[SOLVED] opteron 6380 or a haswell cpu?

[ianprobasco]

I am building a home server for some light gaming, virtualization, CAD, and just general use. I have had my eyes set on a quad operation rig for a while now but I'm beginning to have my doubts. for a GPU I would most likely just throw an RX 480 in because nothing I play is too demanding. this thing is going to be under my desk mounted in a drawer thing I made and I am concerned not only about heat dissipation but also the noise. I really don't want to end up with a screaming pizza box of death in my bedroom...

 

[cryoburner]

An Opteron 6380 is a pretty outdated CPU at this point. I'm not sure what sort of pricing you are looking at on the used market or what your total budget is, but even something like a Ryzen 1600 would be around twice as fast at both lightly-threaded and heavily-threaded applications, and those processors can be had for $85 brand new, at least in the US...

Amazon.com: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 6-Core, 12-Thread Unlocked 65W Desktop Processor with Wraith Stealth Cooler (YD1600BBAFBOX): Computers & Accessories

Buy AMD Ryzen 5 1600 6-Core, 12-Thread Unlocked 65W Desktop Processor with Wraith Stealth Cooler (YD1600BBAFBOX): CPU Processors - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

That Opteron is also rather power hungry, and will put out a lot more heat than these more modern processors, so it's probably not worth considering.

 

[ianprobasco]

I had briefly considered one of those... thanks for the feedback!

 

[Third-Eye]

I had briefly considered one of those... thanks for the feedback!

If you get the Ryzen 5 1600 make sure it's the 1600 AF (YD1600BBAFBOX), because it's faster than the original AE model.

 

[King_V]

The link @cryoburner provided goes straight to the Amazon entry for the 1600AF version, which is once again available for $85.

 

[Third-Eye]

The link @cryoburner provided goes straight to the Amazon entry for the 1600AF version, which is once again available for $85.

I saw that, but sometimes people link to American sites for people that are in other countries.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Avoid any opteron. They are old, based on a bad architecture, and just bad all around.

Ryzen 5 1600af is very good for the money.
PCPartPicker Part List

Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
Motherboard | ASRock B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard | $79.97 @ Amazon
Memory | Team T-FORCE VULCAN Z 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory | $119.99 @ Newegg
Custom| Ryzen 5 1600 AF| $85.00
| Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts |
| Total | $284.96
| Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-08 15:17 EDT-0400 |

However, if your budget is lower a Xeon socket 2011 may serve you well.

A Xeon like this :https://www.ebay.com/p/1723023163?iid=283841414519
You get 8 cores 16 threads, 20mb cache, and 3.4ghz boost for $50. It will have noticeably lower 1t performance than a 1600af but it has more cache and more cores. Its sandy bridge based.

Motherboards are tricky, but your best bet is a Chinese one for around $60.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/4xDDR3-DIMM-Computer-Desktop-Mainboard-X79H-8-Core-LGA-2011-Gaming-Motherboard/264551103446?hash=item3d98797bd6:g:sX0AAOSwmXtd4gZQ&LH_BIN=1

Plus you can use cheap DDR3 ECC allowing you to get tons for not much money.
32 gb 1333mhz for like $40
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Server-RAM...426805?hash=item2acd908475:g:EAAAAOSwx6lc-CcD

 

[King_V]

I saw that, but sometimes people link to American sites for people that are in other countries.

True - but, I find that in the vast majority of cases, a poster doesn't state their country, nor is it indicated when looking at their profile. (well, either that, or I'm looking in the wrong place)

 

[cryoburner]

However, if your budget is lower a Xeon socket 2011 may serve you well.
...
You get 8 cores 16 threads, 20mb cache, and 3.4ghz boost for $50. It will have noticeably lower 1t performance than a 1600af but it has more cache and more cores. Its sandy bridge based.

Motherboards are tricky, but your best bet is a Chinese one for around $60.
...
Plus you can use cheap DDR3 ECC allowing you to get tons for not much money.
32 gb 1333mhz for like $40

I'm not sure there would be much benefit to that though. It might technically have a bit more L3 cache (16 vs 20MB), but it has less L2 (3 vs 2MB), and the extra cores are not really going to be beneficial seeing as the 1600 will still perform better at heavily multithreaded tasks, in addition to being notably faster at lightly-threaded ones. For "some light gaming, virtualization, CAD, and just general use" I think they might be better served with a more modern processor with better performance per-core.

I guess the cost of used hardware could be a benefit, but then again, it's older hardware that will have no warranty. And despite being pre-owned, you would only be saving around $25 on the slower processor, and not that much on the motherboard compared to a number of B450 models. I guess the cheap server RAM might potentially make some difference if one had need for 32GB, but otherwise 16GB of DDR4-3200 can be had for under $70 new. And of course, the newer hardware will have a better upgrade path available.

That Xeon build would likely be better than an Opteron one, but when it's possible to get a faster, modern processor with 6-cores and 12-threads for as little as $85 that will outperform it in pretty much every way, it kind of brings into question how worthwhile any of those options would be.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

I'm not sure there would be much benefit to that though. It might technically have a bit more L3 cache (16 vs 20MB), but it has less L2 (3 vs 2MB), and the extra cores are not really going to be beneficial seeing as the 1600 will still perform better at heavily multithreaded tasks, in addition to being notably faster at lightly-threaded ones. For "some light gaming, virtualization, CAD, and just general use" I think they might be better served with a more modern processor with better performance per-core.

I guess the cost of used hardware could be a benefit, but then again, it's older hardware that will have no warranty. And despite being pre-owned, you would only be saving around $25 on the slower processor, and not that much on the motherboard compared to a number of B450 models. I guess the cheap server RAM might potentially make some difference if one had need for 32GB, but otherwise 16GB of DDR4-3200 can be had for under $70 new. And of course, the newer hardware will have a better upgrade path available.

That Xeon build would likely be better than an Opteron one, but when it's possible to get a faster, modern processor with 6-cores and 12-threads for as little as $85 that will outperform it in pretty much every way, it kind of brings into question how worthwhile any of those options would be.

It was meant mainly as a suggestion if he needed to cut costs. That CPU+ram+board and a cheap cooler would shave off $100 from the same combo of newer parts. Sure it will perform worse, but its a lot cheaper