New Server build / Home business

[RoadieWarrior]

Sup peeps!
i'm attempting to either build a new server or realize that i just need to "click buy" from an online store. i'm currently trying to read / learn / search on what to build, but, i'm getting lost quick.
i'm not new to computer building, i've done some nice ones in the past, but i've never built / designed a server.

BUDGET:
open. not that much of a concern, bigger / badder / best working server with zero issues.

USE:
home business for real estate. i will be running 1 program and really just need a good amount of storage.

OPERATING SYSTEM:
i guess Windows Server because my program (Alamode) requires windows to run

WANTS:
Fast operation.
Quick data search.
Remote log in / personal Cloud set up.

LOOKS:
i'm leaning toward a typical tower set up.

thanks for any help!

 

[RoadieWarrior]

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ssBCHB
this is what my brain has attempted to build on my first revision. pick it apart and let me know where i missed something or could make a better choice.
in case you saw the last link, i updated it slightly. i added a M2 drive to install the Alamode software along with Windows Server 2019.
this really, just looks like a typical computer build, just better dedicated server parts.
i did check with Alamode, and they suggest at least 32gb ram, i've chosen 64gb, because, well you can never have enough.
this server will run several other computers, i think it's around 5. the way it use to be set up, was each computer had Alamode installed on it, but they said that was a bad way of doing it.
from what i'm understanding, this is more like an AutoCad set up, where they have a server that runs the program and each terminal accesses the program.

 

[RoadieWarrior]

server memory / more modules the better?

i'm building a new server rig and i was curious if it mattered to have several ram sticks or the fewer the better?
the plan is 64GB, maybe even more. is it better to have 2 / 32gb? 4 / 16gb? or 8 / 8gb? some of the research i've found said maxing out the available slots (my case would be 16) can cause issues, but other than that, i didn't see any real pro's or cons about it (except fitting GPU cards).

potential parts:
ASRock EP2C612D16C-4L
Intel Xeon E5-2640 V3
Crucial 64 GB 4x16gb 288-Pin DDR4 2133
or
Timetec Hynix 64GB Kit

i'm kind of in the weeds here.

 

[EarthDog]

Ideally you want 4 or 8 modules so they will run quad-channel.

Merged like threads. This is all about your hardware selection.

 

[RoadieWarrior]

ah. ok. thanks. i didn't know if i needed to be specific for each category.
so, if sticking to quad if i want 64gb i need to look at 4x16 and if i want to spend a bit more, and go to 128gb i need 4x32. i saw a deal for 128gb for $600, which was only $100 more than the 64gb option.

 

[EarthDog]

Are you populating both cpu sockets? You'd want 4 dimms for each.

You'll have to look up and see if the board supports 32gb sticks.. it should.

 

[RoadieWarrior]

yes, i will install 2 cpus (Intel Xeon E5-2640 V3) or maybe something slightly better.
i just found a pretty good deal (i think) on 128gb of ram. Crucial 64GB (4 x 16GB) i plan on buying 2 sets of that. so that would do what you said earlier, have it in groups of 4 and both CPUs will have 4 sticks.

 

[RoadieWarrior]

ok, so doing, again, more research... it appears the AMD EPYC is the new bad boy on the market. the first search brought up a $14,000+ option, so i ignored it. turns out, i can get it much, MUCH cheaper...
AMD EPYC Rome 7232P 8-Core 3.1 GHz
Supermicro Motherboard MBD-H11DSI-NT-B

i'm sure, that platform above would be much better than a E5-2640 set up. the big question is cost difference. well, it's doesn't seem much. the E5-2640 processors i can get for $130 and those AMD chips are $485. when i tried to find a "better" E5-2640 the price jumped, and jumped quick. the next series i would get would be E5-2660 (i think) because it looked like it handled DDR4 / 2133 ram and not DDR4 / 1866 like the 2640.
in the end, it's $710 more for the Rome's and about $200 more for the MB. (Amazon has it for $354, but newegg is showing it at $507). the Supermicro is an openbox, but it's $560.

anyways, if anyone reading this knows hands down that the EPYC chips are hands down better than the E5 series, please let me know. especially if the added ~$1000 would be worth it.

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ram would change to:
NEMIX RAM 128GB (8x16GB) DDR4-2666

 

[EarthDog]

USE:
home business for real estate. i will be running 1 program and really just need a good amount of storage.

So, you're going to build a server to run one program. Is there any reason this program can't be run on your current PC? Why build a second unit for just this application? If you have an office/home PC, leave it on and attach to it and get your files. You can build a fast NAS if you need quick data access (though you're limited to internet connection speeds if you are remote.

