I’ve always used core i5 k processors for my builds. With most gaming an overclocked core i5 at 4.5ghz for $220 is all you need. And the other features don’t matter.
The lone exception is a cheap Xeon file server where based on vlads advice we went with a six core slow Xeon for ecc and lots of lanes.
But now that we are working in high scale Gou farms, things have changed. We got two core i7. One a $350 skylake k and the other a $600 haswell e and they were both mistakes. Here’s some better advice:
- The x99 motherboards can take ecc ram. They don’t say it and they max out with eight slots (16GB X 8 = 128GB) but they will work with ecc. At least the Asus board that Pugetsystems uses. So I’m buying ecc for our x99 2011-3 we have.
- Xeons have the most confusing product names. Ok the i5 etc are as bad (atom, celeron, i3, i5, i7). Most are locked but one flavor. The older haswell-ws 16xx v3 is multipier unlocked so you can get to 4.5 pretty easily. Uses the x99. These are hot chips running at 140 watts. It is sad that workstations servers are two generations behind with no 2011 Broadwell or Skylake parts. Less competition and power is less of an issue. Note that the other xeons are locked and you have to use a desktop chipset x99. But for lots of pci lanes, ecc it’s hard to beat. The three flavors are 1650 v3 with six cores. 1630 v3 and 1620 v3 with four.
- X99. You want an eatx board so you can get four Gpus The asrock x99 formula 3.1 only has 4 double wide but the USB 3.1 takes a slot.
- The asrock does have two m.2 slots. It’s confusing but m.2 has lots of flavors. The ultra m.2 is 4x pcie so can be up to 4GBps potential and 2.2GBps actual and is m-keyed and with NVMe with Samsung 950 or the sm951 , then the next best is 4x pcie with the Samsung xp941 ( but is only $10 cheaper than the sm951,so get that instead), then for 2x pcie 2.0 the plextor m6e at 1GBps or 600MBps effective (again this drive is the same price as the 950 pro) and finally the lowly Sata 6G at 600MBps max or 400MBps typical with the Sandisk extreme pro being the fastest
Given this what would a dream build be for this ultimate workstation:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
