Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell™ PowerEdge™ M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions A Dell Technical White Paper Brian Bassett and Chris Christian Solutions Performance Analysis Dell | Enterprise Solutions Group
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions THIS WHITE PAPER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND MAY CONTAIN TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND TECHNICAL INACCURACIES. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. © 2011 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this material in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact Dell.
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions 3
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................ 6 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 6 Key Findings .......................................................................................................................
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions Table Table Table Table Table 1: 2: 3: 4: 5: Figure 1: Figure 2: Figure 3: Figure 4: Figure 5: Figure 6: Figure 7: Figure 8: Figure 9: Detailed Blade Solution Configurations ................................................................ 9 Dell Blade Solution Cost Breakdown .................................................................. 16 HP Blade Solution Cost Breakdown ................................
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions Executive Summary Introduction Dell commissioned its Solutions Performance Analysis team to compare the power efficiency of full-chassis blade solutions using 4-socket blades from Dell and Hewlett-Packard (HP).
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions Price Priced as configured, the Dell PowerEdge solution, including 8 M915 blades and the M1000e Blade Chassis, costs 21% less overall than the HP ProLiant solution which includes 4 BL680c G7 blades and the BladeSystem C7000 enclosure. The Dell solution’s lower cost and greater power efficiency lead to a 59% better price / performance / watt ratio.
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions Methodology SPECpower_ssj2008 is an industry standard benchmark created by the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) to measure a server’s power and performance across multiple utilization levels.
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions Table 1: Detailed Blade Solution Configurations Blade Component Dell PowerEdge M915 HP Proliant BL680c G7 4S/Full Height, Single-Width 4S/Full-Height, Double-Width 8 4 4 x AMD Opteron 6176 @ 2.3 GHz, 12 Cores each 4 x Intel Xeon X7560 @ 2.
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions models, which were not available at the time the solutions were purchased, so standard voltage 2GB RDIMMs from HP were used for the HP blade solution. Results The Dell blade solution with PowerEdge M915 blades delivered 87% higher raw performance than the HP solution with ProLiant BL680c G7 blades.
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions The Dell solution’s greater power efficiency is illustrated in Figure 2. The SPECpower_ssj2008 overall ssj_ops/watt for the 8-node Dell solution is 2,425, 92% higher than the 4-node HP solution’s 1,260 ssj_ops/watt.
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions The PowerEdge M915 blade solution’s density advantage is illustrated in Figure 3. While both solutions consume 10U of rack space, the Dell solution can accommodate 8 M915 blades compared to only 4 BL680c G7 blades in the HP solution. This leads to the Dell solution’s 87% advantage in aggregate full-chassis performance5.
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions SPECpower_ssj2008 includes a measurement of power while the servers are at 100% target utilization. The Dell blade solution has twice as many servers as the HP solution, but as Figure 4 shows, the Dell solution consumes just 14% more power6 at full utilization.
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions SPECpower_ssj2008 also includes a measurement of power while the servers are at 0% target utilization (Active 7 Idle). Despite having twice as many blade servers, the Dell solution consumes 799 W less power at idle than the HP blade solution, as seen in Figure 5.
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions Price as Tested Data in the previous section shows that the PowerEdge blade solution with M915 blades is more power efficient and higher performing that the ProLiant blade solution with BL680c G7 blades. Despite having twice as many blade servers, the Dell solution costs 21% less as tested (Figure 6). Figure 6: Price as Tested8 Blade Solution Price as Tested U.S. Dollars (lower is better) $160,000.
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions Price to Power Efficiency Ratio Table 2 and Table 3Table 3 detail the price for both solutions including the blades, blade enclosures, chassis controller modules, I/O modules, and power supplies necessary for the testing. Table 2: Dell Blade Solution Cost Breakdown9 Dell Blade Solution Qty Each Total PowerEdge M915 blades 8 $13,338.00 $106,704.00 M1000e Modular Blade Enclosure 1 $9,701.00 $9,701.
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions Performance per Dollar The lower price and higher overall performance of the Dell solution allow it to provide 129 ssj_ops at 100% target load for each U.S. dollar spent on the solution, compared to just 54 ssj_ops at 100% target load 12 for each dollar spent on the HP solution, as seen in Figure 7.
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions Industry Leading 4-Socket Server Power Efficiency The 8-node Dell M915 blade solution in this comparison achieved an overall SPEC score of 2,425 even when configured as it would in a typical datacenter, with redundant hard drives and all DIMM slots filled. With minor changes to the configuration, using hardware which can be ordered standard from www.dell.
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions Appendix A—Test Methodology SPECpower_ssj2008 Standard SPECpower_ssj2008 is an industry standard benchmark created by the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) to measure a server’s power and performance across multiple utilization levels. SPECpower_ssj2008 consists of a Server Side Java (SSJ) workload along with data collection and control services.
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions For the HP ProLiant BL680c G7 blades, the following settings were used: Disabled Intel Turbo Boost Technology. Dynamic Power Savings Mode Response set to Slow. Enabled DIMM Idle Power Saving Mode. Disabled HP NC553i 10Gb 2-Port FlexFabric Adapter 2 in BIOS. Disabled HP NC553i 10Gb 2-Port FlexFabric Adapter 3 in BIOS. Disabled Intel SATA Controller #1 in BIOS.
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions On the ProLiant BL680c G7 blades, the following bindings were used to ensure that each of the 16 JVMs ran on 4 logical processors: start /affinity [F, F0, F00, F000, F0000, F00000, F000000, F0000000, F00000000, F000000000, F0000000000, F00000000000, F000000000000, F0000000000000, F00000000000000, F000000000000000] Power Meter Configuration Power consumption for each blade chassis under test was monitored by two
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions Appendix B—Blade Server Hardware Configuration Table 4: Blade Server Hardware Configuration Dell PowerEdge M915 HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Memory Modules Total RAM in each blade (GB) 128 128 Samsung M393B523CH0-YH9 Samsung M393B5673FH0-CH9Q5 PC3L-10600R PC3-10600R Speed (MHz) 1333 1333 Speed in system as tested 1066 1066 Timing/latency CAS 9 CAS 9 Number of RAM modules 32 x 4 GB 64 x 2 GB Rank or
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions Appendix C—Server Firmware and Drivers Table 5: Server Firmware and Drivers Driver/Firmware Dell PowerEdge M915 Versions HP ProLiant BL680c G7 System BIOS 1.0.3 2011.02.19 (Released 3/21/2011) Network Firmware 6.2.16 3.102.517.7 Network Drivers 16.2.1 2.104.277.3 07.02.42.00 3.52 HBA Drivers 4.31.1.64 6.20.2.64 Video Driver 1.1.3.0 OS Native Integrated Management Controller Firmware 3.
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions Appendix D—Results The full reports from the SPECpower_ssj2008 runs used in this comparison are attached to this whitepaper for reference. The first page of each is shown here for convenience.
Power Efficiency Comparison of the Dell PowerEdge M915 and HP ProLiant BL680c G7 Blade Solutions Figure 9: HP Blade Solution Benchmark Results 25
