Advice - MB, CPU, Ram for Media Server Running Win 8.1

Sasqui · Oct 29, 2015

Helping a friend put together a media server. Started with a P4 640 rig only to find out it won't run Win 8.1 64bit

So now he wants to get a new MB, CPU (+cooler) & Ram (figure 8GB). Probably will shop on Newegg or Amazon Prime. Already have a full size ATX rack case, drives, 750W Corsair PSU.

Budget is $300, he wants Intel. The more cores the better for some transcoding software he's going to buy. He may overclock, but not too important if getting a K chip will break the budget.

I'm partial to Gigabyte for a MB, but will definitely consider others.

TIA!

MIRTAZAPINE · Oct 29, 2015

$300 is too tight of a budget to go intel with more cores. A skylake i3 and a non-overclocking board would be just within budget with an 8GB ddr4.

Sasqui · Oct 29, 2015

MIRTAZAPINE said:
$300 is too tight of a budget to go intel with more cores. A skylake i3 and a non-overclocking board would be just within budget with an 8GB ddr4.

Yea, I was looking at the CPU and MB prices on Newegg and I'm guessing $350 would be more like it.

The i3's only have two cores, IIRC.

JayCan73 · Oct 29, 2015

An I5 haswell 4440/4460 , H81 mobo and 2x4gb ddr3, could probably be sqweezed from your budget if you shop around. Might be a better value considering the performance you would get VS money spent on a skylake build.

MIRTAZAPINE · Oct 29, 2015

Sasqui said:
Yea, I was looking at the CPU and MB prices on Newegg and I'm guessing $350 would be more like it.

The i3's only have two cores, IIRC.

Yes an i3 is 2 core but it have 4 threads. It decent as the new i3 skylake is about on par with the older Haswell i5.

I took a quickly look on amazon perhaps you can try this. An quad core i5 is possible with the build below it come out at about $330. Those are the cheapest part I could I find. Hope this helps.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0136JON7M/?tag=tec06d-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0165YUDTM/?tag=tec06d-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MTSWEQE/?tag=tec06d-20

Sasqui · Oct 29, 2015

JayCan73 said:
An I5 haswell 4440/4460 , H81 mobo and 2x4gb ddr3, could probably be sqweezed from your budget if you shop around. Might be a better value considering the performance you would get VS money spent on a skylake build.

I like that idea.

MIRTAZAPINE said:
Yes an i3 is 2 core but it have 4 threads. It decent as the new i3 skylake is about on par with the older Haswell i5.

I took a quickly look on amazon perhaps you can try this. An quad core i5 is possible with the build below it come out at about $330. Those are the cheapest part I could I find. Hope this helps.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0136JON7M/?tag=tec06d-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0165YUDTM/?tag=tec06d-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MTSWEQE/?tag=tec06d-20

Sweet. I wonder if I can find an ATX board for a price like that!

JayCan73 · Oct 29, 2015

Just a quick look on newegg, and fount this.
motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116991
cpu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116895
memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148719
$260 US plus shipping. This ought to do everything your friend needs, and you can easily afford a better I5 but you may need to update the motherboards bios first.

MIRTAZAPINE · Oct 29, 2015

Why would you need an atx board? I think that Micro atx is more than sufficient for a non overclocking cpu. The pcie requires slot are there to expand out.
It is only worth going atx if you want more ram slot, pcie lanes and a motherboard with better power delivery which I don't think is necessary and would increase cost for a tight budget build like this.

I think this would be a better board for little increase in price with more features as I said above.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B014Z7IY92/?tag=tec06d-20

It is better for you to go Skylake rather than sticking to Haswell Cpu. Skylake is an improvement over Haswell. In terms of the amount of expansion. Haswell is still a very capable cpu, which ever you feel comfortable with your budget to spend on.

JayCan73 · Oct 29, 2015

The difference between haswell and skylake may not be as great as some might think in the applications your friend is likely to use. A 4690/4670 could be gotten on your budget, (4670 would not require a bios update)
Check out this article,
http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/cpu/85370-intel-core-i5-6600k-14nm-skylake/

rtwjunkie · Oct 29, 2015

Sasqui said:
Yea, I was looking at the CPU and MB prices on Newegg and I'm guessing $350 would be more like it.

The i3's only have two cores, IIRC.

Don't underestimate them. Their HT is actually useful. I have a 4130 in my HTPC. And I have a 4160 in another gaming rig. They are truly good chips!

Kursah · Oct 29, 2015

+1 to rtw. I3s are surprisingly powerful. I've even been very surprised by the Pentium line...a Biostar B85S3+, 4gb ddr3 1600, and a 3220 dual core non-HT makes up my moms PC for general use and as a Plex server. Handles transcoding with ease. An i3 we HT will be that much better while sipping power.

