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This is fantastic. I'm most interested in the eventual arrival of Zen 2-based APUs for upgrading my tiny home server. Getting a (hopefully) 8 core, 16 thread

by maerek 7y ago

This is fantastic. I'm most interested in the eventual arrival of Zen 2-based APUs for upgrading my tiny home server. Getting a (hopefully) 8 core, 16 thread part with integrated graphics at the end of 2020 would be a fantastic value if prices stay similar to the current announcement (sub $200). Seeing AMD continue to make incredible progress on their chips makes me very excited!

Tepix 7y ago
AMD added the Athlon 3000G today, but it's Zen+ based. Personally I'm looking forward to their Mobile Zen 2 based APUs. I believe they are expected in early 2020.
- tracker1 7y ago
  Ditto.. running a mid-2014 rmbp with nvidia 750 graphics that is showing its' age. Hoping to make a jump to a nice linux environment on next year hardware.
- tutanchamun 7y ago
  Yeah, and finally with LPDDR4x support which should, in addition to 7nm and the improvements Zen 2 has, further help increase battery life. Not to mention that the better bandwidth (if they use a 128 bit interface like the MacBooks) should help increase their iGPU advantage.
wil421 7y ago
What are your use cases for the tiny home server and the APU? I built a smallish FreeNas with an i3 earlier this year. It was before this year’s AMD announcements. I like the i3 because it has ECC memory and can fit into some supermicro server boards. IPMI makes it easy to setup over LAN and I don’t have to ever plug in a monitor or keyboard. It would be nice to see more AMD boards with it beside the AsRock X470D4U. My desktop/plex server is due for an upgrade next year. Maybe the threadripper price will go down.
- flatiron 7y ago
  I still have a haswell i5 quad core as my plex/pi hole/openvpn box. It’s never cpu pegged. I do have hardware transcoding enabled which looks like crap but teaches people to not have such low birtates on their gigabit connections. Silly plex defaults. The most cpu used is deluge/openvpn combo out to PIA as it uhhh acquires new content. That and rclone as it pulls off google drive. But I see no need to upgrade. What do you use yours for that it’s cpu needs refreshing?
  - wil421 7y ago
    Intel QSV does degrade quality. The i7-7700k can’t handle a 4K HVEC transcode to 1080p very well on the fly with Plex. Plex optimizing a 4K video takes about as long as the movie to get a 1080p version. I’d like something that’s not dependent on QSV. My Asus motherboard also has a Bluetooth issue from time to time that requires unplugging the motherboard power connection. Not sure I want to spend the money on a 10gb backbone or wait and upgrade the desktop. My UniFi switches and supermicro board can do link aggregation but my Asus mobo only has one port.
    - windexh8er 7y ago
      If your UniFi switch has SFP+ you can get 10Gb copper SFPs these days for under $60 and then a dual 10Gb PCIe is another $180-200. Probably not worth the upgrade just for Plex - but most people don't realize how cheap copper 10Gb PHY has gotten. And if you have SFP+ on both ends and just need something to fill in-between you can get fused 10Gb DAC cables for under $20 which is a drop in the bucket for those SFP+ ports that are sitting there collecting dust.
      - wil421 7y ago
        The SFP+ ports on my 150w PoE switch are only 1Gb. The MikroTik CRS305 switch is the most cost effective one I’ve found at ~$130. UniFi has an option but it’s $599. DAC is the most sensible option considering I need to go from my basement, up 2 more stories to my attic, and drop into my office.
rohan1024 7y ago
If you don't mind me asking what do you use your home server for?
- maerek 7y ago
  A couple uses, but the primary purpose is as a VM host and file server. Hyper-V for the VMs, and Storage Spaces with ReFS for the storage. My current build uses a core i5-4570s, but I'd love to have more cores & threads for running additional VMs. My use cases don't require _real_ server hardware (IPMI is overkill), just the ability to run a good amount of test and lab environments.
- jandrese 7y ago
  I'm not the op, but running a TOR node, some Minecraft servers, and some web apps will occasionally bog down my old FX-6300 server. Having a low power part that can do the same work is appealing.
BurnGpuBurn 7y ago
I like that idea and I'd like a chip like that too, though compared to say a current 3400G I'd rather have more memory bandwidth, much more cache and a couple of extra Vega cores. Don't care much about doubling the core count, four cores with SMT is enough for what I do with it (mostly gaming from the couch). It depends on the use case I guess. Maybe AMD will surprise us with further segmentation to server APUs and gaming APUs.
ridiculous_fish 7y ago
Some interest in tiny home servers on this thread so I thought I'd share mine, and why I went Intel. I used the InWin Chopin case, which is too small for a video card. Here it is next to a NUC: https://imgur.com/l7dFKCl https://imgur.com/l7dFKCl This server is used for development and has an i7-8700. Unfortunately AMD does not offer a similarly fast chip with integrated graphics. There are rumors of AMD building a NUC competitor, which means we may have more options soon.

