Searching for a budget-friendly Xeon or comparable CPU paired with a motherboard offering many PCI lanes.
Searching for a budget-friendly Xeon or comparable CPU paired with a motherboard offering many PCI lanes.
I assembled a NAS using an older Ryzen machine and am facing stability problems. I lack internal graphics, so I’m considering a full overhaul and switching to Xeon. I require multiple PCI lanes for a dual 10G NIC, an HBA, and the current setup limits one NIC port while the HBA uses another slot. I’d also like some extra PCI capacity for future upgrades. Moving to Xeon appeals to me because of their strong reliability and affordable pricing compared to similar CPUs. They’re typically found in servers or workstations, which suggests they support a higher PCI count. If my assessment is incorrect or another option exists, please share your thoughts!
Which NIc are you employing? Which HBA is in use? Power usage isn't a priority here. I'll just install an x1 GPU and a more reliable Ryzen board. Ryzen consumes significantly less power than the Xeons and tends to perform better thanks to its quicker single-thread speeds.
I’m confirming the setup details. I’m using bigger drives to reduce spinning disks and power use, and I have an Nvidia Quadro NVS 300 GPU. The issue is with the HBA and NIC not working together. I’m looking for a cost-effective chipset upgrade that offers more expansion without exceeding $500.
What model are you looking for? I'm just seeking another Ryzen setup. They'll consume far less power and perform significantly better for most NAS tasks. I don't think an Xeon makes sense here. Ryzen should offer ample lanes for 2x HBA, 10GbE NICs, and an X1 GPU (I've handled that before). All I need is the appropriate board.
We're discussing a very affordable setup. You can purchase old Xeon X5650 chips for less than ten dollars, and this CPU features 36 PCIe lanes. But it uses PCIe 2.0 technology. Your HBA seems to be PCIe 2.0 as well, though locating the exact specs for that NIC is challenging. Even if it's only x4, the 2.0 speeds should still be sufficient (around 2GB/s). You can often find complete systems with these older Xeons for around $100 to $200.
My device is an Asrock AB350 Pro 4 with limited expansion options. It requires both PCI-E slots to be 8x, which makes it hard to fit a single GPU or a dedicated board. The Ryzen 7 1700X fits but causes instability. Finding a compatible BIOS is challenging, especially with the need to allocate lanes. Ideally I want 4x lanes for the HBA so the GPU can use one of its lanes from the remaining slots. It seems it should work with x4 and one SFP port, but it currently uses eight slots regardless.
You can operate it at x4 using just one cable. Unless you're pushing both limits, bandwidth requirements won't be high. The board's x1 ports can power the GPU via the chipset, which offers plenty of extra PCIe lanes. I'm considering x470 models—they should function well with first-gen Ryzen, and it's typical for chipsets to include x1 for the GPU, two x8s for the CPU, and an x4 from the chipset.
mmm. I've tried for hours to get this thing to downscale the PCI lanes allocated and I cannot get it to only allocate 4. With the HBA and the NIC installed, I cannot get the GPU to work. With either of them removed, the gpu works fine. If you don't mind, please double check me with this mobo: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/X470-GAM...cification It looks like it has all the PCI slots I could need, and it x470 so it should give me the ability to fan out the lanes appropriately, but I am still unsure because it says 1st gen ryzen will only do x16/x0, or x8/x8 mode.
You can choose either x8 x8 or x16, and it will function properly. This setup should suit your needs. A GPU should be placed in the x1 slot, leaving three slots available for other devices.