AMD 8320E?

[gus6464]

My main system consists of a Sandy Bridge cpu which is still running great and I have been running a couple of VMs off of it for various things as well as it being my gaming pc. I saw that microcenter has the 8320E for $89 plus motherboard bundle and looking at options I can basically get a matx mobo for $5 after rebate so $95 total. I already have extra stuff lying around to put together another system (ram, psu, hdd, ssd, etc) so thinking about picking it up and run the VMs off of it. I have not followed AMD in years so not sure how this cpu holds up and if they are super cheap for a reason.

Basically system will run server 2012 r2 with around 3-4 VMs. Is the cheaper Intel at the same price still a better option?

 

[dark zero]

If you are running more than 3 VM's the FX option is the only new and cheap available.
You can find Xeons, but having not warranty since all of the items are 2nd hand.

 

[Madpacket]

Yes the 8320e is the perfect budget VM box. I've built a few for this exact purpose and price / performance they can't be beat.

 

[DrMrLordX]

That's cheap. Which mobo is it? I only ask 'cuz one easy way to get extra performance (and better VM response times) out of an FX is to set the base clock to max turbo, undervolt, and let er rip. Depending on the board, you may or may not have the right BIOS settings to do that.

 

[gus6464]

That's cheap. Which mobo is it? I only ask 'cuz one easy way to get extra performance (and better VM response times) out of an FX is to set the base clock to max turbo, undervolt, and let er rip. Depending on the board, you may or may not have the right BIOS settings to do that.

I ended up getting the Asus M5A78L-M PLUS/USB3. After the bundle rebate and MIR it's $10. Although MC had so many good deals I also just ended up getting new parts for whole new main PC with a Core i5 6600K, Asrock Z170 Pro4S, 32gb of crucial ballistix and a GTX 1070.

 

[SketchMaster]

I second the AMD for a cheap VM box as I went with a 8350 for my setup. Physical cores give more for the money.

Will you be doing any PCI-e passthrough?

 

[DrMrLordX]

I ended up getting the Asus M5A78L-M PLUS/USB3.

Hmmm okay. So 4+1 power phase with no VRM heatsinks. Be careful with that thing. I'm pretty sure you can pull 4 GHz at a sufficiently-low vcore that you won't melt the VRMs. It'll take some trial and error, that's all.

 

[gus6464]

Hmmm okay. So 4+1 power phase with no VRM heatsinks. Be careful with that thing. I'm pretty sure you can pull 4 GHz at a sufficiently-low vcore that you won't melt the VRMs. It'll take some trial and error, that's all.

I think I'm going to take it back and exchange it for the asrock 970m pro3. I didn't see it when I was there but checked on the site and they have in stock and its same price.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[DrMrLordX]

Also a 4+1 board. Not sure if it'll be any better or worse than the Asus product but hey, good luck regardless of how you go about it.

 

[gus6464]

Also a 4+1 board. Not sure if it'll be any better or worse than the Asus product but hey, good luck regardless of how you go about it.

So does a matx board that is not 4+1 exist?

 

[SketchMaster]

So does a matx board that is not 4+1 exist?

Not that I can find. This Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 would be a decent compromise, has VRM cooler, 8 pin power, and seems to get decent nods from the community as "not bad" for mATX. If you want a solid board you going to have to go to an ATX form factor, but this should be plenty for a light duty VM box.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

I don't think a 4+1 board is that limiting. I can do 4.4Ghz 1.35V with my 8350 with a Biostar TA-970 without issues. However, since I live in a vintage building without AC I've been keeping the CPU at 3.7Ghz @ 1.25V for the past month since temps are finally getting close to the max.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Sorry, I get wary around 4+1 phase AM3+ boards. I guess if they aren't MSI boards then you shouldn't have too much to worry about.

I can't imagine running a machine like that in a building with no AC. That must be . . . interesting.

 

[gus6464]

Sorry, I get wary around 4+1 phase AM3+ boards. I guess if they aren't MSI boards then you shouldn't have too much to worry about.

I can't imagine running a machine like that in a building with no AC. That must be . . . interesting.

Think I'm just going to say screw it and go for bigger case and just get full ATX. The server is going to be sitting on the floor tucked away anyways. Also realized this board only supports sata2 so no good. The asrock 970 extreme 3 is same price at micro center after all rebates and its 4+2 phase.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[DrMrLordX]

What about this board:

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4717#ov

How much are they charging for it?

 

[gus6464]

What about this board:

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4717#ov

How much are they charging for it?

$40 after all rebates. Is it considerably better than the asrock?

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Sorry, I get wary around 4+1 phase AM3+ boards. I guess if they aren't MSI boards then you shouldn't have too much to worry about.

I can't imagine running a machine like that in a building with no AC. That must be . . . interesting.

It's been totally fine. The summer I bought it it was in the garage of my home with no AC and one fan in there. I was still OCing it with no issues. My GPU seems to ramp up the fan higher than normal but that's about it. VRM temps are normal still.

The only thing I'd look out for is making sure the budget board that you buy has heatsinks instead of open-air VRM cooling and to make sure that there's enough clearance between an aftermarket cooler and filling up the ram slots completely. When I went to add another 8GB of DDR3 I filled all the slots with 4GB DIMMS. In doing so, my Arctic Freeze Pro 7 wasn't high enough for even my relatively low-height ram kit. I had to buy the hyper TX-3 that works just as good.

 

[gus6464]

Well I went back to micro center and got the gigabyte 970a with 8+2 phase power. After all rebates is $40 so not bad as long as I end up with a rock solid board. I am cooling with an old corsair h100 I bought refurbed a long time ago that I never even took out of the box.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[DrMrLordX]

Good choice, it's considered to be one of the better budget board options out there for AM3+. As long as you aren't trying to 5 GHz or anything, it'll deliver. It'll do better than most/all mATX AM3+ boards, including that ASRock one.

 

[superstition]

Good choice, it's considered to be one of the better budget board options out there for AM3+. As long as you aren't trying to 5 GHz or anything, it'll deliver. It'll do better than most/all mATX AM3+ boards, including that ASRock one.

It's good for something around 4.4 – 4.6 in my experience. I thought I had solved the issue (getting to 4.7) but, despite passing an hour of Prime with 768 – 900K in place FFTs it failed routinely on core 5 when I starting running large FFTs that were not in place. Messing with the NB Core voltage and such didn't help nor did increasing Vcore. The oddity is that the power consumption numbers don't go up much from 4.4/4.5 to 4.7, suggesting some type of VRM throttling even though Prime says 100% for the cores' load.

Anyway, 4.4 GHz with an 8320E and a UD3P is solid enough performance for some workloads, without requiring too much exotic cooling. However, don't underestimate how much heat even 4.4 makes for Prime and similar.

The UD3P also has a boot bug with a multi over 22 so you need to raise the BCLK to get past 4.4.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Good call on the boot bug, not that it's a huge deal. But yeah it's a decent board for a moderate overclock. Not sure the OP will even go near those clockspeeds.