AMD's new Ryzen CPU's

[SWKerr]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

AMD has beat Intel in performance/dollar for decades, and it hasn't really changed yet. Intel is just considered the 'premium' brand of the two, so the market lets them charge more. I don't worry about Intel's market share at all.

About 90% of my builds have been AMD over the years because they usually offered better value for the task. But in more recent time the performance gap has been getting too big for me to ignore. I bought a 6 Core FX-6300 and a 2 Core i3-4150 at about the same time in 2014 the AMD cost about $20 more. I had intended to use the i3 for a HTPC and the FX for my son's gamin rig. But to my surprise the 2 Core i3 ran games better. The FX is better for trans-coding but not as good as my 2 year older i5.

AMD can offer better value but it really depends on what you need. I am really looking forward to having AMD performance being close to Intel once again.

[EnterNoEscape]

Originally Posted by SWKerr

About 90% of my builds have been AMD over the years because they usually offered better value for the task. But in more recent time the performance gap has been getting too big for me to ignore. I bought a 6 Core FX-6300 and a 2 Core i3-4150 at about the same time in 2014 the AMD cost about $20 more. I had intended to use the i3 for a HTPC and the FX for my son's gamin rig. But to my surprise the 2 Core i3 ran games better. The FX is better for trans-coding but not as good as my 2 year older i5.

AMD can offer better value but it really depends on what you need. I am really looking forward to having AMD performance being close to Intel once again.

This has been my observation. Owning a good selection of AMD and Intel processors, the Intel processors more often than not out perform my AMD processors and I don't have crappy AMD processors. My observations on idle power usage have definitely not favored AMD either (and let's be honest your server is mostly idling). I did the math on this based on real world measurements 5 years ago because I was genuinely interested in reducing my electric bill and Intel was a much better value to run. The i5 processor that I still use today paid for itself in 2 years.

[Tiki]

So the Ryzen / Zen processors have been out for a while now. Has anyone used them for a Sage rig? I'm particularly interested in the APUs (2200G, 2400G).

I'd like to build a new computer for Sage soon. The other alternative for me would be an Intel Core i5 with integrated graphics. From what I can see the Intel options tend to be a little more expensive (both for the CPU and for the motherboard) and their GPU performance is much worse than Intel, but their single-core performance tends to be a little better than the "equivalent" AMD part. I haven't found many good articles comparing power consumption and the articles I did find seemed to have mixed results (some showed AMD more power efficient, others showed Intel better).

I would use this new PC for both Sage server and client (local playback) functions. I also want to be able to make recordings through Playon (my existing CPU can't handle the encoding). This computer would be pretty much dedicated to TV/DVR and related functions and would run Windows with FlexRAID/ tRAID for the recording drives. The UnRAID / Docker stuff is interesting, but I probably will not go that route.

[rrhorer]

The unRAID/Docker route is great. This coming from a complete Linux illiterate. I'm serving to an HD 300 and Shield mini-client and am also running a Windows 10 VM for Playon & Avidemux to record and edit from Netflix & Amazon Video. But, I understand that the client aspects that you are planning could be a little tough with unRAID. Good luck.

[Tiki]

Originally Posted by Tiki

So the Ryzen / Zen processors have been out for a while now. Has anyone used them for a Sage rig? I'm particularly interested in the APUs (2200G, 2400G).

I'd like to build a new computer for Sage soon. The other alternative for me would be an Intel Core i5 with integrated graphics. From what I can see the Intel options tend to be a little more expensive (both for the CPU and for the motherboard) and their GPU performance is much worse than Intel, but their single-core performance tends to be a little better than the "equivalent" AMD part. I haven't found many good articles comparing power consumption and the articles I did find seemed to have mixed results (some showed AMD more power efficient, others showed Intel better).

I would use this new PC for both Sage server and client (local playback) functions. I also want to be able to make recordings through Playon (my existing CPU can't handle the encoding). This computer would be pretty much dedicated to TV/DVR and related functions and would run Windows with FlexRAID/ tRAID for the recording drives. The UnRAID / Docker stuff is interesting, but I probably will not go that route.

I'm really surprised no one has commented on this - no one has tried the Ryzen APU's with Sage yet?

[MattHelm]

Originally Posted by Tiki

I'm really surprised no one has commented on this - no one has tried the Ryzen APU's with Sage yet?

It hasn't been 10 years since I built my last client, so it isn't time to build a new one yet. If they are still around in about in 2 years, I'll try one then.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by Tiki

I'm really surprised no one has commented on this - no one has tried the Ryzen APU's with Sage yet?

I just built a new server using the latest gen Core i5. I am using a motherboard with one of those new "internal drives" (not the SATA interface, the other kind, which I can't recall the name right now) and the thing flies. Boot time is almost instant.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

I just built a new server using the latest gen Core i5. I am using a motherboard with one of those new "internal drives" (not the SATA interface, the other kind, which I can't recall the name right now) and the thing flies. Boot time is almost instant.

M.2 NVME? I am in the process of ordering parts to upgrade my Unraid server to an i5 8400. After I get the motherboard, CPU, and RAM I'm going to save up for an x4 NVME to replace my current SATA SSD cache drive. It's crazy that the interface (SATA vs x4 PCIe) actually constrains the speed of the flash that much. I'm looking forward to the day when flash is low enough in cost to completely replace mechanical drives.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

M.2 NVME?

Yes, NVME. It's amazingly fast.

[KryptoNyte]

I first purchased and ran (3) OCZ Vertex 30gb drives in RAID 0 back in 2009. That was a mind blowing revelation of what's really been keeping PC's from snapping to attention. Then up to SATA III, better. Now NVME - needless to say, data throughput is no longer a bottleneck.

This was an interesting scenario. I had a relative a while back that I couldn't convince to ditch their ancient Windows XP laptop, a large brick. I think it was approaching a 10 minute bootup, and they were constantly running the 80GB drive out of space. Finally, I stumbled across an mSATA to ide adapter that had a chassis the size of a 2.5" hard drive. Popped a 250GB Samsung mSATA drive in it, imaged the system over, and brought even that old hardware back to life. Bootup in just over 30 seconds.

Solid State technology is one of the best things to happen to computer hardware in years.