Server Chassis - Gaming Machine

[Steve21]

Afternoon All,

 

Slightly OT question, but know someone who's after a powerful media editing workstation for work, but also plays a lot of games, and wondered is there any downside with using any server-style hardware for this?

 

Just thinking a proper raid card etc for the storage for media editing, but with a decent graphics card, would that have any downside affects? (As long as the primary is still SSD etc).

 

Thinking in terms of cache issues etc on the hardware more than pricing etc, just seems pointless him buying two machines if there's no downside to using the server for gaming too

 

Steve

[NB9457]

Honestly, I think unless they're very IT savvy, it'll over complicate things.

 

Best budget rig to build at the moment would be an i3/5, GTX660 and an SSD. That wouldn't struggle with anything, plus it's much cheaper than the server equivalent.

[GuyJD]

I'm pretty sure Linus Tech Tips on YouTube did this and listed all the pros and cons, I think the only Pro was the price of used server hardware.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

You can get a monster rig using used server hardware.

 

 

Our HP Z620 chassis would let you have the best of both worlds with an 8 core xeon E5 cpu, 48GB of 12800R ECC RAM, SATA SSD and a raided pair of spinning drives for storage.

 

With PCIe 3.0 slots and a beefy psu you could fit any kind of graphics card and reap the full benefit of a top of the line GTX coupled with the 16 cpu threads and super-reliable memory that server-grade components give you

 

 

A few of the lads here are using HP Z-series for gaming and get great results. They operate just like a normal PC, so there's nothing particularly complex about setting it up.

[3s-gtech]

ECC may be a deciding factor. With that in mind, and depending on budget, an Intel X99 based system with a Xeon in it, and ECC memory, should make a good gamer hybrid. RAID via a card or built-in should also be fine. Obviously it won't be cheap to build, but should combine those roles well.

[sonofsanta]

GTX660 is nowhere near enough to play anything other than MOBAs these days, not at 1080p. It's 3 generations old. Some good recommendations here.

 

OT: you can create a powerful media editing workstation with a desktop i7 and gobs of RAM. The only thing server style stuff would gain you (apart from a bigger hole in your wallet) would be ECC RAM, which isn't overly relevant. Don't need hardware RAID these days, Windows Storage Spaces is surprisingly good.

 

If you can get a workstation from @ICTDirect_Dave, though, and stick a new GPU in it, you can get hella spec for not much dollar. EDIT: I see he has beat me here already.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

If you can get a workstation from @ICTDirect_Dave, though, and stick a new GPU in it, you can get hella spec for not much dollar. EDIT: I see he has beat me here already.

 

My spider-senses go off when somebody starts talking about using a workstation for gaming.

 

Edit:- More deets.

 

Here in the office, John Graham (who a lot of you know well) uses an older HP Z600 with a pair of X5675 3.06GHz Hex Core CPUs, 24GB ECC RAM, SSD, 2TB HDD & GTX970 with Windows 10 Pro.

 

It's his work from home machine that he uses for all his office jobs, plus plenty of media work. and a night it's his gaming machine where he runs everything on max (or near enough) settings.

Edited October 4, 2016 by ICTDirect_Dave

[Steve21]

Mmm thanks guys, certainly some interesting points in here. Good to see some others are using the servers as a gaming machine too

 

Certainly think a better graphics card will be needed, as mentioned between editing and the games a nice 750-1060~ region should good price point vs requirements. (Don't think I could justify the 1080 to him )

 

Dave, that's a nice option! was that 3 HDD + 1 SSD it fits? Or Like Hybrid + 2 SATA? - Edit - WAIT there's dual cpu options in them?!

 

Thanks,

Steve

[Wolfmatty]

I would look at a GTX 980ti (£340) which for 1080p is amazing there is no point going higher than that unless you are planning on going 4K gaming. Edited October 4, 2016 by Wolfmatty

[3s-gtech]

Over a 1070 8GB, really? Older tech at the same price makes no sense at all. The 1070 is the default at that price.

[sonofsanta]

Yeah, 980Ti is completely pointless now. 1070 beats it in every way.

[Arthur]

Obviously it won't be cheap to build

Something like this perhaps?

 

[Geoff]

Word from the wise, one of my gaming PCs in the past had a Supermicro case. It was bloody loud. Gaming cases tend to at least attempt some sound proofing (my current machine is water cooled, so it's very quiet). Edited October 4, 2016 by Geoff

[3s-gtech]

Like that, but less 'Murcan (and possibly with more room for storage).

[Geoff]

My case is a Fractal Design Define R5, FD-CA-DEF-R5-BK-W

 

Fractal Design

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Dave, that's a nice option! was that 3 HDD + 1 SSD it fits? Or Like Hybrid + 2 SATA? - Edit - WAIT there's dual cpu options in them?!

 

Thanks,

Steve

 

They have 3 x 3.5" Drive bays plus a couple of 5.25" optical bays. You'd be able to mount an ssd in the bigger bay and use 3 x 3.5" spinning discs if you wanted.

 

Alternatively you could use one of the spare PCIe x4 slots for a PCIe SSD?

 

And yes Dual Processors are an option. They can take a pair of 8-Core Xeon E5 CPUs. If you have a second CPU you can also fit up to 12 sticks of RAM as opposed to the regulation 8. You could then fit up to 192GB of RAM (providing you could afford 16GB DIMMS) although realistically 96GB in 8GB DIMMs is much more affordable.

Edited October 4, 2016 by ICTDirect_Dave

[NB9457]

My bad on the GTX660 recommendation, meant GTX1060, that thing is a monster for the price

[Geoff]

I got a bit giddy and got a 1080