Building a Dual Quad Nehalem, thoughts?

[CrimsonGT]

So as we start to approach our deadline for opening our doors for server rentals (still a couple months away while we finish up) I am getting the specs done on our initial box.

 

Right now it is...

 

Dual *Nehalem* Quad Core Xeon 5520

2x500GB HDDs

12GB DDR3 RAM

1GigE port

8TB Transfer (4TB per CPU)

 

I have read some of the discussions on Dual Quads, and while I do agree I still think this should be a pretty good build.

 

I am wondering if anyone else is running any of the new nehalem processors. I am more a software junkie, and I am decent with hardware, but im wondering how the HT (hyperthreading) and what not will affect game servers.

 

I know its not logical to say, how many slots is this going to hold due to the wide amount of factors that go into it, but as far as 'srcds' goes (since its the most common) what am I looking at generally speaking per core? The last dedicated boxes I ran were q6600's and I was able to run a 24 slot and 14 slot server per core hitting about 70% usage on the core when both were full. Im just wondering if this new processor technology and so on is going to allow more slots per core and so on.

 

Just at a guess, going with CSS as a baseline, I would think probably 80 66 tickrate slots per core, so about 650 slots for the box. Although I am probably being a bit generous with that number. Anyways, thanks for the help in advance.

[Creed3020]

Well it is good to hear some other news about a Nehalem box being put together for game servers. I started this thread to get a discussion started on the topic because just like you I would like to gather some baseline data before thinking of moving to these new CPUs. Hopefully someone from that thread can give us an update

[CrimsonGT]

Im just trying to figure out how much if at all hyper-threading (HTT) would help on game servers. Im comparing the xeon e5504 (2.0ghz without HTT) to the xeon e5520 (2.26ghz with HTT) and its 235$ versus 385$. Considering we will be running two of them (for a dual quad setup) I am wondering how many more slots we would really see from that 150$ extra per CPU.

[Derek]

Im just trying to figure out how much if at all hyper-threading (HTT) would help on game servers. Im comparing the xeon e5504 (2.0ghz without HTT) to the xeon e5520 (2.26ghz with HTT) and its 235$ versus 385$. Considering we will be running two of them (for a dual quad setup) I am wondering how many more slots we would really see from that 150$ extra per CPU.

 

one has 4MB of L3 cache other has 8MB of L3 cache huge difference.

[CrimsonGT]

Alright, that makes sense. Still not sure about the hyperthreading as I have read HTT can hurt game server performance, but nothing much more than that. I guess I am probably just going to go with the dual 5520's and either be extremely happy or just have to bite the bullet.

 

One other I was looking at is the xeon e5420 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117148 which looks decent, its just a bit cheaper than the 5520 (25$ or so). Would I still be considerably better off with the 5520s?

[Creed3020]

Considering how much more advanced the new Nehalem platform is I would be putting my money on the 55xx CPUs in terms of hosting more game servers. Their architecture is very different that the previous Quad core Xeons (Clovertowns and Harpertowns) what with an integrated memory controller, the rebirth of HT, support for triple channel memory, etc...(read more here).

 

If you are willing to invest in them while the prices are still higher and you have the ability to invest in this technology then I would proceed and just keeping moving forward.