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How much RAM do I really need?
- Thread starter djdwosk97
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Probably not more than two, but going with a haswell i3 and then upgrading in a few years when I'd likely have some 4K content might make more sense as hardware will be more capable/cheaper.
The used market by me is pretty shitty, plus I'm not the biggest fan of buying used (especially for a server -- frankly, that seems far more stupid to me than going with non server grade hardware).
buy it, stress test it, verify its 100%. If fail then return else deploy into produce and save.
Dont see what the problem is TBH, I trust my life to a second hand car so maybe I just like living on the edge... :)
That doesn't alleviate the awful used market. Plus stress testing isn't fool proof either. I've had hardware die on me that had no issues under a stress test.
There's still bclk over clocking and/or the risk that it was used at 100% load for three years with poor cooling.
Mirfster
Doesn't know what he's talking about
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Practically all of my stuff is used (unless I can't find it and need it now..). Heck only real things in my life that are "new" are my kids... Wife was even used; but in "excellent, like new condition.. Just missing original packaging"... 
Any thoughts on keystone memory group: http://www.ebay.com/usr/keystonememory?rt=ncPractically all of my stuff is used (unless I can't find it and need it now..). Heck only real things in my life that are "new" are my kids... Wife was even used; but in "excellent, like new condition.. Just missing original packaging"...
They seem to have some pretty good deals on Xeon e5's.
I'd probably take a gamble with them. They have lots of feedback and seem to take returns for DOA parts. If you wanted to be slightly unethical and had a device that wasn't DOA but failed stress test, rendering it DOA wouldn't be hard...
Pay close attention to the pictures and any mention of "ES", "engineering sample", or anything relating to the chip being property of Intel and not for resale. Most of the sample chips are the earliest part of production, and often still have weird bugs - often quite esoteric bugs that will pop up in very strange ways.
My FreeNAS box is entirely used... there isn't a single part in it, including the drives, that was bought new. You just have to be very careful purchasing, heavy-handed with the testing, and prepared in case something bad happens.
Pay close attention to the pictures and any mention of "ES", "engineering sample", or anything relating to the chip being property of Intel and not for resale. Most of the sample chips are the earliest part of production, and often still have weird bugs - often quite esoteric bugs that will pop up in very strange ways.
My FreeNAS box is entirely used... there isn't a single part in it, including the drives, that was bought new. You just have to be very careful purchasing, heavy-handed with the testing, and prepared in case something bad happens.
The 1603v3 is the welfare version of the 16xxv3 family, much like the 2603v3 is the welfare version of the 26xxv3. It's not as bad, since it doesn't have the insanely slow clock rate, but it lacks hyperthreading. Personally, I'd hold out for a 1620v3.
Do you think a 1620v3 would be able to handle two transcoded 4K streams (that will be raw UHD bluray rips -- 1080p blurays are like 6MB/s so 4K should be like 12-24MB/s?)?
Right now I'm able to transcode two 1080p streams @ 6MB/s and get the occasional stutter (but my servers cpu doesn't seem to get above 20-30% which makes me think it's a memory issue and not a cpu issue). But according to everything I've read my pentium should struggle with more than one stream.
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mchatterton
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Not sure if this would help the OP but I just bought one of these setups.
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/fs-my-babies-xeon-e3-servers-qty-3.8097/
It should take everything that I can through at it for now (home use) and I figure that with the money I save, I can upgrade in a few years, if needed.
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/fs-my-babies-xeon-e3-servers-qty-3.8097/
It should take everything that I can through at it for now (home use) and I figure that with the money I save, I can upgrade in a few years, if needed.
My only problem with that I'm still afraid it won't be able to handle two or more 4K streams well. From what I've read a 1230 should be able to handle 7 1080p transcoded streams, which means two 4K streams may or may not be possible.
P.s. How much was shipping?
mchatterton
Cadet
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Fair point. Everyone's use case is unique and only they can understand it.
When I was planning my server, I was thinking as you are. How do I future proof myself as best as possible? In the end it turned out to be about $1200 for a reasonably future proofed system versus $375 for this. I just couldn't justify $800 for a set up that may or may not still be good in 5 years. The technology is changing too fast right now to be sure of anything.
My view on 4k is that it will be years before mainstream 4k content is readily available. Sure, you can get it on Netflix but you don't need to transcode that, just stream it. And you don't need to upscale 1080p content for a 4k tv. The tv has a dedicated processor to do that.
So this system will get me through the next 3 to 5 years, then, with the money I saved (and invested wisely), I can buy the next, next generation of parts (10gbe network, 16TB flash drives, etc.) for a fraction of today's prices.
Shipping was free to the US. :)
When I was planning my server, I was thinking as you are. How do I future proof myself as best as possible? In the end it turned out to be about $1200 for a reasonably future proofed system versus $375 for this. I just couldn't justify $800 for a set up that may or may not still be good in 5 years. The technology is changing too fast right now to be sure of anything.
My view on 4k is that it will be years before mainstream 4k content is readily available. Sure, you can get it on Netflix but you don't need to transcode that, just stream it. And you don't need to upscale 1080p content for a 4k tv. The tv has a dedicated processor to do that.
So this system will get me through the next 3 to 5 years, then, with the money I saved (and invested wisely), I can buy the next, next generation of parts (10gbe network, 16TB flash drives, etc.) for a fraction of today's prices.
Shipping was free to the US. :)
I've been thinking something similar myself, but I haven't ever really bought hardware used -- I tend to buy new due to reliability concerns and what not. But $400 for an extra 2 cores/4 threads and an extra 16gb of RAM is kind compelling. I'm just not sure if it's worth the risk dealing with used hardware.
Well, technology is improving pretty quickly, but CPU performance is at a somewhat slow progression (10%~ IPC improvement each generation has been the norm for a while now -- the bigger factor imo is the potential for i5's to become the new i3's and so on).
E5 1620v3 + X10SRI-F + 16gb Registered ECC --> $650 + tax --> $700
i3-4130 + X10SLL-F-O + 16gb Unbuffered ECC --> $376 + tax --> $402
E3 1230v2 + X9SCM-F-O + 32gb unbuffered ECC --> $400 w/ tax
Alright, so after the new hardware comes and I validate it, what is the exact process for switching hardware?
Can I just connect the flash drive with FreeNAS on it to the new cpu+mobo+ram and connect all the drives and will it automatically detect everything and work or will I have to change anything/fiddle with settings (like importing volumes/etc...)? And is there any prep that I should do before powering down the server and disconnecting the old hardware?
Can I just connect the flash drive with FreeNAS on it to the new cpu+mobo+ram and connect all the drives and will it automatically detect everything and work or will I have to change anything/fiddle with settings (like importing volumes/etc...)? And is there any prep that I should do before powering down the server and disconnecting the old hardware?
jgreco
Resident Grinch
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As long as you're using standard SATA ports or SAS HBA ports, SATA drives can be moved from platform to platform and FreeNAS should just "figure it out." It's a good idea to boot into singleuser mode first and make sure they're actually all attached to the new platform. Do a "camcontrol devlist" on your old platform first, count the drives, then repeat in singleuser mode on the new platform.
Networking interface names may change, so you should be prepared to have to reconfigure your network. Apparently this can be a bit of a PITA if you have jails, but I don't know much about that.
Other than those issues, usually shuffling platforms is not a big deal.
Networking interface names may change, so you should be prepared to have to reconfigure your network. Apparently this can be a bit of a PITA if you have jails, but I don't know much about that.
Other than those issues, usually shuffling platforms is not a big deal.
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