Pentium vs. i3 vs. used ___

[djdwosk97]

I'm going to try and upgrade my server, but I'm not entirely set on what I'm going to upgrade to. (My current spec are in my signature and the only thing I plan on upgrading is the cpu, motherboard, and memory)

I'm not the biggest fan of used hardware, plus I haven't been able to find any decent deals on used hardware near me (I also don't really know how to search for anything since there are a lot of choices). Anyway, my plan right now is a Supermicro X10SLL-F-O and 16GB Crucial ECC memory and then either a Pentium G3258 ($70) (because it's the cheapest Pentium I can get) or an i3-4170 ($120).

My main use will be streaming from a plex media server running on my FreeNAS server as well as just general storage/backup (I may also start using the server as a time machine backup as well).

Right now I'm able to stream three 6MB/s streams (30-40GB movies) simultaneously and get a mild stutter ever so infrequently (a few times during the course of a movie). Since my CPU usage doesn't get above 20-30% while I'm running the streams I'm assuming it's an issue caused by a lack of memory. But, from what I've read a Pentium should start to struggle with Plex much past where I'm at now (although I don't know whether or not that's true).

So does anyone have experience with Plex on a Pentium -- how close to the limit am I actually?


P.s. if I upgrade the cpu, mobo, and ram would I have to reinstall freeNAS or could I still use the same install/settings?

 

[danb35]

if I upgrade the cpu, mobo, and ram would I have to reinstall freeNAS or could I still use the same install/settings?

You'd be fine. If you've manually configured a network interface, you might need to redo that, but everything else should Just Work (tm).

 

[djdwosk97]

You'd be fine. If you've manually configured a network interface, you might need to redo that, but everything else should Just Work (tm).

Would I have to detach and reimport the volumes when I swapped out the hardware, or would it be able to figure that out all on it's own? (two of my drives are connected via my Sata controller over PCIE -- iirc it's the two mirrored drives)

 

[danb35]

It should figure it out on its own.

 

[Dice]

By briefly checking the passmark cpu benchmarks on the G3258 vs G3250, the performance differences are at best marginal (3331 vs 3993). This is not justifiable as an upgrade unless it was for 'the price of a cappuccino'.
The i3-4170 looks far better at 5168 points. That is the given choice under the stipulated circumstances.
As for RAM, and motherboard - looks alright.

Cheers /

 

[djdwosk97]

By briefly checking the passmark cpu benchmarks on the G3258 vs G3250, the performance differences are at best marginal (3331 vs 3993). This is not justifiable as an upgrade unless it was for 'the price of a cappuccino'.
The i3-4170 looks far better at 5168 points. That is the given choice under the stipulated circumstances.
As for RAM, and motherboard - looks alright.

Cheers / Dice

A G3258 isn't an upgrade, I know that. The reason I'd sell my G3250 and buy a G3258 is because I also have a case, psu, HDD, and w7 license lying around -- so if I sell a complete system I can get quite a bit more money than from just selling the motherboard and RAM. I honestly don't even know how the G3258 scored that much higher (unless of course it was overclocked).

But synthetic benchmarks are generally poor points of comparison when trying to determine real world performance (I mean, I read somewhere that for every 2000~ passmark score you can handle one 1080p plex stream -- whereas I can already easily handle more).

 

[djdwosk97]

Would the i3's AVX be beneficial for anything? I know AES would be important if I had any intention of using encryption (which I can't think of a reason to do).

 

[Ericloewe]

Would the i3's AVX be beneficial for anything? I know AES would be important if I had any intention of using encryption (which I can't think of a reason to do).

AVX? Nah. Maybe the transcoding stuff might start supporting it eventually, but FreeNAS itself won't be using AVX anytime soon (if ever).

 

[djdwosk97]

AVX? Nah. Maybe the transcoding stuff might start supporting it eventually, but FreeNAS itself won't be using AVX anytime soon (if ever).

Alright, well, I guess I'll have to decide whether or not an i3 is worth the extra $50 to handle more users in the future.

 

[religiouslyconfused]

One advantage the i3 has over the Pentium is Hyperthreading and AES-NI which is useful if you want to use encryption.

 

[djdwosk97]

So apparently skylake had disabled legacy ehci preventing usb booting. Is that still an issue?

 

[religiouslyconfused]

Not an issue if you a SSD or SATADOM. Those get around the issue, though it is expected that FreeNAS 10 will fully support booting from XHCI. Some people actually prefer using SSD for their boot drive as they tend to be more reliable than USB, as USB can sometimes break.

 

[djdwosk97]

Not an issue if you a SSD or SATADOM. Those get around the issue, though it is expected that FreeNAS 10 will fully support booting from XHCI. Some people actually prefer using SSD for their boot drive as they tend to be more reliable than USB, as USB can sometimes break.

I don't have an extra sata port (or drive). Plus the durability of a flash drive isn't a big deal considering it's only needed at startup.

 

[religiouslyconfused]

If you get the X11SSH-F board you can also boot from a PCIe M.2 drive and the AsRock boards will also support SATA M.2 though that cancels out SATA0.

 

[religiouslyconfused]

FreeNAS 10 is coming out in a few months if everything goes well.