i7-4790K vs Dual Xeon X5650 for Whitebox ESXi Server

[Jonathan Yonke]

    I currently have a Dell CS24-TY 1U server running Dell's custom ESXi 5.5 image. I run a mix of Linux servers, Win 7 desktops for a variety of apps (Plex, UniFi, TT-RSS, Crashplan, remote management). I am looking to quiet down the office, and at low speeds the fans in the Dell are with in my tolerable level, but when they spin up I can hear them on the main floor across the house! (office is in the basement) I have decided to whitebox a new build with my main goal to bring the noise to a tolerable level and hopefully get some more CPU power to assist Plex in video transcoding.  I have narrowed it down to either piecing together a system with 2 Westmere X5650 Xeon CPU's (12M Cache, 6C, 12T, 2.66 GHz, 32 nm), or using a off the shelf Z97 board with a i7-4790K (8M Cache, up to 4.40 GHz, 4C, 8T, 22 nm). What do you guys think?

 

A few notes/thoughts

• Both CPU's have similar scores on Passmark.
• My assumption is the 4790K will be more power efficient under load and idle.
• The Z97 platform does not support ECC memory, and maxes @ 32GB so I will be forced to repurchase for the that platform and RAM has gotten salty!
• On the fence about overclocking the 4790K if I go that route.
• Unsure of any potential small overclocks on the X5650.
• IPMI is nice and convenient, but I have KVM switch for the rack.
• I do plan on running some lab VM instances of Windows Server 2K12 R2, to test AD, WSUS, DNS, etc.
• At this point Plex is the only service I run that is CPU intensive, not sure on current IOP requirements, but when loading the database it chugs sometimes.
• Westmere is old, Haswell is new?

 

4790K Build

 

X5650 Build

[Rheinwasser]

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/219092-worst-cooler-ever-arctic-cooling-freezer-7-pro-review/

get other cpu coolers.

 

you could also go x79/x99.

Edited September 25, 2014 by Rheinwasser

[ForsakenLive]

You can find i7s like the 3930k and 4930k for a little over $300 on ebay, they outperform the 4790k if using all cores; you need a X79 motherboard and can have up to 64GB of memory. IMO that's a good route.

Those 2 Xeons sound pretty nice for the price, personally I think it's about how much you want to spend.

[nj4ck]

Well dual Xeons are obviously going to give you much more raw computing horsepower than a single 4790k, plus more memory options. They will also consume more than twice the power though, so you'll have to decide which is more important to you.

[Jonathan Yonke]

You can find i7s like the 3930k and 4930k for a little over $300 on ebay, they outperform the 4790k if using all cores; you need a X79 motherboard and can have up to 64GB of memory. IMO that's a good route.

Those 2 Xeons sound pretty nice for the price, personally I think it's about how much you want to spend.

Any links to either of those around $300? I would love to go X79 as I could reuse most of the memory from the current Dell. Everything I am seeing is $400-$500. It does all come down to cost, and want something that is going to last awhile without breaking the bank. $140 for dual 6 core westmere seemed awfully tempting. 

[Jonathan Yonke]

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/219092-worst-cooler-ever-arctic-cooling-freezer-7-pro-review/

get other cpu coolers.

 

you could also go x79/x99.

No si bueno on those coolers then. They had H80i's for $45 refurb on newegg yesterday, I may just go with 2 of something similar if I go dual socket. ForsakenLive also suggested x79, I will have to price it out but I assumed it would be significantly more than the other 2.

[Jonathan Yonke]

Well dual Xeons are obviously going to give you much more raw computing horsepower than a single 4790k, plus more memory options. They will also consume more than twice the power though, so you'll have to decide which is more important to you.

Looking at a couple old reviews of the x5650 the power consumption is only going to vary between 40-100 watts, which is ~$80-$100 a year at my rate. If the x5650 is that much better it may be worth it to me, but if the i7 will suit my needs it will pay for itself in a few years.

[nj4ck]

Looking at a couple old reviews of the x5650 the power consumption is only going to vary between 40-100 watts, which is ~$80-$100 a year at my rate. If the x5650 is that much better it may be worth it to me, but if the i7 will suit my needs it will pay for itself in a few years.

well yeah, the i7 will cost you about $80 a year (assuming you run it at full load 24h a day), dual Xeons would cost you about $180 a yar under the same circumstances. I don't know how much compute performance you need, but if the i7 suits your needs, it will certainly be the cheaper option.

 

Then again, you should probably look into maybe a Xeon E3-1276 v3 since its basically the server equivalent of the 4790k and rated to run 24/7.

[ForsakenLive]

Any links to either of those around $300? I would love to go X79 as I could reuse most of the memory from the current Dell. Everything I am seeing is $400-$500. It does all come down to cost, and want something that is going to last awhile without breaking the bank. $140 for dual 6 core westmere seemed awfully tempting. 

I saw the deals last week when I was looking some links for a friend, but they are not anymore, the prices went up closely to the $400 mark. The only thing I could find are a couple of 4930k for like $320, but they are not from sellers with good rep

[Rheinwasser]

No si bueno on those coolers then. They had H80i's for $45 refurb on newegg yesterday, I may just go with 2 of something similar if I go dual socket. ForsakenLive also suggested x79, I will have to price it out but I assumed it would be significantly more than the other 2.

i dont think so. you can get x79 mainboards for around $100 used and 4820k/xeon are around $350

[Jonathan Yonke]

I ended up pulling the trigger on the x5650 setup. None of the retail class chipsets would let me use registered ECC DDR3, and in the long run I would be memory bound well before I was CPU bound. I felt the power savings were not worth it, and the value of the dual 1366 setup was really there. Thanks for all the input guys. I will probably star a build log when this stuff all comes in. I updated the build with a few tweaks to the HSF set up, and decided against the Rosewill 4U server chassis (too many complaints of it not racking properly)

 

X5650