What do you guys think about Dell AMD EPYC based servers?

Do you own/work on a Dell AMD or Intel based server?


  • Total voters
    14

vrlatech

Junior Member
Mar 4, 2019
9
1
11
I have been seeing a lot of Dell AMD EPYC based servers and wondering if they provide the same or even better performance to their Xeon counter-parts.
 

Hitman928

Diamond Member
Apr 15, 2012
5,182
7,633
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They're great but also typically geared more for cloud/VM type of environment. If you are looking for dense compute, intel servers are still usually the better route, for now at least.
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
25,483
14,434
136
Are these custom built servers/workstations or like a dell/hp server rack or tower?
Home built. I know your company builds custom Dell/HP servers up, but this site is for computer enthusiasts, and most of us all build our own.
 
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vrlatech

Junior Member
Mar 4, 2019
9
1
11
Home built. I know your company builds custom Dell/HP servers up, but this site is for computer enthusiasts, and most of us all build our own.

Yes, we do build custom computers. I was just wondering if AMD is going to be more relevant or even surpassing Intel in large deployments.
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
25,483
14,434
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Yes, we do build custom computers. I was just wondering if AMD is going to be more relevant or even surpassing Intel in large deployments.
You can be sure the Rome based proccors will beat out Intel easily. 64c/128t ? in a 180 watt TDP ? Intel can't touch that.
 
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vrlatech

Junior Member
Mar 4, 2019
9
1
11
You can be sure the Rome based proccors will beat out Intel easily. 64c/128t ? in a 180 watt TDP ? Intel can't touch that.
Oh wow, I know that the specs aren't finalized but I couldn't find anything on the ROME processors like a month ago besides the core count. The system builder here and I are hoping to get a Dell server with EPYC so we can poke around in it.
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,135
2,445
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I'm curious how the reliability is on these first gen EPYC servers. The first gen HP servers with AMD Opterons were pretty flaky, so I'd want someone else to be Guinea Pig on those.
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
25,483
14,434
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Oh wow, I know that the specs aren't finalized but I couldn't find anything on the ROME processors like a month ago besides the core count. The system builder here and I are hoping to get a Dell server with EPYC so we can poke around in it.
Only HP and Dell, and the like, that are doing systems testing right now on the procs really know whats going on with Rome for sure. We only get "leaks"
 
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vrlatech

Junior Member
Mar 4, 2019
9
1
11
I'm curious how the reliability is on these first gen EPYC servers. The first gen HP servers with AMD Opterons were pretty flaky, so I'd want someone else to be Guinea Pig on those.
I think if there's enough interest for these processors, we will be getting them and testing them out.
 

Topweasel

Diamond Member
Oct 19, 2000
5,436
1,654
136
VM's are all the rage and AMD includes the densest solution for Core count, connectivity, and throughput. CannonLake might take some of the thunder back but I think AMD will finally have both a core count and clock advantage in Rome Vs. Cannonlake. So in a mostly virtualized setting Rome should a very promising CPU. Everything else server related we need to see numbers before really deciding. But on a small and mid size build level even these Naples EPYC servers should be strong contenders. Mem bandwidth, PCIe drive conntectivity and several thousands in savings on high core count parts.
 

fleshconsumed

Diamond Member
Feb 21, 2002
6,483
2,352
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Microsoft Azure cloud is now offering EPYC VMs. They're clocked lower than intel VMs and therefore a bit slower for compute, but unlike Intel VMs Epyc VMs have NVMe storage making them 5x better for anything that hammers disks. So looks like EPYC is slowly gaining traction in the server space.
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,135
2,445
126
Microsoft Azure cloud is now offering EPYC VMs. They're clocked lower than intel VMs and therefore a bit slower for compute, but unlike Intel VMs Epyc VMs have NVMe storage making them 5x better for anything that hammers disks. So looks like EPYC is slowly gaining traction in the server space.

If the hourly hosting prices are cheaper, I'm sure that they'll do great in Azure or AWS.
 

vrlatech

Junior Member
Mar 4, 2019
9
1
11
Microsoft Azure cloud is now offering EPYC VMs. They're clocked lower than intel VMs and therefore a bit slower for compute, but unlike Intel VMs Epyc VMs have NVMe storage making them 5x better for anything that hammers disks. So looks like EPYC is slowly gaining traction in the server space.
Aside from ROME rumors, there have been leaks on the Ryzen 3000 series (Zen 2), I read somewhere these mainstream CPU's will be clocked closer to 4GHz? I would assume that server technology trickles down to consumer CPU's and there would be higher clocked server CPU's. Or maybe I'm missing something.
 

fleshconsumed

Diamond Member
Feb 21, 2002
6,483
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If the hourly hosting prices are cheaper, I'm sure that they'll do great in Azure or AWS.
I have no idea what it costs Microsoft to host EPYC vs Xeon. Based on what I see from Azure configuration page so far EPYC is only available in the US EAST datacenter, other datacenters still only offer Xeon. To the end consumers like us the price between Xeon and EPYC is about the same, the only question is what do you value more, 20% more CPU speed in Xeon machines, or 5x performance boost from NVME storage on EPYC.
 

