Help with (CPU) hardware choice

[Sarlaith]

Hey all,

Im in the process of building (and then ordering) a new FreeNAS.
Currently running on a QNAP that is growing old and to prevent myself from having to recover data I will buy a new NAS.

I am currently considering the following build;
Mainboard: Supermicro X10SL7-F
Case: Fractal Design R5
Power Supply: Corsair RM550x
Memory: Crucial CT2KIT102472BD160B 2X
Disk: WD RED 3TB 6x

However im contemplating what CPU to pick, im currently in doubt between;
CPU: Intel Core i3-4170
CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3

Any advice as to what I should pick?
Benchmarks all say the Xeon is faster (both Single threaded as Multi-threaded)
However, isn't it total overkill?

• I want to use the NAS as general storage to hold my video material (Full-HD and 4K video's are played by my HTPC running Kodi)
• Picture/Personal Movie Backup
• VM storage for my ESXi (NFS or iSCSI)
• Remove my download machine and run that in Jails with SSL connections (Couchpotato, Sickbeard, Transmission, etc)
• Run a limited SFTP-server
• Run two (maybe 3) SQL database

Thank you for thinking along!

With kind regards,
Sarlaith

 

[Ericloewe]

The i3 will probably be fine. An i3-43xx would be my choice, unless you're planning on really heavy loads, like multiple transcoded streams with Plex.

 

[Sarlaith]

I can reasonably say I will never be transcoding streams with Plex.
Atleast, I don't see myself use anything else than my HTPC's to transcode.

Why go for the/a i3-43xx instead of the 4170 btw?

 

[Ericloewe]

I can reasonably say I will never be transcoding streams with Plex.
Atleast, I don't see myself use anything else than my HTPC's to transcode.

Why go for the/a i3-43xx instead of the 4170 btw?

4MB of L3 cache instead of 3MB.

 

[Sarlaith]

4MB of L3 cache instead of 3MB.

True that will probably give it a bit better performance (and especially if you look at bang for the buck)

Might be a smart move to swap the Core i3-4170 out with a Core i3-4370.

Thanks!

Any other hints/tips? :P

 

[Bidule0hm]

I've the 4360 and even if I stream 4 or 5 HD movies, do a copy to the NAS and do a scrub, all at the same time, the CPU doesn't go over 30 % usage... Usually it doesn't go over 10 % with just one copy or one HD stream so yeah, I can confirm that a 4370 will be more than enough if you don't use Plex ;)

 

[Sarlaith]

I've the 4360 and even if I stream 4 or 5 HD movies, do a copy to the NAS and do a scrub, all at the same time, the CPU doesn't go over 30 % usage... Usually it doesn't go over 10 % with just one copy or one HD stream so yeah, I can confirm that a 4370 will be more than enough if you don't use Plex ;)

Awesome, that's good to hear! sounds like I can safely order a 4370, along with the rest of the suggested build :)

 

[styno]

Just to confirm: I do all of the above on an i3-4160 and the max usage I ever saw was 40%.

 

[Sarlaith]

Just to confirm: I do all of the above on an i3-4160 and the max usage I ever saw was 40%.

Awesome! sounds like I can start ordering :)