X99 System Should One Consider an Upgrade In Near Future?

tolagarf

Member
To make a story short, my i7 7700K (Gamer PC) died on me, it was a botched de-lid job. I decided to sell off all the parts, keep the SSD's only and go back to my trusty X99 system which just had its 4 year anniversary. So I've decided instead of having 2-3 computers running 24/7, I will consolidate them into one. So this PC will be a gamer PC, a Plex server, and will be a Substratum Node server once the software reaches production version 1.

The problem with running server like tasks on a gamer PC can wreak havoc in games, I found out the hard way before when the game and Plex server were fighting over resources (CPU load spikes etc), but that problem can be solved by adding a Quadro graphics card like the P2000 so all (mostly all) transcodes will be performed on the professional graphics card instead of the CPU. But with this upcoming node software, it could be a fight for resources again.

What do you think? Would the new Z399 platform (or whatever it's gonna be called) be the way to go, with lets say the Intel Core i9-9900X (10/20 cores/threads). Is it even feasible that my i7 5930K with 32 GB RAM would be able to handle this kind of load, even with overclocking? Would virtualization be the way to do it?

P.S: TLDR; Sorry for the wall of text :D
 
I would rather go with Process Lasso, than VMs. It all depends on your budget. If you can afford new HEDT system i would go with 12, or 14 cores. If you want to save some money find used i7-6950X and put it in current system.
 
I would rather go with Process Lasso, than VMs. It all depends on your budget. If you can afford new HEDT system i would go with 12, or 14 cores. If you want to save some money find used i7-6950X and put it in current system.

I don't worry too much about cost, and obtaining an i7 6950X could be a cost that in the end won't be worth it compared to buying new. I was also thinking about 12 cores, seems like the sweet spot. Process Lasso though? Never heard that before, what is it? :)
 
If you game at high resolutions where clock speed doesn't matter too much there are 14 core Xeons kicking around. If you are using VMs you can dedicate parts of the CPU to certain VMs etc.

I've no intention of retiring my X99 and Xeon. It simply does everything I need it to and more, so I just wouldn't get any pleasure out of spending a grand just to out-do myself. There are things I would much rather have, like a really clean PC all water cooled with lots of RGB.
 
If you game at high resolutions where clock speed doesn't matter too much there are 14 core Xeons kicking around. If you are using VMs you can dedicate parts of the CPU to certain VMs etc.

I've no intention of retiring my X99 and Xeon. It simply does everything I need it to and more, so I just wouldn't get any pleasure out of spending a grand just to out-do myself. There are things I would much rather have, like a really clean PC all water cooled with lots of RGB.

Each to their own I guess :) I never liked Xeon's though, I can't find heads and tails with that platform. Think I'll stick with HEDT, but I might hold out for X599 anyway though, depends I guess...

I've done water cooling for the past 3½ years and it cost me way too much money than I'd like to admit. I think I've reached a point in my life where I'm done with failures (my own included) and the maintenance is really what's getting to me in the end. I like to do things perfect and not half way through and that can be both a curse and a blessing when doing water cooling. I'll stick with air or AIO for the time being hehe.
 
I don't worry too much about cost, and obtaining an i7 6950X could be a cost that in the end won't be worth it compared to buying new. I was also thinking about 12 cores, seems like the sweet spot. Process Lasso though? Never heard that before, what is it? :)

Then 12 core it is. :D

Process Lasso is the utility to manage core affinity. It is extremely powerful. If you go for 12c/24t cpu you can assign 12 threads for gaming, 4 for Plex, 2 for system processes, rest for your server, etc... It has it's own modes, very smart automatic process affinity management, you can create profiles, and so much more. It is basically everything Windows task scheduler isn't, and it should be. It is such a nice tool to have on high core systems.
 
Then 12 core it is. :D

Process Lasso is the utility to manage core affinity. It is extremely powerful. If you go for 12c/24t cpu you can assign 12 threads for gaming, 4 for Plex, 2 for system processes, rest for your server, etc... It has it's own modes, very smart automatic process affinity management, you can create profiles, and so much more. It is basically everything Windows task scheduler isn't, and it should be. It is such a nice tool to have on high core systems.

Sounds awesome. I'll check that out for sure!
 
Then 12 core it is. :D

Process Lasso is the utility to manage core affinity. It is extremely powerful. If you go for 12c/24t cpu you can assign 12 threads for gaming, 4 for Plex, 2 for system processes, rest for your server, etc... It has it's own modes, very smart automatic process affinity management, you can create profiles, and so much more. It is basically everything Windows task scheduler isn't, and it should be. It is such a nice tool to have on high core systems.
You can set affinity with any modern os. :P

But honestly I wouldn't really bother with constricting to cores, schedulers are smart. You'll end up wasting resources more often than not.
 
You can set affinity with any modern os. :P

But honestly I wouldn't really bother with constricting to cores, schedulers are smart. You'll end up wasting resources more often than not.

It doesn't remember settings when you set it in windows. You need to set it again every time you run the process.
 
But what about that "gamer mode" that disables some cores with Threadripper. What's that really about? Not sure I like the idea of having to switch something off in order to play games, kinda beats the whole idea :)

It allows the cores enabled to clock higher. So you use less power, get higher clocks and etc.

BTW don't expect to get a 5960x or 6950x on the cheap. Fact is that even two years from now they won't be worth it over Ryzen. They were £900+ CPUs at launch, people are not going to be reasonable about it and sell them for less than a Ryzen.

If you are talking any sort of core use *at all* then nothing Intel make makes any financial sense whatsoever, and you would need to be a financial masochist to even consider it.

IIRC I paid £350 or £340 for my Xeon last June. It plopped straight into a £90 motherboard (brand new X99 SLI Plus! I picked up on a clearout). That was less than just a 12 core TR, so that made no sense (mine is faster overall too).

Xeons are just (usually always, but there are some exceptions) locked Intel CPUs. Mine does 3.8ghz on up to 4 cores, then drops off to 3.4. Still immensely powerful when tasked, though.
 
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But what about that "gamer mode" that disables some cores with Threadripper. What's that really about? Not sure I like the idea of having to switch something off in order to play games, kinda beats the whole idea :)

Pretty sure that's something you have to set in the BIOS and then reboot, not sure about that though, so take it with a grain of salt.
 
Pretty sure that's something you have to set in the BIOS and then reboot, not sure about that though, so take it with a grain of salt.

Wouldn't work for me either way if it's by BIOS or software, as I need all cores to be active even when gaming (does make more sense if one reads my initial post hehe)
 
Wouldn't work for me either way if it's by BIOS or software, as I need all cores to be active even when gaming (does make more sense if one reads my initial post hehe)

That's why I mentioned it. :) I think you're looking for something that doesn't exist. Current HEDT systems don't make multi-tasking as easy as it should be, especially in regard to gaming. Consolidation might not be the answer you're looking for.
 
That's why I mentioned it. :) I think you're looking for something that doesn't exist. Current HEDT systems don't make multi-tasking as easy as it should be, especially in regard to gaming. Consolidation might not be the answer you're looking for.

Well then let me be the first one to prove it will work. BBL :D
 
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