What generation Epyc chips? I believe there are two? Either way, I think Epyc will own those older Haswell based Xeons...especially if this one piece of software can actually use all the cores and threads you are giving it.
EDIT: LOL I didn't know AMD made Epyc chips with only 8c/16t.. yikes... I'd imagine the Intel system would run anything CPU/core/thread intensive faster as it has twice the amount of cores and threads to throw at it.

What software, specifically, are you using? can it use so many cores and threads in the first place? Details would help a bit. You may be able to get away with much less.

 

[RoadieWarrior]

i will be replacing the current server that was built 10 years ago. at that time it was a $7K server.
this business uses the 1 server to run the program Alamode as per their instructions. 5-6 computers access this server and the program and all share the same files, mainly images. it's the same set up as an office with Autocad. they don't have Autocad on each computer, but allow access through a server which runs it. i believe at one time they tried having all PC's run Alamode, but their Tech support had them change it because they kept getting errors and were having issues with the program actually working.
the AMD EPYC chip i can afford is the 7232P. it's an 8 core, so similar to the E5-2640. of course the 7232P is much newer, has higher clock speeds, and handles faster ram. if i understand both CPUs, the EPYC can do up to 2666 and the 2640 is 1866.
i honestly don't know what all the program can handle. it really seems like a basic program that accesses files and images a lot. i may have to make a phone call and call them. but originally they did suggest a server type set up with duel cpu's.

 

[EarthDog]

I would definately call/email and see what's up. I don't know the application but if it's just images and such, a potato can serve that concurrently to multiple users... but best to check, of course.

EDIT: After a quick glance, A la mode look to be web based in the first place? Looks like there are several applets?

 

[RoadieWarrior]

i just called them. received the email with the minimum requirements. yeah, it looks super basic.
Intel: 64‑bit 3rd Generation Core‑i3 or better (e.g. Intel Core i3‑3210 3.20 GHz)
AMD: 64‑bit A8 APU or better (e.g. AMD A8‑6410 2.00 GHz)
16 GB or more of DDR4 RAM

that "ddr4" ram could be part of the issue. i'm almost positive there is something like DDR2 ram in there. again, 10 years old.

so, would this be a case that 1 cpu would actually be better than 2?

it's not so much web based, but yes, you have to be on the net and have the program. it's kind of weird (to me). if it were Autocad, the server would be running the program, and your terminal uses the server to do the job. but in this alamode case, you need the program on a server, pc's accessing the server, and then the server needs to communicate to alamode as well.

 

[trents]

i just called them. received the email with the minimum requirements. yeah, it looks super basic.
Intel: 64‑bit 3rd Generation Core‑i3 or better (e.g. Intel Core i3‑3210 3.20 GHz)
AMD: 64‑bit A8 APU or better (e.g. AMD A8‑6410 2.00 GHz)
16 GB or more of DDR4 RAM

that "ddr4" ram could be part of the issue. i'm almost positive there is something like DDR2 ram in there. again, 10 years old.

so, would this be a case that 1 cpu would actually be better than 2?

it's not so much web based, but yes, you have to be on the net and have the program. it's kind of weird (to me). if it were Autocad, the server would be running the program, and your terminal uses the server to do the job. but in this alamode case, you need the program on a server, pc's accessing the server, and then the server needs to communicate to alamode as well.

In what? This thread is very confusing. What is 10 years old?

 

[EarthDog]

i just called them. received the email with the minimum requirements. yeah, it looks super basic.
Intel: 64‑bit 3rd Generation Core‑i3 or better (e.g. Intel Core i3‑3210 3.20 GHz)
AMD: 64‑bit A8 APU or better (e.g. AMD A8‑6410 2.00 GHz)
16 GB or more of DDR4 RAM

that "ddr4" ram could be part of the issue. i'm almost positive there is something like DDR2 ram in there. again, 10 years old.

so, would this be a case that 1 cpu would actually be better than 2?

it's not so much web based, but yes, you have to be on the net and have the program. it's kind of weird (to me). if it were Autocad, the server would be running the program, and your terminal uses the server to do the job. but in this alamode case, you need the program on a server, pc's accessing the server, and then the server needs to communicate to alamode as well.

I don't know why this can't be done with your own PC... but surely you don't need anything close to dual CPUs or 8c/16t Epyc processors and quad channel RAM and.....all that.

I would build a potato for a server if you still insist. The software doesn't seem like there is a need for anything like that, honestly. I'm guessing it pulls its data from the web and uses templates.

