recommendations for dual xeon server build

[mmd123]

first off, I want to say, that for one this is a future build for when I can actually afford it; second, this is being built to be my only pc for every task that I have, be it gaming, multimedia editing/encoding, or any other task that I would use a computer for.

now for the question: would a dual xeon server build be useful for gaming purposes, or would it not be useful for gaming purposes. when I game, I typically play heavily modded games like skyrim with over 50+ mods installed at a time. this build would not be made solely for gaming, but more as an all in one use pc, and it will be worth the money put into it for the other uses.

at the same time, I typically work on making games in either vb.net or java, and I heavily multitask no mater what it is that I am doing at a given time, so a multi-processor build has been a dream of mine for many years now. I plan to also do some media encoding/decoding and currently work on making music in fl studios when I have the time to do so.

the parts that I plan to roll into this build once I get the money for it, are the following:
sound blaster zxr
1tb sata 6gbps hdd
and my keyboard and mouse as well as possibly the dual 24" monitors I currently use. might upgrade to larger ones at that point however.

but anyways, what I'm wanting to know, is what parts would you guys recommend for this thing, and possibly what part combinations would you recommend.
yes, I know, this kind of a build is overkill for what I would do with it vs what it would cost to build, but in all honesty, I do not care. I plan to have a much better job by the time that I go to consider buying this, and in the end, this might even be re-purposed for use as a web server down the road, and that right there is the main reason that I do not care if it is overkill, because a server of this magnitude would be excellent as a web server.

here are my current parts that the build consists of, I want to know if anyone has any suggestions or replacements they think would be good.

dual socket 2011 board, apparently in a proprietary format...looking to see if there isn't something better that's non proprietary. dual socket xeon board

the case that I THINK might work...not 100% sure if it will or will not. potential case

4x these ram combinations, for 128 Gb ram per processor...I know, its again overkill, but I plan to use this overkill for use with the amd software ramdisk so that my games can be loaded into ram for *in theory* faster loading times and faster overall game play. not sure if that will work in practice or not. 64 gb ddr4 ram set

have not decided whether or not to go with solid state drives, or hard drives yet, I have had experience with ssd's and they are lightning fast in practice, but due to their limited lifespan, albeit a long lifespan, I am not sure if i want to go that route or not. if bought in bulk, they make up for their smaller size compared to some of the larger hard drives, but there still lies the problem of them having a significantly lower life span vs hard drives. also still not sure if they are good to be used in raid arrays or not. tried it once, it was split second fast, but I do not know if that lowers their life span or not. someone at one point told me that raiding a solid state drive lowers its life span, but I did not have enough time using the ssd raid to find that out.

 

[kanewolf]

The ability to run more threads probably won't make any difference. RAM out-the-wazoo won't make much difference, maybe a tiny difference, but not worth the $$$. Unless you are hosting a dozen game servers in VMs, your hardware choices make no sense.

 

[mmd123]

good to know, I knew it was overkill, but I guess I never realized just how extreme of overkill it was, that makes me a bit happier to know, that said I guess I can get lower end processors and still be good to go. the whole end game result of this build was to be used for web hosting once I got a better system for use as a desktop. and when I say web hosting, I mean running multiple websites I own the rights to off of one single server, potentially running up to 4 or 5 at once while still being usable as a desktop if I so choose to do so.

 

[kanewolf]

good to know, I knew it was overkill, but I guess I never realized just how extreme of overkill it was, that makes me a bit happier to know, that said I guess I can get lower end processors and still be good to go. the whole end game result of this build was to be used for web hosting once I got a better system for use as a desktop. and when I say web hosting, I mean running multiple websites I own the rights to off of one single server, potentially running up to 4 or 5 at once while still being usable as a desktop if I so choose to do so.

Even web hosting is pretty light weight, depending on how much database is required on the back end.

A "standard" I7 or E3 Xeon is more than sufficient for gaming, hosting normal things. The GPU and monitor(s) will make much more difference in your gaming experience than having too much CPU. 16GB RAM (2x8GB) with the option to add 16 more is a much better plan.

 

[mmd123]

that's the biggest reason that I went as far overkill as I did though, my websites database alone is 200Mb and growing fast, and the admin/php debug logs show that mysql is eating 25 to 30% of the processing power for each page load...now, how bad that translates to being I do not know, what I do know is that we are running from a quad socket server that has a total combined core count of 24 and it eats up that percentage of processor time for each page generation, now I should also mention that we use shared hosting and I am yet unsure if that debug log calculates ONLY our usage, or if it calculates EVERYONE'S usage... that I am still unsure of. I do believe that that is our usage alone due to the fact that that is concurrent with what our resource usage applet shows us. however over time it has grown in size and it used to be a meager 5% cpu per page generation. however, we are averaging between 100 to 300Mb of ram usage on an average day, and going anywhere from sipping cpu power, to eating up a total of 75% of that 24 core processing power from day to day, and although I'm not on my website often enough with work and life to tell whats going on when those spikes occur, I figured why not go the route of overkill and solve any and all problems while still getting a very nice new desktop to do my bidding in the process.