Re: [gentoo-user] New box

On 12/30/2016 08:39 AM, lee wrote:

> thelma@×××××××××××.com writes:
>
>> I'm putting a new system, it will be running mainly, VirtualBox,
>> Asterisk, Hylafax etc. (nothing graphic intensive).
>>
>> - IN WIN BL631 Low Profile Micro ATX Case w/ 300W Power Supply,
>> - AMD FX-8350 Processor 4.0GHz w/ 16MB Cache
>> - Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 w/ DDR3, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan
>> - Kingston HyperX Fury 16GB DDR3-1866MHz CL10 Dual Channel Kit
>> - Samsung 850 EVO Series mSATA Solid State Drive, 1TB
>> - Asus GeForce GT 720 Silent CSM, 2GB, PCI-E w/ D-Sub VGA, DVI, HDMI
>>
>> Will I have any problems installing Gentoo on this configuration, eg.
>> with Video Card etc.?
>> Do I need more RAM?
> If you want a rock solid machine with lots of cores and RAM and very
> capable of powering VMs, the HP Z800 is worthwhile to check out.
>
> You can get them for good prices here from resellers/ebay, and they are
> IMO currently the best you can get for your money if you want something
> like that.  Technology has moved on a bit, but you'd spend about twice
> the money if you buy something new that offers comparable overall
> performance.  The Z820s are still rather pricey.
>
> "Top speed" may be higher with the AMD, but I think it will have a hard
> time beating the overall performance of 2 Xeons with 6x2 cores each and
> 48GB RAM (or whatever configuration you get) when you load it with VMs
> and start compiling stuff.
>
> IF that's an issue for you: I've measured the power consumption of a
> Z800 with two X5675, 48GB RAM and a GTX770: 130W at idle, which I think
> is amazing.  It can reach about 600W when compiling, with the graphics
> card working hard and 6 spinning 3.5" disks.
>
> There are no issues with temperatures or anything, and they are pretty
> quiet.
>
> The power supplies they have are impressive.  I've seen the lights go
> out for like half a second or so, and I expected the machines to go
> down, but they kept running as if nothing happened.
>
> You can run Gentoo, Debian and Fedora on them.  If you run Xen on it,
> limit cstates to 1 or you may see random freezes.
>
> I wouldn't change mine for anything less than a Z820.  I used to build
> my machines from parts, and I quit doing that because it isn't
> worthwhile when you can just get a Z800 which offers more for half the
> money.
>
>
> Other than that, as others have already said, you're probably better off
> with at least 32GB and a better PSU.  I also don't store data or a
> system on a single disk with no redundancy, except for backups.
>
> (A Z800 has four 3.5" bays, and you can get adapters for 2.5" disks that
> plug in.  You could use 2x72GB 2.5" 15k SAS disks which you can get very
> cheaply for the system, put everything else on your SSD and use a 3.5"
> SATA disk for backups.)
>
You can build a system with a (new) KGPE-D16, two used 6276 processors 
and used 64gb ecc ram for only around $500 which will net you a 32 core 
computer that can run blob free no microcode coreboot that supports max 
256GB RDIMM RAM.

There is another coreboot compatible (theoretically, but not tested) QP 
max 1TB (jesus christ) RDIMM RAM G34 motherboard, so you could have 64 
cores for only $20 or so per 16 cores. (plus the $30 for a cpu cooler)