by maerek 7y ago

Tepix 7y ago

AMD added the Athlon 3000G today, but it's Zen+ based. Personally I'm looking forward to their Mobile Zen 2 based APUs. I believe they are expected in early 2020.

tracker1 7y ago
Ditto.. running a mid-2014 rmbp with nvidia 750 graphics that is showing its' age. Hoping to make a jump to a nice linux environment on next year hardware.
tutanchamun 7y ago
Yeah, and finally with LPDDR4x support which should, in addition to 7nm and the improvements Zen 2 has, further help increase battery life. Not to mention that the better bandwidth (if they use a 128 bit interface like the MacBooks) should help increase their iGPU advantage.

wil421 7y ago

What are your use cases for the tiny home server and the APU? I built a smallish FreeNas with an i3 earlier this year. It was before this year’s AMD announcements. I like the i3 because it has ECC memory and can fit into some supermicro server boards. IPMI makes it easy to setup over LAN and I don’t have to ever plug in a monitor or keyboard. It would be nice to see more AMD boards with it beside the AsRock X470D4U. My desktop/plex server is due for an upgrade next year. Maybe the threadripper price will go down.

flatiron 7y ago
I still have a haswell i5 quad core as my plex/pi hole/openvpn box. It’s never cpu pegged. I do have hardware transcoding enabled which looks like crap but teaches people to not have such low birtates on their gigabit connections. Silly plex defaults. The most cpu used is deluge/openvpn combo out to PIA as it uhhh acquires new content. That and rclone as it pulls off google drive. But I see no need to upgrade. What do you use yours for that it’s cpu needs refreshing?
- wil421 7y ago
  Intel QSV does degrade quality. The i7-7700k can’t handle a 4K HVEC transcode to 1080p very well on the fly with Plex. Plex optimizing a 4K video takes about as long as the movie to get a 1080p version. I’d like something that’s not dependent on QSV. My Asus motherboard also has a Bluetooth issue from time to time that requires unplugging the motherboard power connection. Not sure I want to spend the money on a 10gb backbone or wait and upgrade the desktop. My UniFi switches and supermicro board can do link aggregation but my Asus mobo only has one port.
  - windexh8er 7y ago
    If your UniFi switch has SFP+ you can get 10Gb copper SFPs these days for under $60 and then a dual 10Gb PCIe is another $180-200. Probably not worth the upgrade just for Plex - but most people don't realize how cheap copper 10Gb PHY has gotten. And if you have SFP+ on both ends and just need something to fill in-between you can get fused 10Gb DAC cables for under $20 which is a drop in the bucket for those SFP+ ports that are sitting there collecting dust.
    - wil421 7y ago
      The SFP+ ports on my 150w PoE switch are only 1Gb. The MikroTik CRS305 switch is the most cost effective one I’ve found at ~$130. UniFi has an option but it’s $599. DAC is the most sensible option considering I need to go from my basement, up 2 more stories to my attic, and drop into my office.

rohan1024 7y ago

If you don't mind me asking what do you use your home server for?

maerek 7y ago
A couple uses, but the primary purpose is as a VM host and file server. Hyper-V for the VMs, and Storage Spaces with ReFS for the storage. My current build uses a core i5-4570s, but I'd love to have more cores & threads for running additional VMs. My use cases don't require _real_ server hardware (IPMI is overkill), just the ability to run a good amount of test and lab environments.
jandrese 7y ago
I'm not the op, but running a TOR node, some Minecraft servers, and some web apps will occasionally bog down my old FX-6300 server. Having a low power part that can do the same work is appealing.

BurnGpuBurn 7y ago

I like that idea and I'd like a chip like that too, though compared to say a current 3400G I'd rather have more memory bandwidth, much more cache and a couple of extra Vega cores. Don't care much about doubling the core count, four cores with SMT is enough for what I do with it (mostly gaming from the couch). It depends on the use case I guess. Maybe AMD will surprise us with further segmentation to server APUs and gaming APUs.

ridiculous_fish 7y ago

Some interest in tiny home servers on this thread so I thought I'd share mine, and why I went Intel. I used the InWin Chopin case, which is too small for a video card. Here it is next to a NUC: https://imgur.com/l7dFKCl https://imgur.com/l7dFKCl This server is used for development and has an i7-8700. Unfortunately AMD does not offer a similarly fast chip with integrated graphics. There are rumors of AMD building a NUC competitor, which means we may have more options soon.