Advice on CPU choice

[cfcman]

I'm looking to migrate my homelab from ESXi to Proxmox. I currently run 3 VM's:

• Windows Server 2022 running Blue Iris NVR (v5) - 10 cameras (8GB RAM allocated)
• Lubuntu 20 for Logitech Media Server, Plex Media server, Home Assistant, VPN, Mediawiki, Web Server and file server (4GB RAM allocated)
• Windows 10 for PVR software & general testbed environment (4GB RAM allocated).

Current hardware is a HP Microserver Gen 8 with Intel Xeon E3-1265L V2 2.5 GHz, 16GB RAM. It can be sluggish from time to time, and RAM cannot be increased above 16GB.

I am looking to significantly upgrade the RAM and CPU, and am trying to decide between two used machines which I've seen advertised:
- Ryzen 5 3600X gaming PC 64GB RAM, GTX 970, MSI B450-A PRO MAX motherboard
- HP Z440 Xeon E5-2650v4 2.20GHz 64GB RAM, NVS 310.

On paper, the Ryzen looks more powerful while consuming less power, but I guess there are other considerations....
Does anyone have any views re. which might be better suited to my needs?

 

[AUTNero]

Hey there,

if you just look for a small box that runs those services any modern 4 core processor should be sufficient, for future expandability I would reccomend a bit more powerful CPU, like your suggested Ryzen 3600X. Personally I would get a miniPC for good Idle Power Consumtion. Look at Asus NUCs (former Intel NUC) or similar models. Be aware of storage needs, most support max 1 - 2 drives.

If you have room and don´t care so much about power consumtion, get yourself any DIY solution! Here I would reccomend an even more powerful CPU. Idle power is most of the times the same, but you have the extra if you need it. If you don´t need hardware transcoding for Blue Iris, skip the GPU (GTX 970) and look for integrated grafics! Saves even more in Power.

To backup the VMs look at PBS. You can also set it up in Proxmox as a VM and back up the data to an NFS Share. It´s officially not reccomended but I do it anyways and so far have no problems

As for the migration from ESXi to Proxmox: there is an import feature directly integrated in Proxmox (as of Version 8.2). When I used this two months ago I lost my Windows licenses.. other than that, it worked flawlessly.

Hope this helps.

 

[louie1961]

I am looking to significantly upgrade the RAM and CPU, and am trying to decide between two used machines which I've seen advertised:
- Ryzen 5 3600X gaming PC 64GB RAM, GTX 970, MSI B450-A PRO MAX motherboard
- HP Z440 Xeon E5-2650v4 2.20GHz 64GB RAM, NVS 310.

Between just those two, it comes down to CPU speed versus having ECC memory. I would opt for the Ryzen machine personally, but that MSI board won't support ECC memory. Actually it supports it but it says "Supports ECC UDIMM memory (non-ECC mode)", so basically you can't have ECC with that board.

In my opinion, that's not a problem. two of my three Proxmox machines run without ECC memory with no issues. My third machine is a HP Z640 with a Xeon E5-2690v3 and 128gb of ECC memory. But that machine sucks up so much power, I only use it as a part time test machine. I would guess that Ryzen board will idle at a much lower wattage than the Xeon board, if power consumption is a concern.

The Ryzen will definitely be a lot snappier than your current Xeon or the one you are looking at as a replacement. The GTX 970 is also going to be way faster than the NVS 310. The AMD set up seems like the "no-brainer" choice of those two.

 

[cfcman]

Thanks for the feedback. Since posting my original message I decided to increase my original budget and go for a new build based on a Ryzen 5 5700G. It's a consumer platform, and no ECC, but hopefully it will be a decent solution for my needs.