Sasqui · Oct 29, 2015

JayCan73 said:
Just a quick look on newegg, and fount this.
motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116991
cpu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116895
memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148719
$260 US plus shipping. This ought to do everything your friend needs, and you can easily afford a better I5 but you may need to update the motherboards bios first.

The motherboard links to a CPU, which MB was it?

JayCan73 · Oct 29, 2015

mobo is msi h81 matx, $39.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130731

Sasqui · Nov 2, 2015

Intel Core i5-4460 $190
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16819117302
MSI Z97 PC Mate LGA 1150 Intel Z97 $85
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813130779
G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 $35
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820231460

Total $310

That Guy In The Shirt · Nov 2, 2015

Well if you don't intend to OC at all, then you could go with an H97 board, get a nice i5 processor like the i5-4460, 8gb of RAM, and a budget cpu cooler like the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo, if you're willing to order from places other than Newegg. Check out the parts below:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ymJsFT
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ymJsFT/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($163.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($28.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($61.20 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($34.20 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $288.38
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-02 16:39 EST-0500

Sasqui · Nov 3, 2015

That Guy In The Shirt said:
Well if you don't intend to OC at all, then you could go with an H97 board, get a nice i5 processor like the i5-4460, 8gb of RAM, and a budget cpu cooler like the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo, if you're willing to order from places other than Newegg. Check out the parts below:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ymJsFT
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ymJsFT/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($163.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($28.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($61.20 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($34.20 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $288.38
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-02 16:39 EST-0500

Without overclocking, the stock fan will be fine. The other criteria that I didn't mention is he has a PCI card he want's to use, so that eliminates just about all mATX boards. :/

MIRTAZAPINE · Nov 3, 2015

Sasqui said:
Without overclocking, the stock fan will be fine. The other criteria that I didn't mention is he has a PCI card he want's to use, so that eliminates just about all mATX boards. :/

The Gigabyte micro atx board for the skylake build I suggest you have a 2 pci slots! Just saying.

He still use pci? I don't even know what to fill my pci slot for my motherboard.

rtwjunkie · Nov 3, 2015

MIRTAZAPINE said:
He still use pci? I don't even know what to fill my pci slot for my motherboard.

Well, someone might still have pci soundcard instead of pcie, and USB add-in card is a good use for it too, if you have need for lots of USB.

Sasqui · Nov 3, 2015

rtwjunkie said:
Well, someone might still have pci soundcard instead of pcie, and USB add-in card is a good use for it too, if you have need for lots of USB.

He's got some sort of sound FX card that is PCI.

BarbaricSoul · Nov 3, 2015

why is a i5 being used in a media server? Media servers don't need "that" much CPU power. Personally, I'd look at an AMD APU setup like this- http://pcpartpicker.com/p/RCRxzy and put the savings towards upgrading the existing storage system.

edit: CPU changed to a APU

Sasqui · Nov 3, 2015

BarbaricSoul said:
why is a i5 being used in a media server? Media servers don't need "that" much CPU power. Personally, I'd look at an AMD APU setup like this- http://pcpartpicker.com/p/TQWvMp and put the savings towards upgrading the existing storage system.

He's also doing some video transcoding and sound mixing. He's got a rack of sound processing hardware that would make an audiophile weep.

newtekie1 · Nov 3, 2015

My media server is running on an A10-6800K, rig4 in my sig. You really don't need a lot of CPU power.

That Guy In The Shirt · Nov 4, 2015

Sasqui said:
Without overclocking, the stock fan will be fine. The other criteria that I didn't mention is he has a PCI card he want's to use, so that eliminates just about all mATX boards. :/

Well if he needs more pci express ports then say no more. This motherboard may be mATX, but it still has two pcie-x16 slots, so he should have enough room for his gpu and his sound card. This build is best cost per performance and meets all of his requirements while staying within budget. So it's what I'd recommend. If he doesn't want to go $1 over budget then tell him that he doesn't need the cpu cooler anyways, it's not like he can oc with this processor anyways.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/nbbg6h
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/nbbg6h/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($172.89 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($17.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($71.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($37.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $300.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-04 00:22 EST-0500

rruff · Nov 5, 2015

Sasqui said:
Budget is $300, he wants Intel. The more cores the better for some transcoding software he's going to buy. He may overclock, but not too important if getting a K chip will break the budget.

How about an old Xeon with 6 cores (12 threads) and a LGA 1366 MB?

OK, overkill... but badass.

Sasqui · Nov 5, 2015

rruff said:
How about an old Xeon with 6 cores (12 threads) and a LGA 1366 MB?

OK, overkill... but badass.

I was thinking of going used/retro too. My second PC is a modded 4-core Xeon X5470 running at 4Ghz.

