Editing Building a Homelab (section)

== [[Processors]] ==

When choosing a processor, the use case for your homelab will determine if the processor is a good fit. Make a list of functional requirements and choose the processor that handles these. Since memory will be the most likely bottleneck when running multiple virtual machines, don't get to carried away finding the most powerful processor.

General rules of thumb
Newer processors are build using a smaller etching method. This means the processor will use less power.
Newer processors contain newer instruction sets. AES, memory table virtualization and h264 video processing are a clear example of instructions that speed up some of the workloads. Since using an instruction set requires the right drivers and software, your mileage may vary. If your workload benefits from an instruction set, you'll see both power savings and increased performance. 

For convenience sake, we'll split up processors into three groups:
* Small - maximum of ~16GB RAM
* Medium - Maximum of 32GB or 64GB RAM 
* Large - everything over 64GB RAM

===Small processors===
Are usually designed for low-power devices such as NAS appliances, TVs and mini-notebooks. Newer versions of these kinds of processors (such as the Intel Braswell and AMD AM1 Kabini) are quite capable, but no speed devils. If you're going to build a machine that will be on 24/7 and perform relatively easy tasks (router, NAS, containers, home automation and/or home security) these are the best fit for the job. The power usage of the small processors group is pint-sized. The cheapest versions of these will be soldered to the motherboard and generally do not support more than two memory slots with a limited amount of memory.

===Medium processors===
Contain your average desktop PC processors and derivatives. Great performance when you just want to build a fast homelab to test or use a moderate amount of workloads. Think Intel socket 1150 and AMD socket AM3+. A general maximum for these kind of processors is four to six cores and 32GB or 64GB RAM. They come with the most up-to-date instruction sets and can have high core clock speeds (up to 4GHz). Motherboards for this type have one socket to place your processor and two to four memory slots. While these are perfectly capable and, with some care during your build, reasonably power efficient, they have an upper limit to the amount of workloads that they can handle simultaneously.

===Large processors===
These usually fall into the enthusiast, workstation or server grade processors. Think Intel socket 2011-3 and AMD Opteron. While these processors don't use a lot of power in idle mode, the amount of cores and addressable memory can handle much more workloads than the medium processors and can draw a significant amount of power out of a wall socket. Most of the processors in this category can be placed onto a multi-socket motherboard. This type of motherboard houses two or four processors. While all this raw processing power is awesome, don't forget your functional requirements. Burning lots of Watts might not be such a good idea when the money could buy you faster/bigger storage, more networking or more memory.