Question Need help to pick a new barebones server.

[Compman55]

I actually bought both already and need to pick just one. It will be doing file storage for my house (about 8TB currently), it will serve as an NVR for 4 camera's. At a later date I may up it to 6 cameras. And for now it will also do plex media. In the future I may test and deploy various VM's and might experiment with a small SQL database. Overall power consumption is very important to me, I am a watt counter!

Lenovo TS460: (Late 2018 build date)
Xeon E3-1230 V6 4C/8T
8GB DDR4 ECC UDIMM
Onboard Aspeed 2400 AST Server Graphics with 64MB Ram
Room for (4) 3.5" Hard drives currently, and an empty bay for another (4).
Empty M.2 2280 SATA Slot

Lenovo ST250: (Mid 2019 Build Date)
Xeon E2136 6C/12T
8GB DDR EEC UDIMM
Onboard Matrox G200e Server Graphics 16MB Ram
Room for (8) 2.5" Hard Drives and an empty bay for another backplane.
Empty M.2 2240 and 2280 SATA slot.
Has XClarity manager in the uefi firmware as a standard option.

Right away you would say keep the ST250, however I will tell you that when playing around with them the onboard graphics are really bad. It cannot even play a 480 youtube video. The TS460 can play a 720 semi smooth. Also the ST250 has not aftermarket hard drive caddys available, so I would have to insert the drives into the backplane without a caddy as I have no plans to use OEM lenovo drives. the TS460 has plenty of drive caddys avail on amazon and ebay. However the future proofing of firmware updates and the better cpu does make me wonder if the ST250 would be the better option.

Opinions?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Right away you would say keep the ST250, however I will tell you that when playing around with them the onboard graphics are really bad. It cannot even play a 480 youtube video.

You're using a server's onboard, minimal GPU, and expecting it to do modern multimedia?

What am I missing here.

(I know what you're missing, a HTPC mini-PC to go with the server.)

 

[Compman55]

Which would you pick for a keeper?

 

[VirtualLarry]

I hesitate to even give you an answer on that; I'm not really experienced / qualified enough in actual server tech to be able to answer that competently.

But I can suggest that perhaps, server "GPUs", are really meant just for bootup/installation, and not using them as a workstation or multimedia-consumption/HTPC-type device.

Let the server serve files, and then get a HTPC to view files. Maybe even one of those little Android boxes that can play back H.264 / H.265 / VP9, if you want to keep things cheap.

 

[mxnerd]

All onboard graphics chips on server mothboards are basically craps. Server is just server, you only use it remotely via network, you don't use it as desktop PC.

In theory you should use TS460 as server (use less watts - 72w), and use ST250 (80w) as workstation but you need to add a stand alone AMD or nVIDIA GPU.

Intel Xeon E-2136 @ 3.30GHz vs Intel Xeon E3-1230 v6 @ 3.50GHz [cpubenchmark.net] by PassMark Software

CPU Mark is 13534 vs 7732

Yet the running cost difference is negligible.

You have to decide yourself exactly what you need.

 

[Compman55]

UPDATE:
I forgot to add the fact that I already own (2) Seagate 4TB hard drives that have a 4.5 year proven track record, and (1) WD Purple 2TB for my unifi cameras. They are 3.5" drives and fit right into the TS460.

On the ST250 which is a newer server, i would need to buy new 2.5 drives and run a RAID 5 array with (3) 2TB drives to get the proper capacity out of it as 4TB 2.5" drives are just too expensive.

The TS460 runs at 7 - 9 % CPU utilization running my camera software and keeping windows up and running, it uses 43-48 watts in this config.

The ST250 runs at 21 watts but I have no camera software on it yet to load the CPU, nor do I have the drives installed to be able to test the draw, but from what I read it should consume LESS power are the CPU is more effieicnt.

I am stuck making a decision, both are great in different ways. Cant keep both........

 

[Compman55]

Based on the hard drive info and cpu's stated above....anymore opinions?

Im no closer to a decision.