Is there an advantage in using a L3406 over a Core I3 530? This question was asked by my nephew who owns a X8SIL-F an possibly wants to use ESXi too. Or would the X34xx series be a better choice.

AFAIK, the i3 doesn't support VT-D.  X34xx's are cheap now too.

So if he wants to use ESXi with passthrough the Core I3 is a no-go? What is the current pricing on X34xx series?

So if he wants to use ESXi with passthrough the Core I3 is a no-go? What is the current pricing on X34xx series?

 

Correct.

 

Im not sure you can buy the X34xx series new anymore.  I would have him try ebay.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Xeon_microprocessors#.22Lynnfield.22_.2845_nm.29

 

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p3984.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0&_nkw=%28X3430%2CX3440%2CX3450%2CX3460%2CX3470%2CX3480%2CL3426%29&_sacat=0&_from=R40

 

 

They aren't all that expensive.

I would choose anything over 2.4 with hyperthreading.

a XEON is quad-core, while an i3 is dual-core.....some/most have HT, some XEONs have vt-d which an i3 doesn't.

 

.....I love my X8SIL-F with my L3426 (1.87GHz, quad with HT and a TDP of 45W) XEON.

This thing rocks in my ESXI build (Solaris-ZFS, ARGUS-TV with quad-DVB-S2, win7 workstation for home office, hackintosh with Plex, DNS/DHCP, ...) upgraded to 32GB RAM earlier this year.

 

They are still available as new but prices did not drop a single bit since I bought mine 3+ years ago, see: http://geizhals.at/eu/?cat=cpuppro&xf=820_1156~5_Hyper-Threading~5_VT-d

a XEON is quad-core, while an i3 is dual-core.....some/most have HT, some XEONs have vt-d which an i3 doesn't.

 

.....I love my X8SIL-F with my L3426 (1.87GHz, quad with HT and a TDP of 45W) XEON.

This thing rocks in my ESXI build (Solaris-ZFS, ARGUS-TV with quad-DVB-S2, win7 workstation for home office, hackintosh with Plex, DNS/DHCP, ...) upgraded to 32GB RAM earlier this year.

 

They are still available as new but prices did not drop a single bit since I bought mine 3+ years ago, see: http://geizhals.at/eu/?cat=cpuppro&xf=820_1156~5_Hyper-Threading~5_VT-d

 

Would an L3406 be a good option too? It is only dual core I think though.

 

Intel® Xeon® Processor L3406 (4M Cache, 2.26 GHz) Max TDP 30 W

Intel® Xeon® Processor L3426 (8M Cache, 1.86 GHz) Max TDP 45 W

Intel® Xeon® Processor X3450 (8M Cache, 2.66 GHz) Max TDP 95 W

 

I'm not so sure the price premium is worth it. In my experience, for batch operations, the lower powered CPU's (under 2.4) are good. But when it comes it interactive operations, I've never been happy with anything less then 2.0. I've been usually happy with 2.4 and higher. I like 2.6 ghz machines or better. But that is me. I type fast and whip around pretty fast. My friend used to laugh at me because he called my usage the kiss of death on his computer. It was the old IBM PS/2. He was usually very scared when I used it because I used it faster then he could comprehend. While it's not really a bragging point, I'm pointing out that the feel of a machine is something I'm intimately aware of.

 

I had the older LV (low voltage) 32bit xeons 1.6 quad cores. I hated them.

I paid a price premum for the LV 32 bit XEON 2.4's I loved them. In fact I used that server until a few weeks ago. it was in service for over 8 years.  the LV does actually help the heat, but it also depends on constant usage.  My machine was running 24x7x365 for over 8 years.  In that case, the LV premium may make it worthwhile. In my case, it was all about heat. So it worked for me.

 

Would I virtualize stuff in less then 2.4. No.

I would pick the fastest processor I could afford with the largest cache and hyperthreading.

 

Even though the 2.4,2.5 or 2.6 has a MAX TDP of 95W, that's when all cores are running flat out for 100%.

