Best Processor for Lab Setup-E5620 or E5603

[raymcdonald]

Hello All,

I am in the process of building up a vSphere 5 lab. I will be running View, SRM, HP VSA, Windows 2008 VMs,etc. Due to price i am looking at the following 2 processors as options for the Dell T710.

Intel® Xeon® E5603   1.60GHz, 4M Cache, 4.8 GT/s QPI, 4C

Intel® Xeon® E5620   2.4Ghz, 12M Cache,Turbo, HT, 1066MHz

Other than the cache size and speed and HT, could someone please let me know their thoughts on what processor would be the best option?

Thanks in advance.

[Troy_Clavell]

Hello and welcome to the Forums.

To me, I think you answered your own questions.  The Intel® Xeon® E5620   2.4Ghz, 12M Cache,Turbo, HT, 1066MHz would be my choice for the reasons you outlined.

[raymcdonald]

Yea, i was thinking that, of course that processor option added $250 to the price on the server.

[admin]

Why spend that much cash on a last gen Westmere processor? You can get a 32nm Sandy Bridge CPU for in the $240 region, I upgraded from a Lynnfield Xeon X3450 and to the Sandy Bridge E3-1230 linked to below and it's a LOT faster - fits in the same LGA 1155 socket mobo too.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115083

[raymcdonald]

Well that could be an option, i just wonder if the Dell T710 BIOS supports that CPU. I would have to find that out.