PC Build for Server - Advice Please!

nwgilbert

nwgilbert

nwgilbert

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Hi, Here’s a quick overview of what we are trying to achieve…

I am looking for a PC build which will act as our server for a new bidding system to be used at fundraising events.

We run auctions at fundraising events which are held at hotels. We are looking to display up to 100 tablets for guests to view our website (pre-loaded on the devices by us).
The website contains live bidding information, which continually changes and should be updated across all devices in real-time.

We are looking for a PC built that will be the server that runs this system.

It needs to be reliable since it is powering a server that will have 100 devices connected at once. Real-time speed is important.

Couple of guys have given me slight guidance on a pc build - here it is:


BUILD 1 PROVIDED BY DEVELOPER
  • CPU: Intel BX80684I78700 8th Gen Core i7-8700 Processor
  • CASE: Cooler Master Elite 110 Computer Case 'Mini-ITX, USB 3.0, Mesh Side Panel' RC-110-KKN2
  • MOTHERBOARD : ASUS Intel 1151 Socket Z370 Chipset Prime A D4 ATX Motherboard - Black
  • SSD: Samsung 250 GB 860 EVO Sata III 64L V NAND Solid State Drive,MZ-76E250B/EU
  • RAM : Corsair CMK8GX4M2B3000C15 Vengeance LPX 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4 3000 MHz C15 XMP 2.0 High Performance Desktop Memory Kit, Black
  • PSU : Corsair CP-9020131-UK TXM Series 750 W TX750M ATX/EPS Semi-Modular 80 PLUS Gold Power Supply Unit - Black
Total £750



BUILD 2 PROVIDED BY FRIEND
  • CPU Intel BX80684I78700 8th Gen Core i7-8700 Processor
  • CASE: UNDECIDED – Not yet included
  • MOTHERBOARD : ASRock H310M-HDV/M.2 - mATX Motherboard for Intel Socket 1151 CPUs
  • SSD: Crucial MX500 CT500MX500SSD1(Z) 500 GB Internal SSD (3D NAND, SATA, 2.5 Inch)
  • RAM : HyperX HX426C16FB2/8 8 GB 2666 MHz DDR4 CL16 DIMM 1.2 V 288-Pin Memory Kit, Black
  • PSU : Corsair CP-9020101-UK CX450M 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply Unit
Total £584
(not including cost of SSD Crucial MX500 as I already have one)




Thank you in advance for your time and help with this.

I look forward to hearing from anyone that can help!
 
Here's a bump as no response so far.

Also more details below ---

I forgot to mention that I need it to be fit in mini pc case as we will be transporting event to event, smaller it is the better.

Here's more details about the site.
The engine will be written in php using the Phalcon MVC framework
The engine will reside on a linux box running apache
The engine will be supported by a responsive fronted html site using bootstrap
The engine will be be supported by a mysql database
The engine will have have standard responsive states as defined in bootstrap
Supply a fresh build from scratch with all code owned entirely by the client. Do not allow the system be dependent on any 3rd party API without the express written consent of the site owner in advance of developing any connections.




What is everyones thoughts on this build?

PROVIDED BY DEVELOPER

• CPU: Intel BX80684I78700 8th Gen Core i7-8700 Processor
325

• CASE: Cooler Master Elite 110 Computer Case 'Mini-ITX, USB 3.0, Mesh Side Panel' RC-110-KKN2
35

• MOTHERBOARD : ASUS Intel 1151 Socket Z370 Chipset Prime A D4 ATX Motherboard - Black
147

• SSD: Crucial MX500 CT500MX500SSD1(Z) 500 GB Internal SSD (3D NAND, SATA, 2.5 Inch)
80

• RAM : Corsair CMK8GX4M2B3000C15 Vengeance LPX 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4 3000 MHz C15 XMP 2.0 High Performance Desktop Memory Kit, Black
95

• PSU : Corsair CP-9020131-UK TXM Series 750 W TX750M ATX/EPS Semi-Modular 80 PLUS Gold Power Supply Unit - Black
PSU : 90

Total £772



Questions:
1. Is it all compatible?
2. Would anyone suggest any tweaks to that??
3. How does it compare to the second build in my first post above provided by a friend?

We're in a rush to purchase so need to order tomorrow really - would appreciate prompt responses with thoughts?

Thanks!!

*** Competitor links removed ***
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Is this board still active? Still haven't had a response:-(

I've been working with my friend on putting together a better build based on those 2 above. We have come together with the following build.

Can someone please let me know thoughts? Whether to change anything in the above or whether it is good as it is?

Also, to make sure it is all compatible. Thank you in advance for any advice anyone can offer!




