Avoton & Xeon E3, move away. Xeon D is here.

[Ericloewe]

http://www.servethehome.com/intel-xeon-d-soc-changing-broadwell-de/

Major points:

• 14nm process.
  
• 8 cores. Not 8 Atom cores, 8 Broadwell cores.
• Dual-channel memory controller, good for 1.35V DDR3 and DDR4. RDIMMs included. 128GB max for the moment.
  
• Dual 10GbE on package. Dual 10GbE.
• 24 extra PCI-e 3.0 lanes.
• 8 PCI-e 2.0 lanes from the on-package PCH.
• Speaking of PCH - it's kinda like an integrated C226, meaning 6 SATA 6Gb/s ports.

Now, grab any loose jaws and clean up any drool that might be around you. Here comes the sticker shock:

800-1000 bucks for the motherboard+SoC.

Previews of Supermicro's solution and ASRock Rack's solution.

 

[9C1 Newbee]

per tee foo kin sweet

 

[marbus90]

Considering a E5-2630L v3 (the performance of which is comparable) plus a C612 board with 10Gbe isn't that much lower... or even more...

However it would require HBAs again. What was wrong with 10x SATA 6Gbps onboard? Also singlethreaded performance isn't nearly as good as on the Xeon E3 platform.

 

[Ericloewe]

Considering a E5-2630L v3 (the performance of which is comparable) plus a C612 board with 10Gbe isn't that much lower... or even more...

However it would require HBAs again. What was wrong with 10x SATA 6Gbps onboard? Also singlethreaded performance isn't nearly as good as on the Xeon E3 platform.

Performance per clock should be better than Xeon E3 v3 (Haswell), but the clocks are indeed lower. Given what we've seen from Avoton, it'll be more than good enough for NAS duties. Think Avoton on steroids.

As for the limited SATA connectivity, there's only so much you can stick on a single package. For large (16+ drives) systems, an SAS HBA is probably the way to go anyway, since an SAS expander is probably desired. A Xeon-D board with an LSI SAS 2308 or 3008 would make for a killer high-end NAS board, for those who don't need the horsepower of the 84W Xeon E3s (It'll be interesting to see how well Xeon-D performs against Haswell Xeons) or the Xeon E5s.

 

[Bastian Büttner]

As for the limited SATA connectivity, there's only so much you can stick on a single package. For large (16+ drives) systems, an SAS HBA is probably the way to go anyway, since an SAS expander is probably desired. A Xeon-D board with an LSI SAS 2308 or 3008 would make for a killer high-end NAS board (...)

That's what I'm waiting for.

I just read the official prices:
Xeon D-1540 $581 (8c/16t)
Xeon D-1520 $199 (4c/8t)

Seems to me that only the number of cores differ. Considering that, the price difference is pretty tough...
But it gives me hope that the above mentioned price tag of $ 800 - 1000 is for the 8c version.
Let's see where the 4c ends up then...
4 Broadwell cores with ECC should be more than enough for a nice FreeNAS system, I'd say.

Both SoCs have a specced TDP of 45 W.
I can imagine that 20 W is consumed by the NICs and periphery - but it will be interesting to see the comparison in power consumption of 4c vs 8c.
Ok, I know, just wait. Meanwhile I'm wiping up my drool.

 

[GrumpyBear]

Buyer's remorse is immediate :D for my new shiny FreeNAS hardware. This may be a killer for lean mean transcoding machines.

Here is the page up on the SuperMicro site.

Though it specs 6 SATA ports there are, what appear to be, one two more at the rear of the board by the expansion slot (M.2?). Nice to see the dedicated DOM slot is offset so a DOM won't block adjacent ports.

 

[Ericloewe]

Buyer's remorse is immediate :D for my new shiny FreeNAS hardware. This may be a killer for lean mean transcoding machines.

Here is the page up on the SuperMicro site.

Though it specs 6 SATA ports there are, what appear to be, one two more at the rear of the board by the expansion slot (M.2?). Nice to see the dedicated DOM slot is offset so a DOM won't block adjacent ports.

The additional ones are probably multiplexed with some of the 6.

 

[hertzsae]

Buyer's remorse is immediate :D for my new shiny FreeNAS hardware. This may be a killer for lean mean transcoding machines.

Here is the page up on the SuperMicro site.

Though it specs 6 SATA ports there are, what appear to be, one two more at the rear of the board by the expansion slot (M.2?). Nice to see the dedicated DOM slot is offset so a DOM won't block adjacent ports.

I had the same remorse until I realized that it will be a while for hardware to get in the wild and even longer before all the compatibility kinks gets worked out. I don't expect to see these boards to hit the recommended page for at least 4-6 months.

