Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question

Dell Tower Server: customise for single-core speed

Tags:
  • Business Computing
  • Servers
  • Speed
  • CPUs
  • Dell
Last response: in Business Computing
Share
March 6, 2014 1:49:32 PM

I have some budget to spend for a customisable Dell Tower Server (Dell, because the company has an arrangement with them). We already have got another Dell Tower Server which was maximised for memory-intense work and parallel tasks (i.e. it has two Xeon CPUs with 12 cores each). The purpose of a second system is to maximise speed of computation, primarily for single-core tasks, as I use a lot of self-written C/C++ code.

I am looking at this selection: http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/poweredge-tower-serve...

My questions for this are as follows:
(1) Which CPU would be ideal for single-cpu speed?
(2) Does a dual-CPU system have any impact on speed (increase or even decrease)?
(3) What would be a good and not too expensive choice for an SSD, e.g. 1TB?

Or, would the new MacPro be a viable alternative?

Cheers,
Stingery

More about : dell tower server customise single core speed

March 7, 2014 7:43:41 AM

The easy answer would be to get an Intel chip with as high frequency as you can afford. Intel chips still beat AMD in single-threaded performance. There are new Haswell chips coming that will hit 4 GHz, such as the Core i7-4790 4.0 GHz. However, that will take a longer time to hit to vendors' line-ups.

Separately, multi-processor systems generally don't hit as high of frequency as a single-processor as they usually have to devote some computational capacity to keep the SMP side working.

Now, what you don't say is whether that single system will be running your app, or if it will be serving that app to clients in a client/server set-up. If you're serving an app to other clients, then you need to have some data redundancy. So even two SSDs in a RAID-1 set-up would suffice. You could get a Dell server with the PERC H710p SAS/SATA RAID controller with two SATA drives, and then replace them with your own SSDs later (like 2 x 512GB Samsung 840 Pro). That would be a task for something who is comfortable with hardware, so have someone else do it if you don't feel comfortable with it.

Separately, a MacPro usually is a workstation for creative professionals; generally, it isn't meant for server work. It would be overkill (and a bit wasteful) for serving an app to clients. Plus, you've never indicated that your compiled app runs on Windows or Mac OS, so it's even hard to say if it is an efficacious solution or not.
April 15, 2014 2:37:21 PM

(1) Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell 3.5GHz Quad-Core is the best pick for single task performance for a workstation
Or get the new i7 4930K Ivy-E Hex-Core, but it costs about $600 more since the socket 2011 motherboards will cost about $350, it's the fastest CPU you can find under $1000, about 85% faster on benchmarks than the Xeon E5-2609 v2 for single task computing

(2) Dual CPU can handle more workload and more internet traffic used in a web or file server, but they do not offer faster speed running apps.
(3) the Samsung 840 EVO 512GB is a very popular choice, they are about $250ea
April 16, 2014 10:07:18 AM

RackMountProcom said:
(1) Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell 3.5GHz Quad-Core is the best pick for single task performance for a workstation
Or get the new i7 4930K Ivy-E Hex-Core, but it costs about $600 more since the socket 2011 motherboards will cost about $350, it's the fastest CPU you can find under $1000, about 85% faster on benchmarks than the Xeon E5-2609 v2 for single task computing

(2) Dual CPU can handle more workload and more internet traffic used in a web or file server, but they do not offer faster speed running apps.
(3) the Samsung 840 EVO 512GB is a very popular choice, they are about $250ea


No point in resurrecting old threads, especially when the OP never responds.
Related resources
!