help with choice of CPU?

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BLinux

cat lover server enthusiast
Jul 7, 2016
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I'm looking for CPUs for my Supermicro X9DR3-LN4F+ systems. I bought them 2nd hand and they came with E5-2630v1.

I'm not looking for outright performance, but a balance between purchase cost, operational cost/energy efficiency, and performance. These systems will be a combination of storage system + virtualization host just using plain old CentOS7/KVM/ZFS. The VMs that will run on these systems will vary from web, database, dns, email, vpn router, ldap, and plex media server, etc.

Here's what my narrowed down options are so far:

CPU / Purchase cost / (cores/threads) / (freq/turbo) / TDP

E5-2660 / $55 / (8,16) / (2.2/3.0) / 95W
E5-2670 / $114 / (8,16) / (2.6/3.3) / 115W
E5-2680 / $120 / (8,16) / (2.7/3.5) / 130W

E5-2650v2 / $150 / (8,16) / (2.6/3.4) / 95W
E5-2660v2 / $124 / (10,20) / (2.2/3.0) / 95W
E5-2670v2 / $280 / (10,20) / (2.5/3.3) / 115W

I'm not too hot about the E5-2670v2 based on cost. The E5-2660 is the obvious choice from a cost only perspective. What's harder for me to decide on are the options above in the $100-$150 range.

Thoughts? Opinions?
 

i386

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Mar 18, 2016
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I would buy the e5 2650 v2 given the numbers and prices you have posted:
  • "newer" cpu (less power consumption, same or better performance at same clock)
  • high clock (important for me as I use many older tools that only use 1 or 2 cores)
  • "enough" cores*
  • price
I hope this helps you with your decision.

*assumming it's a homeserver and you don't run databases with many concurrent users or are transcoding 15 1080p streams
 

BLinux

cat lover server enthusiast
Jul 7, 2016
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@i386 thanks for your feedback. is the power consumption difference between v1 and v2 significant? With the dual E5-2630, I'm idling around 110-115W.
 

Evan

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Jan 6, 2016
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V2 will be better for power consumption at idle,
At load won't differ as much from v1 but from the sounds of your needs then it will mostly be idle.
I would say the E5-2650v2 is probably the pick followed by the E5-2660v2, then 2670/2680 v1's.