The Evolution of Server Building: A Journey from Intel to AMD

In 2017, I built what was then considered the fastest possible server for transcoding massive cineform raw export files. The server was capable of handling fifty to seventy gigabytes of H.264 MP4s that could be uploaded to YouTube at the time. While it was a little janky, the performance was basically as good as I could get. However, when I went to upgrade the server about a year ago, testing both a 5.1GHz binned, overclocked 9900K and the limited run, auction-only 9th gen Intel Core i9-9990XE, 14-core chip capable of 5 GHz on all cores, the results were appalling. Neither of the two flagship CPUs was able to offer more than a ten percent improvement to our transcoding times, making it seem like we had sort of hit a wall.

In that video, I promised you guys a follow-up building up the server in a sick custom water-cooled chassis and announced plans to take another crack at upgrading this machine. Now that Ryzen 3000-series processors are out and matured a little bit, we're going to test top-of-the-line Ryzen against the top-of-the-line Intel to see who wins in a heavyweight encoding showdown. What better way to do it than to retrofit our old Minecraft server chassis? As many of you know, the ultimate Minecraft server chassis was designed and fabbed with the help of Protocase and was pretty purpose-built around holding two ITX motherboards.

However, Jake realized that by removing just one of our three sandwiched radiators in the front, along with some minor modifications to the motherboard layout, we could actually easily fit both a full-sized motherboard and a compact GPU. This is something we need to be able to run our CPU of choice, the Ryzen Threadripper 3970X. This is AMD's second from-the-top Ryzen 3rd-gen CPU with an astonishing 32 cores that trades blows with even their top dog, 65-core 3990X, at least according to Puget Systems. Given the price difference, we're going to stick with the 32-core variant, even if it means taking a few seconds longer on our renders.

Now that Jake sent over the care package for this build, we can start putting everything together. We've got three 80mm Noctua cooling fans in the front of the chassis along with an AlphaCool reservoir that's easy to fill. You just fill it up through the top here and easily check your coolant level with the handy dandy little window in the front. We also have a D5 pump wired into the back of it, a Corsair fan, and RGB lighting controller. In between these three banks of fans we're trying to draw air into from the front of the chassis and then send it over to the motherboard and out the back.

Most of the cooling is going to be handled right here because both our CPU and graphics card are going to be water-cooled. With that sorted out, it's time to throw in the motherboard. You might have noticed we actually didn't bother to change up the back panel to make room for a full-size ATX IO; the reason for this is that honestly speaking, it just doesn't matter. The only card we're going to install on this server is a graphics card and we're going to be using a PCI Express extension cable in order to do that.

So, let's go ahead and get the motherboard screwed into place. Our reasons for choosing the ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming motherboard are pretty straightforward. We wanted something that wasn't pseudo EATX so wider cause that would have interfered with our ability to mount our graphics card and power supply. We also wanted something with 2.5 gig Ethernet built in, so that we wouldn't need to modify the chassis to put in a faster network card. Not that it really matters; I mean nothing we're doing requires greater than gigabit transfer speeds anyway, but it's just kind of a nice to have.

