Intel Xeon E3-1220 for storage servers

P

pjkenned

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jan 8, 2010
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Hey [H],

I have been getting a lot of questions about the new Sandy Bridge Xeons lately. Big issue right now is that C200 platform is still on hold, but I was able to get a Xeon E3-1220 (4C/4T 8MB L3 no onboard GPU) working in an ASUS P8H67-M + a discrete GPU.

See Intel Xeon E3-1220 Benchmarks

For those looking at Solaris 11/ ZFS setups with Intel's AES-NI support, this is going to be a strong option.

Will be testing a few other models in the next week or two. From what I have heard, boards are still a bit off. Final power consumption figures will have to wait until the proper platforms get off of NDA/ embargo.

Cheers,
Patrick
 
For those looking at Solaris 11/ ZFS setups with Intel's AES-NI support, this is going to be a strong option.
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That's what I'm waiting for!!! BTW, nice review Patrick.

For others benefit, here's what I am envisioning:

Norco 4220
SuperMicro X9SCM-F
Intel Xeon E3-1220 (or 1230 depending on Patrick's review)
2x IBM ServeRAID M1015 (super cheap HBA JBOD)
16x Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB (SATA III / 64mb cache)
ESXi Host running Solaris Express 11, OpenIndiana, or Nextenta Core w/NappIt (ZFS)
 
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This is looking more like next Monday-Wednesday target for the E3-1230 review. Been very busy and I am traveling cross country this weekend.
 
unclerunkle said:
That's what I'm waiting for!!! BTW, nice review Patrick.

For others benefit, here's what I am envisioning:

Norco 4220
SuperMicro X9SCM-F
Intel Xeon E3-1220 (or 1230 depending on Patrick's review)
2x IBM ServeRAID M1015 (super cheap HBA JBOD)
16x Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB (SATA III / 64mb cache)
ESXi Host running Solaris Express 11, OpenIndiana, or Nextenta Core w/NappIt (ZFS)
Click to expand...

What would be the expected time between when these new mobo's/Xeon processors are available and they are supported/on the Solaris HCL?
 
Not 100% sure on when they will be supported. When the server boards launch, they will use supported GPUs. Right now I know that the HD 2000 and HD 3000 GPUs are some of the biggest issues support wise. I will probably do some tests when the actual boards come out to see just how everything works.
 
Most of the Xeon SB CPUs will come without enabled GPU anyway. The "real" server boards from SMC will use an external graphics chip for IPMI, I suppose.
 
omniscence said:
Most of the Xeon SB CPUs will come without enabled GPU anyway. The "real" server boards from SMC will use an external graphics chip for IPMI, I suppose.
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I have a little graphic of the release SB Xeon lineup. The 95w parts have the onboard GPU. I would agree though that most applications will not use it.
 
unclerunkle said:
That's what I'm waiting for!!! BTW, nice review Patrick.

For others benefit, here's what I am envisioning:

Norco 4220
SuperMicro X9SCM-F
Intel Xeon E3-1220 (or 1230 depending on Patrick's review)
2x IBM ServeRAID M1015 (super cheap HBA JBOD)
16x Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB (SATA III / 64mb cache)
ESXi Host running Solaris Express 11, OpenIndiana, or Nextenta Core w/NappIt (ZFS)
Click to expand...

One concern, would the AESNI get passed to guests? I haven't looked into exactly how the CPU is passed to guests.
 
God damn it, I just bought a x3440 + X8SIA-F. I hope I didnt make a mistake of not waiting for a SB Xeon cpu + a comparable motherboard.
 
evt, read the review/ check the benchmarks. The X3440 is faster in some tests and power consumption is going to favor Sandy Bridge at load probably by a bit. If you were going to be performance bound by the X3440, you would have already looked at the X3460 or better. Now, compared to a lot of AMD and LGA 775/ 771 solutions, Sandy Bridge is a big win.

It is kind of like driving a 911 C4S versus a 911 Turbo on the street... the Turbo is faster, but how often are you going to get to use the extra power for anything noticeable.

Biggest benefit is AES-NI on the new chips IMO.
 
Now its just a matter of waiting for Supermicro X9SCM to come available, to pull the trigger on this CPU. Should be a killer combo for media storage servers that want encryption, transcoding and some VM's all with a nice low(er) power idle.
 
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The only thing with Ebay there is that that seller has been posing those for at least a month...before the Cougar Point chipset flaw was even found out.

Odds are though you are getting scammed in some way or other if you go that route IMO.
 
unclerunkle said:
The only thing with Ebay there is that that seller has been posing those for at least a month...before the Cougar Point chipset flaw was even found out.

