Preface

My old computer only has 8Gb of RAM. The motherboard was supposed to support 16Gb, but it looks like the one model I got did not work with that much memory.

I've used that computer for too long now and I have been looking at upgrading for a few years, but I was not quite ready to do it. In 2019, now I'm finally moving forward with an upgrade. Why? Because 1Tb computers are actually becoming affordable!

For now, I'll be getting only 512Gb of RAM, but even just that will allow me to run 24/7 without having to close my X-Windows sessions every night (which is sad because that means I have to close all of my windows—and lose the position of what I was working on.) I will also have VPS running permanently which means a bit more security added as I can run my services on seperate computers.

Computer Parts

I got all the computer parts from Amazon.com. I have to build the server once I get everything, but hey! That's part of the fun of getting a new computer.

The advantage, also, is that I pay less (compare to another company I checked with it's $3,000 to $4,000 less; which is way too much to have them build the computer for me!)

Note: I'm an Amazon affiliate so when you purchase something after following one of those links, I may get a small payment from Amazon.

Notes:

Note that there is an X11DPH-TQ motherboard (with a "Q") which is much more expensive. It has a couple of chips that are different. I'm not too sure what and/or how it ameliorates your board. I don't think it would do much for me so I went with the cheaper version: Motherboard Supermicro X11DPH-T.

I chose the Xeon Silver 4260 because it is a good trade off in comparison to that series of Xeons. The next level starts to be really expensive and does not give you that much more. Here I will have 16 x 2 cores which I can run in hyperthreading for an equivalent of 64 CPUs. I will have to test that, but it is said that newer CPUs hyper threading work much better than in the old days. I have doubts still. I would imagine that it will still cut the speed by nearly 50% anyway. So that means 64 CPUs of 1GHz or 32 of 2GHz... I think I'll like the later better. For sure, that's going to be way better than my old i5 with 4 Cores and no AVX extensions.

The HGST 10Tb HDD drives are "renewed" (a new name for refurbished). This means those drives were already used. They do not clearly specify for how long, but my understanding is that it was pretty short (3 months or less). Amazon gives you a pretty good guarantee on those items.

The Supermicro Heat Sink 4U was not available by Amazon so I had to use another reseller.

Also the machines comes with only four USB 3.x ports immediately accessible. The two in the front, I could not connect. The connector of the case is not compatible. I probably could find a way to make it work, but I was not able to find such easily. Instead I went with an internal MOSTOP cable that adds two USB ports to the back for a total of 6. All are 3.x so all are really fast USBs. And yes, I've already tested and felt the difference from my old computer USB 2.x ports.

To have many ports, I also got an Atolla USB extension. I do not recommand this one. Most of the ports have not worked for me. I'm not totally sure that they are broken or what, but so far I have been able to use only 2 of the ports on that rack...

Finally, I got a dual USB to PS/2 connector so I could keep using the same keyboard and mouse. This works well and it allows me to use a single USB port for both, the mouse and the keyboard. As mentioned above, the number of ports is somewhat limited. That way at least I saved one port. That being said, with my Atolla extension, I may be able to use another set of USB mouse/keyword.

Build

I'll talk more about my new server once I have it built and running. I'll try to remember to get videos and pictures too while building it. Right now I'm still waiting for 3 parts to arrive.

• 1. Prices are from Aug. 2019
• 2. WARNING: the total does not include potential taxes.