L5640 still a worthy storage option?

[mattr]

From what I've known the L5640 seems to balance everything really well at a fantastic price. I see a lot of people talking about upgrading from the 56xx series to newer systems to save on cost and it got me scratching my head while I'm trying to pick a new storage server.

The cost to jump up to a newer generation is pretty ridiculous at this point. I'm talking double, triple or even quadruple the price depending on options you're looking for. Does anyone really see a $500-$1000 savings over 3~4 years just due to cutting the wattage of a server? I can't imagine that is possible. It costs about $150/yr to run a dual L5640 server each year... if I cut that in half with an upgrade that only saves me about $350 over 5 years... that's not even close to how much more a newer generation server costs. And I'm not even going to see the power consumption cut in half anyway...

So what am I missing? Is it just a data point in people's list of reasons to upgrade because they want to upgrade anyway? That I can completely understand. I just want to make sure I'm not totally missing something here or factoring costs incorrectly in some way and wasting money in the long run.

 

[modder man]

If you are building a storage Box you would probably even be fine with the L5630. Also you will likely not see a power savings going with next generation hardware rather a power usage increase.

 

[TuxDude]

Even my compute nodes at home are still running old E5520 chips - not cost effective for me to upgrade either. Electricity prices do vary quite a bit depending on location - if you live in an area with cheap power like I do then I don't see anything wrong with taking advantage of the pricing of staying a generation or two older than the rest of the crowd here.

 

[T_Minus]

Guess it depends what prices/deals you're looking at...

I've gotten complete 2011 2P (mobo+cpu) for $200 or less, yes 2 CPU (2660) and 1 Mobo.... in the past 15 months.

CPU are still $45-60 depending deal you find or make.
Motherboard have sky rocketed though so gotta be picky.

If you can wait for deals I see no reason not to go with 2011 based system...

On top of power saving heat is important for a lot of people too. Not saying that 2011 is a lot cooler than 1366 but it does play a factor.


For a basic file server you could go with super low ATOM or something too even.

 

[mattr]

If you are building a storage Box you would probably even be fine with the L5630. Also you will likely not see a power savings going with next generation hardware rather a power usage increase.

You're right. I was thinking the L5640 had a bigger feature set but looking again they are identical except for core count.

Even my compute nodes at home are still running old E5520 chips - not cost effective for me to upgrade either. Electricity prices do vary quite a bit depending on location - if you live in an area with cheap power like I do then I don't see anything wrong with taking advantage of the pricing of staying a generation or two older than the rest of the crowd here.

Yeah confirming my thoughts on it. I live in western PA so my electricity is pretty inexpensive. And it's actually been getting cheaper every year. Starting with a new server I wanted to look into cutting the electrical costs from the 56xx servers I had been using but it looks like it'll be another generation or two before the newer servers become affordable.

 

[mattr]

Guess it depends what prices/deals you're looking at...

I've gotten complete 2011 2P (mobo+cpu) for $200 or less, yes 2 CPU (2660) and 1 Mobo.... in the past 15 months.

CPU are still $45-60 depending deal you find or make.
Motherboard have sky rocketed though so gotta be picky.

If you can wait for deals I see no reason not to go with 2011 based system...

On top of power saving heat is important for a lot of people too. Not saying that 2011 is a lot cooler than 1366 but it does play a factor.


For a basic file server you could go with super low ATOM or something too even.

I'm sure if I really hunted for deals I could build something out that was reasonable. I'm tired of building systems though and I'd rather just pick up a refurb HP/Dell/Supermicro.

Atom servers are nice but once you factor in expanders and chassis it gets a bit over the top. I'd need a higher end Atom as it'll be serving up Plex content.

 

[T_Minus]

The point was you don't need to spend $500 to 1000$ to get a 2011 based system.

If you're tired of building and want to buy off the shelf then of course you're going to pay more, and a ton more... can't really compare that to building your own and even the older generation stuff (1366) cost as much as a DIY 2011

We all have different needs and price points of course but I don't think it's fair to say you need $500-1k$ to build a 2011 system... buy off the shelf, in more cases than not -- sure

Plex obviously has a bit more cpu demands than a file server too

 

[mattr]

The point was you don't need to spend $500 to 1000$ to get a 2011 based system.

If you're tired of building and want to buy off the shelf then of course you're going to pay more, and a ton more... can't really compare that to building your own and even the older generation stuff (1366) cost as much as a DIY 2011

We all have different needs and price points of course but I don't think it's fair to say you need $500-1k$ to build a 2011 system... buy off the shelf, in more cases than not -- sure

Plex obviously has a bit more cpu demands than a file server too

A rackmount 2011 server with performance in the same range as a dual L5640 for $500? It's hard enough to even find a decent chassis for under $200.

Edit: Also, it'll just be serving up Plex content... it won't be the Plex server. That is an i5-4690k machine.

 

[T_Minus]

A rackmount 2011 server with performance in the same range as a dual L5640 for $500? It's hard enough to even find a decent chassis for under $200.

Edit: Also, it'll just be serving up Plex content... it won't be the Plex server. That is an i5-4690k machine.

Keep throwing more specifics and requirements, but I wasn't trying to argue or play games with you.

I was stating you can DIY a 2011 if you want for the same price as a 1366.