Odds are though you are getting scammed in some way or other if you go that route IMO.
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I highly suspect that you'd get a motherboard, now if it will come with B2 or B3 revision? I'm going to guess it would be a B2, but if your not going to use the on board ports/or only going to use one or two and are impatient... Just saying.
 
adi said:
One concern, would the AESNI get passed to guests? I haven't looked into exactly how the CPU is passed to guests.
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AES-NI comprises just a few instructions and uses the SSE register space. The only thing the hypervisor has to do is to correctly report the host's CPUID feature list to its guests. This is obviously dependent on the virtualization software.
 
omniscence said:
AES-NI comprises just a few instructions and uses the SSE register space. The only thing the hypervisor has to do is to correctly report the host's CPUID feature list to its guests. This is obviously dependent on the virtualization software.
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This is accurate.

Also, E3-1230 benchmarks up on Monday. Testing just finished, write-up getting done.
 
Having read the review... I want one!
Any new information on availability of the supermicros?
 
Xeon E3-1280 Benchmarks and Review

Officially the Xeon E3 series has not been released yet which is why it is hard buying the CPUs and finding information about the motherboards. I would suspect that like the 3400 series, the C202 and C204 boards will have ATX options.
 
Dropping an X9SCM-F + E3-1220 into a Norco 4224 as we speak. Thanks @pjkenned for the hookup on the CPU after the distro gates slammed shut.

Windows 2008 R2 SP1 loads in 5 seconds, lulz. More info in my THREAD.

gElQW.jpg


 
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AcmeMicro. It does appear to be the revised model as they promised - BIOS is dated 2/24/11.
 
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odditory said:
Dropping an X9SCM-F + E3-1220 into a Norco 4224 as we speak. Thanks @pjkenned for the hookup on the CPU after the distro gates slammed shut.
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thought that's what happened :) I'll wait for a 1230 though. My board should be arriving in a day or two,
 
Folks, Can anyone tell me if a Xeon E3 in a P67 motherboard would support ECC memory?
Also, are any of the Xeons unlocked?

Any C200 based Xeon mobos currently available that have PCIe-16 support?
 
Thanks for the pictures oddity.

I was hoping for 4 more DIMM slots, for a maximum of 32GB (4x4GB) ECC unregistered RAM. I am reconsidering buying a X9SCM-F, but don't want to wait much longer either, ha.

Any word of an upcoming SuperMicro Sandy Bridge board with 8 DIMMs? From the looks of this one, I guess it'll have to be in ATX format.
 
mista_eng said:
Thanks for the pictures oddity.

I was hoping for 4 more DIMM slots, for a maximum of 32GB (4x4GB) ECC unregistered RAM. I am reconsidering buying a X9SCM-F, but don't want to wait much longer either, ha.

Any word of an upcoming SuperMicro Sandy Bridge board with 8 DIMMs? From the looks of this one, I guess it'll have to be in ATX format.
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Well, it looks like even the upcoming ATX boards only have 4 slots.
Took a quick look at the manual for:
X9SCi-LN4
X9SCi-LN4F
X9SCA
X9SCA-F
 
mista_eng said:
Thanks for the pictures oddity.

I was hoping for 4 more DIMM slots, for a maximum of 32GB (4x4GB) ECC unregistered RAM. I am reconsidering buying a X9SCM-F, but don't want to wait much longer either, ha.

Any word of an upcoming SuperMicro Sandy Bridge board with 8 DIMMs? From the looks of this one, I guess it'll have to be in ATX format.
Click to expand...

You may see 6DIMM variants like the S420GPLC and X8SI6-F can have with registered DIMMs, but not 8. Sandy Bridge limitation.

If you want more RAM slots, just go LGA 1366.
 
Well, I had thought from the posted pics it looked like the 1st slot was close ended. I was somewhat disappointed to see this on my own board. I suppose I can get a riser and a low profile pci-e videocard if I ever want to use this board in a workstation with a real card, but I've got to think it would've been so much easier had they just left it open like on the x8sil-f. Oh well, can't have everything :)
 
Anyone see a reason why I should favor one board over the other? It seems like a tie, assuming quality, prices, and availability are the same. Unless they're not. :O
 
Does anyone know if Solaris will run on this chipset/CPU combo? It's not listed in the Solaris HCL. If someone has one running, could you please try booting a Solaris 11 Live CD?

Thankyou,

Mud
 
Mudhoney said:
Does anyone know if Solaris will run on this chipset/CPU combo? It's not listed in the Solaris HCL. If someone has one running, could you please try booting a Solaris 11 Live CD?

Thankyou,

Mud
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OK, hold on...
 
so that is telling me EXSi is happy running on C202/204/206 chipset, and that Solaris is ok running on top of EXSi. How much of an indication is it that Solaris would run directly on top of the chipset?
 
Well, yes I suppose that there are certain OS components that could be compatible with vSphere through virtualization that would not be compatible with the real hardware. I could burn a disc and check it also since I am still in testing with the machine and not in any kind of production mode. However, I need to get out of here right now. I could do a double check, tomorrow if someone else hasn't posted further evidence by then.
 
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