Dual-socket motherboard

[JohnStarr]

Hi All,

I am not really that clued up at the moment with the consumer hardware market (I am with enterprise, but that's a whole other ZAR ballgame!), and I am here for advice.
I want to look at building up a lab PC, but the main thing is that it should have a dual-socket motherboard. Got a distie pricelist where it doesn't have that, but it does have a model by Tyan at nearly R10k!
Can anyone recommend a couple of 2P motherboards that I can look into? Should be able to handle at least 32GB of memory too.
Otherwise, if you have built up a lab PC could you share your specs?
It would ideally be running Server 2019 with Hyper-V enabled, and I'll be using it for VMs and testing software for my own benefit.

Thanks!

 

[DanDango]

Why dual socket? AMD threadripper cpu does have a high core count.

https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/amd-ryzen-threadripper-3970x

 

[JohnStarr]

Because for R32000 I can actually build something with 2 CPUs. That's $2k just for the CPU.
If the motherboard is refurbished then I'd also go for that.

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Because for R32000 I can actually build something with 2 CPUs. That's $2k just for the CPU.
If the motherboard is refurbished then I'd also go for that.

What CPUs are you looking to use? Ebay will have the biggest selection of decommissioned enterprise gear but depending on where its shipped from it may become less appealing.

 

[Mystic Twilight]

General consumer market typically doesn't sell dual socket boards nowadays, its either custom/niche brand that offers it or you get some old (or new if you got budget) enterprise hardware.

 

[Willie Trombone]

I'm curious about the use case. Dual CPUs are so often way underused.

 

[JohnStarr]

I'm curious about the use case. Dual CPUs are so often way underused.

It's mainly to have enough CPUs to throw at a lab, along with a decent amount of memory. The entry-level servers from HPE and Dell are WAY too expensive (I've done the pricing many times), hence trying to find out if there is a consumer motherboard, or at least an inexpensive server motherboard that doesn't break the bank. I don't need mirrored memory or anything like that for instance.
Ideally I'd be running multiple applications and OS, along with testing software-defined storage, VMware ESXi and Horizon View etc. 2-sockets would do that at a far cheaper price than a R32k AMD CPU.
As I said, even reconditioned would work. Just looking for pointers if anyone has done this. Alternatively, if anyone has built their own lab I'd be curious to know with what hardware and the cost.

 

[JohnStarr]

Intel mainly, although I know AMD would be cheaper, especially with their bang-for-buck approach to their server CPUs.
I'll check Ebay too!

 

[Willie Trombone]

2-sockets would do that at a far cheaper price than a R32k AMD CPU.

I think that may have been the case back in the day when dual socket boards were new and multi-core CPUs weren't a thing. I doubt there's a market for them today with the fact that multi-core CPUs produce similar performance. You also have to have the right software and drivers (obviously) - many software packages won't use more than the first core

 

[Mystic Twilight]

You're better off hunting for, as an example, an hpe gen 7/8 (or even gen9) on the 2nd hand market, or directly enquiring from companies that run server farms. Lots of long term support contracts for those older types should be expiring these few years.

 

[Pho3nix]

AMD CPU, x570 board and 64gb of Ram. Cheaper than what you're trying to do

 

[cguy]

I think that may have been the case back in the day when dual socket boards were new and multi-core CPUs weren't a thing. I doubt there's a market for them today with the fact that multi-core CPUs produce similar performance. You also have to have the right software and drivers (obviously) - many software packages won't use more than the first core

Yeah - we use dual socket machines just about everywhere, but that’s mostly for racking density. I don’t know what a consumer would really want with it.

 

[dualmeister]

lol and in one of today's mailers.

 

[JohnStarr]

AMD CPU, x570 board and 64gb of Ram. Cheaper than what you're trying to do

I'll check that all out, thanks!

 

[JohnStarr]

Yeah - we use dual socket machines just about everywhere, but that’s mostly for racking density. I don’t know what a consumer would really want with it.

I understand the concept of an enterprise server. I've installed them, I've designed solutions around them.
I am looking at a dual-CPU setup in order to run a large number of VMs all at once without bottlenecking a single CPU.