Over the past several months, Dell has been rolling out a number of new 12th generation servers that all use the new 32nm Intel Xeon E5 series processor (aka Sandy Bridge-EP). These new servers all have much higher memory density and more PCI-E slots (which are also PCI-E 3.0) compared to the older 11th generation Intel based servers that used the 32nm Intel Xeon 5600 series processor (aka Westmere-EP). These new servers are a huge improvement over the previous models.
Several of these new server models were just announced this week, and are not yet available for sale, while several others have been available for a couple of months now. The new models include three entry level servers (R320, R420, and R520) that use the new 32nm Intel Xeon E5-2400 series processor, and the new quad-socket PowerEdge R820 that uses the new 32nm Intel Xeon E5-4600 series processor. In case you are not fluent in how to decode Dell server model numbers, the R means rack-mounted, the first numerical digit is an indication of where the model fits in the overall lineup (with entry level models having lower numbers), the second numerical digit is the generation ( 1 means 11th Gen, 2 means 12th Gen), and the final numerical digit tells you whether it is an Intel based model or an AMD based model (0 means Intel, 5 means AMD).
So, if you are not a complete hardware geek like me, here is a handy little cheat sheet that lays out the major differences between these seven models. For memory capacity, I am assuming the use of 16GB DIMMs, since 32GB DIMMs are still extremely expensive, and frankly don’t make economic sense. From a processor choice perspective, each of these model servers are available with Sandy Bridge-EP processors that have either 4, 6, or 8 physical cores. In some cases (E5-2600 and E5-4600 series), you can choose a processor model that has fewer physical cores, but a higher base clock speed. This could make sense if you had an OLTP workload and are worried about the core-based licensing in SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition.
Personally, I really like the R720xd model, with up to (26) 2.5” internal drive bays. I suspect that a very high percentage of SQL Server workloads would run extremely well on one of those. If twenty-six internal drives did not give you enough I/O performance and disk space, you could always add some Fusion-io cards and/or use some external DAS enclosures or a SAN. If you can partition your workload across multiple servers, two R720xd servers would be much better than one R820 server, since you would have faster, less expensive processors, over three times as many internal drive bays, and nearly twice as many PCI-E expansion slots for things like RAID controllers or HBAs.
As a DBA, I would be actively lobbying against using the R420 or R520 models, since they use the lower-end E5-2400 series processors, which have lower clock speeds and less memory bandwidth compared to the E5-2600 series used in the R620, R720, and R720xd. They also have have half the memory capacity and fewer PCI-E slots. They are less expensive, but the hardware cost delta is pretty small compared to the SQL Server license costs, especially for SQL Server 2012. Remember, you are paying based on physical core counts, so you want to get the best package you can as far as the rest of the server goes. I can see where the R320 could be a good choice for a smaller workload, where you can still get 96GB of RAM in a one socket server. Don’t forget that SQL Server 2008 R2 and 2012 Standard Edition are limited to using 64GB of RAM.
1U form factor, one CPU socket, uses Intel Xeon E5-2400 series, 6 memory slots (96GB RAM), (8) 2.5” drive bays, (1) x8 and (1) x16 PCI-E 3.0 expansion slots
Total of 4, 6, or 8 physical cores for SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition licensing purposes. Total of 8, 12, or 16 logical cores with HT enabled.
1U form factor, two CPU sockets, uses Intel Xeon E5-2400 series, 12 memory slots (192GB RAM), (8) 2.5” drive bays, (2) x16 PCI-E 3.0 expansion slots
Total of 8, 12, or 16 physical cores for SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition licensing purposes. Total of 16, 24, or 32 logical cores with HT enabled.
2U form factor, two CPU sockets, uses Intel Xeon E5-2400 series, 12 memory slots (192GB RAM), (8) 3.5” drive bays, (3) x8 and (1) x16 PCI-E 3.0 expansion slots
Total of 8, 12, or 16 physical cores for SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition licensing purposes. Total of 16, 24, or 32 logical cores with HT enabled.
1U form factor, two CPU sockets, uses Intel Xeon E5-2600 series, 24 memory slots (384GB RAM), (10) 2.5” drive bays, (1) x8 and (2) x16 PCI-E 3.0 expansion slots
Total of 8, 12, or 16 physical cores for SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition licensing purposes. Total of 16, 24, or 32 logical cores with HT enabled
2U form factor, two CPU sockets, uses Intel Xeon E5-2600 series, 24 memory slots (384GB RAM), (16) 2.5” drive bays, (6) x8 and (1) x16 PCI-E 3.0 expansion slots
Total of 8, 12, or 16 physical cores for SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition licensing purposes. Total of 16, 24, or 32 logical cores with HT enabled
2U form factor, two CPU sockets, uses Intel Xeon E5-2600 series, 24 memory slots (384GB RAM), (26) 2.5” drive bays, (4) x8 and (2) x16 PCI-E 3.0 expansion slots
Total of 8, 12, or 16 physical cores for SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition licensing purposes. Total of 16, 24, or 32 logical cores with HT enabled
2U form factor, four CPU sockets, uses Intel Xeon E5-4600 series, 48 memory slots (768GB RAM), (16) 2.5” drive bays, (5) x8 and (2) x16 PCI-E 3.0 expansion slots
Total of 16, 24, or 32 physical cores for SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition licensing purposes. Total of 32, 48, or 64 logical cores with HT enabled
Filed under: Computer Hardware, Dell, Processors, SQL Server 2012 Tagged: Hardware 
