Server CPU

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current plan is to install raid 10 on 4 ssds' and os virtual and sql database physical. The primary load will be asp.net/C# code being pushed by server to clients and all the sql reads to show those pages. Writes are low reads are high.

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thanks guys! So, the E5 1600 vs E5 2600 what are the advantages rj is talking about? Thanks for hte input on channels, I will scale to 4 sticks if go with single processor. Sounds like the E5 2600 is best only if 2 cpu board is used?

rj-my detailed plan doesn't exist. Still scoping this out, have never built a server and this one is really just a learning experiment. Someone on EE had suggested virtual os and physical SQL database, but I don't know details on how to do that. Still waiting on that dialogue to finish out....so, at the moment, I do not know. But, I woudl like to know. Have read that SQL database should not be run in virtual environment, or, it is less optimal in virtual, should be run physical.

I have SBS 2008 premium, so that is what I will be playing with.

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Thanks again, fellas. Very useful input.

andy, so, if I go cheapo, 1650 and 16gb ram would be good. If I go higher budget, 2620x2cpu and give them both decent ram. I am leaning towards the single at the moment and maybe scale up to dual set up in a year or so.

rj, would like to clarify the virtual scenario, I keep getting conflicting input and/or conflicting reading material. On one hand, it seems great to have snapshots, yet, finding snapshots will bite me in the rear when it comes to SQL...something about it getting out of sync with clients system state or something like that....seems to be one thing keeps shooting down the snapshots idea. System state being different after restoring from snapshot, causing issues, something with DNS, maybe? Can you speak to that?

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thanks for sharing that. The more I read, the more mixed I get. Can you share your perspective, if you were in my shoes, very small company, so not able to have a full time IT pro. Would you virtualize where main biz app is custom app using asp.net/C# and SQL server database to drive the client pages? I am finding the distaster plan (in our case) is probably best scenario where we restore from a Windows backup and just plan to be down a number of hours while doing so. Have not been able to engineer a scenario where viola, the whole this is restored and we are back in the saddle, no worries. Seems there is always a bug in the ointment, somewhere, that defeats the idea of restore from snapshot (I may be using term out of context?) and all is well again. Maybe I should start a new question, just for that?

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what about this comment?

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1144876

"Absolutely agree! Forget all about the 1620 chip Supermicro is not even touching them for their servers... under 32 RAM = E3 1270..... "

http://ark.intel.com/products/65727/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E3-1270-v2-8M-Cache-3_50-GHz

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andy and rj, thanks for the input. I apologize about being slow on the uptake, here. Also thank you for the suggestion on VMware ESX5i. Is there a basic link that will get me up to speed on the why's and how's? The thing that eludes me is why a VM when it seems I cannot restore and run from snapshot. There has got to be some fundamental reason folks use VM, just every time I look at SQL server on it, I still come back to having to reinstall SQL database and re-hook all the odds' and ends with our custom biz app. So, wonder what the fundamental benefit is to VM that I am not getting? Please understand I am not being a tool about this, I just am missing it. Or, maybe that is the def of tool?

Actually, remembering the reason for this post, back to the E3 1270 portion of the question, well, arg, brain is smoking now....so the E51650 with 6 cores, SQL will like that. Fwiw, the Xeon 3210 we use now only gets to about 25% useage with the worst query, not very scientific, but, since that older quad core is nowhere near getting max'd out, does that mean I am in overkill mode with a 6 core cpu like E5 1650?

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I bought this yesterday:

SUPERMICRO X9SRA Single Socket R (LGA 2011) E5 ATX Workstation/Server Motherboard DDR3 1600 12xUSB, 2x PCI-E 3.0 x16

Intel Xeon Six-Core Processor E5-1650 3.2GHz 5.0GT/s 12MB LGA 2011 CPU, OEM - CM8062101102002

Kingston 4x4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Registered DDR3 1600 Server Memory SR x4 Hynix C Model KVR16R11S4/4HC

I am now thinking I may want to install ESXi and then SQL Server as a VM, just to see how it runs. If resources are good and speed is good, maybe I could then install Web server as VM?

See also my question "ESXi-why???"

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