Haswell/Broadwell Corporate Refreshes

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

Erlipton

Member
Jul 1, 2016
93
23
8
36
When do you all speculate that we may see haswell and broadwell processors flood the used/refurb market, the way the E5-2670 did when it's price went down to around ~$50 ea? I'm assuming a mass corporate refresh to intel scalable is imminent
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
3,346
598
113
When do you all speculate that we may see haswell and broadwell processors flood the used/refurb market, the way the E5-2670 did when it's price went down to around ~$50 ea? I'm assuming a mass corporate refresh to intel scalable is imminent
I can’t say much about actual intel dates due to NDA but I would speculate imminent is not the word I wound use, later in 2019 I think would be a more accurate time, but of course can be sure just how much silicon the big guys get long way before corporates. Regular corporate enterprise certainly not until later in 2019.

The things is people have held off already and gone beyond regular life cycles based on age so who knows if scalable v2 is uninteresting then you may see people still stay still and keep systems.
 

BackupProphet

Well-Known Member
Jul 2, 2014
1,083
640
113
Stavanger, Norway
olavgg.com
I have a guess that since the power efficiency has not been so dramatic for the last few generations, that more companies will keep those old server for some longer. I feel that Sandy Bridge and the Ivy Bridge Generation is not as cheap the LGA 1366 generations was at the same age. And the difference between that generation was also HUUUUGE!
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
3,346
598
113
Thing is e5 v2 also had frequency on its side , e5-2690 v2 was rather common and has a 3.0ghz base, that for most applications means not that much of a performance deficit to the new cpu’s unless of course you need the new instructions.
 

mstone

Active Member
Mar 11, 2015
505
118
43
46
Intel scalable is so un-compelling that we're not really even looking at it for replacements. Stuff that used to get 2s E5 now gets 1s epyc, but even with those the ROI on ripping out working E5s just isn't there. (Especially since memory prices still haven't come all the way back down--the cost to replace memory that was bought cheap a few years back makes replacing those systems extremely unappealing if they're working fine as-is. If memory prices fall a lot in 2019 then new DDR4 deployments will look a lot more attractive.)
 

Erlipton

Member
Jul 1, 2016
93
23
8
36
Especially since memory prices still haven't come all the way back down--the cost to replace memory that was bought cheap a few years back makes replacing those systems extremely unappealing if they're working fine as-is. If memory prices fall a lot in 2019 then new DDR4 deployments will look a lot more attractive.)
Would consumer grade DDR4 be an indicator of what enterprise memory would do?
 

StevenDTX

Active Member
Aug 17, 2016
493
173
43
We are mostly an HP shop, and HP is still selling us Gen 9s, with E5 v4s. We only have a few scalables in testing.
 

Stephan

Well-Known Member
Apr 21, 2017
920
697
93
Germany
Good thread, subbed.

Also consider that Intel so far has not delivered any even remotely Meltdown/Spectre resistant new core, so everything delivered today needs microcode fixes and performance killing software workarounds. Hyperthreading? Best turn it off entirely, because it is really hard to fix. Can't fault any company sticking with their old Xeons until 2020 or 2021 when something alot more secure will come out. Or even alot cheaper, because multi chiplet with I/O hub is the new chic.
 

T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
7,625
2,043
113
IMHO 12C haswell for $300-350 is a great deal.

The E5-2670 was considered a "Gerat Deal" at $175\each I remember, I purchased a dozen, and a month later they were $90, and then back up.

Overall V3\v4 builds cost a ton more due to the components they require (DDR4).

The CPU cost +\- 100-200$ is nothing compared to the complete build, or even compared to minimum 128GB or 256GB of DDR4. If you're waiting for it to drop to $100 for a V3\4 and $30 DIMMs those days are not coming soon.
 

IamSpartacus

Well-Known Member
Mar 14, 2016
2,515
650
113
I just picked up an E5-2680v3 for $275 and I think that was a solid deal. However, I already had the DDR4 RAM to pair with it and that's definitely the barrier for most right now.
 

WANg

Well-Known Member
Jun 10, 2018
1,302
967
113
46
New York, NY
Don't forget that service contract support EOL date for most production Sandy/Ivy servers (like the Cisco UCS B200M3s) are around 2020-2021, and the v3/4s are 2 years beyond that. I really don't see a massive crop of Xeon v3s and 4s hitting the market unless they are off-lease - they are not so much slower than the Skylake based scalables that they will be rapidly dumped by direct owners, IT amortization being what it is. I also don't think the Epycs will encourage their rapid retirements either.

If it's my (or my CIO's) money I would keep the old Xeon v1/2 battleaxes going for as long as it's economically feasible (and replace with AMDs in 2020), and the Xeon v3/4s will stay where they are. Unless something happens that pushes for rapid Haswell/Broadwell retirement (unpatchable Spectre variant only targeting those silicon), don't expect it to happen until around 2021.
 
Last edited:

T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
7,625
2,043
113
I just picked up an E5-2680v3 for $275 and I think that was a solid deal. However, I already had the DDR4 RAM to pair with it and that's definitely the barrier for most right now.
Exactly. Those are the ones I've been buying too for <$300 for the last 6 months.

But yeah, DDR4 makes the entire build stupid expensive, but as a business it makes 0 sense to invest in V1\V2 E5 CPUs at this point in time. V3\4 are limited on life with PCIE4 but for the $ hard to pass right now.

For home, I don't think they're cheap enough yet... for me personally. I have ES for my home E5 fwiw :) single cpu, works fine, and a bit more affordable, although I paid >$300\each for those E5-2680 v3 ES years ago that's for sure! Still going strong, at-least half dozen of them.
 

mrkrad

Well-Known Member
Oct 13, 2012
1,244
52
48
I got a couple of e5-2630 V4's any thoughts on cheap mobo's that can run them?