Why can't XEON be replaced with another line of processors?

Question

Processors

Hello.
It became interesting why servers always use expensive xeons, and more than one at a time?
I asked the admins of the company, they are like: “well, they are designed for this, better and more productive”, but still no comprehensive answer was received.
What is their advantage from a technical point of view?
Why is it impossible (shouldn't) keep, well, for example, a database server, on a normal machine with some kind of i3?

Answer 1

Large cache, low heat, more cores per processor, support for more RAM, the ability to work for years under load 24/7.
The database server can also be placed on Celeron, only the speed of work will not be very good. Most consumer processors have a limit of 2/4/32/64GB of memory, which is often not enough for a server.
It’s just that you haven’t come across large databases, 500GB or more.
By the way, this is the case: Why is php running slowly on a dedicated server?

Answer 2

Datasheets for Intel processors are in the public domain - take and compare. Offhand - well, for example, xeons can have up to 18 cores (36 logical processors, Carl!). Taking into account the fact that the physical case of the processor is licensed in VmWare, for example, regardless of how many cores it has, it is more profitable to install one 4-8 nuclear xeon than four dual-core i3. Server processors are designed for server tasks - primarily for virtualization, they support absolutely insane amounts of memory by the standards of desktops - 128G RAM on a server is a completely normal thing.
OOO "Three Tables Two Chairs" can place its database even on a laptop - it still won't notice anything. But when, as Fixid rightly noted, the size of the database begins to be counted in terabytes - that's when the difference pops up.
Those who believe that the main thing in the server is the price, they never take server hardware, because it is used when it comes to understanding what the loss of information or at least a simple server will cost...

Answer 3

I'll add one more thing - quite important:
the Xeon E5 series have 40 PCI Express lanes instead of 20. If you need a lot of high-speed I / O under the Goal - this is necessary.