51nnFWEpmpL._AA100_.jpg

  • Intel BX80684I78700 8th Gen Core i7-8700 Processor
  • Temporarily out of stock
  • Eligible for FREE UK Delivery
  • This will be a gift This is a giftLearn more

£286.18

1

81TmfqEBQwL._AA100_.jpg

  • Crucial MX500 CT500MX500SSD1(Z) 500 GB Internal SSD (3D NAND, SATA, 2.5 Inch)
  • In stock
  • Is delivered in Certified Frustration-Free Packaging
  • Eligible for FREE UK Delivery
  • This will be a gift This is a giftLearn more

£79.99

1

41ZF9nXla%2BL._AA100_.jpg

  • Corsair CP-9020101-UK CX450M 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply Unit
  • Only 13 left in stock (more on the way).
  • Eligible for FREE UK Delivery
  • This will be a gift This is a giftLearn more

£47.99

1

814HMLbQI8L._AA100_.jpg

  • ASRock H310M-HDV/M.2 - mATX Motherboard for Intel Socket 1151 CPUs
  • Temporarily out of stock
  • Eligible for FREE UK Delivery
  • This will be a gift This is a giftLearn more

£58.40

1

51VPYlBlgvL._AA100_.jpg

  • HyperX HX426C16FB2/8 8 GB 2666 MHz DDR4 CL16 DIMM 1.2 V 288-Pin Memory Kit, Black
  • In stock
  • Eligible for FREE UK Delivery
  • This will be a gift This is a giftLearn more

£74.59
 
Last edited:
Why would you post in OcUK Full Systems and Bundles, then start dropping Amazon links in it?
nwgilbert said:
Is this board still active? Still haven't had a response
Click to expand...

This sub-forum is for builds by Overclockers.co.uk... thats why you're getting naff all response to a "Spec Me" and Amazon links.

Personally I would just buy a cheap server (with appropriate level of support) and not mess around with a custom build for what is obviously a business requirement.
 
I've moved it to a more appropriate forum


nwgilbert said:
PROVIDED BY DEVELOPER

• CPU: Intel BX80684I78700 8th Gen Core i7-8700 Processor
325

• CASE: Cooler Master Elite 110 Computer Case 'Mini-ITX, USB 3.0, Mesh Side Panel' RC-110-KKN2
35

• MOTHERBOARD : ASUS Intel 1151 Socket Z370 Chipset Prime A D4 ATX Motherboard - Black
147

• SSD: Crucial MX500 CT500MX500SSD1(Z) 500 GB Internal SSD (3D NAND, SATA, 2.5 Inch)
80

• RAM : Corsair CMK8GX4M2B3000C15 Vengeance LPX 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4 3000 MHz C15 XMP 2.0 High Performance Desktop Memory Kit, Black
95

• PSU : Corsair CP-9020131-UK TXM Series 750 W TX750M ATX/EPS Semi-Modular 80 PLUS Gold Power Supply Unit - Black
PSU : 90

Total £772
Click to expand...

That case (ITX) won't fit that motherboard (ATX), the PSU is also likely going to be too large for that small case.
 
nwgilbert said:
It needs to be reliable since it is powering a server that will have 100 devices connected at once.
Click to expand...

If reliability is important, then I would consider using true server components, ECC RAM, running HDD's in some form of RAID etc.

All you are building there is a cheap PC with an i7. The CPU alone does not make it stable.
 
nwgilbert said:
It needs to be reliable since it is powering a server that will have 100 devices connected at once
Click to expand...

Go look at server equipment. I would suggest getting two servers, not one, for redundancy, and possibly clustering them. Put both in a small rack for transportability.

Of equal importance will be your wifi coverage.
 
@nwgilbert

ryzen side of things, ITX form

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £571.20 (includes shipping: £12.30)
​

then add SSD for OS and raid HDD (will have to double check case for space though)

UK RMA for the mobo

intel has shot up in price, i7 8700 actually has increased the most along with i3 8100 due to being favoured by OEMs
 
Server can be extremely loud and heavy. We'd prefer to avoid as we only setup at these events for a few hours at a time.

I've tweaked the build as I put the wrong board in there.

What are your thoughts about this build? Is this compatible?
We do not need a GPU.



