HPE ProLiant EC200a Review An Intel Xeon D Edge Server

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HPE ProLiant EC200a Performance

Instead of going through the entire Linux-Bench test suite, we are going to show a few performance and power numbers here to give a general sense of performance. We actually planned to do storage testing, but then we realized that there was a huge variability in terms of what drives could be found in machines.

Python Linux 4.4.2 Kernel Compile Benchmark

This is one of the most requested benchmarks for STH over the past few years. The task was simple, we have a standard configuration file, the Linux 4.4.2 kernel from kernel.org, and make the standard auto-generated configuration utilizing every thread in the system. We are expressing results in terms of compiles per hour to make the results easier to read:

HPE ProLiant EC200a Linux Kernel Compile Benchmark
HPE ProLiant EC200a Linux Kernel Compile Benchmark

The Intel Xeon D-1518 is really showing its age here. It is designed to be an ultra-low-power SoC. At the same time, the EC200a is not using the full chip. As an example, it is not using the onboard 10GbE MACs. That limits just how much performance we can get out of a chip like this.

7-zip Compression Performance

7-zip is a widely used compression/ decompression program that works cross-platform. We started using the program during our early days with Windows testing. It is now part of Linux-Bench.

HPE ProLiant EC200a 7zip Compression Benchmark
HPE ProLiant EC200a 7zip Compression Benchmark

When we look to the Intel Xeon E-2224 in theĀ HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 Plus we see a massive performance boost. This is largely due to the TDP, but also the Xeon D-1500 series was an early 14nm chip based on Broadwell microarchitecture.

OpenSSL Performance

OpenSSL is widely used to secure communications between servers. This is an important protocol in many serverĀ stacks. We first look at our sign tests:

HPE ProLiant EC200a OpenSSL Sign Benchmark
HPE ProLiant EC200a OpenSSL Sign Benchmark

Here are the verify results:

HPE ProLiant EC200a OpenSSL Verify Benchmark
HPE ProLiant EC200a OpenSSL Verify Benchmark

It is a bit unfair comparing this lower-power part to some of the higher-power parts in our data set. Still, we wanted to show performance relative to some other options. We also wanted to show why we wish we could have found a TM200 with the Xeon D-1537 CPU as that offers significantly higher performance.

Next, we are going to look at power consumption before moving onto our key lesson learned and final words.

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REVIEW OVERVIEW
Design & Aesthetics
8.5
Performance
9.0
Feature Set
8.7
Value
8.6
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Patrick has been running STH since 2009 and covers a wide variety of SME, SMB, and SOHO IT topics. Patrick is a consultant in the technology industry and has worked with numerous large hardware and storage vendors in the Silicon Valley. The goal of STH is simply to help users find some information about server, storage and networking, building blocks. If you have any helpful information please feel free to post on the forums.
hpe-proliant-ec200a-review-an-intel-xeon-d-edge-serverIn our HPE ProLiant EC200a review, we see what this Intel Xeon D edge server from HPE can do late in its lifecycle and see opportunities to improve

2 COMMENTS

  1. This seems similar in spirit to the recently reviewed HP EC200A.
    This is superior to the EC200A along all the dimensions that one would be considering these units (primarily CPU performance, networking, IPMI licensing cost), but the latter has been available fairly cheaply used.

  2. Now that it’s been a few years, what does everyone seem to be using this for? It’s almost like a mini/micro pc in a larger form factor so it can take bigger physical drives.

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