computer building - CPU recommendation

08
2014-07
  • Andres

    I have to build a PC to use a desktop application (a WPF one). Then, in this PC I will have to run a SQL Server 2008 R2 instance, host a WCF services project via IIS, run Reporting Services Server and run the application.

    Thats why I need to know what processor will be better for these needs:

    I can afford: AMD FX-8150 8-core or Intel I5 2500K.

    I know Intel proccesors are really fast, but maybe in the future another PC will be using this PC WCF services, and I thought more cores will be better. Sadly, I just find game benchmarks comparing these CPUs.

  • Answers
  • Bandrami

    First off, the CPU probably won't be the bottleneck; SQL, WCF, and IIS are i/o, memory, and network intensive but don't really call for much processing power (though they can benefit from parallelism, which is not the same as saying they will benefit from parallelism). You should worry more about your RAID controller, a good SATA controller (or SCSI if you're feeling old-school), your ethernet card, your bandwidth, etc.

    That said, the AMD line you mentioned ("Bulldozer") was designed with power and heat efficiency in mind, so unless you have power and heat constraints that doesn't really help you. But the CPU (within certain reasonable limits) isn't going to be what limits performance here.


  • Related Question

    Recommended CPU upgrade for Dell Vostro 220 with Intel E7300 processor?
  • Justin Grant

    I've got a Dell Vostro 220 with an E7300 processor (Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.66Mhz, LGA775 socket) and I'm thinking about upgrading my processor so I can run Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V, which requires Hardware Virtualization support in the processor.

    Yes, I know this is underpowered for a server, I'm actually using it as a desktop machine but I'd like to use Hyper-V instead of Virtual Server (which I'm using now for running VMs).

    I'd like to keep the same motherboard and ideally the same CPU fan and RAM too.

    Any suggestions for a good, relatively cheap (under $200) processor upgrade?


  • Related Answers
  • MDMarra

    Searching around, it appears that the highest chip supported by Dell is an E8600. There are probably unsupported options as well, but YMMV.