Small server - CPU advice (is an i3 enough?)

[aphel]

I'm struggling to decide whether an i3-3225 or i3-4330 would adequately suit my needs given the following:

1. 500,000 requests/mo
2. mysql with sphinx search doing most of the lifting
3. mongodb file repository (~15gb max), very limited updates and requests
4. http server
5. no virtualization
6. most likely linux

I know that disk I/O and RAM will also play huge roles but once I know how much money I should allocate for the CPU then the rest will fall into place easier.

Price is a major factor, which is why I didn't choose the E3-1230v2 and move on already.

 

[Arachnotronic]

If you could get an Avoton setup for cheap, that could work pretty well...I wonder how much those sell for.

 

[beginner99]

If you could get an Avoton setup for cheap, that could work pretty well...I wonder how much those sell for.

One of the super micro board supposedly is selling in the $500-$600 range now so once availability gets higher it could go down but still very expensive.

What is this server for? Commercial / business stuff? Sorry, but I would not recommend saving even $1000 when the data on it is worth a lot more or down-time is trouble-some.

request per month also is not a very helpful data point. Like average traffic on a highway isn't. Requests will obviously be way higher during work/day hours I assume?

 

[aphel]

What is this server for? Commercial / business stuff? Sorry, but I would not recommend saving even $1000 when the data on it is worth a lot more or down-time is trouble-some.

Education. It's all non-profit. The data requested is text only. The text searching can get fairly intense and the results can range from 250b - 5mb.

request per month also is not a very helpful data point. Like average traffic on a highway isn't. Requests will obviously be way higher during work/day hours I assume?

Our users are almost equally split between the US and Europe so between 9 - 3 is our peak. There's a 4 - 5 hour lull each morning where the server is nearly unused.