Processer Question x4 Need your Decision

[ClanWoof]

Well I have a pretty good offer on this 1u barebone server, question is for anyone with a E4540, E4550, or E5460
Wondering whats the max you have loaded onto one of those.
I have clients on our E4550's for my GSP so I can't test it out myself.
Just want to know what the max for CS:S and TF2 you can put on those.
I'm going to switch out two or three of my clans boxes with this new server.
At the moment we have two 32man tf2 servers and 6 24man css servers with plans to get 6 more tf2 servers and two 32man servers for css.

Specs on the box I'm getting depends on what you guys really think I should get. E4540 is 2.66Ghz, E5450 is 2.83Ghz, E5460 is 3.0Ghz.
Price range is anything from 500,700,950 Around that give or take.
I can get a better deal but thats about the going price right now.

Not sure how much ram I'm getting yet box is a dual node
has four sockets yes four. So this box is going to be 16cores 4x4 = 16.

So with that said please let me know what you guys who have the same cpus know about them and what you recommend.

Also how many slots you think I should be able to run without putting cpu over 60%


Thanks for your decisions, once I get this box I'll add bots like mad and let you guys know how much its able to handle before I put it up for my clan.

Jake.

[CGS|Todd]

anything beyond the e5420 is a waste of money, you can't run enough additional slots to make it worth the additional cost. now bragging rights . . . that's a different story

i assume you are talking about the supermicro chassis. if so, it contains two phsyically seperate servers so its technically not 16 cores, its two physically seperate 8 core servers. i'm not aware of any 4-way xeon systems that are one physical server -- at least not something would be anything other than astronomically expensive (not to say it doesn't exist).

are you expecting all slots to be full at any given time? if its a community box, that's a greater possiblity than if its a gsp box. that is part of the calculation.

[ClanWoof]

Yes this is a community box that stays full pretty much 24/7. Also yes it's the supermicro two nodes two seperate servers but you're able to link them together into one monster. As for the E5420 not so sure how it would like a full 32 slot tf2 server on a 2.4 Core2 I have tried before cpu usage goes higher than it should when full.
I don't care to put more than a 32slot server per core on this server as well. If you think it can handle it thats alright but like I said I've seen the 2.4 use 75% cpu usage which is why I'd like to go with something a little higher.

Screw bragging rights Just need something that keeps up under load.
If others have used the E5420 with a few full 32slot tf2 servers let me know. I found the other server I tested failed for me.
Thanks Todd.

[Hazz]

Well we use a Q6600 and when running 2 full 32 slot TF2 servers and 3 full L4D servers it uses 50 - 60% CPU. So the Xeon will manage that at least.

[CGS|Todd]

the e5420 will easily handle one 32-man tf server per core. are you sure about linking the nodes? the motherboards in that chassis are based on the x7 series, which have chipset no logic for linking the nodes (and i don't think there is physical link between them either).

in any event, 60% max cpu usage is pretty conservative, there isn't really any benefit to keeping it that low.