Phenom II X2 X640 BE vs Xeon E5-2420

Primary details

Comparing Xeon E5-2420 and Phenom II X2 X640 BE processor market type (desktop or notebook), architecture, sales start time and price.

Place in the ranking	1605	2453
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.94	no data
Market segment	Server	Laptop
Series	no data	2x AMD Phenom II
Power efficiency	3.15	2.12
Architecture codename	Sandy Bridge-EN (2012)	Champlain (2010−2011)
Release date	14 May 2012 (12 years ago)	12 May 2011 (13 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$390	no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance per price, higher is better.

Detailed specifications

Xeon E5-2420 and Phenom II X2 X640 BE basic parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base frequency and turbo boost clock, lithography, cache size and multiplier lock state. These parameters indirectly say of CPU speed, though for more precise assessment you have to consider their test results.

Physical cores	6 (Hexa-Core)	2 (Dual-core)
Threads	12	2
Base clock speed	1.9 GHz	no data
Boost clock speed	2.4 GHz	3.2 GHz
Bus rate	7.2 GT/s	3600 MHz
L1 cache	64 KB (per core)	256 KB
L2 cache	256 KB (per core)	2 MB
L3 cache	15360 KB (shared)	no data
Chip lithography	32 nm	45 nm
Die size	294 mm2	no data
Number of transistors	1,270 million	no data
64 bit support	+	+
Windows 11 compatibility	-	-

Compatibility

Information on Xeon E5-2420 and Phenom II X2 X640 BE compatibility with other computer components: motherboard (look for socket type), power supply unit (look for power consumption) etc. Useful when planning a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. Note that power consumption of some processors can well exceed their nominal TDP, even without overclocking. Some can even double their declared thermals given that the motherboard allows to tune the CPU power parameters.

Number of CPUs in a configuration	2	no data
Socket	FCLGA1356	S1
Power consumption (TDP)	95 Watt	45 Watt

Technologies and extensions

Technological solutions and additional instructions supported by Xeon E5-2420 and Phenom II X2 X640 BE. You'll probably need this information if you require some particular technology.

Instruction set extensions	Intel® AVX	MMX, 3DNow!, SSE1-3A, AMD64, Enhanced Virus Protection, Virtualization
AES-NI	+	-
AVX	+	-
VirusProtect	-	+
Enhanced SpeedStep (EIST)	+	no data
Turbo Boost Technology	1.0	no data
Hyper-Threading Technology	+	no data
Idle States	+	no data
Thermal Monitoring	+	-
Flex Memory Access	-	no data
Demand Based Switching	+	no data

Security technologies

Xeon E5-2420 and Phenom II X2 X640 BE technologies aimed at improving security, for example, by protecting against hacks.

TXT	+	no data
EDB	+	no data

Virtualization technologies

Virtual machine speed-up technologies supported by Xeon E5-2420 and Phenom II X2 X640 BE are enumerated here.

AMD-V	-	+
VT-d	+	no data
VT-x	+	no data
EPT	+	no data

Memory specs

Types, maximum amount and channel quantity of RAM supported by Xeon E5-2420 and Phenom II X2 X640 BE. Depending on the motherboard, higher memory frequencies may be supported.

Supported memory types	DDR3	DDR3
Maximum memory size	384 GB	no data
Max memory channels	3	no data
Maximum memory bandwidth	32 GB/s	no data
ECC memory support	+	-

Peripherals

Specifications and connection of peripherals supported by Xeon E5-2420 and Phenom II X2 X640 BE.

PCIe version	3.0	no data
PCI Express lanes	24	no data

Pros & cons summary

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Performance score	3.18	1.01
Recency	14 May 2012	12 May 2011
Physical cores	6	2
Threads	12	2
Chip lithography	32 nm	45 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	95 Watt	45 Watt

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Should you still have questions on choice between Xeon E5-2420 and Phenom II X2 X640 BE, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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