Topweasel

Diamond Member
Oct 19, 2000
5,436
1,654
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Aside from ROME rumors, there have been leaks on the Ryzen 3000 series (Zen 2), I read somewhere these mainstream CPU's will be clocked closer to 4GHz? I would assume that server technology trickles down to consumer CPU's and there would be higher clocked server CPU's. Or maybe I'm missing something.

Yeah you get one or the other. There will be very fast 32c Romes. Or you can have normally clocked 64c Rome's. I think the 64c Rome will significantly outclock Cannonlake, but if they are going Threads vs. core speed. Rome will VM's will still be clocked slower than current day Intel cloud solutions for now.
 

turtile

Senior member
Aug 19, 2014
614
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Aside from ROME rumors, there have been leaks on the Ryzen 3000 series (Zen 2), I read somewhere these mainstream CPU's will be clocked closer to 4GHz? I would assume that server technology trickles down to consumer CPU's and there would be higher clocked server CPU's. Or maybe I'm missing something.

I think the 64 core design wins are estimated to run at 2.2-2.4Ghz. I''ll assume they'll make a high frequency version like they have with 1st gen Epyc.
 
Mar 11, 2004
23,031
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Aside from ROME rumors, there have been leaks on the Ryzen 3000 series (Zen 2), I read somewhere these mainstream CPU's will be clocked closer to 4GHz? I would assume that server technology trickles down to consumer CPU's and there would be higher clocked server CPU's. Or maybe I'm missing something.

I think you have that backwards, and the simple explanation is that the servers are denser and have more cores. Consumer stuff isn't as tightly constrained (for instance Threadripper gen 1 had half the cores for basically the same TDP as EPYC, and the consumer stuff had 1/4 the cores but a 1/2-1/3 TDP. So they can clock the consumer stuff higher). It might would be possible to clock the server parts the same as consumer stuff, but you'd need adequate power delivery (power supply, and motherboard capable of it), as well as adequate cooling. To hit the 4.3GHz range, the 8 core consumer chips needed 105TDP, and I believe took a bit more than that in reality (oh and I don't think that was all 8 cores at that speed either). So consider what it would take to 32 cores to that level. You'd be pushing 500W. But EPYC has what a 180 or 250 W TDP. But also clock speeds and power is on a logarithmic scale (so you can see big power decrease by relatively smaller clock speed decreases).

With Rome it appears that EPYC might have 8 times the number of cores as the consumer chips (although people expect it'll actually continue about the same as Zen 1, where EPYC had about double the cores of Threadripper and 4x the number as consumer Ryzen, so we'll get 16 core Ryzens at some point, but for now they've just touted the 8 core chips).

A fair amount of expectations are that consumer Ryzen will hit closer to 5GHz. I think people expect EPYC to be closer to 3GHz.

The reality is that modern CPUs have a lot of load leveling so it kinda depends on a variety of factors, especially cooling, for what you can achieve. The CPUs can basically go "I've got this many cores being used, this is the TDP, these are the temps" and then adjust clock speeds from there, and as temps go up it'll adjust clock speeds. So you can get short boosts up but sustained clocks would likely be lower. And all cores going full tilt will lower the clocks.

7nm is letting them increase the density and also push clock speeds some, which is why its increasing over Zen 1. It basically gives them 2x the density for the same size chip (hence why we're getting roughly twice the number of cores with Zen 2), and about 1.25x performance for the same power (for the 4GHz consumer Ryzen that would put it around 5GHz, although its not quite that simple as the individual cores are being expanded some, and not everything will get the full density boost; and in AMD's design, a good chunk of things is in the I/O module that isn't being produced on 7nm).
 

Topweasel

Diamond Member
Oct 19, 2000
5,436
1,654
136
Cannonlake? Am I missing something here?

All the lakes are messing with me. The next Sever CPU that Intel is releasing that is two of their current SL-SP chips glued together.

Edit: I Cascade Lake. It was Cascade Lake I was thinking of.
 

DrMrLordX

Lifer
Apr 27, 2000
21,583
10,785
136
All the lakes are messing with me. The next Sever CPU that Intel is releasing that is two of their current SL-SP chips glued together.

Edit: I Cascade Lake. It was Cascade Lake I was thinking of.

Oh okay you meant Cascade Lake-AP. Gotcha.