--Oz-- said:
@ TheBeastie
I really been taking a hard look at the PlexHD MB, 32GB and the E5-2689 chip, $200 shipped is smoking deal. I have watched several YT videos and all seems pretty straightforward. There was some talk about disabling some server services (septor or something).
I have been a PC gamer since the XT, built all my systems, so I have some knowledge/experience. Have you tried one of these server/PC systems?
Do they come with a MB cd for drivers or a website link or just pray Win10 finds all the drivers or?
Can you recommend a good Aliexpress PSU 800-1000W (I plan on having a bunch of HDD's plus)? I see a bunch of 1000W psu, but they say "max", I am thinking they are lightweight and not really worth the ~$30 and I should get something a little better.
Yeah, in reference to "septor", this is a Spectre security hole, apparently its never been officially released/used in the wild. This is a bug in almost all Intel CPU's except for Intels very latest CPUs, by default an up to date Windows 10 will block the vulnerability.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectre_(security_vulnerability)
Ideally, the CPU's microcode is supposed to be updated but for older stuff this is not likely to happen.
Probably only used by true security experts engaged in spear-phishing attacks will ever end up using it against people. https://www.kaspersky.com.au/resource-center/definitions/spear-phishing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectre_%28security_vulnerability%29#Mitigation
according to Dell: "No 'real-world' exploits of these vulnerabilities [i.e., Meltdown and Spectre] have been reported to date [7 February 2018], though researchers have produced proof-of-concepts."
If you plan on using your new build for mission-critical data then maybe the latest hardware would be the best choice.
For recommended PSU's from Aliexpress I don't have any recommendations.
I am still on the same PSU I bought for my PC build from 10 years ago as it still runs great, the Antec Signature, I got it from a review way back then from JonnyGuru who has long been seen as the PSU review god.
https://www.jonnyguru.com/
https://www.anandtech.com/show/2632
I used to only visit traditional text-written websites for tech hardware information but YouTube has taken over this area quite well, most of these YouTubers do have websites and Twitter/Facebook pages with sometimes good information as well.
https://youtu.be/5p1IwK9U7d4
[youtube]5p1IwK9U7d4[/youtube]
Here is a guide on how to choose a PSU for your PC build. I would say buying locally just a major respected PSU brand should go well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXku-gsdyok
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sThQTgDfjVg
A bunch of general PSU buying guides here https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Choosing+a+PSU
The only thing I have bought recently for my PC from Aliexpress was some 8GB DDR3 DIMMs, these were standard desktop ones but there were so cheap I was almost expecting them to not work, but they worked just fine.
I have been eyeing the idea of getting a Xeon CPU+MB+RAM set off Aliexpress but after just upgrading my i7 920 2.6Ghz CPU to the Xeon X5675 Hex core and overclocking it at 4.66Ghz I think I will be just fine for a fair while yet.
I am still on my original Asus X58 motherboard I bought 10 years ago as well.
One thing you should note with those Chinese Xeon desktop/workstation motherboards like PlexHD is they don't support any overclocking, the only overclocking you can possible is if you happen to buy a Xeon server CPU that happens to have its CPU core clock multiplier unlocked. There are some Xeons that have this.. so you can move the X23 multiplier to X26 etc and overclock that way, but there are no bus speed adjustments possible.
That is the advantage of having an original brand motherboard like my Asus X58 motherboard, all the bus speed overclock options in the bios etc, the standard bus speed is 133Mhz but I am running it at 203Mhz, so 203Mhz X23 = 4,669Mhz
So ideally when you buy a Xeon MB set from Aliexpress you want to buy a CPU with the highest frequency possible which of course always costs more. There are Xeon models that have their multiplier officially unlocked, forget which ones they are, naturally they will be more expensive.
The best YouTubers I have found that talk about and give ideas on building Xeon server CPU's for desktop usage has been PhilsComputerLab
https://www.youtube.com/user/philscomputerlab/videos
And "Tech YES City", this guy talks about a very wide amount of subjects.
https://www.youtube.com/user/bryaneasy/videos
He's a big fan of Aliexpress bargains like this newest video here https://youtu.be/urkfXGLFZkg
He also does X58 rebuilds, where he sources an old original Asus/Gigabyte X58 desktop motherboard and pairs it with a cheap server LGA1366 Xeon 6 core CPU and overclocks it https://youtu.be/cMn_zFvlxUo
What this guy loves most and what a lot of these Aliexpress likers all agree on are the performance/value of these "SNOWMAN CPU Coolers" which they claim are comparable to the famous Noctua CPU coolers, but at a fraction of the price.
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/3205069/search?origin=y&SearchText=snowman+cpu+cooler&aff_platform=link-c-tool&cpt=1577629696656&sk=DZjawS8s&aff_trace_key=73d827d241f74ef29424d9e64ba1110a-1577629696656-07720-DZjawS8s&terminal_id=d8fbd41f89d74eab97eaf85a1221b9d6
If you watch enough videos from these two guys you should get a good understanding of what you can achieve.
When I was doing research and decided to upgrade my current PC to the Xeon X5675, but I also checked out a fair amount of this guys videos, this guy is Finnish so everything is subtitled and there is little point listening to his videos with sound on, but he's got some great comparisons of what can be achieved and the benchmarked results of performance of games you should get.
https://youtu.be/_XL-m6n16pU
https://youtu.be/8kfdKq5b6sk
https://youtu.be/YJVxpZHQaS0
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If you are really uncomfortable about buying from Aliexpress I have noticed some of these "xeon motherboard set" packages on Ebay as well.
Look on Ebay for something like "motherboard set X79 LGA 2011" or "X79 LGA2011 Motherboard Combo"
https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=X79+Xeon+set&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_osacat=0&_odkw=X79+Xeon+Set
It looks like they charge more when going via Ebay...
Here was the main keywords I would search for on Aliexpress when I was looking at these motherboard+CPU+Ram combos "X79 motherboard set with Xeon"
Here are some bookmarked Ali stores I had when I was doing research.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33031210794.html?spm=2114.12010612.8148356.24.2440392ffSvcIy
https://machinist.aliexpress.com/store/3666028?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.18141aebK1k0xk
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33057546983.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.1000023.3.441573b1TIjzWo
https://www.aliexpress.com/af/X79-motherboard-set-with-Xeon-.html?d=y&origin=n&SearchText=X79+motherboard+set+with+Xeon+&catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20191106064646
Overall these stores look less dodgy than the store I bought my ram from but I dont really know.
One idea I had was to try and find a bargain old X79 LGA2011 desktop PC on Facebook market place
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/melbourne/electronics/?sort=BEST_MATCH
There must be some people who are just hoping to get rid of their old PC so I can pick it up for a bargain, and then replace the CPU with a Xeon 8 core 20MB cached monster. But this turned out to be difficult, most people are asking for a lot of money for their old PC and a lot of them don't say what motherboard they have so its hard to know how to make a good match, and then you have to wonder if their old motherboard, while it might be a quality overclockable MB, might be on its last legs.
This was why I stuck to my old X58 PC and just upgraded the CPU to a Xeon, I still know exactly what I have.
For your question on driver hunting, I would expect that as long as you use Windows 10 and are connected to the internet all the drivers will be found and installed automagically... Sometimes it takes a few reboots and clicks of the "update windows" button of a fresh windows 10 install for windows to kick in and find any missing drivers for hardware.