Buy XEON E5-1650v3 now or wait for XEON D1541 --> Now: Xeon E5-1650v3 VS E5-2630 v3

[Markus]

Hi there,

as I "just" resend my SM X10SDV-TLN4F because of the missing SR-IOV-Feature I am waiting for the money.

I want to build a quite decent AIO-Server to supersede my old "Desktop-Server" (i7 2600k 32GB RAM and Desktop-Board).

I want to go the Virtual NAS - Route with a HBA passed through to the VM and go for FreeBSD with ZFS. As HOST-OS I was thinking about FreeBSD and Bhyve or an actual CentOS with KVM (probably dig a little bit into OpenStack).

So at the moment I am thinking about waiting for the release of the nice 16-core/32Thread-Board from SM (X10SDV-16C+-TLN4F) where I will get 2x10GBE + 4x1GBE + 1 PCIe-Slot for my already possessed IBM 1015. I also got 64 GB ECC DDR4 2133 RAM from Samsung.

The other option would be the Xeon E5-1650v3 + a X10SRH-CLN4F (onboard LSI + 4x1GBE). Here there are plenty of extension-slots so an update to 10GBe in future is not impossible.

The size of the board is not so important (4HE case is also there), but the power consumption must not be "sky high".

It is possible to compare the both solutions or are they to different to pick one?
Beside the NAS it should do quite extensive firewalling / routing, running several VMs and do some media transcoding.

I am open to arguments for both solutions.

Regards
Markus

 

[PigLover]

Go with the E5. You'll be waiting until early 3q next year to see that 16 core Xeon-d in the retail channel.

 

[pyro_]

I just went with a low power E5 V1 solution. Figured for the cost it would give me the best price/performance especially as i had some parts laying around that i could reuse.

The part i like with any of the E5's currently over the D1500 series is that they are currently a bit more expandable in the future. If i want to add on multiple additional network cards or multiple NVME drives i can. With the D1500 there is only the one expansion slot available so a bit more limited in the long run if you plan of keeping it for a while.

 

[Markus]

So you got a E5-XEON Version 1?

I have the RAM here, so I will go through the DDR4-Route.
The money is back, so I could go shopping.

I researched a little bit today and as you recommended I put down the D-1541 from my list. I want to start soon and so I will buy something which is on the market right now.

The board I will get in Germany for ~480 Euro.

Again regarding the CPU.
I came up with another one and want to hear your suggestions.
The Xeon E5-1650v3 is available for 600 Euro.
I found the Xeon E5-2630v3 for ~680 Euro.

Pro 1650: Faster RAM (up to 2133 Mhz), Higher Clockrate
Pro 2630: 2 more Cores, lower TDP

But this are just facts out of the Intel-docs.
What do you suggest?

Regards
Markus

 

[MiniKnight]

I like to think it's 2-3 months after I see them on STH that they've hit retail.

 

[archangel.dmitry]

I used to have E5-2630 V3 in my ESXi host. I have to say that it is one of the best CPUs I ever had due relatively low power consumption and processing power.

 

[Markus]

I tried to find additional information and came to the Xeon E5 2630L, which is a little bit slower, but would be a nice low consumption server CPU.

I am thinking going with the board stated above combined with the 2630L v3. What do you think. For home usage and stated VM / transcoding usage it should be OK. Still 8 cores and 64 GB RAM. Should be enough, shouldn't it?

Regards
Markus

 

[AmshTemp]

Xeon-D mini-ITX form factor are hard to beat.
Think about it before you decide, as most of those "monstrous yet tiny" NAS cases are mostly mini-ITX.

 

[Markus]

This is the reason why I am thinking about the 2630Lv3. It is nearly as low in power consumption of the Xeon 1540, but has plenty options for future expansion. I got a 4HE case, so no need for mini-ITX.

Regards
Markus

 

[nk215]

I wouldn't bother with the low power CPU in a home setup if I were you. I tested a dual L5630 vs dual X5650 setup years ago and the idle power is not even 20 watts between the two setups. The max power consumption is significant different however you'll get the work done quicker.

 

[Markus]

So I still didn't press the "Buy-Button".

I am thinking about expand the invest quite a lot and buy all at once: For Proxmox 4.0 HA I need at least three servers - for DRBD9 aswell as for Ceph.

So I am not sure if there is a need for 3 identical big hosts or go for one big one and two smaller one. The workload will be quite low for most of the time.

Do you have any suggestions beside a bigger one?
Probably go for two e3-12xx v4/v5?

Regards
Markus

 

[mstone]

I wouldn't bother with the low power CPU in a home setup if I were you. I tested a dual L5630 vs dual X5650 setup years ago and the idle power is not even 20 watts between the two setups. The max power consumption is significant different however you'll get the work done quicker.

The max power consumption translates to the cooling the box requires. Low power setups can get by with passive or quiet low-volume fans, high power setups generally can't. If the setup is far from people it doesn't matter, if not, it does matter. The point of low power CPUs isn't how low they get at idle.

 

[Markus]

Thanks for the input. I finally hit the purchase button.

It is the E5-2620v3. For the bucks I saved, I bought an additional case (IPC 4U-4316L). Those cases are quite expensive in Germany

Regards
Markus