Shopping Basket

Price
Quantity
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  • Thermaltake Core V1 Mini ITX Cube Case with Fan
  • In stock
  • Delivery at no additional cost for Prime Members
  • This will be a gift This is a giftLearn more

£36.99

1

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  • GIGABYTE H310M S2V Motherboard - Black
  • Only 3 left in stock.
  • Sold by CCL Computers
  • Delivery at no additional cost for Prime Members
  • Gift options not available. Gift options not available.Learn more

£62.15

1

51nnFWEpmpL._AA100_.jpg

  • Intel BX80684I78700 8th Gen Core i7-8700 Processor
  • Temporarily out of stock
  • Delivery at no extra cost for Prime members
  • This will be a gift This is a giftLearn more

£286.18

1

41ZF9nXla%2BL._AA100_.jpg

  • Corsair CP-9020101-UK CX450M 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply Unit
  • Only 13 left in stock (more on the way).
  • Delivery at no additional cost for Prime Members
  • This will be a gift This is a giftLearn more

£47.99

1

81TmfqEBQwL._AA100_.jpg

  • Crucial MX500 CT500MX500SSD1(Z) 500 GB Internal SSD (3D NAND, SATA, 2.5 Inch)
  • In stock
  • Is delivered in Certified Frustration-Free Packaging
  • Delivery at no additional cost for Prime Members
  • This will be a gift This is a giftLearn more

£79.99

1

51VPYlBlgvL._AA100_.jpg

  • HyperX HX426C16FB2/8 8 GB 2666 MHz DDR4 CL16 DIMM 1.2 V 288-Pin Memory Kit, Black
  • In stock
  • Delivery at no additional cost for Prime Members
  • This will be a gift This is a giftLearn more

£74.59

1

Subtotal (6 items): £587.89










How does this compare with @orbitalwalsh build?


orbitalwalsh said:
@nwgilbert

ryzen side of things, ITX form

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £571.20 (includes shipping: £12.30)
​

then add SSD for OS and raid HDD (will have to double check case for space though)

UK RMA for the mobo

intel has shot up in price, i7 8700 actually has increased the most along with i3 8100 due to being favoured by OEMs
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
How has your developer and friend arrived at that spec? Are they just choosing high end components for the sake of them being high-end?

Your post seems to suggest you're already running this bidding software, rather than it being a new thing. So what is it currently running on, and how well does it perform? We need to know how much grunt is needed to run the software before a spec can be derived.

I can't see how anyone in this thread can post up a spec without knowing what the software demands.
 
What is your actual requirement?

Single thread CPU performance or Multi thread CPU performance?
Disk IO for a single process (crunching video files) ? Multi-client Disk IO (and therefore need to worry about contention?)
How much disk space do you need?
How much memory do your software components need?
Network bandwidth in / out?
Do the software components need to run on supported hardware? (ie. will you invalidate your hypervisor vendors support when you say "Its running on a HygerBollix motherboard not on their certified list" ?)

TBH, a website needing to serve about 100 clients at any one time.. you could probably run that off a laptop with a good amount of memory and an SSD - or a NUC.
But then, I am just guessing using that well known "Laying on of Hands" server sizing methodology.
 
@Semple we are not already running this software. It is the first time.

@skyripper You are correct in saying that we could probably run this off a good laptop with ssd and ram but due to our budget we are going to go with a desktop.
In response to your questions, simple answer is 'I don't know'. However, I have sent the above build to the developers and they have approved saying this build will support the sever requirements.

With that in mind, I just want to check that the parts are compatible..
Also whether there are any slight changes in parts simply for a better general performance.



Shopping Basket

91ae-sOt3rL._AA100_.jpg

  • Thermaltake Core V1 Mini ITX Cube Case with Fan

£36.99


71aA%2BzJQe6L._AA100_.jpg

  • GIGABYTE H310M S2V Motherboard - Black

£62.15


51nnFWEpmpL._AA100_.jpg

  • Intel BX80684I78700 8th Gen Core i7-8700 Processor

£286.18


41ZF9nXla%2BL._AA100_.jpg

  • Corsair CP-9020101-UK CX450M 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply Unit

£47.99


81TmfqEBQwL._AA100_.jpg

  • Crucial MX500 CT500MX500SSD1(Z) 500 GB Internal SSD (3D NAND, SATA, 2.5 Inch)

£79.99


51VPYlBlgvL._AA100_.jpg

  • HyperX HX426C16FB2/8 8 GB 2666 MHz DDR4 CL16 DIMM 1.2 V 288-Pin Memory Kit, Black

£74.59


Subtotal (6 items): £587.89
 
Yea this is not a server. Go hp micro server or something with proper server grade hardware. This is more gaming machine than it is server. Also if your running demos why not just get a monster of a laptop that is actually transportable and do the install on there? I bet you wouldn't be able to tell the difference running this on for example my i7 gen 8 hp spectre and an i7 8700k desktop. You will quickly forget the extra cost as it's 1000% more convenient.

