[Wylug-discuss] Linux on Intel 64-Bit Xeon

[Roy Mac]

I recently have been working with an HP/Compaq DL380G4 dual 3.6 Xeon with 4
GB RAM, system disk is a mirrored set of 72GB SCSI 320, RHES3.  Sweet and
fast.  I do not have time with this system to quantify much - however, we
are beginning to use these machines to replace 4 CPU Alphas.  Our apps do
not use the 64 bit features of the Alpha.  Rough guess - the DL380 is two to
three times faster than the Alpha - at least for compiling our basic
application.  These cost about 10 to 20% of the cost of an ES45.  I suspect
DELL has comparable machines.  Also suspect many applications can run fine
in the 32bit world.

We also have an Itanium - took forever to get RH with many patches to run -
I did not do this and cannot speak to it.  Seems like no one wants it.

rm

-----Original Message-----
From: wylug-discuss-bounces at wylug.org.uk
[mailto:wylug-discuss-bounces at wylug.org.uk] On Behalf Of John Hodrien
Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 3:53 PM
To: WYLUG
Subject: Re: [Wylug-discuss] Linux on Intel 64-Bit Xeon

On Thu, 23 Jun 2005, Mark P. Conmy wrote:

>
> On Thu, 23 Jun 2005, John Hodrien wrote:
>> 
>> I can tell you that the dual Xeon 3.6 box we've got with 2Gigs of RAM 
>> is a screamer, honestly the fastest thing I've ever used at the 
>> desktop.  The graphics card will help a little with that (Quadro FX 
>> 4400), although not much.  But then I've not used an equivalent AMD64 
>> box to compare it against.
>
> One testimony I've had is from someone who has been playing with a 
> pair of beowulfs (one AMD one Xeon).  The AMD works much better and, 
> while the hardware is largely comparable, there may be other factors 
> involved.
>
> As you say, comparisons are tricky things.

I hear lots of favourable things about AMD too, and certainly their
hypertransport appears to offer lots of theoretical benefits.

Although once you start looking a dual-core, I think things are going to
look fun for AMD.  Take an old dual CPU board, flash it with a new BIOS, buy
a couple of dual-core chips and laugh.

With Intel you buy a new motherboard (which will cost lots no doubt), a
couple of dual-core chips, and watch as your FSB starved design struggles to
scale.

Once you push that to 8 and 16 way I think AMD are going to be able to pitch
some tasty machines.

jh

--
"Knowledge is a polite word for dead but not buried imagination."
                                                      -- E E Cummings

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