Now, let's take a look at how Jake intends for me to mount the graphics card with some VHB tape on these 3D-printed spacers. Um, there are screw holes here which is curious; we apparently will not be using them. Our intention had been to go with an RTX 2060 for this build but it did not arrive in time thanks to COVID-19. So we've got this Zotac GeForce GTX 1080 Ti now.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Back in 2017, I built what, at the time,seemed to be essentiallythe fastest possible serverfor transcoding our massivecineform raw export files.We're talking fifty to seventy gigabytesinto H.264 MP4s that wecould upload to YouTube.At the time, while it was a little janky,the performance was basicallyas good as I could get.Then I went to upgradeit about a year ago,testing both a 5.1ghzbinned, overclocked 9900k,as well as the limitedrun, auction only 9990 xe,a 14 core chip capableof 5ghz on all cores,and honestly, the results were appalling.Neither of the two flagship CPUswere able to offer much morethan a ten percent improvementto our transcoding times,making it seem like wehad sorta hit a wall.But in that video, I didpromise you guys a followup,building up that serve in a sickcustom water cooled chassis.And we're going to dothat but with a twist.Now that Ryzen 3000series processors are outand matures a little bit,we're going to take anothercrack at upgrading this machine.We're going to test top of the line Ryzenagainst the top of the line Intelto see who wins in a heavyweight encoding showdown.And what better way todo it then to retrofitour old Minecraft server chassisAs many of you know, theultimate Minecraft server chassiswas designed and fabbedwith the help of Protocase,and was pretty purpose built aroundholding two ITX motherboards.And I can assure you guys that, um,this Threadripper sizedsocket is never comingto an ITX motherboard.Jake realized that by removingjust one of our three sandwiched radiatorsin the front though, alongwith some minor modificationsto the motherboard whole layout,we could actually easily fitboth a full sized motherboardand a compact GPU.Woo!And that is something we are going to needto be able to run our CPU of choice,the Ryzen Threadripper 3970X.This is AMD's second fromthe top Ryzen 3rd gen CPUwith an astonishing 32 cores that,at least according to Puget Systems,trades blows with eventheir top dog 65 core 3990X,At least for Adobe Premier exports.And given the price difference,we're going to stickwith the 32 core variant, even if it meanstaking a few secondslonger on our renders.So I've got the chassis here.I've got all the bits to put together hereand off camera over there,so let's build a watercooled server, shall we?Let's start by taking alook at the care packageJake sent over to me.We've got three 80 mm Noctua cooling fansin the front of our chassis here,along with this reallysweet AlphaCool reservoirthat's easy to fill.So you just fill it upthrough the top here.And easy to check your coolant levelswith the handy dandylittle window in the front.And we've got a D5 pumpwired into the back of it.We've got a Corsair fan andRGB lighting controller here.And then we've gotanother eight 80 mm fansbetween these two 80 mmAlphaCool sandwiched radiators.So between these three banks of fanswe're trying to draw air infrom the front of the chassisand then send it over themotherboard and out the back.And then most of the coolingis going to be handled right herebecause both our CPU and graphics cardare going to be water cooled.With that sorted out, it's timeto throw in our motherboard.Now, you might have noticed that, um,we actually didn't bother tochange up the back panel hereto make room for our full size ATX IO.And the reason for thatis that honestly speakingit just doesn't matter.The only card we'regoing to install on thisis a graphics card.And we're going to be usinga PCI Express extension cablein order to do that.So we'll deal with that later.First, let's go ahead and getthe motherboard screwed in.Our reasons for choosingthe ROG Strix TRX40-E Gamingare pretty straightforward.We wanted somethingthat wasn't pseudo EATX,so wider, cause that would have interferedwith our ability tomount our graphics cardand our power supply.And we wanted something with2.5 gig ethernet built in,so that we wouldn't needto modify the chassisto put in a faster network card.Not that it really matters.I mean nothing we're doingrequires greater thangigabit transfer speeds anyway,but it's just kind of a nice to have.Well, I'm not sure if this is the wayI would have preferred to have it done,but it seems like Jake intendsfor me to mount the graphicscard with some VHB tapeon these 3D printed spacers.Um, there are screw holeshere which is curious.But we apparently will notbe (laughs) using them.Our intention had been to gowith a RTX 2060 for this build,but it did not arrive in time.Thanks COVID-19!So we've got this ZotacGeforce GTX 1080 Ti.Now you might think, \"Oh,well not having RTX means\"that you also don't havethe new NVENC encoder.\"But that's okay.We're just using the cudacores on the GPUas opposed to the fixedfunction hardware encoder.So it really shouldn't matteras long as we have enough GPU performance,at least according to ourfindings, um, on this topic.