E3-1241v3 vs E5-1620v3

[Kenneth]

Which of these processors/platforms would you choose for a storage server if the extra cost of the E5-1620v3 was not an issue?

I'm particularly interested in the idle power usage, since the server would be spending a fair amount of time idling. The only idle power numbers for the 1620 I've been able to find are for the 1620-v1 from this chart from a review on this site. Comparing that to the 1240v1 there was quite a power use difference in both idle and under load, does anyone have any idea if this gap has been narrowed with generations v2 and/or v3?

I realize that the performance benefit of the E5-1620v3 over the 1241v3 is probably very limited (correct me if I'm wrong). For the platforms I'm looking at it does bring a few other benefits/future-proofing such as 4 GbE (vs 2 GbE), SAS3 (vs SAS2) and DDR4 which is the reason I'm considering it.

 

[Patrick]

The E5-V3 you also get 10x SATA 3 v. 6x on the E3-V3. DDR4 is a bit lower power but both Haswell chips are very good at idle.

To me, the big difference comes if you want to run a all-in-one virtualization lab. The E5 has more headroom with quad channel RDIMMs. You can at minimum get 8 DPC. Plus you have more PCIe lanes for later.

One suggestion: look at something like an E5-2620 V3. $100 more for the processor but it will be closer in power consumption to the E3-V3. It also gives you a selection from both UP and DP motherboards (and DP while being able to populate the second slot.)

Oddly enough, I actually have C2000 and E5 systems running daily, not many E3's anymore. Low power and memory I go C2000. High power/ memory I go E5.

 

[Mike]

How big of a storage system is probably the most important factor here. Either is probably way overkill for plain storage.

 

[Patrick]

How big of a storage system is probably the most important factor here. Either is probably way overkill for plain storage.

Great point Mike. The C2750/ C2758 actually runs storage servers very well.

One other minor thought/ idea - I might not future proof towards SAS 3 for disk interconnect. SAS 3 is really nice if you are using the LSI SAS 3 cards and expanders because you can get a 4x 12gbps back haul off of an expander chassis easily. For performance (faster than SATA) drives, NVMe is the way the market is moving.

 

[Laugh|nGMan]

I have small experience with E5-1620 v1 and E5-1650 v2.

Windows server 2012R2 Power options balanced mode.
MB Supermicro X9SRL-F
PSU Seasonic Platinum Fanless 460W [SS-460FL2]
RAM 128Gb (8x16Gb sticks KVR16R11D4/16)
1x ssd+2x sff WD reds
SAS controller Intel RS2BL080 (LSI SAS2108) + 1xsff sas drive
VGA NVIDIA 750Ti
All that withE5-1650 v2 idles IPMI only 3-4W
Desktop idle after boot 77-80W, idle after 20min 67-70W.

Regards e5-1620 v1....it consumes 5w more during deep or desktop idle than e5-1650 v2.
If i swap seasonic PSU with Cooler master Gold V450S [RS-450-AMAA-G1]. IPMI idle around 4-4.1W. Deep idle and desktop approx same as seasonic...maybe coolermaster sucks 1W less.

 

[Kenneth]

Thanks for all the info and advice, guys.

To start with the server would be used primarily for content storage for streaming along with a few VMs for miscellaneous servers/services/lab. Later on it will likely also be used to host some more web sites/services. So yeah right now it's a bit difficult for me to choose because I'm not sure exactly how hard it will be working in the future So that's one of the reasons I'm considering the E5, because for my current needs the E3 would probably be sufficient.

All VMs/services will run off one or two SSDs. Storage wise I'm planning to use software RAID like SnapRAID or FlexRAID. It will be installed in a Supermicro 4U chassis with 36 3.5" drive bays on two SAS2/3 expanders (24+12). The motherboards I'm looking at has either LSI 2308 (E3v3) or LSI 3008 (E5v3) onboard with 8 SAS ports (4 ports to each expander).

 

[Patrick]

Ha! OK so a decent amount of storage then.

 

[Kenneth]

Absolutely

I'd only need about 12-16 drive bays at the moment, but again I'm trying to plan for the future as much as possible Also, once you need more than 12 bays, you're looking at 4U and the added cost of 36 bays over 24 is manageable.

 

[Kenneth]

Btw, you mentioned DPC (8 for the E5), what's DPC?

 

[Patrick]

DPC = DIMMs per channel. The Xeon E5's can do up to 3DPC (3 DIMMs * quad channel memory = 12 DIMMs per CPU). Most motherboards are 2DPC on the Xeon E5's so you get 8 DIMM slots per CPU (2DPC * 4 memory channels).

 

[Kenneth]

I see, thanks.

Thanks for all your advice. I've pretty much decided to go the E5 route.

I'm trying to get a little wiser with regards to noise levels, if anyone has any input on that it would be much appreciated - see this thread: Supermicro noise levels