I would assume from his comments that L3 cache size is the primary determination of performance due to how many cores you can enable.  Then it's up to clock speed.  In the E7 range, there is no "optimum" choice where L3 will roughly equal total thread capability.  You are either short on threads like you and I are with the 8837's which leaves L3 cache on the table and unused or you will have too many threads for the amount of L3 you have.

Newer chips can resolve that due to increased L3 size but also at significant platform and CPU cost.

Awesome info!!! Thank you very much!
Looks like you're using the 1 > 4 extenders. I might just get the 1 > 2 splitter to make a total of 6.
Thanks again! Looking forward to the results!

I should also add... I was overall slightly faster with 4 of 6 CPU cores mining vs. 5 or 6 of 6 cores.

The XMR-STAK "all in one" miner seems to want 2 cores to manage itself.

This is for Cryptonite mining for ITNS... I am going to do 100% on ITNS for at least a few months as I want to acquire a few million coins & I have already paid down my hardware so *current* earnings aren't a huge concern.

@sundownz - if you don't mind could you get a better picture of which slot you have the splitter in? I have some rigs there I woold like to try one of my splitters out on. Thanks

Best bang for the buck would have been that $250 mini pc I posted     Actually though, best bang for the buck is always changing with these old xeons.  You just have to scour ebay for the deals.  Ideally though you would want Westmere or later. The E7-XXXX V1 is a Westmere, the next gen is Sandy Bridge with the v1 E3s and E5s, then Ivy Bridge, etc.  Just make sure the processor you are getting follows the format of E7- or E5-.    As someone else mentioned, the L3 cache is really the determining factor as to how many threads you can run.  So the best bang for your buck would be to find cheap xeons with giant L3 caches.  Personally I would search out the v2 and v3 E5s as the cache can go all the way up to 40.

This is a great article with benchmarks that explains it better than I can:  https://www.servethehome.com/monero-mining-benchmarks-cpu-mining-amd-ryzen-7-systems/

Also here are benchmarks in a list format:  https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/monero-mining-performance.12116/

If I look at "right now" doing ZPOOL on NVidia cards and ITNS on AMD cards & CPUs is still the best on a per day basis... but I want to stockpile ITNS as I am confident it can do ~25 cents or more this year -- which would make my "actual" income way higher since I plan to hold until at least that point. My original target on it was to see 10 cents by March... but we already saw it hit that right before the big "blood bath" in all of crypto two months "early."

As far as the new "all in one" miner -- it performs at least as good as two separate miners but is WAY easier to use setup. On my NVidia machines it seems to be the fastest one I have tried... on my AMD machines it's about the same as doing SGMiner/XMRig.

Thanks - I have a few 1 to 4 PCIE splitters that I had never tried.  Might give them a shot.

Yes I do have one but I haven't yet put more than one GPU in it -- once I do I will share back in here =)

Excellent news, I have 3 on the way. 

I will admit this ongoing bloodbath was a nice way to temper my expectations, but it's still not stopping me from trying to take 8 lots at auction of server grade hardware.   

To the guy asking about the G7's, I'll know something tonight.  My first one arrives today.  I also have another server that might work for budget builds.  Once I test, I'll advise.