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Any good Motherboard/Processer/RAM combo deals out there?


Marc_G

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Hi folks,

 

My server basically dates to 2009. It runs on a dual core Athlon X2 Kuma 2.7.   It's in a microATX case and currently doubles as the HTPC display device. I'm taking this box and relegating it to server-only duty. Considering swapping out the MOBO/Processor/RAM, so I can use the existing trio in a different box for my kids, while upgrading to "something better" for my Emby server.

 

Thoughts on any good deals? Trying to keep this around $200... I know, that's not much budget. But got any ideas?

 

Marc

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Heckler

For less than 200, you'd be best of sticking with AMD and an FX CPU... I'm guess your old one may be DDR2 or lower speed DDR3, so I'm gonna assume you'll need 8GB or ram too.

 

Bear in mind that the new gen of AMD chips is due soon... AM4 socket, so holding off may be a good idea... even if it's only to grab better deals as older stock gets discounted.

 

For the current crop I'd recommend the 970/990X/990FX chipsets if you can get them in mATX, otherwise stick with the 760G chipset... I've always had good experience with ASUS motherboards. Never had a failure like I have with other brands. But something like the Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 is normally less than £50 whilst the ASROCK N68-GS4FX gan be found for less than £40.  Personally I've got one of the ASUS M5A USB3 mATX boards which would be around the £50-60 running a quad core FX4130 (4.2Ghz) which is an older one now and you can get a 6300 for well under £80. 8GB of some decent Corsair vengeance black 1800mhz DDR3 can be picked up for around £50 or less.

 

That's just separate prices... if you can find a bundle with similar items, you'd easily be under the £200 mark... Might be even wiggle room for an 8 core FX CPU instead like the 4.2ghz FX8300 For £100

 

But as I said... it's hard to find some of these things these days... there hasn't been a socket change for a few years, and I can't remember a chipset refresh in the last 3yrs for AMD based boards. I still think you'd be better of toughing it out for a while longer and see what the new sockets bring in the spring.

 

There's also the AMD FM2+ Sockets & APU's.... But I don't really know a lot about them to be honest or how they compare to the AM3+ ones. A quick check of those prices over here will get you an ASUS MB around the £40-50 mark, an APU from £52-145 and pretty much the same for memory... Assuming the MB's take the same DDR3.

 

Not built an Intel system in 15yrs, simply because of the VFM factor... But based on current prices... you'd need to double the budget I reckon.

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Heckler

Just dug up the old thread from when I rebuilt my HTPC back in March 2014... it's seen a few mini upgrades since then... now running about 15TB storage and a larger SSD.

 

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/5636-new-build-htpc/

 

It's 3 pages, but worth looking through for some of the pics others posted of theirs too... There hasn't really been any improvement in chipsets since then... so again I'd recommend waiting for the AM4 socket next year.

 

I think there was a show me yours type thread for HTPC's too, but didn't search for it.

Edited by Heckler
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Heckler, on 03 Dec 2016 - 8:12 PM, said:

For less than 200, you'd be best of sticking with AMD and an FX CPU... I'm guess your old one may be DDR2 or lower speed DDR3, so I'm gonna assume you'll need 8GB or ram too.

 

Bear in mind that the new gen of AMD chips is due soon... AM4 socket, so holding off may be a good idea... even if it's only to grab better deals as older stock gets discounted.

 

For the current crop I'd recommend the 970/990X/990FX chipsets if you can get them in mATX, otherwise stick with the 760G chipset... I've always had good experience with ASUS motherboards. Never had a failure like I have with other brands. But something like the Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 is normally less than £50 whilst the ASROCK N68-GS4FX gan be found for less than £40.  Personally I've got one of the ASUS M5A USB3 mATX boards which would be around the £50-60 running a quad core FX4130 (4.2Ghz) which is an older one now and you can get a 6300 for well under £80. 8GB of some decent Corsair vengeance black 1800mhz DDR3 can be picked up for around £50 or less.

 

That's just separate prices... if you can find a bundle with similar items, you'd easily be under the £200 mark... Might be even wiggle room for an 8 core FX CPU instead like the 4.2ghz FX8300 For £100

 

But as I said... it's hard to find some of these things these days... there hasn't been a socket change for a few years, and I can't remember a chipset refresh in the last 3yrs for AMD based boards. I still think you'd be better of toughing it out for a while longer and see what the new sockets bring in the spring.

 

There's also the AMD FM2+ Sockets & APU's.... But I don't really know a lot about them to be honest or how they compare to the AM3+ ones. A quick check of those prices over here will get you an ASUS MB around the £40-50 mark, an APU from £52-145 and pretty much the same for memory... Assuming the MB's take the same DDR3.

 

Not built an Intel system in 15yrs, simply because of the VFM factor... But based on current prices... you'd need to double the budget I reckon.

 

Thanks.  I wish there were a dedicated hardware subform on here!

 

Your suggestion to hold off a bit --even to grab a good deal on older stock--is a good one and may well be what I do.

 

Historically I'm 50/50 between AMD and Intel... so I'm comfortable on either platform. Agree the VFM is higher on AMD, but the last two builds I did were both Intel and somehow they went more smoothly than my prior two builds (which both happened to be AMD). Actually somewhere between those was a "re-build" of an AMD system that went pear-shaped. I was reusing a nice quad core processor (from a circa 2008 Gateway) after having motherboard problems, and the new MoBo (that I paid through the nose for, since it was so outdated) keeps losing time (yes, replaced CMOS battery and such; no joy). It's sitting in a corner, with me looking at it skeptically. Thinking to gut it, take the case / power supply and put my current HTPC Kuma 2-core setup in there, and use the current HTPC case for the "new" system for my Emby server.