• RAM cost the same
• Chassis cost the same (most of the SuperMicro chassis people here use came from 1366 generation).
• E5-2660 v1 cost $50 or less and have more cores than a L5640

$200 chassis
$100 for 2x CPU
$200 or less for 2P motherboard

That's 'going rate' not even 'great deal' for building a 2011 system... so yes, you can build a much more powerful system for $500 than 2x L5640s.

Spin the $ around if you want and wait for a $100 motherboard and then get a $300 chassis.

Either way, the point I'm making is that YES you can build/DIY a 2011 based system for a very affordable price.

I don't see any reason to spend $40 or more on a L5640 and $75 to 150$ on a 1366 motherboard when you can build 2011 for the same price.


As I said before buying off the shelf 2011 vs 1366 will of course be more as it's done for you, and a newer generation... but that doesn't mean it's not possible. I've purchased and sold 2011 4 node systems for $900-1200 (minus CPU).. but that's 4 systems even! That's off the shelf ready to plug in add CPU and go.

1366 really doesn't make sense unless you have the hardware or some of it already.

If you want 1366 still I have 3x 2P SuperMicro motherboards I'm not using they're yours for $75+ the ride and I have a couple 6C CPUs, 2x 1Us and some other misc sitting around collecting dust

 

[mattr]

I'm not throwing out specs/requirements I put a specific CPU in the title for a reason. A L5640 replacement would obviously have to perform either the same at a power consumption savings for offer better performance at the same power consumption.

I think we're just looking at it from different view points. A DIY 1366 vs DIY 2011 is a no brainer. But you're going to pay much more than a refurb 1366 because the chassis, trays, rails, HBAs, PSUs and tons of RAM are all bundled in at ~$400-$500 when if I'm building DIY I pay almost that much for just for a nice chassis.

So yeah you can DIY them both for the same cost but for that same cost you can get a significantly higher quality, chassis, trays, rails, PSUs and much more RAM by buying a 1366 refurb.

So if there was some overwhelming cost savings in energy consumption to be had from moving up to the 2011 then it might be worth doing a DIY.

 

[whitey]

I built 3 2011 systems for roughly $700 each w/ 128GB 1866 ECC memory but I DID have existing chassis to stuff systems into. They ARE screamers for sure, run 20+ VM's each and don't even break a sweat.

 

[azev]

I built 3 2011 systems for roughly $700 each w/ 128GB 1866 ECC memory but I DID have existing chassis to stuff systems into. They ARE screamers for sure, run 20+ VM's each and don't even break a sweat.

Did you get the Natex deals ?? or did you put together the parts your self ?

 

[whitey]

Parts myself, natex guys are abt 30 mins away from me though but I had already charted my path before those deals sprung up.

 

[mattr]

I built 3 2011 systems for roughly $700 each w/ 128GB 1866 ECC memory but I DID have existing chassis to stuff systems into. They ARE screamers for sure, run 20+ VM's each and don't even break a sweat.

Yeah. A decent iStar or Supermicro chassis with quality backplane or expander is going to blow that number up. If I had a few parts lying around for this build or could re-purpose anything it'd be a different story. Also, finding a great deal is such a timing dependency. My current media/file server is dying and needs to be replaced sooner than later.

 

[Fritz]

I have a pair of E5-2670's in a drawer collecting dust. Reason is the price of the MB's. A decent board is $400 to $500 at the moment. As soon as it hits a more reasonable level, like $200, they will find themselves in a system.

 

[mattr]

I have a pair of E5-2670's in a drawer collecting dust. Reason is the price of the MB's. A decent board is $400 to $500 at the moment. As soon as it hits a more reasonable level, like $200, they will find themselves in a system.

Yeah it sucks when a single part's price goes through the roof and blows up a build. Like the HDD post flood pricing or the RAM price gouging conspiracies that seem to happen every other year.

 

[PigLover]

If you search eBay for supermicro chassis instead of MB you can often find useful boards inside them at better prices (and if you don't need the chassis just resell it). The net cost of a socket 2011 board ~$150-200 is possible. It just takes more work.

Edit: OK, so maybe I wrote that too quickly. I just did some quick searches on eBay. WOW - current prices for anything with Socket 2011 are just STUPID.

 

[cheezehead]

There are often 5500/5600 barebones systems on ebay for $200 or less and just run with it for now. Unlike Dell/HP/IBM, Supermicro chassis can later have the motherboard replaced to support newer generations of gear without needing to replace everything.

 

[Terry Kennedy]

On top of power saving heat is important for a lot of people too. Not saying that 2011 is a lot cooler than 1366 but it does play a factor.

Don't discount things like power supply efficiency as well. Take a look at these graphs - the system in the bottom graph (cooler, lower power consumption) is the same as the top graph (hotter, more power consumption) except that the system in the bottom graph has 12 x 8GB memory and the top has 6 x 8GB memory (same part number) and the bottom system is using Supermicro 920P-SQ power supplies. 50°F cooler and 100W less power consumption!

 

[T_Minus]

Don't discount things like power supply efficiency as well. Take a look at these graphs - the system in the bottom graph (cooler, lower power consumption) is the same as the top graph (hotter, more power consumption) except that the system in the bottom graph has 12 x 8GB memory and the top has 6 x 8GB memory (same part number) and the bottom system is using Supermicro 920P-SQ power supplies. 50°F cooler and 100W less power consumption!

I think we're missing some info here
What's the inefficient power supply causing 100w more usage ??