Which CPU for a home ZFS server build?

[GTaudiophile]

Both AMD Procs:

X2 560
$95
3.3 Ghz x2
80W
L3: 6MB

X4 640
$100
3.0 Ghz x4
95W
L3: N/A

 

[VirtualLarry]

Get the X4.

 

[grimpr]

And 16GB of RAM.

 

[dorion]

And 16GB of RAM.

He ain't kidding, my single core 1.8Ghz Celeron would love more ram.

 

[jhu]

How much work are you expecting out of it? If all it's doing is storing files, even a lowly Atom is good enough. If you're going to have many users reading and writing to it, then get the x4 and lots of memory.

I currently have an Athlon 64 LE-1640 with 4 GB of RAM, and it's still overkill for just backup purposes.

 

[ViRGE]

How much work are you expecting out of it? If all it's doing is storing files, even a lowly Atom is good enough. If you're going to have many users reading and writing to it, then get the x4 and lots of memory.

I currently have an Athlon 64 LE-1640 with 4 GB of RAM, and it's still overkill for just backup purposes.

ZFS is extremely CPU intensive. The last thing you want to do is skimp on the processor. You want a proper desktop/server dual core or better.

 

[dorion]

ZFS is extremely CPU intensive. The last thing you want to do is skimp on the processor. You want a proper desktop/server dual core or better.

In a home environment you really don't need an awesome CPU. Maybe you will see some benefit if you turned on compression and dedupe, but I doubt OP is building in the same scale as Anand.

 

[jhu]

ZFS is extremely CPU intensive. The last thing you want to do is skimp on the processor. You want a proper desktop/server dual core or better.

Depends on the workload. If you just have a mirrored setup that just stores files, you don't need anything with much processing power. However, if you have multiple users reading/writing to a raidz pool, that's when it will really be taxing the cpu/ram.

 

[Voo]

In a home environment you really don't need an awesome CPU. Maybe you will see some benefit if you turned on compression and dedupe, but I doubt OP is building in the same scale as Anand.

Yep and dedup on a write heavy server kills basically any CPU 😉

But for a single user (or maybe a second) I don't see ZFS needing anything more than the usual dual core.

 

[GTaudiophile]

It will most likely be a Z2 setup with 4x 2TB drives, serving only 2-3 clients.