Intel Xeon E5-2696 v4

The Intel Xeon E5-2696 v4 is a Broadwell-EP processor for socket LGA2011-3, used in HPE ProLiant Gen9 servers. It has 22 physical cores and 44 threads, starts at a 2.2 GHz base clock and boosts to 3.6 GHz under light load. It carries 55 MB of L3 cache and a 150 W thermal design power. The sweet spot of the second-hand market: DDR4, sensible power draw and a price that has stayed low. Our default recommendation for virtualisation, databases and shared hosting. Two things to check before ordering. First, in a dual-socket configuration both sockets must hold the identical model — a server with two different SKUs will not post. Second, anything above 135 W needs the high-performance heatsink and fan kit; with the standard heatsink the server throttles itself and you never get the performance you paid for. Every processor is booted and tested on the same server generation before it ships.