 

I was thinking about an i3 system, but I will take another look at the AMD offerings. Along the lines you mentioned I could do this for $57:

https://www.amazon.com/M5A78L-M-Plus-USB3-MicroATX-Motherboard/dp/B01FN9QT34/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1480815342&sr=8-2&keywords=m5a78L

And add an FX 4350 processor for $87:

https://www.amazon.com/AMD-Unlocked-Processor-FD4350FRHKBOX-Black/dp/B00CLBZAWY/ref=pd_sim_147_4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00CLBZAWY&pd_rd_r=NH33TG2V0VTJ86VK40PH&pd_rd_w=0JQ1m&pd_rd_wg=r63kU&psc=1&refRID=NH33TG2V0VTJ86VK40PH

Or for a few more bucks an FX 6300:

https://www.amazon.com/AMD-FD6300WMHKBOX-FX-6300-6-Core-Processor/dp/B009O7YORK/ref=pd_sbs_147_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B009O7YORK&pd_rd_r=DN6JJRXAWNKFYBT209VK&pd_rd_w=WuTcH&pd_rd_wg=72ReB&psc=1&refRID=DN6JJRXAWNKFYBT209VK

 

I could get RAM and still be right around $200.

 

If I go Intel, I'd definitely be looking at an i3 for now, but I could easily swap up to an i5 later. No need for me for an i7... max load ever for the Emby server will be recording two channels OTA (HDHomeRun) and serving 1... maybe 2 eventually... clients.  So I had been looking at something like this:

I3-6100 3.7Ghz, $105

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015VPX2EO/ref=nav_timeline_asin?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Or even a 3.2Ghz for $99 (I'd probably stick with the 3.7)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LFKNL7W/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=2AHPMAXAP3BIW&coliid=I177NPMTQNAR2U&psc=1

 

The problem seems to be that most of the 1151 boards I've seen tend to have 4 (or fewer) SATA ports, at least in my price range. 4 would work... barely... but I'd rather get 6. Haven't done an exhaustive search yet.

 

I've got plenty on my hands though. Setting up the Tronsmart, new AVR on Xmas, and eventually playing with my Remix mini. Oh, and I've got a CHIP ("$9 computer" which was really ~$25 with an HDMI adaptor) to play with. I've been meaning to see if I can get that thing to work as an EMBY client.

 

Thanks for the good thoughts. I enjoy your insightful posts.

 

Marc

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Jdiesel

I've had good luck with off lease business class hardware. Not sure what area you are in but I would checkout Craigslist/Kijiji for something with an Intel i5 in it. A lot of times you can find them without HDDs and a Windows license for quite cheap.

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Heckler

If I was looking to rebuild mine around now... I'd hold of until the new sockets/CPU's are out. Even going for the current older hardware simply means that you are cutting of any upgrade route in the future.

 

If you go for AM3+ hardware... get the top end CPU you can... they may be hard to find 12-18 months down the road when you may want a little more grunt... because if you can't upgrade what you buy now... it's a new MB/CPU (maybe even ram) again.

 

My current gaming rig was rebuilt very cheaply about 20 months ago.  I had an old Phenom II X4 955BE that was showing it's age.  I'd just replaced the Xfire 5770's with an R9 280X when a friend rebuilt his and sold me an ASUS M5A board with an FX Quad core 4.2ghz cpu for £20.  The onboard ouput socket for the sound was faulty, but spdif worked ok.  Sure I had no xfire anymore... but it was supposed to be a temp upgrade. I swapped the 4.2ghz quad core for the 6 core 6300 in my mediaserver. Although when doing comparison tests, they've both got near identical scores and I no longer bother with any overclocking like I used to.

 

I was going to upgrade again this year. But I'm holding off for the new socket... It'll be an 8 core next time with a decent ATX board with either SLI or Xfire... preferably both as I'm undecided on what my next vid card will be. I tend to stay one step down from the top because it's much better VFM, and I'm always on the look out for bargains. I only paid £150 for my 280X when they were going for £250+ on average. Maybe I'll get another one of those and xfire them again. 6GB video ram should see me ok for 4K gaming... although that then means a new monitor too.  :)

Edited by Heckler
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Heckler

I've had good luck with off lease business class hardware. Not sure what area you are in but I would checkout Craigslist/Kijiji for something with an Intel i5 in it. A lot of times you can find them without HDDs and a Windows license for quite cheap.

If you can pick something like that for a few bucks... then grab it.  Chances are you'll be throwing everything except the CPU away as a lot of business boxes are based on BX motherboards.  I remember doing a rollout project of new systems a few years ago for a company near here and we were using Dell's with BX based system in them... Absolutely zero chance of upgrading them or even adding a decent video card. But if you can find one for almost nothing, worth it for the i5.

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  • 3 weeks later...
justdrooit

The truth is, if you waited this long, hold on another 2-3 months. AMD is releasing their AM4-based Ryzen (aka Zen) processors. Initial benchmarks seem to be quite good, putting AMD back on the map again for the first time in maybe 5-6 years. They compared a 3.4GHz Ryzen system (8 core, 16 threads) without the Turbo feature on their processor to an i7-6900K using Handbrake and a few other applications... and it's promised to be much cheaper than the i7 and more energy efficient (95W vs 140W)

I know, lots of speculation and can you take a magnifying glass to those benchmarks? Anyway, if the 40% more instructions per compute cycle is true, I could be upgrading my server from the FX-8320 it currently has to something on that platform...

And if you AREN'T interested in something that powerful due to price, think about the prices falling on other CPUs when it comes out. A little competition can be nice.

 

Hope no one minds a link:
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/188979/20161217/amd-ryzen-destroys-intel-s-core-i7-6900k-cpu-heres-how-good-this-processor-is.htm

Edited by justdrooit
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