PCI-e 3.0 is here, 800MB Per Lane!
I noticed the latest Poweredge R720 is already available on Dell’s page, but after study the specs a bit, I think I will skip the 12th generation for the time being.
Mainly because Xeon E5 is very similar to Xeon 5600, it’s still 32nm, it only has 2 more cores (ie, 8 cores) and a bit more cache. (ie, 2.5MB/core vs 2MB/core) and the performance is not impressive at all, the extra 2 cores only contributes to the additional 40% in VMMark benchmark. Not to mention CPU is never a bottleneck after all, I/O and Memory are!
Yes, it has 24 dimms vs 16 dimms R710, so that’s 64GB more with 8GB DIMM being the main stream now, but ESX 5.0 Enterprise Plus has a 96GB per socket glass ceiling, so no point here to upgrade again.
The only two things can really sell are:
1. A lot more disks can be fitted into the 2U now than before, 12 x 3.5″ or 16 2.5″ drives.
2. PCI-e 3.0 is finally here! 800MB Per Lane with x4 that is 3.2GB/s. The new PERC H810 x8 with 1GB cache is designed exactly for this kind of hugh I/O, finally we can use 2 or more SSD to break that 3GB/s limit!
