Intel G3258 Haswell Dual-Core 3.2 GHz vs. Intel Avoton Quad Core 2.4ghz

[nojohnny101]

hypothetical here, just wanted you guys' thoughts.

I have recently built a backup freenas box and while I have been replicating the 3TBs or so of data, I have seen the CPU on the Haswell maintain a lower % utilization vs the avoton. Did some further testing with moving data between the two and it seems maybe because of this is because of the higher clock speed? I had planned to have the Haswell as my backup machine but now I am considering using it as my primary.

Here is what the primary box is used for and plans to be used for:
- no more than 2-3 jails, currently have plex running but plan on adding sickbeard later and maybe owncloud
- there are no more than 5 active users besides myself and all of them only access the box through plex. They are all remote except me, and I would say they only access infrequently, maybe 1-2 times per week to watch a movie or something
- i keep my personal files on there but don't access them frequently. mostly used to keep large files that i want to keep off my personal computer.
- use primarily CIFS shares for primary access and AFP for nightly backups.

all the other relevant hardware is no different between the two. the haswell is paired with a 80Plus GOLD PSU while the Avoton has an 80PLUS Bronze. both have plentiful sata ports. all else is equal.

thoughts? would the Haswell give slightly better performance for what i use it for? would i suffer because of losing 2 cores on the primary box?

Thanks guys/gals! i value your opinions!

 

[Arwen]

I don't have any comments about the 2 CPUs...

One thing we did for Major database, is perform the R/Ws on the main cluster, and
the replicated database got the R/O report generators. This worked good since the
reports did not need current data, (a few minutes to few hours old was fine). And then
kept the report load off the main cluster.

So if both your servers are on-line all the time, you can run an Active/Active setup.
Just make the "backup" server tasks Read/Only, like movie watching.

Some setups don't work well for Active/Active serving. You will have to decide.

 

[DrKK]

The G3258 (one of the greatest CPU's ever produced in the history of mankind, on a bang-per-dollar basis), will easily handle your use case that you've described. If you wanted to use it in your main rig, that would be quite reasonable.

 

[nojohnny101]

@DrKK thanks for the input.

I didn't know I bought "one of the greatest CPU's ever produced in the history of mankind, on a bang-per-dollar basis", I'm happy I did! I love this thing all of a sudden more than ever.

My question though was which one is really better? Or is there really no meaningful difference with the amount of users I have and mostly using plex frequently and some CIFS shares every once in a while?

 

[russnas]

i dont use plex is so im not sure. the dual will easily out perform the atom, next step would be to get an i3 if you want a quad which will also be better than the octo core atom.
i would use the g3258

http://ark.intel.com/compare/82723,77982,52271,52276
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Pentium-G3258-vs-Intel-Atom-C2550

from links

g3258

Around 3.2x better geekbench 3 single core score
More than 70% better PassMark score
Around 35% higher clock speed

 

[nojohnny101]

@russnas thanks for sharing that! really helpful! I would not have though that the electricity costs would be that drastically different. I always know the C2550 was efficient, but dang.

Choice choices. I think I'll go with atom as my primary. It has handled everything I have thrown at it, so no reason to incur extra electricity costs. It doesn't boot as fast, apply updates as fast, and such but how often do I do that?

I'll let the person volunteering to house the backup box shoulder the extra electricity :D

 

[Jailer]

The G3258 will easily handle your use case that you've described

Unless all 5 of those remote clients decide to fire up Plex at the same time.

I'd stick with the G3258 as the primary box and keep the Avaton rig as backup. If you find that the G3258 is not enough to support multiple Plex transcodes at least you have an upgrade path.

I would not have though that the electricity costs would be that drastically different.

They're not going to be.

 

[russnas]

power efficiency always wins people over, the thought of paying less bills

you will need to get a kilowatt meter and see how much its actually drawing as tdp is not a direct measure of power consumption.

i got a g2020 (which is similar to your atom), 4 drive raid and the idle watt is around 40watts. and load 55-60watts.

i was gonna use a old atom but it was drawing like 20watts idle without HDD's, many atom cpus dont have idle states as well

so i thought another 20watts or so for full power no bottlenecks.

that comes down to 10$ a month 24/7 where i am

the cheapest atom with ecc is around $550 here, so it would take me like 4 years before i see the benefits in power consumption.

you already had atom pc so costs is not an issue for you.

 

[nojohnny101]

well i decided to stick with the G3258 as my main box and then use the atom as backup.

thanks for all the thoughts!