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Intel will be launching the Xeon E5 series in the near future. The Xeon E5-1600 series CPUs are single socket only with three parts that look like their Core i7 desktop counterparts and have either four our six cores plus Hyper Threading. The high-end will be taken by the Xeon E5-4600 series, with the ’4′ denoting that the CPUs will be four socket capable. Probably the sweet spot for most readers on this site will be the Xeon E5-2400 and E5-2600 series. These CPUs will be both single and dual socket capable with the E5-2400 series having only one QPI link and three memory channels per LGA 1356 socket. The slightly higher-end here is the Xeon E5-2600 series which will utilize the LGA 2011 socket and therefore four memory channels per socket (one can see this in the X79 consumer platforms today.) Continue Reading

Over the past few weeks I have had the chance to play with some 8 core 16 thread Intel Sandy Bridge-EP based Xeon samples which will ultimately be part of the Xeon E5-2600 lineup. I will say that the turbo frequencies seem to be working a little strangely on these chips, but the one I am using for the benchmarks can maintain 3.1GHz across all eight cores quite nicely and the memory controller supports eight DIMM sockets fully populated. I figured I would share a preview of the Intel Xeon E5 series’ performance. Again, please see this as a preview so final shipping numbers should be a bit better. The most comparable CPU ise the Xeon E5-2687W which is a 3.1GHz 150w 8C/16T part designated for workstations. Yes, the new LGA 2011 dual socket Xeons are going to be expensive, but with AMD’s Bulldozer-based Opteron 6200 series CPUs putting out performance numbers well below expectations, Intel has a lot of leeway to price these for aggressive margins. I will also note however, that the G34 platform still has some very compelling use cases, especially with 4P systems and using very low-end chips to build memcached 2P/ 4P servers. Continue Reading

I just wanted to update everyone on the Supermicro X7SPA-HF-D525 and X7SPE-HF-D525 review that was posted earlier as I have had a bit more time running the unit, especially as a pfsense appliance. Areas that will be looked at here are a higher-than-spec memory limit (4GB is not the max!), power consumption, and a word about IPMI 2.0 connectivity. Thus far, the network cabinet at home has been rock solid with the pfsense box managing routing duties in a fan-less configuration this week, even after I have been running a lot of network tests on the box. This is one I was able to justify purchasing for the new house which was great. Continue Reading

The Supermicro X7SPA-HF-D525 and Supermicro X7SPE-HF-D525 boards reviewed today are somewhat unique, and let’s face it; fairly expensive Intel Atom based boards. Both boards are centered around an Intel Atom D525 dual core 1.8GHz chip that can handle up to four threads through Hyper-Threading. While an Atom D525 is a fairly standard part, especially when it comes to low power PC’s, Supermicro has done a lot to turn these boards into something suitable for server use.

For those wondering, the reason I am doing a split review here is because the X7SPA-HF-D525 and X7SPE-HF-D525 are both very similar boards. The “A” version is a standard mITX size board while the “E” version is slightly elongated to work with Supermicro’s CSE-502L-200B chassis and a 1U PCIe riser (review coming shortly as I purchased one of these also.) For practical purposes, the technical aspects are nearly identical aside from the size. Continue Reading

I have a fairly strong opinion that Intel’s LGA1155 platform has a stronger set of single processor server motherboards than AMD. I actually hope the new Socket AM3+ based Opteron 3000 series will change this in the near future, but until then at the low end, Intel has the better overall platform (integrated Intel NICs supported out-of-the-box by ESXi, KVM-over-IP and etc.) Upon Sandy Bridge’s initial release, there was a huge gap between the Core i3-2100 at just over $120 (USD) and the lower-end Athlon’s at around $40. Over time, Intel has pushed the Sandy Bridge architecture down the chain to the lower-end of the marketplace, replacing 2010′s Pentiums. Today we are looking at the Pentium G630 which is one of Intel’s lower-end parts that one can get at retail for around $65. Continue Reading

One thing that I have been looking forward to in 2011 is AMD’s Bulldozer architecture in the server space. AMD recently released its next-generation, Bulldozer based Interlagos and Valencia CPUs. Interlagos is the successor to AMD’s Magny Cours CPU and will be available in single, dual and quad socket G34 configurations. Valencia is essentially half of an Interlagos but can be put in single or dual socket C32 configurations. Here is the complete list: Continue Reading

Over the past few months I have looked at a number of different CPUs including the Intel Atom Pineview D510 platform, the AMD Brazos E-350 platform, and a number of Xeon E3 series CPUs like the Xeon E3-1230. At the same time I have been playing with those CPUs and a lot of previous generation hardware with Microsoft Small Business Server 2011 Essentials and have some thoughts on hardware that I thought I would share. Continue Reading

Although the Intel Xeon L5640 is a lot of processor with very low power consumption requirements, the Intel Xeon X5670 is a much higher-end part. Although quad socket capable, the X5670 is also dual socket capable and fills a position that the Xeon E series does not scale to at this time. The L5640 was fast, but let’s see how adding another 533MHz to twelve physical, twenty-four logical cores fares in terms of performance. At a base clock of 2.93GHz and a turbo clock of 3.33GHz using a 6.4GT/s QPI alongside a higher 95w TDP, one can imagine that performance is going to be stellar. Continue Reading

The Opteron 6166 HE is a dodeca (12) core CPU running at 1.8GHz. Utilizing the Magny Cours G34 platform, the Opteron 6166 HE is dual and quad socket ready. In each package there are essentially two Opteron 4100 series CPUs stitched together that combine for 6MB of L2 cache and 12MB of L3 cache per package alongside access to four DIMM channels. As one will see, the Opteron 6166 generally compares favorably to the Intel Xeon L5640 which is Intel’s low-power dual socket Xeon mainstay. Continue Reading

The Intel Xeon E3-1270 is essentially the same as Intel’s Core i7-2600 series CPU with the omission of integrated GPU capabilities, which cuts 15w from the chip’s TDP and adds support for unbuffered ECC DIMMs. Intel also offers the Xeon E3-1275, which includes the integrated GPU and consequently adds 15w to the TDP of the part. Recently ServeTheHome has looked at virtually all of the no-GPU Xeon E3 including the Xeon E3-1220, Xeon E3-1230, Xeon E3-1240 and Xeon E3-1280. Like the other Xeon E3-1200 CPUs, the E3-1270 has an 80w TDP, AES-NI, ECC support, VT-x and VT-d support and a host of other desirable features for the server market.

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