 

[cyberjock]

This will be interesting. The hardware specs are sweet, but I think the price tag is going to make it a non-starter for people that are practical. Time will tell though. ;)

 

[Stanri010]

Oh my. I'm literally all over this one. At 128GB RDIMM ECC support with 10 GbE and one slot for a 4x SAS to 16 STATA. I can install up to two vdevs of 10 6TB drives for 120 of total raw storage with 128 GB of ram all on an mini ITX form factor. Amazing.

I'll probably opt for the 8 core version because I need the ability to transcode on the fly with Plex. Plex is able to put almost 60% to 70% load on my E3 1245 v3 so the 4 core version might be a bit on the weak side.

EDIT. Looks like a M.2 slot for L2ARC if necessary. Beautiful.

 

[marbus90]

However only LRDIMMs are supported/on the market currently since you need 32GB DIMMs for that.

I would have liked 10-12 SATA ports for ITX systems like the PC-Q26 :/

 

[Stanri010]

What would you use the PCIe slot? The LSI 9201-16i 16 HBA would do nicely in that motherboard. 16 SATA III from the HBA and 6 more from the board gives for a great platform to build a 20 drive, two 10 drive vdev raidz2.

128GB for 2x 10x6TB monster :D

 

[Ericloewe]

I'd like to see a board with an SAS 2308/3008, dual 4x PCI-e 3.0 M.2 slots and a full 8x PCI-e 3.0 slot.

Not that I have any use for such a crazy amount of connectivity, but it'd be cool to look at. :D

 

[Stanri010]

Performance preview: http://www.servethehome.com/intel-xeon-d-1540-power-performance-preview/

Here's your full PCIe lane and SAS connectors. Sadly, it's a little too big for "mini ITX"

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9070/intel-xeon-d-launched-14nm-broadwell-soc-for-enterprise

 

[Rilo Ravestein]

Cool monster. Bit over my budget though.... Just a little bit.... i think....

Maybe for a future project. After i finish building a new pfsense box

Plex is able to put almost 60% to 70% load on my E3 1245 v3 so the 4 core version might be a bit on the weak side.

My 1246v3 doesn't break a sweat transcoding.

 

[cheezehead]

I'll probably opt for the 8 core version because I need the ability to transcode on the fly with Plex. Plex is able to put almost 60% to 70% load on my E3 1245 v3 so the 4 core version might be a bit on the weak side.

EDIT. Looks like a M.2 slot for L2ARC if necessary. Beautiful.

It will be interesting to see if either of these are going to have enough single-threaded performance to handle the VC-1 & MKV issues with Plex. If it does, I wonder if the 1520 will be enough....I'm figuring the lower end SKU will come in more of the Avoton price-point ($400-ish) and at which point damn!

Ball-park gut feelings on price-points for entry level boards at the various tiers.

D-1520 with gig nics ~ $400
D-1520 with 10Gb ~ $500
D-1540 with gig nics ~ $800
D-1530 with 10GB ~ $900

Now all I need is ASRock to drop another 12-SATA beast with these.

FWIW, DDR4 prices are still going to make this expensive.

These are all dual-channel setups with a max of four slots.

Current Newegg Prices
32GB sticks ~ $440/each ~$13.75/GB
16GB sticks ~ $190/each ~ $11.86/GB
8GB sticks ~$100/each ~ $12.5/GB

Currently the sweet spot are the 16GB sticks which places your builds at either 32GB or 64GB for the best bang for your buck.

If the 1520 is enough, I'm looking at around $780 for CPU/Mobo/Ram for a D-1520 with 64GB ram....not bad.

 

[Bastian Büttner]

STH made an interesting performance comparison with all important contenders
(Xeon E5-1620v3, Xeon E3-1276v3, Xeon E3-1230v3, Avoton C2750, Dual Xeon L5520 (thus 8 x 2,3 GHz))
The performance of the Xeon D-1540 multithreaded is amazing.
And even single threaded it is astonishingly close to a Xeon E3-1230v3 (Turbo: 2.4 GHz vs 3.7 GHz)

See here:
http://www.servethehome.com/intel-xeon-d-1540-performance-comparison/

 

[jgreco]

• 8 cores. Not 8 Atom cores, 8 Broadwell cores.

8 sucky speed Broadwell cores. This thing is full of tradeoffs. It's likely to be a great replacement for the Avoton, but I'll take a decent E3 or E5 over it any day.

At least for now.

It does signal what's coming, though. The density you ought to be able to get out of these things should be amazing. Obviously designed for blades or other high density environments. And if they can pump up the speed a little, it seems clear that the main advantage of the E3 is lower cost.

 

[Zserver]

Subscribed. I love this thread. I was going to post a request for assistance on finding (or waiting for) an mITX board with 4 DIMMs, IPMI, Xeon E3V3 capable, low TDP. It looks like I am waiting for boards that will accept the Xeon-D's.

 

[jgreco]

The Xeon-D's are preassembled, i.e. unsocketed, processors. You'll be buying your board and the processor together.