Not sure what to look for in a 1366 MB

System Name	Senile
Processor	I7-4790K@4.8 GHz 24/7
Motherboard	MSI Z97-G45 Gaming
Cooling	Be Quiet Pure Rock Air
Memory	16GB 4x4 G.Skill CAS9 2133 Sniper
Video Card(s)	GIGABYTE Vega 64
Storage	Samsung EVO 500GB / 8 Different WDs / QNAP TS-253 8GB NAS with 2x10Tb WD Blue
Display(s)	34" LG 34CB88-P 21:9 Curved UltraWide QHD (34401440) FREE_SYNC*
Case	Rosewill
Audio Device(s)	Onboard + HD HDMI
Power Supply	Corsair HX750
Mouse	Logitech G5
Keyboard	Corsair Strafe RGB & G610 Orion Red
Software	Win 10

System Name	Fat NCASE
Processor	Ryzen R9 3900X
Motherboard	ASUS TUF GAMING B550M ZAKU (WIFI) Edition
Cooling	Scythe Fuma with 3 SCYTHE Wondersnail 2400RPM + Arctic MX2
Memory	Corsair Vengeance 128GB @3200Mhz Cl16 (32GB X 4)
Video Card(s)	Palit RTX 3060 StormX ITX 12GB
Storage	MX500 4TB SATA + Toshiba MG08 16TB HDD
Display(s)	LG 27UL500 4K monitor
Case	Jonsbo W2 black
Audio Device(s)	Onboard realtek 1200 & Soundblaster G3 usb
Power Supply	ASUS ROG STRIX 850W Gundam Edition
Mouse	Elecom wireless mouse :)
Keyboard	RK100 Royal Kludge
Software	Windows 10 HOME
Benchmark Scores	Don't know any benchmark. It runs good enough for me.

System Name	Senile
Processor	I7-4790K@4.8 GHz 24/7
Motherboard	MSI Z97-G45 Gaming
Cooling	Be Quiet Pure Rock Air
Memory	16GB 4x4 G.Skill CAS9 2133 Sniper
Video Card(s)	GIGABYTE Vega 64
Storage	Samsung EVO 500GB / 8 Different WDs / QNAP TS-253 8GB NAS with 2x10Tb WD Blue
Display(s)	34" LG 34CB88-P 21:9 Curved UltraWide QHD (34401440) FREE_SYNC*
Case	Rosewill
Audio Device(s)	Onboard + HD HDMI
Power Supply	Corsair HX750
Mouse	Logitech G5
Keyboard	Corsair Strafe RGB & G610 Orion Red
Software	Win 10

System Name	not done yet
Processor	I5 10400
Motherboard	msi h410 pro
Cooling	212 evo, 5x 120mm
Memory	patriot viper 2666 ddr4
Video Card(s)	xfx rx570
Storage	500gb crucial p5 m2 , 525gb crucial mx300, 3.5 7200 seagate barricuda 2tb
Display(s)	42" 120hz 3d led LG
Case	rosewill line
Audio Device(s)	onboard realtech 5.1 (yamah rxv373, jamo speakers)
Power Supply	thermaltake gx2 600w gold
Mouse	logitech m510
Keyboard	microsoft
Software	windows 10
Benchmark Scores	1410 in un heaven, not useless yet

System Name	Fat NCASE
Processor	Ryzen R9 3900X
Motherboard	ASUS TUF GAMING B550M ZAKU (WIFI) Edition
Cooling	Scythe Fuma with 3 SCYTHE Wondersnail 2400RPM + Arctic MX2
Memory	Corsair Vengeance 128GB @3200Mhz Cl16 (32GB X 4)
Video Card(s)	Palit RTX 3060 StormX ITX 12GB
Storage	MX500 4TB SATA + Toshiba MG08 16TB HDD
Display(s)	LG 27UL500 4K monitor
Case	Jonsbo W2 black
Audio Device(s)	Onboard realtek 1200 & Soundblaster G3 usb
Power Supply	ASUS ROG STRIX 850W Gundam Edition
Mouse	Elecom wireless mouse :)
Keyboard	RK100 Royal Kludge
Software	Windows 10 HOME
Benchmark Scores	Don't know any benchmark. It runs good enough for me.

