Xeon E5620 Vs Xeon E3-1245

[everydayfella]

I need help and your option in choosing a server.
The first server comes with a Xeon E5620 processor and the second server comes with a Xeon E3-1245 processor.

I don't want to fully go by the advice of my hosting company. They say that the Server Xeon E3-1245 processor would be a better performing process over the Xeon E5620.

I carried out some research and I'm being to doubt their claims.

From my research I found that the E3-1245 processor is cheaper than the Xeon E5620 and has an 12Mb L3 cache rather than the E3-1245's 8Mb L3 cache.

Does anyone have experience with Xeon processors?
How does the Sandy Bridge based Xeons vary from the Gulftown based Xeons?
Which has better performance?

Here are summary specs of each:


Xeon E3-1245 processor.
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=52274

3.3 GHz
4 Cores
8 Threads
Turbo: 1/2/3/4
L2 cache: 4 × 256 KB
L3 cache: 8Mb
Bus Type: DMI
I/O bus: DMI 2.0
Max Memory Size: 288Gb
Memory Channels: 2



Xeon E5620 processor:
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=47925

2.4 GHz
4 Cores
8 Threads
Turbo: 1/2/3/4
L2 cache: 4 × 256 KB
L3 cache: 12Mb
Bus Type: QPI
Max Memory Size: 32Gb
Memory Channels: 3

The main difference as you can see lies in the Max Memory Size, Memory Channels and L3 Cache
How would these impact on performance given that the Clock speed is higher on the E3-1245?

 

[everydayfella]

any comments on this please?

 

[Timop]

Single socket CPU performance wise, the E3-1245 is much better, sandy bridge itsself is a ~15% boost over Nehalem (Gulftown) clock-for-clock, and its clocks are much higher also.

Essentially, you're comparing a 32nm Core i7 920 compared to a 2600K.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/47?vs=287

However, the E5620 does have higher memory bandwidth is higher being 3-channel, and support for dual socket and has a lower TDP.

As it seems like its is a smaller single socket system anyways, the E3-1245 is a better choice IMO.