If your building for convenience an i7 based laptop will be all over it. Fast ssd etc and you are away I don't get why you would actually go to the effort of building something when a laptop offers enough performance.

Some other thoughts 8gb of ram in you build, seems low given it's use. One of my live sites has 128gb ram at the back end. Network speeds... what kind of network will it be on? 100's of connections with real time updates will surely be bottlenecked here before basically anywhere else.

Did you pull performance metrics or simply put a finger in the air and hope the wind is blowing in the right direction?
 
Last edited:
@Firestar_3x We are building a PC that will be used as our server. I've heard servers are loud and heavy and that is something we want to avoid.

With that in mind, maybe laptop is a better route to go down.

@Vince Valid point, is there any laptop you can recommend to match this?

You are right, we should have 16gb in here, although 8gb would probably suffice.
It will run on the Ruckus network, access points r510's.
 
nwgilbert said:
@Firestar_3x We are building a PC that will be used as our server. I've heard servers are loud and heavy and that is something we want to avoid.

With that in mind, maybe laptop is a better route to go down.

@Vince Valid point, is there any laptop you can recommend to match this?

You are right, we should have 16gb in here, although 8gb would probably suffice.
It will run on the Ruckus network, access points r510's.
Click to expand...

Without knowing too much (please correct me if I am wrong people) the network will be your limiting factor as each of those 510's can supply a maximum throughput of around 1200mb/s or approx 150MB/s. I don't know how they perform but each one is broadly similar to a pair of maraki mr18 devices. The mr18 has a max hard limit of 128 users per radio but believe me load an mr18 with 75 to 100 users and watch it be utter pants it just doesn't have the processor power/ memory to deal with that sort of traffic (Without introducing significant latency). Something like a fortigate 200e as a Wi-Fi controller / firewall with fortiapps would absolutely eat it up but that is besides the point.

Now here is a question, my guess is you are just throwing sql queries from the front end to the back end and processing in as near real time as possible and updating back to the users input at the front end? That being the case have you any metrics on current hardware for the most taxing query a user is likely to run on the day. What's it's current run time in dev and more importantly what hardware is it currently on? If you know this information there is a fair chance that you can gague performance and therefore requirements before buying something that isn't sufficient?

Fwiw I can't see 200 users saturating a relatively new laptop something like 6700hq, 16gb ddr4 perhaps a nice nvme for the front end and an ssd for the database.

Put simply I'm asking pretty much all of the same questions as @skyripper and using nothing but magic for server sizing. I mean I literally have about 1 million questions but without really understanding the deployment, code and transfer of data it's very difficult. What I can say is that a decent laptop will pretty much cover it "if" it's not totally inefficient code. "GUESSES"
 
Last edited:
nwgilbert said:
@Firestar_3x We are building a PC that will be used as our server. I've heard servers are loud and heavy and that is something we want to avoid.
Click to expand...

1U Rackmounts can be, yes. They're designed to live in a rack with 30+ other servers in an air conditioned room where noise isn't an issue.

A HP Microserver or a standard pedestal (tower) server with the current lower TDP processors are no more noisy than a workstation PC.

Everything else @Vince and @skyripper have covered so I won't repeat.
 
You can run servers from desktop hardware providing you use quality desktop hardware.

This is what I would base it around - and the following are the rules I use on my own home servers / computers.

1) Get a quality Gigabyte board that's over specked on the VRM's. So pick one that works well overclocked on a 8700k, then when you run your standard 8700 the board will have plenty of reserve.

2) Don't get a graphics card use the on-board.

3) The Corsair bronze PSU you keep listing is not good, get one of the Seasonic Gold or Platinum PSU's. Jonny Guru did once say Seasonic Gold and Platinum PSU's are the quality of a typical server grade PSU.

4) Buy a CPU cooler that won't fall off in transit. Yes really some of the bigger CPU coolers can come loose when moved.

5) Get a case they won't bend/brake in transit. So no silly plastic windows on one side, something made of thicker steel so it's stronger when handled.

6) Kingston memory is no frills, but it has some of the least returns at overclockers, so buy Kingston memory

7) Do not get the Samsung EVO, you want the Samsung PRO that has more endurance. For performance I would also consider a separate OS/App and Data SSD's. Having seperate data drives is standard practise for servers as it helps prevent IO lag.

8) Get a mains UPS, the reason is your setting up at places you don't know what the quality of power is going to be like, and one spike could reset your server. Are you going to run an extension cable and someone accident kicks it and unplugs it, anything could happen.

9) Final thing build 2 identical machines and carry them together in case one fails you can switch easy, or alternatively you could have just 1 server and when it fails the 100 customers can wait while you try and make it work again.
 
Last edited:
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