Xeon E3-1230l v3

[the.patcher]

Hi FreeNAS Community,

I´m looking forward to build my first FreeNAS System. I discussed some thoughts in the German part of this forum, but I could not came to a conclusion regarding the CPU.

Sadly I can´t find much about the Xeon E3-1230l v3 on this forum and the web in general.
I´m not sure that the CPU can handle a full featured FreeNAS System. It´s import for me, that it will work with ZFS and Gigabit LAN just smoothly. If it could handle a Plex Server, it would be nice too.
The second question is, how large the difference, in point of real life power consumption, would be between the Xeon E3-1230l v3 and it´s larger brother Xeon E3-1230 v3. If this is just in heavy workload situations, maybe the extra in power consumption is worth it.

Thanks for your opinion!

 

[cyberjock]

Hehe. common question.
Here's a few things to keep in mind.

1. Modern CPU designs have many cores turn almost completely off or clock down to 150Mhz or so when idle. So idle power is extremely low.
2. The TDP is theoretical maximum output. It is no indicator of actual average power usage or anything. It's theoretical maximum and nothing more.
3. CPUs are extremely efficient today. Especially Sandy Bridge and newer.

So, if you are wanting to transcode with Plex, i can tell you that the E3-1230v3 can definitely do that for you. Probably 3+ 1080p streams simultaneously. Not so sure about the 1230LV3. Never seen that chip before. But, if you are trying to decide between the two because of TDP, I wouldn't do that. The faster chip will idle at about the same wattage as the slower one. But, when you need more speed, that faster chip is going to give it to you. In today's CPUs, when you buy a faster CPU you aren't generally buying significantly higher idle wattages like you used to. You are paying for the potential to have higher performance when you need it. It will use more power when it works, but it'll finish those tasks faster so it can go back to idling.

Not sure what the price difference is between the two, but unless the 1230LV3 is like 1/2 the price or something, I'd get the full fledged E3-1230v3. I have the E3-1230v2, and I have no regrets. It's done far more than I expected.

 

[Rand]

I pondered the same question and decided on the Non L version - check the c't - they've discussed that as well and according to them the L version only makes sense if you have a thermal envelope you must not break (30 1HE servers in a rack with limited air conditioning for example)

 

[the.patcher]

Thank you both for your advice! I think I will go with the non L version.

@cyberjock: The price tag is nearly identical here in Germany.

@Rand: I will go and check the c´t. Can´t find any good review on the web. This was the only one, but they used a total wrong power supply, at least for what I plan to do with it.

 

[cyberjock]

In that case, go with the non-L version. On a performance-per-watt at full throttle the L is probably better, but that's not very important for situations like how FreeNAS uses the CPU.

 

[Rand]

Check servethehome.com for some comparisons, http://www.heise.de/ct/hotline/Stromspar-Prozessoren-2056350.html for general discussion or http://www.heise.de/artikel-archiv/ct/2013/25/122_kiosk.
Basically what cj said; I cant find the other article either atm (with thermal envelope) but thats basically the same statement from another point of view;)

 

[the.patcher]

Thank you both for all the information, I think I will stay with the non L version.