On idle, they will not draw so much.  So I ask this, wouldn't you want the power to draw upon when you actually need it.

I.E. Virtualizing. Or would you rather choke the operation, to save power and heat?

 

In a laptop, you choke or throttle the CPU to save battery.

In a desktop is the price premium for the LV CPU worth it? and will you be happy with interacting with it?

 

I can state this, The E-1230 i7 8MB cache with HT on ESX is a dream to work with on my virtual linux sessions.

 

XP professional boots up from the virtual VMDK on a PM840 SSD 6GB/s SATA in less then 10 seconds to desktop.

It's fast. Even over a remote desktop session.

 

The only way I would go with the LV variants at the current time is if the price was right and I really needed to keep heat down to a minimum because of case design. (which was my issue).

The L3406 is dual and no vt-d.

I agree with WeeeboTech...the LV version makes sense in only some context...I actually bought mine when I was a beginner and did not distinguish between idle power-draw and TDP.

 

But I am very happy with the performance...my Win7 desktop (2x vCPU and 8GB RAM) also boots (datastore on SSD) much faster than on my W510 (quad I7 with 8GBRAM and same SSD model)

The L3406 is dual and no vt-d.

I agree with WeeeboTech...the LV version makes sense in only some context...I actually bought mine when I was a beginner and did not distinguish between idle power-draw and TDP.

 

But I am very happy with the performance...my Win7 desktop (2x vCPU and 8GB RAM) also boots (datastore on SSD) much faster than on my W510 (quad I7 with 8GBRAM and same SSD model)

 

Here it shows that the L3406 does have VT-d:

 

http://ark.intel.com/products/47555/Intel-Xeon-Processor-L3406-4M-Cache-2_26-GHz?q=l34

 

 

 

Here it shows that the L3406 does have VT-d:

 

http://ark.intel.com/products/47555/Intel-Xeon-Processor-L3406-4M-Cache-2_26-GHz?q=l34

 

Oh, right!

I've trusted the response in the price-portal (see my link above) with the parameter-selection I made there....the reason the L3406 is not shown is maybe because it it not avallable any more.

However, the portal shows a L3403 (dual, no vt-d, HT) that is not listed in Intel's link of 3400 processors, but is available from various sources. http://geizhals.at/eu/intel-xeon-up-l3403-cm80616005496ab-a763647.html

 

The L3406 does have vt-d.  The only feature it's missing that's relevant to ESXi is AES instruction support; and that can be worked around by masking those in ESXi.

 

I agree with the comments r.e. low power CPUs.    Note that there's very little (if any) difference between a low power CPU and a higher power unit from the same family when idling or at low CPU utilization levels.  The difference is the power level that the CPU is "throttled" to -- a low power unit won't go above it's rated TDP.    You'll get FAR better performance with the higher power versions.    As an example, I built an HTPC a couple years ago with a 35W Core i3 ... but a few months later decided I wanted to do other, more CPU-intensive processing on it, so replaced it with an i7-2700k.  The idle power (according to my Kill-a-Watt) was the SAME ... and normal consumption was also very close (with a couple watts).  Only when running CPU intensive programs (transcoding) did the power utilization jump up an extra 50 watts or so to reflect the higher power of the i7.

 

One other thought ... if you're buying the CPU and motherboard, you may want to consider spending a bit more and getting an Ivy Bridge Xeon ... for a bit more (~ $80) you can get a FAR better CPU that will also run much more efficiently vis-à-vis power consumption.    A Xeon E3-1230v has well over double the processing "horsepower" of an L3406 and is still only a 69w TDP CPU.

 

I think the X8SIL-F motherboard only supports the following CPU

 

LGA 1156 Socket

Intel® Xeon® X3400 series

Intel® Xeon® L3400 series

Intel® Core™ i3

Intel® Pentium® G6950

Intel® Celeron® G1101

I had forgotten that he already has a motherboard -- obviously that restricts the choices, unless he wants to also buy a new board