Xeon E3, Xeon-D or Atom C3000?

[Lucinde]

Hi guys,

For a couple of years I'm thinking about building a home server based on FreeNAS. Due to a lack of time I didn't actually do it, but this summer I hope to finally get to it.
When I started searching for hardware a Xeon E3 looked like the best choice, but a bit later Xeon-D showed up and now we have the Denverton Atoms... To be honest, I'm a bit lost on what's the best choice. I consider three options which share about the same price. Can anyone give some advice on what would be the best choice?
The server will be used for file storage, serving media with Plex (maybe two streams at the same time), video surveillance (one camera to start with, maybe up to three) and some light VM's/dockers.

These are the options:
- Supermicro X11SSM-F + Xeon E3-1230 v6
4 cores, 3.5Ghz with 3.9 Turbo, up to 64GB of RAM, 8 SATA ports, 2x 1Gbps Ethernet, 72W TDP
- Supermicro X10SDV-4C-TLN2F D-1521
4 cores, 2.4Ghz with 2.7 Turbo, up to 128GB of RAM, 6 SATA ports, 2x 10Gbps Ethernet, 45W TDP
- Supermicro A2SDi-8C+-HLN4F Atom C3758
8 cores, 2.2Ghz, up to 256GB of RAM, 12 SATA ports, 4x 1Gbps Ethernet, 25W TDP

When I look at CPU benchmarks the E3 seems to be the winner and it's the cheapest option of the three, but maybe there's a catch? The lack of 10Gbps Ethernet is not really a big deal, since my network at home is just 1Gbps. 8 SATA ports should be enough to start with. 64GB of RAM should be enough for what I intend to do with it, I guess. Not sure if the lack of registered memory support is bad... It has a higher TDP, but that's not that important since we have solar panels. Probably the power consumption is also acceptable when the server isn't under full load...
So is it true that the oldest and cheapest option of the three is the best choice? All opinions are appreciated.

(I also considered buying a used E5, but that's probably overkill. + I probably have to buy it overseas and it will come with no warranty at all)


Kind regards,
L.

 

[pro lamer]

I probably have to buy it overseas and it will come with no warranty at all

I am considering a new x9 supermicro ivy/sandy bridge motherboard (some are still available in stocks ~300€ in Europe) and a second hand E5 CPU, very cheap here. So a mobo with some warranty (very useful providing a replacement one would be available in future in case of a warranty return) and a very cheap CPU.

Are you going to have many snapshots? (It may matter in terms of memory needs)

What is the estimated bitrate/encoding/resolution of the videos/movies? Input and output? (Will you need to transcode or direct play will be your case) It may matter in terms of CPU performance needs.

 

[Lucinde]

You are right: a new X9 motherboard + used E5 would fall in the same price range. Worth checking out.

Do you need the extra processing power for Plex? I'm planning to convert my Blurays to 1080p MKVs. I guess my Fire TV can play them without the need of transcoding them. Transcoding will probably be necessary when we want to see something on a tablet... But wouldn't all three options be capable to do this?

I haven't really thought about snapshots to be honest. I don't think I will have many of them. The most important files will be backed up to a cloud service.