Question will a i3-7100 suit my needs?

[daggs1]

Greetings,

I have a server at home that hosts my NAS, backups and router (within a vm). the cpu is G4560.
due to poor performance of my streamer, I'm thinking of replacing it.
option #1 is an nuc gen8 with i3-8109U.
option #2 is to run the streamer os as a vm on the server.
from what I know, the i3-8109U is powerful enough to decode widevine based streams in FHD and play them without any issue.
benchmarks show that G4560 is way weaker than the i3-8109U.
I've found an i3-7100 in a decent price that my mb supports and I was wondering if it will be powerful enough to sustain the router vm, streamer vm and NAS?
the backup I'll move to another system.

Thanks,

Dagg.

 

[Iron Woode]

I am no expert but why not get an I5 Kabylake CPU?

I guess it would depend on your budget.

I run an I3 4130 in my linux server that hosts files and a UT99 server.

 

[daggs1]

Greetings,

at the price of I5 Kabylake CPU, I can get the nuc
I'm trying to reduce possible expanses

 

[VirtualLarry]

Honestly, I doubt that it's worth it moving up from the G4560 to the i3-7100. At least, from a "gaming" perspective. Most of the YT reviews and videos around the time that the G4560 was released and became the "new budget-gaming darling CPU", many reviews commented that it was basically just as good as an i3-7100.

So, maybe for server duties, you might see an improvement, due to greater cache memory sizes and ways, but other than that, I think that it would be a wash, and a waste of money. Either, go big, if you're going to upgrade, and get the i5 or greater, or go home, and think about an entire platform upgrade.

Is the G4560 really that slow for your applications, btw? If it is, something that's also 2C/4T is probably not going to be significantly better, you'd be better off moving up to a 4C/4T or 4C/8T CPU for that platform.

 

[daggs1]

Honestly, I doubt that it's worth it moving up from the G4560 to the i3-7100. At least, from a "gaming" perspective. Most of the YT reviews and videos around the time that the G4560 was released and became the "new budget-gaming darling CPU", many reviews commented that it was basically just as good as an i3-7100.

So, maybe for server duties, you might see an improvement, due to greater cache memory sizes and ways, but other than that, I think that it would be a wash, and a waste of money. Either, go big, if you're going to upgrade, and get the i5 or greater, or go home, and think about an entire platform upgrade.

Is the G4560 really that slow for your applications, btw? If it is, something that's also 2C/4T is probably not going to be significantly better, you'd be better off moving up to a 4C/4T or 4C/8T CPU for that platform.

I'm not saying it is slow, I'm looking at it from this point of view:
I'm watching netflix on my streamer, unfortunately, due to drm issues, it is impossible to watch 720p (no to mention 1080p) streams. as a matter of a fact, playing 480p is a bit offsync video-audio wise.
as there is no foreseen future where these drm issues will be solved, I'm forced to look for alternative based on calculation power.

the first alternative is nuc, but that alternative is expensive. I was able to ascertain that the nuc gen8 is able to play 1080p without any issues.
the second alternative is using what I have currently. I have a utility server ()G4560, 4GB ram, 32m allocated to the igp) which acts as backup, nas and the router (within a vm) of my home lan.
the igp and audio on that server aren't used.
so I thought for starters too increase the igp size to 256M, setup an vm on it, allocate 3 threads, 2 GB of ram, passthrough the igp and audio and try to run libreelec on it.
if it works, I'll try to see what I can play on that vm. I assume I most probably need to expand the ram, so throwing in another 4G stick will allow me to bump the igp ram to 2Gb, allocate 4 Gb to the vm.
at that point, the test will be to check if I can stream 1080p netflix, than great, if not, I need to think. do I get the i3-7100 or a i5-7500, thing is, the i3-7100 is 45% cheaper than the i5-7500.
but I might not have the budget for the i5-7500.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I guess I'm a little confused. The G4560's in-built iGPU is perfectly fine for 1080P Netflix, probably even 4K Netflix, honestly. It has Kaby Lake's media-decoder built-in.

If I understand you correctly, you are using it in a server motherboard, with it's own onboard super-low-end server GPU, hence the onboard Intel iGPU doesn't actually get used, so you want to use it via a VM passthrough? Well, good luck.

I've always believed to let servers be servers, and then get a HTPC/media-PC for viewing.

 

[daggs1]

I guess I'm a little confused. The G4560's in-built iGPU is perfectly fine for 1080P Netflix, probably even 4K Netflix, honestly. It has Kaby Lake's media-decoder built-in.

in order to view netflix, there is a need install a program named widevine.
afaik, if it gets executed from within chrome, widevine will preform the decoding using the gpu.
else, widevine will preform the decoding using the cpu.
as I don't know if that media-decoder is part of the gpu or cpu.
logically, I think that it isn't. that is why I'm asking.

If I understand you correctly, you are using it in a server motherboard, with it's own onboard super-low-end server GPU, hence the onboard Intel iGPU doesn't actually get used, so you want to use it via a VM passthrough? Well, good luck.

no, the entire setup is desktop, no server components.
I've installed linux on it and running several services.

1. NAS
2. backup
3. network's router.

the gpu isn't used because there is no need for it, no ui is installed.
that is why I try to see if I can utilize the gpu instead of getting a new htpc

I've always believed to let servers be servers, and then get a HTPC/media-PC for viewing.

that is a good rule of thumb but when one is short on money, alternatives are taken into account