• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Help with Server build for Work, no price limit

N

Net

Golden Member
Hello,

Our software development team needs a new server. However it must be fashioned in a desktop case style, so no professional rack servers (Rules).

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. Multiple calculations and memory intensive work from multple users.

2. What YOUR budget is. no limit, the more you spend the better (seriously).

3. USA

4. Intel for the CPU. nVidia for graphics.

5. no previous parts.

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.

7. Running this at default speeds (no overclocking).

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with. No gaming, but the fastest possible graphics card, nVida.

9. WHEN do you plan to build it? ASAP


CPU: 2x Intel Xeon X5680 Westmere 3.33GHz 12MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Six-Core Server Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-228-_-Product

Motherboard: EVGA Classified SR-2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813188067

Hard Drive: Fastest Solid State possible for this motherboard

PSU: Need Input

Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835100007

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-718-_-Product

Memory:
Fastest Possible (Desktop Ram is fine). Speed beats out over stability, each dimm must be 4GB

Graphics Card:
Need Input

Heat sink / fan:
Need Input (must be quiet)

Suggestions for cables and/or anything I'm leaving out for a complete build.
 
Last edited:
Consider searching through the server motherboard lists as well - they are in an obscure place (not sure if you saw em).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...e=&srchInDesc=

PSU: Corsair or PC Power & Cooling 1000-1200 watt PSU

You want to check out the max cpu/ram on windows 7 ult, I know there are limits (but you are probably okay). Ram is ram, I'd just get something at least as fast as 1600MHz since you sound like you mean business. Timings are not that important (neither is speed really), voltage is more important.

For the video card, are you doing CUDA work? Would you consider it? That has a fairly large impact. Also, quiet is kinda vague. My HD4890 could be considered quiet compared to a GF 480 - but its really not all that quiet. Does it need to be passively cooled?
 
You should add a case to your build or do you already have one. Maybe a quick how many internal and external drive bays you need etc. Just gonna run SSD or are you gonna need storage drives also? Does it need to be a quiet server or noise isn't much of an issue.
 
Couple of questions, how many users will be connecting to this box? Win7 has a hard limit of 20 SMB connections, which may not be an issue if you're not using SMB to connect I suppose.

Also, would the box perform better with more than 48GB of RAM? The EVGA board's main selling point is it's able to overclock Xeons which you don't want to do. If more RAM would be better then maybe consider a pure server based board? Eg. This Tyan board supports 144GB RAM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813151195

Also not sure how big the performance difference between 1333 and 1600 RAM would be in your application, mostly not a huge difference so if you're better off with more RAM it might be worth looking at something that supports more RAM at the 1333 speed.

A real server board will also have on board video, so if you're not caring about video performance and just want a display hooked up you're set there.
 
I removed the reference to needing a quiet video card. Noise isn't an issue for this one.
 
thanks for the response.

a limit of 20 isn't a problem. If there's a faster motherboard (at stock speeds) that would be better, don't need more memory then what cr-2 offers.

just SSD, don't need storage drives.
 
Last edited:
I think you'll be ok with the motherboard, unfortunately server gear is rarely reviewed anymore so we won't be finding out which board is faster at stock speeds.

For your HSFs the stock cooler should be fine as you're not overclocking.

I'm not a big PSU guy, so no the person to ask what to get there.

And of course, the fastest Nvidia card to get right now would be a 480, will need to make sure the PSU can handle 2x Xeon processors and the 480.

The only thing that does concern me is the Xeon's running 48GB of high speed RAM. I install servers for a living, but have never used anything above 1333 in a server board. While I know the EVGA board will support it, not sure how it will do with 12 sticks of it. Perhaps someone else can weigh in on this, I don't have the time to research it right now.
 
Even though it needs to be in a desktop style case, the major vendors make desktop style cases as well which is what I would recommend.

Also, SSD is not going to make much of a difference over spindle based drives if the data is being accessed remotely. Over 1gbe the most data you can server over the network is 115MB/sec, easily within the reach of spindle drives. If it well be worked on locally, aka terminal server, then Windows 7 will not serve your needs because it cannot be a multi user terminal server.
 
Buy a Dell Precision / HP Z / Lenovo Thinkstation that fits your needs if you need a compact (relatively speaking) desktop/deskside case. Much better than building your own IMO - quieter (even if there isn't a specific acoustic requirement, quiet workstation = nicer working environment), more stable due to designed airflow. It's also supported as one unit - if something fails, it has the diag tools and the tech support to back it up.

I've switched almost wholesale to the HP Z800's in terms of desktops - I can recommend them for all-purpose heavy lifting. As ISV certified machines, the gamut of NVidia's higher-end pro cards is supported, as is a dual-X5680 config.

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/pscmi...ions/z800.html

I run Fusion-IO storage in some of the Z800's and they work fine.

@yinan: In terms of SSD use, it's obviously completely dependent on the sort of processing that you'll be doing on the servers: e.g. I might have a lot of transaction-heavy crunching that goes on within the machine itself, even if the results might be being remotely accessed.
 
Last edited:
vbuggy said:
Buy a Dell Precision / HP Z that fits your needs if you need a compact (relatively speaking) desktop/deskside case. Much better than building your own IMO - quieter (even if there isn't a specific acoustic requirement, quiet workstation = nicer working environment), more stable due to designed airflow. It's also supported as one unit - if something fails, it has the diag tools and the tech support to back it up.

I've switched almost wholesale to the HP Z800's in terms of desktops - I can recommend them for all-purpose heavy lifting. As ISV certified machines, the gamut of NVidia's higher-end pro cards is supported, as is a dual-X5680 config.

I run Fusion-IO storage in some of the Z800's and they work fine.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup:

This. If money is no object, why are your going enthusiast-class whitebox?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top