Why would OEM CPUs have advantages over the retail ones
@storm-chaser ? Interested to find out
Good Question
When Intel builds an OEM CPU for HP, Dell, SuperMicro, etc they want to go about it in a way where they can make the manufacturer happy in terms of choosing Intel as their choice of CPU. In other words, they want to create a well balanced chip that is both competitive in the marketplace but also very flexible and able to perform well at a number of different tasks across the board of pc computing. In other words, OEM Intel CPUs are designed to wear many hats -- because they will eventually be making their way into very diverse server environments around the world, for example, it could be as one little server in a small business or deployed across a vast expanse of huge data centers. This means they need to have pretty good IPC and single core performance as well as plenty of brute strength for more demanding tasks that can take advantage of lots of cores or even all cores across both CPUs. In other words, the chip needs to strike an excellent balance between both single threaded workload performance and high thread count performance AND must do it with very good voltage efficiency and thermal envelope. That "balance" is what I am after when I purchase OEM chips over their retail counterpart. I am exploiting that design spec when I go out and hunt down a superior OEM chips to use in one of my projects.
Typically its one or the other in the retail market, as I am sure you are aware. Despite the inherent challenges Intel knows what they are doing when they sit down to design the ideal, OEM processor that will be used by major brand computer manufacturers. Also keep in mind processor voltage efficiency and TDP--- Intel wants a chip that is going to be very voltage efficient for a number of reasons, as this OEM chip will eventually be making it's way into diverse hardware and diverse system environments all around the world. Some advantages of a more voltage efficient chip include: lower TDP, lower electrical usage, lower electric cost and lower electrical consumption, better thermals, cooler running systems, better thermal margins, etc. Also, by virtue of the fact the chip uses less power at the limit, you are assured some margin of thermal protection perhaps over some of the high end 130 w or 150 w and above "retail" chips.
So the "OEM" trifecta I'm describing here is not something you really see struck as a balance very often in the retail headspace. Retails chips typically don't need to strike much of a balance between all three, you usually target one or the other, or two at the most, and then you pick the CPU that suites your workload, spec out an appropriate cooling system for it based on clock speed, TDP and thermal performance.
In the case of Intel, they intentionally go about creating OEM CPUs with all three of these aspects in mind, as typically, the OEM chips they produce will offer a much better balance between per core performance, thermal performance and multi-threaded power (and in some cases, more aggressive turboing than their retail counterparts as well).
For example, Lets take a closer look at the Xeon E5 2673 v2 chip for a moment (which is OEM only and never released as a retail chip-- that's why you have to go to China to get them, because China recycles all our old servers, guts them and resells what they can back on the used parts internet market) for a moment so you can see some of the readily apparent differences between OEM and retail processors. By the time I am finished here there should be no doubt in your mind that OEM, in many situations, is a much better call than it's retail counterpart.
As I mentioned above, I have two E5 2673 (OEM only) Xeons in one of my HP z820 workstations. This is an 8 core / 16 thread chip that has a base speed of 3.3GHz. It also has the highly sought after 4.0GHz single core turbo speed, making it a very attractive choice if you are into numbers like that. One place above it on the list(see snip below), you will see it's "retail" equivalent, the E5 2667 v2, which has an identical # of cores, identical turbo specs and exactly the same clock speeds, yet comes into the game with a substantially higher TDP of 130w versus 110w for the OEM chip. Moreover, if you look at the fastest and highest performing Xeon 8 core chip available in the E5 2600 series family, (of which there are a total of three 8C/16T CPUs, all highlighted below ----
you can really see how the OEM 2673 v2 is the optimal choice, and in this case, even preferable to Intel's top shelf premium piece on the retail side, E5 2687W v2, which was at the time, Intel's highest spec'd eight core Xeon processor available on the market. The 2687W v2 has a base speed of 3.4GHz and the same single core turbo of 4.00Ghz, yielding a massive 150w TDP vortex of heat and metal melting destruction in its wake. this chip was intended for those who did not want to compromise and the chip offered the ultimate in class performance. Best chip in it's class, hands down. Given that the base speed of an OEM E5 2673 chip is
3.3GHz, and the base speed of the 2687w is
3.4GHz, we can quickly confirm that the mighty 2687W is, in fact, king kong when it comes to peak base clock in this family.
Except that's not the whole story.
Both chips have identical turbo specs. Meaning --- if cooling is sufficient, and in most cases it is, you can ignore the 3.3ghz vs 3.4ghz stock base speed difference, as they will both run at an all core turbo base speed of 3.6GHz and they will both turbo to the identical 4.0GHz mark on a single core)… In other words, I am getting
identical, equivalent, top notch performance from my OEM 2673 CPU over it's retail counterpart (either the 130w 2667 or the 150w 2687w). Factor that into something like a dual socket z820 workstation, and you have quite a powerhouse rig that also happens to run surprisingly cool, for a total of 16 cores and 32 threads, 50MB L3 cache and 4.0GHz turbo. In other words, I am getting best in class performance from my OEM chips and I'm doing it while using 80 watts less than its "retail" counterpart. Its really a no brainer to go OEM, but the drawback is that sometimes OEM CPUs can be much more difficult to find (case in point).
For two OEM 2673 chips, my TDP is
220w
or
300w for two 2687w processors (retail)
or
260w for the 2667 processors (retail)
Intel Xeon E5 2600 Series family (with 8 core chips highlighted in yellow) (Not a complete list, but has most of the significant chips - courtesy of CPU world)
Due to the rarity of some of these these OEM chips, I'm actually in first place over on HWBot for running dual E5-2673 processors in a single rig. Of course I don't have much competition, but still Im going to bring it up