Advice - MB, CPU, Ram for Media Server Running Win 8.1

Sasqui

MIRTAZAPINE

Sasqui

JayCan73

MIRTAZAPINE

Sasqui

JayCan73

MIRTAZAPINE

JayCan73

rtwjunkie

PC Gaming Enthusiast

Kursah

Super Moderator

Sasqui

JayCan73

Sasqui

That Guy In The Shirt

Sasqui

MIRTAZAPINE

rtwjunkie

PC Gaming Enthusiast

Sasqui

BarbaricSoul

Sasqui

newtekie1

Semi-Retired Folder

That Guy In The Shirt

rruff

Sasqui

System Name	Bayou Phantom
Processor	Core i7-8700k 4.4Ghz @ 1.18v
Motherboard	ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 6
Cooling	All air: 2x140mm Fractal exhaust; 3x 140mm Cougar Intake; Enermax T40F Black CPU cooler
Memory	2x 16GB Mushkin Redline DDR-4 3200
Video Card(s)	EVGA RTX 2080 Ti Xc
Storage	1x 500 MX500 SSD; 2x 6TB WD Black; 1x 4TB WD Black; 1x400GB VelRptr; 1x 4TB WD Blue storage (eSATA)
Display(s)	HP 27q 27" IPS @ 2560 x 1440
Case	Fractal Design Define R4 Black w/Titanium front -windowed
Audio Device(s)	Soundblaster Z
Power Supply	Seasonic X-850
Mouse	Coolermaster Sentinel III (large palm grip!)
Keyboard	Logitech G610 Orion mechanical (Cherry Brown switches)
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (Start10 & Fences 3.0 installed)

System Name	Kursah's Gaming Rig 2018 (2022 Upgrade) - Ryzen+ Edition \| Gaming Laptop (Lenovo Legion 5i Pro 2022)
Processor	R7 5800X @ Stock \| i7 12700H @ Stock
Motherboard	Asus ROG Strix X370-F Gaming BIOS 6203\| Legion 5i Pro NM-E231
Cooling	Noctua NH-U14S Push-Pull + NT-H1 \| Stock Cooling
Memory	TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 32GB (2x16) DDR4 4000 @ 3600 18-20-20-42 1.35v \| 32GB DDR5 4800 (2x16)
Video Card(s)	Palit GeForce RTX 4070 JetStream 12GB \| CPU-based Intel Iris XE + RTX 3070 8GB 150W
Storage	4TB SP UD90 NVME, 960GB SATA SSD, 2TB HDD \| 1TB Samsung OEM NVME SSD + 4TB Crucial P3 Plus NVME SSD
Display(s)	Acer 28" 4K VG280K x2 \| 16" 2560x1600 built-in
Case	Corsair 600C - Stock Fans on Low \| Stock Metal/Plastic
Audio Device(s)	Aune T1 mk1 > AKG K553 Pro + JVC HA-RX 700 (Equalizer APO + PeaceUI) \| Bluetooth Earbuds (BX29)
Power Supply	EVGA 750G2 Modular + APC Back-UPS Pro 1500 \| 300W OEM (heavy use) or Lenovo Legion C135W GAN (light)
Mouse	Logitech G502 \| Logitech M330
Keyboard	HyperX Alloy Core RGB \| Built in Keyboard (Lenovo laptop KB FTW)
Software	Windows 11 Pro x64 \| Windows 11 Home x64

System Name	Mike
Processor	i5 4690k
Motherboard	Asus Z97-A
Cooling	Scythe Mugen 4
Memory	Crucial 8gb DDR3-1600
Video Card(s)	Asus GTX 970 4GB Strix Video Cards (2-way SLI)
Storage	Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000 2TB 7200RPM HDD, Crucial BX100 120GB SSD
Case	Fractal Design Define R5 (Titanium) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply	EVGA 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Keyboard	Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Gaming Bundle Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse

System Name	Barb's Domain
Processor	i9 10850k 5.1GHz all cores
Motherboard	MSI MPG Z490 GAMING EDGE WIFI
Cooling	Deep Cool Assassin III
Memory	2*16gig Corsair LPX DDR4 3200
Video Card(s)	RTX 4080 FE
Storage	500gb Samsung 980 Pro M2 SSD, 500GB WD Blue SATA SSD, 2TB Seagate Hybrid SSHD
Display(s)	Dell - S3222DGM 32" 2k Curved/ASUS VP28UQG 28" 4K (ran at 2k), Sanyo 75" 4k TV
Case	SilverStone Fortress FT04
Audio Device(s)	Bose Companion II speakers, Corsair - HS70 PRO headphones
Power Supply	Corsair RM850x (2021)
Mouse	Logitech G502
Keyboard	Logitech Orion Spectrum G910
VR HMD	Oculus Quest 2
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64 bit
Benchmark Scores	https://www.3dmark.com/spy/34962882

Processor	Intel Core i7 10850K@5.2GHz
Motherboard	AsRock Z470 Taichi
Cooling	Corsair H115i Pro w/ Noctua NF-A14 Fans
Memory	32GB DDR4-3600
Video Card(s)	RTX 2070 Super
Storage	500GB SX8200 Pro + 8TB with 1TB SSD Cache
Display(s)	Acer Nitro VG280K 4K 28"
Case	Fractal Design Define S
Audio Device(s)	Onboard is good enough for me
Power Supply	eVGA SuperNOVA 1000w G3
Software	Windows 10 Pro x64