 would be nice)
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Final choice is between these two configurations:
Core i7 6700k
Some Z170 board
16GB DDR4
Pro: Higher core speed, good for Arma IIIvs
Xeon E3 1240v5
Some C236 board
16GB DDR4 ECC
Pro: ECCPrice difference: 20 EUR. Anyone got a dice or a coin?
