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    X5650 or W3580 for 10GbE pfsense?

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    • T
      tiro_uspsss
      last edited by

      I have a choice between two Intel Xeons (single socket). Specs for both are as follows:

      X5650: 6C/12T, b: 2.66ghz T: 3.06ghz, 6.4QPI, 12MB L3

      or

      W3580: 4C/8T, b: 3.33ghz T: 3.6ghz, 6.4QPI, 8MB L3

      which would be more suitable for a 10GbE pfsense box?
      All NICs are Intel, except the 10GbE cards which will be Chelsio.
      TIA!  :)

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      • ?
        Guest
        last edited by

        X5650 has AES, 32nm and 95W
        W3580 no AES, 45nm and 130W and older.
        Beware there are different 1366 cpu series within the socket.

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        • ?
          Guest
          last edited by

          X5650: 6C/12T, b: 2.66ghz T: 3.06ghz, 6.4QPI, 12MB L3

          Would be  my choice to go with.

          All NICs are Intel, except the 10GbE cards which will be Chelsio.

          There are two different models available at the pfSense store, one will be fine for
          the LAN usage, because of full offloading VLANs and other TCP stuff that is the
          cheaper one and a more expensive this would be able to full offload from the CPU
          the entire NAT process and other TCP stuff on the WAN side of the pfSense, but
          more expensive, so it might be better to choose the right card on the side where
          this card will be working, on the LAN or WAN side.

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          • ?
            Guest
            last edited by

            Sorry about the bad info in my first post. There are not different versions with-in LGA1366. I had it mixed up with LGA2011

            http://www.anandtech.com/show/7773/intels-three-versions-of-socket-2011-not-compatible

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            • T
              tiro_uspsss
              last edited by

              @BlueKobold:

              X5650: 6C/12T, b: 2.66ghz T: 3.06ghz, 6.4QPI, 12MB L3

              Would be  my choice to go with.

              why? is it more cores or..?

              @BlueKobold:

              All NICs are Intel, except the 10GbE cards which will be Chelsio.

              There are two different models available at the pfSense store, one will be fine for
              the LAN usage, because of full offloading VLANs and other TCP stuff that is the
              cheaper one and a more expensive this would be able to full offload from the CPU
              the entire NAT process and other TCP stuff on the WAN side of the pfSense, but
              more expensive, so it might be better to choose the right card on the side where
              this card will be working, on the LAN or WAN side.

              So if I understood you correctly, if the 10GbE card is only doing work on LAN side, cheaper card is ok?

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              • ?
                Guest
                last edited by

                why? is it more cores or..?

                • AES-NI
                • Newer CPU
                • More Cores

                So if I understood you correctly, if the 10GbE card is only doing work on LAN side, cheaper card is ok?

                LAN side:
                Chelsio T520-SO-CR Dual-Port 10 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter SFP+
                T520-SO-CR for $245

                WAN side:
                Chelsio T520-CR Dual-Port 10 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter SFP+
                T520-CR for $799

                And this was only for you to think about, for sure you are able to do what you want and also
                where yoiu want, this is more a "I personally would walk this road" or "each card has his own skills".

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                • ?
                  Guest
                  last edited by

                  To me the choice of CPU's comes down to power. 95W is one third the usage of electricity. Now TDP is subjective but the fact is that with every die shrink chips get better, if only marginally.. We are talking about a machine that is always powered up 24x7.
                  Even if the extra cores go unused.  You really didn't specify what packages you plan on running. Truthfully I don't think 10G will require that kind of CPU but nobody ever got fired for using IBM!!

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