Need help choose small quiet Xeon for living room

[ullbeking]

Hello!

I have this excellent, mini-ITX server board ASRock Rack > E3C236D2I . (Yes, it has ECC, BMC, IPMI 2,0, etc.) It is perfect for a lightweight virtualization host at home. I originally bought it to be small and quiet, but I don't like the Pentium G4560 so I'm going to swap it out.

At ASRock Rack > E3C236D2I I saw the E3-1240L v5, which has a TDP of 25 W. Woohoo, I thought! That's one factor in the noise reduction equation sorted out. But I can't actually buy one :-( Not a single one on Ebay is being sold from a vendor who does not creep me out.

Let's try something else, a bit more bold...

I'm choosing the Intel Xeon E3-1230 v6 instead. These are easy to get at reasonable prices from less skeezy sources. It's a huge leap from 25 W TDP to 72 W TDP. But I also know that TDP power is not easy to interpret. I've heard that huge differences in W TDP might indicate only a small differences in the amount of active cooling needed.

I need somebody who understands how these power consumption figures and thermal profiles work to tell me if I can get away with the following:

Substitute a Xeon E3-1230v6 (72 W TDP) into my "inaudible" mini-ITX home living room room server, because the 25 W CPU is unavailable.

I intend to use this: NH-L9i . I hope that the CPU will still be quiet. NO?! EEEEK! The support technicians at Noctua said it would be fine with the Xeon E31240L v5 and Pentium G4560. I never asked about the Xeon E3-1230v6 but according to the spec sheet this is right on the edge of what they support. So everything is fine!

Whoever sets me straght will go into in my personal hall of fame. Getting me unblocked on a bad case of analysis paralysis is always appreciated more than you ever know.

Who will be my hero?!

Thank you for reading and considering my issue. Thank you!!

Andrew

 

[EffrafaxOfWug]

You need to take your workload into account. Assuming the same gen of chip, a 25W TDP CPU will generally use the same amount of power at idle as a 75W chip. If your workload is going to be mostly idle, it's not worth paying extra for any low power versions (and even those should only really be considered if you're extremely limited by power draw or thermals).

Likely you'll be better off buying a bog-standard E3 v6, and the higher TDP should only be a concern if your workload will lead to the CPU being regularly maxed out.

 

[ullbeking]

@EffrafaxOfWug This sounds like excellent advice. Indeed, this is partly why I didn't really like the Pengium G4560 and wanted to move to a more powerful CPU. I realize that even though the specs might say 72 W TDP on paper, this is when the CPU is working hard. In fact, it's a pretty tough CPU so the kinds of workloads that I'll be throwing at it shouldn't make it break a sweat. (Holding thumbs for luck.)

If this CPU does regular max out, then that's actually a good sign.

I've found this cooler too: CRYORIG | C1 . So far, regarding coolers, the choice is between the Noctua I linked above or this Cryorig C1.

 

[EffrafaxOfWug]

Bear in mind that the Noctua dudes say to take care with CPUs with TDPs over 65W (i.e. if you do have a >65W CPU and regularly run it flat out, you should have plenty of chassis airflow to avoid overheating/throttling), and the cryorig doesn't look like it'd fit in the NSC-800 if that pic with the paper cutout is anything to go by.

 

[Ixian]

What case are you using?

 

[EffrafaxOfWug]

I'm currently using an InWin MS08 as I'm no longer as space-constrained as I used to be and wanted a mATX board and a bigger case for expansion options and ease of work. The CPU is an E3 1230v3 with a TDP of 80W, also still using the Noctua cooler. The system generally runs at 75-80W idle (that's CPU, board, memory, HBA, 6-8 hard drives not spun down and two intel SSDs), it'll max out at about 180W if I'm hammering the HDDs and maxing out the CPU at the same time (although this never happens in the real world as I don't have that kind of workload).

Before that I was using my E3C226D2I with an M1015 in the NSC-800. I also have an NSC-800 with the C3758.

 

[Ixian]

Whats @ullbeking using is what I meant, because the Cryorig s/he's considering won't fit in the UNas case.

 

[jingram]

Whats @ullbeking using is what I meant, because the Cryorig s/he's considering won't fit in the UNas case.

Ixian is right. The only Cryorig that will fit would be the C7/C7U. Other options are the Noctua NH-L9i or the LP53.