CPU for VMWare Server?

[slayernine]

My oldest virtualization server a Dell PowerEdge R710 is starting to feel a bit slow and I'm looking for a replacement. (warranty is also done) ESXi keeps giving me warnings that I'm maxing out CPU and memory so I'm looking to migrate to something faster and I'm having a hard time decided on what processor to buy.

Current specs

2x Intel® Xeon® Processor X5550
(8M Cache, 2.66 GHz, 6.40 GT/s Intel® QPI)
http://ark.intel.com/products/37106/
24GB (12X2GB DDR3 1333)
8x Seagate 146G, SAS6, 15K

The last server I bought was an Supermicro AMD dual 8 core processor system and it is my secondary virtualization server and does not have as many VM's. I would like to stick with a 2 socket server so I don't need to buy new licenses.

What do you guys buy? Dell, lenovo, HP? I'm considering building one but I kinda like my most critical server to be under some sort of onsite warranty so I'm never stuck scrambling to find parts for a broken server on short notice.

TLDR;
Looking for processor recommendations for a 2 socket virtualization system. AMD or INTEL and what model/s.

 

[Zstream]

How much money do you have?

 

[ultimatebob]

If you wanted to stick with Dell (I've always found that it's easiest to standardize on a single platform, so it's easier to have replacement parts on hand), I'd go with a PowerEdge R720 with dual E5-2680's and 64 GB of memory. Sixteen CPU cores (32 hyperthreaded) oughta be enough to get ESXi to shut up.

 

[slayernine]

How much money do you have?

I don't currently have a set budget for this. We will spend what we need to get the performance we require. That being said I fully intend to spend only what we need to spend.

If you wanted to stick with Dell (I've always found that it's easiest to standardize on a single platform, so it's easier to have replacement parts on hand), I'd go with a PowerEdge R720 with dual E5-2680's and 64 GB of memory. Sixteen CPU cores (32 hyperthreaded) oughta be enough to get ESXi to shut up.

I'm mostly considering Dell because they offer good warranties. It's hard to find a server motherboard or RAID card replacement years down the road when something fails. I was looking at the R720 earlier today and I think that is the right chassis to go with.

Thanks for bringing up the hyperthreading, I totally wasn't taking that into account before. Right now I've got a total of 8 cores and 16 threads so doubling that plus the higher IPC of the currrent generation would do wonders I imagine.

In your experience what matters more for vmware, clockspeed or number of cores? ie. 6 core processor at 2.7ghz vs 8 core at 2.3 ghz.

Damn, the E5-2680 costs $1700 msrp. Makes me wish AMD would offer more competition to this market :|

 

[ultimatebob]

More cores is usually best in general, but it depend on the number of VM's that you're running and the workload they are doing.