Previously, we talked<\/a> about the single-threaded performance, CPU capacity and hardware cost difference between an extremely poor server model and processor SKU choice and a much better server model and processor SKU choice from about three and a half years ago. In that case, the bad choice only had about 34% of the single-threaded CPU performance and about 34% of the CPU capacity of the good choice processor SKU. <\/p>\n

There was a $746.00 increase in the cost of the processor itself, and perhaps a $500.00 difference in the cost of a base Dell PowerEdge R620 compared to a base Dell PowerEdge R320 server. The SQL Server license cost would have been identical in either case, based on the number of physical cores. <\/p>\n

Since the legacy hardware choice was so poor, that makes it even easier to get a significant increase in single-threaded CPU performance and overall CPU capacity by purchasing a brand new model server, using the best available processor at the same physical core count. A new model server will also have higher memory density and capacity and more PCIe 3.0 lanes available. It will also have a number of manageability advantages<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dell\u2019s 14th generation servers<\/a> support the new 14nm Intel Xeon Scalable Processors<\/a> (Skylake-SP) processors that have anywhere from four to 28 physical cores. In our case, we want to replace a legacy Dell PowerEdge R320 server that had one Intel Xeon E5-2407 v2<\/a> processor that had four physical cores, a base clock speed of 2.4GHz, no Turbo Boost<\/a>, no Hyper-Threading<\/a>, a relatively small 10MB L3 cache, a slow 6.4 GT\/s QPI<\/a> speed, three channels of DDR3-1066 memory support and 24 PCIe 3.0 lanes.<\/p>\n

The best quad-core Intel Xeon Scalable processor SKU for a two-socket server is the Intel Xeon Gold 5122<\/a> processor, which has a base clock speed of 3.6GHz, a Turbo clock speed of 3.7GHz, Hyper-Threading, 16.5MB of L3 cache, six channels of DDR4-2666 memory support, and 48 PCIe 3.0 lanes, and a price of $1,221.00.<\/p>\n

A bad choice at the same physical core count is the Intel Xeon Silver 4112<\/a> processor that has a base clock speed of just 2.6Ghz, a Turbo clock speed of only 3.0GHz, Hyper-Threading, 8.25MB of L3 cache, six channels of slower DDR4-2400 memory support, 48 PCIe 3.0 lanes, and a price of $473.00. Saving $748.00 by getting the cheaper processor is foolish, false economy for SQL Server usage.<\/p>\n

A good server for a Xeon Gold 5122 processor is the new Dell PowerEdge R740<\/a> two-socket server. Even though this is a two-socket server, you can choose to only populate one socket to start with (which is what we will do here). One trade-off when you only use one processor in a two-socket server is that you cut the overall memory capacity of the server in half (until you add another processor later).<\/p>\n

The main point here is that you should do this type of analysis when looking at new servers and selecting a particular processor for SQL Server 2016\/2017 usage. You should definitely avoid the Intel Xeon Silver and Bronze lines for SQL Server usage, since you give up so much performance and scalability for a relatively small hardware cost reduction.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Additional Resources<\/font><\/u><\/strong> <\/p>\n

My new Pluralsight<\/a> course, SQL Server: Upgrading and Migrating to SQL Server 2016<\/a> has just been published. This is my eleventh course for Pluralsight, but the complete list of my courses is here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Building on this online course is a new three day class, IEUpgrade: Immersion Event on Upgrading SQL Server<\/a>, taught by myself<\/a> and Tim Radney<\/a>. The first round of this course will be taught in Chicago from October 11-13, 2017. <\/p>\n

Finally, I will be presenting a half-day session called Migrating to SQL Server 2017<\/a> at the PASS Summit 2017<\/a> in Seattle, WA from October 31- November 3, 2017. <\/p>\n

Here is a link to the complete series<\/a> about upgrading SQL Server.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Previously, we talked about the single-threaded performance, CPU capacity and hardware cost difference between an extremely poor server model and processor SKU choice and a much better server model and processor SKU choice from about three and a half years ago. In that case, the bad choice only had about 34% of the single-threaded CPU […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[246,342,353],"tags":[350,352],"class_list":["post-1250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sql-server-2016","category-sql-server-2017","category-upgrading-sql-server","tag-upgrading-to-sql-server-2016","tag-upgrading-to-sql-server-2017"],"yoast_head":"\n