SURPRISE SURPRISE...Kaby Lake Pentiums Support ECC

[DrKK]

Difference seems marginal. Just TSX, far as I can tell? And "Optane", whatever that is.

Also, just noticed there's no "AVX" either in the Pentium. Again, not sure what that instruction set is for, maybe that's the thing with the 128-bit divide instruction that you need for chained AES or something. Whatever, probably doesn't matter for FreeNAS in any serious way.

 

[Ericloewe]

AVX adds useful "move data around" instructions for vector-sized registers. Conditional moves, move to lower half, copy a single value to all positions of the vector, etc. Plus, it extends SSE instructions to 256 bits, because your vectors can never be too large.

 

[Stux]

AVX is double wide SSE, itself double wide MMX. I think AVX 2.0 is double wide AVX, Ie 512 bit vectors.

This gets used for scientific modeling type stuff, rendering, encoding... Ie anything which involves massive amounts of repeated computation. In the FreeNAS world that means Plex.

 

[Ericloewe]

I think AVX 2.0 is double wide AVX, Ie 512 bit vectors.

Depends whom you ask. The exact definition of what AVX is is a crapshoot. To make things worse, most current CPUs that support 512-bit AVX actually throttle down to do 512-bit AVX, so the gains are smaller than would be expected.

 

[Stux]

Depends whom you ask. The exact definition of what AVX is is a crapshoot. To make things worse, most current CPUs that support 512-bit AVX actually throttle down to do 512-bit AVX, so the gains are smaller than would be expected.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Vector_Extensions

AVX2 expands most integer commands to 256 bits and introduces FMA. AVX-512 expands AVX to 512-bit support utilizing a new EVEX prefix encoding proposed by Intel in July 2013 and first supported by Intel with the Knights Landing processor scheduled to ship in 2015

So, yeah, AVX2 is much like SSE2 was to SSE, ie still SSE, but new integer instructions for things like encoding... say... h.265.

AVX-512 is what I was conflating, and that is not available on an i3 ;)

Meanwhile, you're right, the latest generations of intel processors have the capacity to knock a few turbo bins off a core which is running AVX instructions, mainly because AVX works the processor so hard that it very rapidly would exceed the TDP. I played around with this a lot when I was over-clocking an i7-9600 workstation (4.3ghz stable with everything flatout (ie no turbo) and no AVX downshift ;)). Tis a beast.

 

[Stux]

Heavy plex machines should use a 1230 anyway

 

[KrisBee]

I really hope that AMD + Supermicro undercut an Intel platform while still providing proper, accurate specs. Intel is clearly way too complacent in the low-end ECC market and I hate being limited to a single supplier.

I might even take one for the team and build an AMD server when the real server parts are released, assuming Supermicro has a good product and it seems to be usable with FreeBSD. No Intel NICs, no deal .....

.

Judging by memory and m/board prices for ryzen supporting consumer grade hardware, I don't see there being any great up front saving, although you might get more bang per buck.

I believe I read elsewhere that Kris Moore already has some ryzen hardware for testing ....

You have to wonder what on-die differences actually exist in various Intel processor to allow them to distinguish between server orientated and consumer markets. For example, a low-end J3445 4core celeron supports vt-x, vt-d and AES-NI, but not ECC RAM. Yet the older 2core 1610T did support EEC RAM but only VT-X and not AES-NI. My desktop CPU is a i5-3470, which appears to have many of the characteristics if a xoen e3-1225 v2. Without healthy competition, Intel will contnue to segment the market and keep prices high.

 

[Jailer]

You have to wonder what on-die differences actually exist in various Intel processor

Not so much differences as it is features either enabled or disabled.

 

[gpsguy]

I believe I read elsewhere that Kris Moore already has some ryzen hardware for testing .....

Yeah, he made a comment on Reddit recently about having 4 AMD systems at home and planning to get a Ryzen system.

 

[KrisBee]

Not so much differences as it is features either enabled or disabled.

Disabling a feature counts as a difference in my book, but semantics apart, I guess we agree. Segmentation makes Intel a lot of money.

 

[q/pa]

Since I was a bit confused by this rather old discussion but wanted to be clear with regards to my planned build (Intel Core i3-7300) maybe the following information is useful for others in the same situation.

There is an Intel document on the 7th generation Core family processors (including Pentium and Celeron). Page 11 lists all processors.

https://cdrdv2.intel.com/v1/dl/getcontent/335195

Chapter 2.1 provides detailed information about supported memory.

With regards to the Core i3-7300 it clearly states that it will work with the 16GB / 2400 MHz unbuffered ECC RAM I intend to buy.

 

[Ericloewe]

Any particular reason you're going with an old processor? The newer ones have more cores.

 

[q/pa]

From whatvI took from the hardware recommendations and the quick reference guide this CPU should work well with the Supermicro X11-SSM-F for the medium workload I am expecting. Plus the cost of roughly 160€.
If you have an alternative that fits please advise. :)

 

[q/pa]

I copied this over to my "will it FreeNAS post" as this is more related to that discussion.

Supermicro X11SSM-F, 32GB ECC RAM, 6x 2TB WD Red, Intel Core i3-7300 4.0 GHz

Hi everyone, I am planning to build my first FreeNAS system. This NAS will be a home system: file server, backup, streaming (MP3, HD, maybe 4K in the future?), small DB (Digikam photo collection), some jails (Syncthing, Nextcloud, DLNA server). I want to establish a RAIDZ2. Did "some" reading...

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