Looking to change Motherboard and CPU

[apefray 4]

Hi,

 

Could anyone offer a bit of advice with regards to changing my current Motherboard and CPU. Currently I have an ASRock - EP2C602-4L/D16 populated with 2 x Intel® Xeon® CPU E5-2670 0 @ 2.60GHz and 32 GB Multi-bit ECC RAM. The hard drives are connected through a HP Expander card, with a cache drive directly connected to a SATA 3 port on the motherboard.

 

Now,as you can imagine, this thing is sucking so much power (approx 350w ph) that I am now contemplating on changing to either an AMD Ryzen or Intel I7 setup, but, could someone recommend which CPU I should be looking at? As you can imagine my current setup is more than capable of transcoding several streams all at the same time, but I would like an energy efficient CPU that can handle around 5 transcoding streams at the same time.

 

I have looked at an Intel i7-8700 or AMD Ryzen 7 2700x which both score around 15000 Passmarks, so either should be capable based on 2000 passmarks per stream, and running with 16GB of RAM instead of 32GB (without the benefit of ECC)

 

I would also add that this is all run through a Docker on Unraid, in a 3U 16 Bay server case (although only 8 bays are currently occupied).

 

I have also thought about utilising Hardware Acceleration, but I have heard the quality can be lower than through Software and I think I would prefer to stick to Software to get the best streams, unless anyone can advise differently. If I went the Hardware Acceleration route, would the IGPU on the Intel i7-8700 be up to the task, or should I go discrete. I'm not sure about the AMD Ryzen (haven't been near them for many many years), does it even have IGPU or would it again be discrete.  

 

Am I asking too much of an Intel i7 or AMD Ryzen, or have things moved on far enough to make them worthy of replacing my dual Xeon setup, and putting money back in my pocket

 

 

Cheers

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest asrequested]

What are you going to be transcoding?

[apefray 4]

All of my movies are in mkv x264 format mainly 720p or 1080p, around 4.5GB in size to save space.

 

I have a limit on the bitrate per user of 4mb as I have a max 20mb upload connection, hence the reason I mentioned 5 streams at the same time.

 

Actually, having read up a bit more on Hardware Acceleration, this maybe a non starter anyway, as it seems you can't utilise Hardware Acceleration through a Docker running on Unraid (well not yet anyway)

 

Oh, and another thing, users are either using Samsung/LG TV's along with the Emby app installed, or using Google Chrome to view on the TV through their mobile devices.

Edited January 22, 2019 by apefray

[Guest asrequested]

Ok so easy stuff. I'd probably suggest the i7, and use hardware acceleration. The difference in quality is negligible. And it'll transcode more easily. Throw in an SSD for a transcode drive, and you should be good. As for motherboards, I use Gigabyte, exclusively. And that GPU should be able to handle 4k, should you decide to get some of that stuff.

 

Oh just read your edit. Then get a Ryzen. I've got a threadripper in my server.

Edited January 22, 2019 by Doofus

[apefray 4]

Im running emby 4.0.0.2 currently, with auto throttling turned on, so I assume (if my thinking is correct) that there would be less stress on the CPU anyway as it would transcode in blocks until the next block requires transcoding rather than a continuous transcode holding up all the cores whilst this i  happening.

[apefray 4]

Somthing like this Doofus?

 

https://www.box.co.uk/YD190XA8AEWOF-AMD-Ryzen-Threadripper-1900X-8-Core-Proc_2201216.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8_CPirmC4AIVrDLTCh0t0Q6_EAYYAyABEgKT_PD_BwE

 

Oooooohhhhhh, thats 180w TDP and liquid cooling is receommend. Not sure I want to install liquid cooling. What Threadripper are you using and is it with air cooling?

Edited January 22, 2019 by apefray

[vdatanet 1549]

I use an Intel i5 8600 8th generation. I've tested 10 concurrent hardware transcoding sessions (1080p from 10 Mbps to 5 Mbps) with no problems, and has a lower tdp than Ryzen.

Edited January 22, 2019 by vdatanet

[apefray 4]

Yep, I think I prefer the i7-8700 which has a TDP of 65w which I think will make more sense in trying to put a bit of money back in my pocket, although I am still open to AMD Ryzen suggstions based on both TDP and price but equivalent to the i7-8700 in terms of raw processing power (oh, and not needing liquid cooling, although the idea of a near silent server, does appeal to me after having to put up with 2 x Intel® Xeon® CPU E5-2670 0 @ 2.60GHz for nearly two years)

[Guest asrequested]

I've got the TR 1920X. No liquid cooling. At rest, it uses 85w. Probably a little more than you want. But if you can't use hardware acceleration, stick with a basic Ryzen. It processes video quite easily, and has more cores than Intel. It's better for a media server.