Choosing between Xeon Silver or the new Xeon socket 1151 line for a single Proxmox server

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dkong

New Member
Apr 3, 2018
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Dear STH users,

I need to build a new server for a medium sized campsite network that I run. The server will run Proxmox with a PfSense VM that needs to do about a gig of FW throughput and some VPN and other services like captive portal. I'm also seriously considering moving our physical wireless LAN controller to a virtual version, as this saves big money compared to the physical WLC devices (we are running a Ruckus outdoor wireless network). Looking at requirements for virtual WLC's from vendors like Ruckus and Aerohive, the VM resources we need will vary from 2 to 4 vCPU's and 8 to 16 GB of RAM. All of them recommend counting physical cores, so they probably don't want to troubleshoot performance issues on oversubscribed systems. Besides these two VM's, some lightweight Linux VM's might be added for logging, monitoring, etc.

I'm split between choosing a Silver 4108 8-core (with a X11SPM-F mobo) or a E-2146G (with a X11SCH-F mobo). The WLC vendors recommend against oversubscribing vCPU's in VM's so I feel the 8-core might be the wiser choice. Looking at the STH benchmarks for the E-2146G however, this 6-core CPU might actually offer more real-world performance even when the VM's are oversubscribed a bit. The 6-core would also be cheaper and so would the RAM for it (having to utilize only 2 memory channels instead of 3 allows for a cheaper start with the whole box). The downside of the E-2146G seems to be availability right now. Here in Europe it seems they are barely in stock, none at all in my own country (NL). I might be able to source a E-2136 though, the situation for that one seems to be a bit better. The STH benchmarks indicate that the performance of the E-2136 is close enough to the E-2146G for my use case.

So now for my actual questions:
1. Am I correct in assuming the 6-core will outperform the 8-core at a lower price?
2. What platform would you choose for my use case?