Do I need AESNI and Secure Key features for my home server? Smart Cache?

veryoldgd

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Aug 10, 2014
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Hi,

TLDR:
Do I need to spend more money for an AESNI and Secure Key featured CPU? I understand it is all about trade offs...just want to know the significance of those features.

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I am building my home server, when it comes to selecting the CPU, I have some options:
1. YOLO plan: Remove the current CPU from my PC which is an i5-4670, put it in the server, and buy an i7-4790 for replacement. The motherboard on my PC is ASRock Z87M Pro4 and I will need to update the firmware to use the new i7.
2. Eco plan: Buy a new Celeron G1850/G1840.
3. Pentium plan: Buy a new Pentium G3450/G3440.
4. Normal i3 plan: Buy a new i3-4150/4350/4360.
5. Hyper i3 plan: Buy a new i3-4370. But no one sells it here, I have to get one from amazon. Considering the time consumption and combined cost, I would rather go for the YOLO plan...the only reason I even have this plan here is because it is the only i3 I found that supports both AESNI and Secure Key features.
6. Broadwell plan: Buy the cheapest CPU I can find(including 2nd hand) and just get the server running, then wait for new Broadwell CPU.

YOLO plan costs the most and gives an upgrade to my PC which I use to play games, however I do not feel any urge need to upgrade it really...and it gives my server an excellent performing CPU which supports both AESNI and Secure Key features. The downside is that the CPU consumes more power and since I will put it on 24x7...

Eco plan costs the least but has only Secure Key feature and does not offer Smart Cache. Plus it does not support 1600MHz memory. Only 2M cache. Only 2 threads. Very limited performance. It does not even have power consumption advantage.

Pentium plan costs almost twice the Eco plan and has 3M Smart Cache, 1600MHz memory support but still no AESNI, still only 2 threads.

Normal i3 plan gives me AESNI but drops Secure Key feature. They also bump up to 4 threads, which is handy on servers. 4M Smart Cache(except for 4150 but that one is cheap), higher frequency, blablabla.

The Broadwell plan...I will put an H97 motherboard in my server so if nothing changes, the new Broadwell CPUs should be able to sit in my server, and since they will be much more power efficient, I can expect either low power consumption CPU with same performance or same power consumption CPU with much better performance. There are risks though, from low to high: Intel changes the plan so Broadwell does not fit in LGA1150 socket; the makeshift CPU may fail if I buy second hand; Broadwell can be more expansive than I expect; Broadwell might not do so well; I might have to wait for at least 6-8 months; etc..

So, could you help me figure out which plan should I go for? Budget is not the major concern here, I want something that is well balanced, and cut off as most unnecessary stuff as possible.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
Solution
Most servers typically don't need very powerful CPUs. Home servers are typically equated with media - or NAS- servers and in the market these come out with Celeron, Atom and Pentium processors. Network speeds are usually their biggest limitations.

Secure Key is really only for servers in scenarios where they do many Secure Key generations and the random number feature is provided in hardware. Typically not needed on a Home server.

Ditto for AES-NI.
Most servers typically don't need very powerful CPUs. Home servers are typically equated with media - or NAS- servers and in the market these come out with Celeron, Atom and Pentium processors. Network speeds are usually their biggest limitations.

Secure Key is really only for servers in scenarios where they do many Secure Key generations and the random number feature is provided in hardware. Typically not needed on a Home server.

Ditto for AES-NI.
 
Solution

veryoldgd

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Aug 10, 2014
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What if I want to encrypt my hard drives?