What's better? A newer SINGLE CPU or older DUAL CPU?

RavinDJ

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My old client is getting rid of 2 servers...

Dell R710 with DUAL Intel Xeon E5520 @ 2.27GHz
and
Dell R720 with SINGLE Intel Xeon E5-2620 @ 2.00GHz

I don't know much about Xeons, so I did some research but still can't decide which one I should take off their hands ;)
 
Think it depends on what exactly you wanna do with the server. I'd go with the single E5-2620. Sandy vs Nehalem IPC. 6 vs less of a hastle of 8 cores. Power consumption if that is a concern.
Also depending on the prices, isn't a newer platform better for what you need?
 
Both of those are poor choices with the current cpus. Would you be willing to pay $20 to $50 to get one of the better chips for each sockets?

For the 2011 rig a e5 2670v2 is a decent choice

Lga 1366 is a cool socket but its useless to not grab dual x5687 or x5670s.

What ya want to do with the server?
 
2670v2
Think it depends on what exactly you wanna do with the server. I'd go with the single E5-2620. Sandy vs Nehalem IPC. 6 vs less of a hastle of 8 cores. Power consumption if that is a concern.
Also depending on the prices, isn't a newer platform better for what you need?

Mostly storage and active directory, DNS, remote desktop services, learning Win2019, learning VMs, etc. Power consumption is not really a concern.
 
Both of those are poor choices with the current cpus. Would you be willing to pay $20 to $50 to get one of the better chips for each sockets?

For the 2011 rig a e5 2670v2 is a decent choice

Lga 1366 is a cool socket but its useless to not grab dual x5687 or x5670s.

What ya want to do with the server?

Yeah, I can definitely even pay $100+ for 2 new CPUs (and I would need new heatsink(s) most likely).
I'll look into the 2670v2. Where to buy? eBay??

So x5687, x5670s, or 2670v2?

Basically to do what I mentioned above... AD, DNS, RDP, Win2019, VMs, etc.
 
Yeah, I can definitely even pay $100+ for 2 new CPUs (and I would need new heatsink(s) most likely).
I'll look into the 2670v2. Where to buy? eBay??

So x5687, x5670s, or 2670v2?

Basically to do what I mentioned above... AD, DNS, RDP, Win2019, VMs, etc.
EBay for sure. Ima have to say just the one e5 2670 v2 (2687w v2 or 2690 are nice as well)

Although the lga 1366 stuff is a fun socket its really old at this point.

Ddr3 ecc is super cheap so some more ram is obtainable as well
 
EBay for sure. Ima have to say just the one e5 2670 v2 (2687w v2 or 2690 are nice as well)

Although the lga 1366 stuff is a fun socket its really old at this point.

Ddr3 ecc is super cheap so some more ram is obtainable as well

Thanks!!!

Just found this:

1634961484314.png


Also, what makes the LGA 1366 a "fun socket"? I like the fact that a CPU can be "fun" :D

Thanks again!!
 
For free I'd take an R720 for sure but it is still ancient tech so won't run the newest stuff optimally or at all.
 
Thanks!!!

Just found this:

View attachment 405734

Also, what makes the LGA 1366 a "fun socket"? I like the fact that a CPU can be "fun" :D

Thanks again!!
Super cheap (x5687s are $20 each) you can have dual or single socket configuration. Including consumer boards that let you overclock the cpus. Additionally westmere cpus could be pushed pretty far. 4+ghz 6 cores are obtainable and in some cases (evga sr-2) you could put two of these overclocked chips on a single board.

With that said lga 2011 stuff has been a good value and pretty powerful for a decent time now. If you were building a fresh rig it would probably be more economical to start with something newer but a cpu+ram+ssd could be a affordable and meaningful upgrade to these systems.
 
R720 with some fresh CPUs and a couple hundred GB of DDR3 would be my choice. Ivy Bridge is no longer competitive from a performance standpoint, but a pair of 2690v2 is still good for a lot of test and development VMs, I just wouldn't run any workstation apps on it.
Also do keep in mind the R720 is a huge, heavy, and deep 2U server, not necessarily appropriate for home use.
 
R720 with some fresh CPUs and a couple hundred GB of DDR3 would be my choice. Ivy Bridge is no longer competitive from a performance standpoint, but a pair of 2690v2 is still good for a lot of test and development VMs, I just wouldn't run any workstation apps on it.
Also do keep in mind the R720 is a huge, heavy, and deep 2U server, not necessarily appropriate for home use.

Good call!! Where can I buy a couple of hundred GB of DDR3? I checked - it has 32GB Registered ECC RAM right now. Do I need to buy Reg ECC? Or just chuck those chips and get new ones that aren't Reg ECC. Probably cheaper, right?
 
Good call!! Where can I buy a couple of hundred GB of DDR3? I checked - it has 32GB Registered ECC RAM right now. Do I need to buy Reg ECC? Or just chuck those chips and get new ones that aren't Reg ECC. Probably cheaper, right?
Buy ecc reg. its cheaper and you will need it to use with the ram you have. Do you have open dimms with the current configuration? This is all reasonably cheap on ebay, I think someone was selling ddr3 ecc reg for $0.50/GB in the fs fourm here and if ya wanted a wtb post in that fourm may yield decent deals (for both the ram and cpu, this is pretty common stuff).
 
Good call!! Where can I buy a couple of hundred GB of DDR3? I checked - it has 32GB Registered ECC RAM right now. Do I need to buy Reg ECC? Or just chuck those chips and get new ones that aren't Reg ECC. Probably cheaper, right?
Reg ECC on eBay or through the FS/FT forum is the way to go - expect to pay between $1 and $2 a gig for it.
 
Anything Windows sucks on multiple sockets, even S2019. Faster single package would be better IMO. You will learn real quick that the Windows scheduler is trash the more logical cores you throw at it.
 
Anything Windows sucks on multiple sockets, even S2019. Faster single package would be better IMO. You will learn real quick that the Windows scheduler is trash the more logical cores you throw at it.

Wow :eek:

Never knew that... I guess that's why Intel is coming at AMD with the 5.0Ghz CPU, right? Makes sense... so when are extra cores worth it?? I'm actually learning a lot from all this research on my own and all this reading thanks to you guys!! I appreciate your input and sharing your knowledge.
 
Wow :eek:

Never knew that... I guess that's why Intel is coming at AMD with the 5.0Ghz CPU, right? Makes sense... so when are extra cores worth it?? I'm actually learning a lot from all this research on my own and all this reading thanks to you guys!! I appreciate your input and sharing your knowledge.
It really depends. I always aim for an excess of cores for my VM servers.

I would also disagree with Windows being horrific with dual CPU setups. A well coded program will still utilize the entirety of both cpus under Windows.

Linux is better on significantly multithreaded cpus. My intel phi rigs (272 threads. Presented as 5 cpus to the os) hate windows. Linux is just fine.
 
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