From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG  Thu Feb  8 00:47:59 2007
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2D97216A407
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Thu,  8 Feb 2007 00:47:58 +0000 (UTC)
	(envelope-from andrew.george.hammond@gmail.com)
Received: from nf-out-0910.google.com (nf-out-0910.google.com [64.233.182.185])
	by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BDC9D13C478
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Thu,  8 Feb 2007 00:47:57 +0000 (UTC)
	(envelope-from andrew.george.hammond@gmail.com)
Received: by nf-out-0910.google.com with SMTP id m19so623291nfc
	for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>;
	Wed, 07 Feb 2007 16:47:56 -0800 (PST)
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta;
	h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references;
	b=kJqkHplAcAyCHJpss/C5OcJc4GZx24a1fyaTdyd3a8vzz7xolX2zauORypOhhvIUai351R/G0mEOhlS37fn0qcC8HxUrs1A2q0ZGal7oV/BtIalX3wWYqrSc4WVaaq+WQFZGK5aIFY35x0K58LK2n9UW/mu0jNFLihpNEts3dmQ=
Received: by 10.82.153.5 with SMTP id a5mr664619bue.1170894119693;
	Wed, 07 Feb 2007 16:21:59 -0800 (PST)
Received: by 10.49.57.17 with HTTP; Wed, 7 Feb 2007 16:21:59 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <5a0a9d6f0702071621w3badaf54o2aca29c496b379f4@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2007 16:21:59 -0800
From: "Andrew Hammond" <andrew.george.hammond@gmail.com>
To: "Nicole Harrington" <drumslayer2@yahoo.com>
In-Reply-To: <676973.69182.qm@web34510.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline
References: <676973.69182.qm@web34510.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Dual Core Or Dual CPU - What's the real difference in
	performance?
X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5
Precedence: list
List-Id: User questions <freebsd-questions.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2007 00:47:59 -0000

On 2/7/07, Nicole Harrington <drumslayer2@yahoo.com> wrote:
>  Hello all,
>  I have been building/using servers that were dual CPU
> AMD Opteron systems for some time.  (usually 246
> Opteron cpu's)
>
>  Now of course the world is shifting to Dual Core.
>
> Using FreeBSD, what is really the difference, besides
> power and ability to shove in more memory, between
> having the two seperate CPUS's?

Well, you also have two additional HT buses for memory access. And one
additional HT bus for peripheral access although most motherboard
manufacturers don't actually do anything with it.

>  What if I did 2, Dual Core cpu's? Would the SMP
> overhead and sharing to a [Giant Locked] disk and or
> network erase any benefits?

Benefits to what? Your computer can idle quite effectively with a 386
processor while consuming less power, producing less heat and
requiring much less capital outlay than any Opteron box.

Or did you have a workload in mind? If that's the case then you might
want to tell us what it is, what analysis you've done on your current
system to figure out where the bottleneck is, and what your
performance goals for it are.

Andrew