The DDR4 RAM thing for the requirements is odd considering the minimum reqs aren't DDR4 machines, lol. I would just get whatever you do with at least 16GB of RAM. The 128GB or 64 for each is ridiculous overkill.

 

[don256us]

OPERATING SYSTEM:
i guess Windows Server because my program (Alamode) requires windows to run

Ha. I worked for Alamode's main competitor for about three years. Appriasers Choice Inc. (ACI) back when it was owned by Polaroid. They were based in Stevensville, MI back then. Most abusive job I ever worked and I used to work in the trades.

How many people will be accessing this server? Five? I'm not sure that I see an up front reason for mulitple CPUs with lots of cores each. I do agree that if you have a CPU/MB with quad channel, you want to occupy at least 4 slots. You get better bang for the buck by filling all channels over just filling few channels with larger amounts of RAM. I think that for storage, you probably need to consider redunancy over speed with a RAID 5 setup which would give you a bit of both speed and redundancy. The OS drive could be NVMe but since you won't be working from the server itself, I see less advantage for it. It will be nice for when you turn it on or do updates to the server OS but other than that....

 

[RoadieWarrior]

the original server is 10 years old.
so, if i'm thinking what you are thinking a single cpu would be best. Intel Xeon E-2146G would this cpu be more inline with a better single cpu set up? the other items would just be scaled back.
picking the "correct" CPU is the hardest part (to me). but after speaking with Alamode it seems like when the original server was built / designed a company determined that's what was needed. i feel, it's set up a little wrong due to the program not being able to utilize duel cpus.

 

[don256us]

Is Alamode still for Real Estate appraisal? I see that the other main competitor (Day1) was bought by ACI. ACI itself has gone through a lot of owners each trying to make it "big" with the purchase. It still has the same abusive management it always had since I was there about 18 years ago. Wait. Is that right? 18 years? Hmmmm...... I still have some contact with a group of employees/ex-employees from there.

 

[RoadieWarrior]

Ha. I worked for Alamode's main competitor for about three years. Appriasers Choice Inc. (ACI) back when it was owned by Polaroid. They were based in Stevensville, MI back then. Most abusive job I ever worked and I used to work in the trades.

How many people will be accessing this server? Five? I'm not sure that I see an up front reason for mulitple CPUs with lots of cores each. I do agree that if you have a CPU/MB with quad channel, you want to occupy at least 4 slots. You get better bang for the buck by filling all channels over just filling few channels with larger amounts of RAM. I think that for storage, you probably need to consider redunancy over speed with a RAID 5 setup which would give you a bit of both speed and redundancy. The OS drive could be NVMe but since you won't be working from the server itself, I see less advantage for it. It will be nice for when you turn it on or do updates to the server OS but other than that....

yes, about 5 people.
the cpu i listed above is my new consideration. i'm hoping i'm closer to the correct path now.
regards to the ram, i'll look into 4x8gb or 4x16gb and just compare costs. the last time i looked the 64gb option was around $250.
to do the RAID 5, that's where i would need 4 HDs right? that's what i was thinking about.
i did plan on having a NVMe (250g) solely for OS / Program. it's also $60 for a Samsung 860 EVO.

 

[EarthDog]

the original server is 10 years old.
so, if i'm thinking what you are thinking a single cpu would be best. Intel Xeon E-2146G would this cpu be more inline with a better single cpu set up? the other items would just be scaled back.
picking the "correct" CPU is the hardest part (to me). but after speaking with Alamode it seems like when the original server was built / designed a company determined that's what was needed. i feel, it's set up a little wrong due to the program not being able to utilize duel cpus.

Is there a reason why you are stuck on Xeons and such? Why not something like a i3 or a quad Ryzen? Less power used, less noise, and still likely easily able to support a few users accessing pictures. You're dealing with modern hardware at that point and it is more readily upgradeable.

 

[RoadieWarrior]

Is Alamode still for Real Estate appraisal? I see that the other main competitor (Day1) was bought by ACI. ACI itself has gone through a lot of owners each trying to make it "big" with the purchase. It still has the same abusive management it always had since I was there about 18 years ago. Wait. Is that right? 18 years? Hmmmm...... I still have some contact with a group of employees/ex-employees from there.

yes. appraisal to be specific. it's my Dad's business, he's one of the most requested appraiser.

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no, not stuck on anything. just when i search cpus "server" they keep coming up. seriously, i feel like you guys are the experts and know the finer details. i'll take the best suggestion to make this the best running server i can.