Home Server Spec Check

[Bluecube]

I’m building a new Unraid server and have specced out the following -

Fractal Design Pop XL Silent Black
NZXT 750W PA-7G1BB-EU Gold
Gigabyte B650 GAMING X AX V2
Ryzen 7600
Corsair Vengeance 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 6000MHz CL36 AMD EXPO

No drives necessary as I’ve already got them. It’ll be an upgrade from a Ryzen 2700 based system that’s run happily for about 5 years now 24/7. Used for a few VMs and containers with some storage duties so nothing too onerous hence the move down to six cores from eight.

Does the spec above seem OK? Been a while since I built anything so I’m a bit out of touch.

Thanks

 

[robj20]

With it being a server you should aim to get your PSU specced correctly so you're in it's most efficient range.

Try and do some maths to see if spending more now on a better efficiency PSU is worth it.

Do you need all the features of that motherboard?

 

[Tetras]

Seems a bit overkill for the intended purpose, but yeah, looks fine. FYI: the 7600 has integrated graphics which the 2700 doesn't, so if you have a cheap GPU you can dump it.

You might want to look at the 8500G too, for efficiency reasons.

 

[Bluecube]

@robj20 it’s a gold PSU which I didn’t think was too bad. The only way up is platinum and the only ones I’ve found are prohibitively expensive unless I’m missing something.

The motherboard certainly has a load of features, a good chunk of which will be used if not now then in the near to mid future. I went with it mainly for the 2.5Mbit networking and multiple NVME slots. I couldn’t find anything similar for the price.

@Tetras didn’t know about the integrated GPU. The server is headless but it’s always good to have an option to plug a monitor in if need be.
I’ve had a look at the 8500G and whilst it’s cheaper I can’t see any benefits over the 7600 apart from maybe a better iGPU. What am I missing?

 

[Tetras]

I’ve had a look at the 8500G and whilst it’s cheaper I can’t see any benefits over the 7600 apart from maybe a better iGPU. What am I missing?

It uses a different design to the 7600 and has higher power efficiency.

You can see some numbers here:

AMD Ryzen 5 8500G Review - Zen 4 + Zen 4c Tested

The AMD Ryzen 5 8500G is a highly affordable Socket AM5 processor. It features the Phoenix 2 core, which combines the Zen 4 and Zen 4c architecture, for improved energy efficiency. In our review we test gaming performance with both integrated graphics and a discrete graphics card.

www.techpowerup.com

The Phoenix 2 chip design used on the Ryzen 5 8500G was originally designed for thin and light laptops where energy-efficient operation is one of the most important capabilities. On top of that, AMD is fabricating their chip using TSMC's 4 nanometer node and it's a monolithic design, which further helps with power usage, because there's no IO die that's off-silicon that you need to push data over long distances, which is an energy-hungry task. The result is that Ryzen 5 8500G is the most power-efficient processor we've ever tested—by a big margin in many tests. Even when loaded with demanding tasks its power usage will stay at under 40 W, gaming with a discrete GPU is actually closer to just 20 W. Gaming with integrated GPU reaches between 20 and 40 W, depending on the game. Very impressive numbers, only the Intel 12100F can get somewhat close to these results and everything else is much higher. For our 2024 Test Suite upgrade we've added full system idle power measurements, which are very important, because many PCs spend most of their life in that state. Here the 8500G sits roughly in the middle of the pack with 64 W, which is just a few W more than competing Intel setups, but considerably lower than the "big" Ryzen 7000 CPUs, which reach around 80 W, because they have to power the IO die as well.

AMD Ryzen 5 8500G Review - Zen 4 + Zen 4c Tested

The AMD Ryzen 5 8500G is a highly affordable Socket AM5 processor. It features the Phoenix 2 core, which combines the Zen 4 and Zen 4c architecture, for improved energy efficiency. In our review we test gaming performance with both integrated graphics and a discrete graphics card.

www.techpowerup.com