(inhales loudly) I guess thatwas two or three years ago.For our power supply,we actually downgradedin a certain sense comparedto the Minecraft server that we built.This is Corsairs SF750,and it's a 750 ratherthan an 800 watt unit,but unlike those Silverstoneunits we used beforethis has duel eight pin EPS connectors,which both our AMD andIntel HD platforms require.Just gonna mount it fan side upso that it gets to suck in some of the airthat's being blown over the systemby these 80 mm cooling fans.And we're gonna go aheadand use the same mountingscrews once again.To actually plug thepower supply in though,we've gotta go aheadand run this right angle power connectorthrough the hole in theback of the chassis.Then we get our plug correctlyinstalled on the outside.We just pull up the power supply,plug the right angle connector in.Make sure the power supply is powered on,cause we're not really going to be ableto get at that switch laterOh actually it's not thathard to get it, nevermind.So we're going to leave it offcause that's a little bitsafer when you're stillbuilding the computer.And then we can go aheadand screw this down.To be very clear guys,we know that this isn'tserver spec hardware,and I keep calling it a server.A server is more of a function.And it will be serving a server role,even if it is desktop orworkstation class hardware.Need to plug in USBfor our fan controller.Then we're going to run our SATA connectoraround the power supply here,which is sort of a weirdcable management choiceon the surface, but it allows us to plugjust a basic SSD.There we go.In response to the onslaught of commentsthat I'm sure are comingover my double sided tape drive mounting,there's nothing wrong with it.With a harddrive, yes. Bad idea.With an SSD, they're lightweight,there's no moving parts,it's fine.That leaves fixing upthe water cooling tubesas my last task here.The outlet from our reservoiris this one over here.So we're going to run thatover to our graphics cardwhich is a non direction sensitive block.So we're gonna go aheadand cut this off to size.We're going to be off tothe races pretty quick here.(static noise)Things, stop it.That's what we're looking for,move them bubbles through.Thank you, thank you kindly.Wow, you actually,you set this up all like realnice for me and everything.It's got the, the file all sitting thereready to just press encode.The only thing you didn'tinclude was a SATA cable.- I didn't include a SATA cable, what?- It's okay, don't worry, don't worry,I found a super stylishone, check this out.- Oh no!This is like, I did that to myself.That's so bad, oh man.- I think we shouldjust leave it in there.- Oh yeah. Heck yeah.- On my side we've gotIntel's flagship 10980XE;that's an 18 core processor.Along with a matching1080 Ti, the same OS.And media encoder readyto start this test,so uh, you ready to lose.I mean, probably, win.- You're going down,you're going down bruh!You're going down!- You're definitely probably going to win.- Alright, ready?3, 2, 1 go!- So what is this?This is a CineForm H.264 transcode?- Yeah, so it'staking the raw outputfrom one of our editor stations,so it's going to be like a 50, 60GB file,and trascoding it to H.264so we can actually upload it to YouTube.Our previous rendering serverprobably would have done this videoin about 20 minutes, so-- I think I'm going tobe beating that time.Um, my estimated time remainingis 10:26, how about you?- Uh, I'm one minute into it;Estimated remaining time is 14.Oh, it's going down to 13,but I mean it's Adobe, soit's all over the place.- Yeah, fair enough.- What's your RAM usage like?- Uh, I'm at 16 gigs.= Yeah, basically 16 gigs as well.CPU usage somewherebetween 60 to 70 percent.- Wow, um, mine is atlike 45, 50 (laughs).- Um, what about GPU?= Um, my GPU's kinda chilin'.Bounces between 10 and 20 percent.- Oh, I'm like prettymuch always below 10.- Interesting.- 6 to 9 percent, huh.- Kay, everyone quiet, quiet.(phone ringing)Pick up Jake.Mine was too fast; it was too fast.- I finished 15 seconds ago.- What?- Yeah, you heard me.- I still have four minutes remaining.- Yeah, you got rekt then, didn't you?- (laughs)- 12 minutes 42 seconds.- Ooh!For comparison, I'm at 14 minutes,and there's still three minutes remaining.- That's crazy.And the funny thing is, like yeah,it's got, you know, whatever80 percent more cores,but it's usage was so low.Like, it must just also bemore efficient at encodingon a per core basis.- Well here, let meconnect, let me connectto our existing one andsee if it's even done yetbecause I bet you it's not.Yeah, okay, so our existing serverwhich is running it right now, elapsed,so far it's been 18 and a half minutes,and there's 30 seconds left.So it looks like about a 19 minute encode.And then this one shouldbe about 17 minutes.So there was a little improvementgoing from 7980XE to the 10980XE.But the 3970X just wipesthe floor with them.So thanks for watching guys.If you enjoy these kinds of server videos,maybe check out our recentstorage server upgrade,uh, deploying nuwonic.\n"