Multi usage server/HTPC: Xeon or FX CPU?

T

TheForumTroll

Weaksauce
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Oct 11, 2009
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Hello experts.

My old trusty atom file-server just died on me, so I need some advice on CPU choice before I build a new one. I had almost ordered the Intel Xeon E3-1225 V2, but now I'm in doubt if the AMD FX (8350 Black?) would be a better choice, since my server will often be doing multiple things at the same time.

Usage:
Torrents, HTPC (video and music), SSH, tiny webserver, samba, transcoding, dns, etc...

No gaming, headless when not used as HTPC and onboard GPU won't be used. It will be running Linux of some sort.


Thanks for any info :)
 
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Do you plan on using a hypervisor? Do you need vendor support for pcie passthrough?
 
TheForumTroll said:
Usage:
Torrents, HTPC (video and music), SSH, tiny webserver, samba, etc...

No gaming, headless when not used as HTPC and onboard GPU won't be used. It will be running Linux of some sort.
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Is this what you were using your Atom server for? If so, how was the performance?

At face value, it doesn't look like you would need either the two CPUs you've mentioned since seeding torrents, running SSH, running a tiny web server, or simple file serving isn't all demanding CPU wise. Since you're using Linux, thats where a good CPU would be needed for HTPC duties (Not sure if they ever got hardware video decoding working in Linux) but even then you wouldn't need an eight-core CPU for that.
 
Yes, except I didn't use it as an HTPC or for transcoding (it streamed to a WDTV instead). It was fast enough for what it did, but that's about it. Torrents could more or less push its dual cores to 100 %. It cannot transcode its way out of a wet paper bag and I doubt it could do high definition films while also seeding torrents.

Anyways, I was thinking about running Xbmc or openelec and with that added to the old services, I thought more cores would be good.

Now I think about it I think I skipped the part about transcoding before, didn't I? Uh, well it might also need to be fast enough for transcoding, since my bedroom TV can hardly play anything (it is connected to a PlayStation 3, but that isn't much better). Otherwise those CPUs would of course be overkill.


EDIT: Added transcoding to first post.
 
TheForumTroll said:
Now I think about it I think I skipped the part about transcoding before, didn't I? Uh, well it might also need to be fast enough for transcoding, since my bedroom TV can hardly play anything (it is connected to a PlayStation 3, but that isn't much better). Otherwise those CPUs would of course be overkill.
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Yes you did leave out the bit about transcoding. That would be very important to know.

Well you would be fine with something as low as the FX-6300 to as high as the FX-8320. Really not seeing a need for you to get the FX-8350.
 
I'm not familiar with the applications you've listed above...but from what I'm seeing online both of the FX processors Dangman has suggested have had a pretty good track record :) The FX-6300 is about $120, the FX-8230 is about $160, check out Newegg if you choose to buy one.
 
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