More EPYC Servers: Dell Launches 1P and 2P PowerEdge for HPC and Virtualization
by Ian Cutress on February 6, 2018 10:00 AM EST
One of the many questions about AMD’s EPYC processor line related to AMD’s ability to reengage with OEMs since the Bulldozer era. Recent announcements from Microsoft Azure and Baidu have shown that at least two of the Super 7 cloud providers are on board, and today’s announcement brings Dell PowerEdge servers, powered by EPYC, into the mix.
Dell is launching three variants of the PowerEdge 14G line:
| Dell PowerEdge 14G with EPYC | |||
| PowerEdge R6415 |
PowerEdge R7415 |
PowerEdge R7425 |
|
| Size | 1U | 2U | 2U |
| Sockets | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| CPUs | Up to EPYC 7601 32 Core / 64 Threads |
Up to 2x EPYC 7601 64 Core / 128 Threads |
|
| DRAM | < 2TB DDR4 LRDIMMs < 1TB DDR4 RDIMMs |
< 4TB DDR4 LRDIMMs < 2TB DDR4 RDIMMs |
|
| NVMe Drives | 10 Total 8 Front Panel |
24 Total 24 Front Panel |
24 Total 24 Front Panel |
| PCIe Lanes | 2 x PCIe 3.0 x16 | 3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 1 x PCIe 3.0 x8 |
6 x PCIe 3.0 x16 (up to 8 slots total) |
| GPU Support | ? | ? | 3 x Dual Width |
| PSUs | Platinum 550W Bronze 450W |
Titanium 750W Platinum 495W Platinum 750W Platinum 1600W |
Titanium 750W Platinum 495W Platinum 750W Platinum 1100W Platinum 1600W Platinum 2000W |
| Storage Controllers | PERC H330 PERC H370p PERC H390p PERC HBA330 PERC 9/10 |
PERC H330 PERC H370p PERC H390p PERC HBA330 PERC 9/10 |
PERC H330 PERC H370p PERC H390p PERC HBA330 PERC 9/10 |
| Networking | 2 x 1GbE or 2 x 10GbE or 2 x 10GbE SFP+ |
2 x 1GbE or 2 x 10GbE or 2 x 10GbE SFP+ |
4x1GbE + 2x10GbE 2x1GbE + 4x10GbE 2 x 25GbE |
Users that have dealt with PowerEdge configurations will be used to the offerings: a single socket system focused on storage (R6415), a single socket system with more storage (R7415), and a dual socket system combining storage and graphics (R7425). All the systems support optional front and rear ports, including networking (dual 1GbE, dual 10GbE, or dual 10GbE SFP+), Dell’s OpenManage platform, and a series of PERC controllers.
As new EPYC based servers enter the market, it is always interesting to see how OEMs are implementing the different features. This applies not only to how OEMs will route 128 PCIe lanes, but also if further expansion is needed. In the case of the R7425, Dell is using a PCIe switch in order to provide sufficient lanes for the 24 NVMe drives while also providing up to eight PCIe slots for 64 lanes. This R7425 we were told can support three double width GPUs, however it was not divulged how these GPUs are connected – if all three are on one of the two CPUs, or it happens to be split. There are many ways to design the PCIe front-end of a server like this, and there are usually trade-offs.
If there is one thing to say about AMD’s server team, it is that they love to spread news about design wins when they can. Despite this announcement being about Dell’s latest line of PowerEdge 14G servers, it was AMD who got in touch to discuss the news from their perspective. Ultimately launches like this are building on EPYC being accepted by the bigger server providers, and feed into AMD’s narrative of working closer with OEMs through 2018.
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Ninhalem - Tuesday, February 6, 2018 - link
Those fully enable EPYC chips come at a big price jump. From the Dell PowerEdge R6415 configuration page:Base Price: $2179.00
+ AMD EPYC™ 7251 2.1GHz/2.9GHz, 8C/16T, 32M Cache (120W) DDR4-2400 (Included in Price)
+ AMD EPYC™ 7281 2.1GHz/2.7GHz, 16C/32T, 32M Cache (155W/170W) DDR4-2400/2666 (+$313.43)
+ AMD EPYC™ 7351P 2.4GHz/2.9GHz, 16C/32T, 32M Cache (155W/170W) DDR4-2400/2666 (+$407.46)
+ AMD EPYC™ 7401P 2.0GHz/2.8GHz, 24C/48T, 64M Cache (155W/170W) DDR4-2400/2666 (+$877.61)
+ AMD EPYC™ 7551P 2.00GHz/2.55GHz, 32C/64T, 64M Cache (180W) DDR4-2666 (+$2131.35)
+ AMD EPYC™ 7601 2.20GHz/2.7GHz, 32C/64T, 64M Cache (180W) DDR4-2666 (+$4011.96)
MonkeyPaw - Tuesday, February 6, 2018 - link
All things being equal (which would be quite the oversimplification), the price per CPU core (using the final system price) of the base model is $272, where the 7601 price per core is $193. In such a metric, the best "deal" per core is the 7401P, at $127. So in the grand scheme of things, the CPU upgrade prices are not so bad.ajp_anton - Tuesday, February 6, 2018 - link
The 32-core 7551P isn't far behind at $135 per core.The 7401P also has the best performance per $, assuming roughly that the CPU will run at the "base" frequency with all cores, narrowly beating the 7551P and 7351P.
IGTrading - Tuesday, February 6, 2018 - link
These are very good specs with very, very competitive prices, but we need some real world storage, RAM and computing benchmarks to get an idea of how these compare with similarly priced Intel solutions.Also, it would be perfect if, from now on, we would include the new Qualcomm server platform in the benchmarks.
ZolaIII - Tuesday, February 6, 2018 - link
Well Epyc P Linux benchmarks you can find for long time now on Phoronix.Hurr Durr - Tuesday, February 6, 2018 - link
Says the character that was not so long ago publicly lamenting how he regrets recommending intel to somebody. Oh shills.silverblue - Tuesday, February 6, 2018 - link
You must be wonderfully paranoid if you believe every recommendation to be the work of shills.kgardas - Tuesday, February 6, 2018 - link
Looks like Dell is also on the EPYC wave finally since EPYC CPUs all more or less provide great perf per $ spent. It's great to see them provided also in at least some of Dell systems...Tewt - Tuesday, February 6, 2018 - link
I was talking with my boss regarding AMD's recent rise. He has nothing but bad experience(I have the opposite) including buying servers where I don't have any experience. He pointed out something interesting to me that has me worried(I own some AMD stock) because of the high core count. I was hoping AMD could claw back server share but he says Microsoft changed their licensing from sockets to core count with Server 2016, making the AMD solution much more expensive to implement, possibly negating the benefits of its price/performance ratio in core counts vs Intel.Is this true or is there more server share in OSes like Linux where core count doesn't matter? Any other major issues that AMD has to overcome to gain back marketshare? I'm thinking with Intel's current 99% share, do they have to worry about software that is not as compatible where it could affect performance or functionality?
Spunjji - Tuesday, February 6, 2018 - link
Aaaand you came to this news article to ask that question? :|