From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed May 31 11:15:16 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ACF0616A41F for ; Wed, 31 May 2006 11:15:16 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from nikolas.britton@gmail.com) Received: from nz-out-0102.google.com (nz-out-0102.google.com [64.233.162.205]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0687943D46 for ; Wed, 31 May 2006 11:15:15 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from nikolas.britton@gmail.com) Received: by nz-out-0102.google.com with SMTP id m7so4942nzf for ; Wed, 31 May 2006 04:15:15 -0700 (PDT) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=HUr0/+YNBmD4gH2pJDamXKJwOaYvCk1BlAAxofsQ3D2Q8PuBiw5lCJMG8x+aOrWq11u6vRFB+1x7GtqsYEB7z2WMWKA1b/eAZybw6kAmuqAGbKkzxoSaF4q3/WrXTR6cnt+Uj7CfrQnrzFyItuIStNvI2RV2GQ8bgzAbeQdY5dE= Received: by 10.36.154.1 with SMTP id b1mr121981nze; Wed, 31 May 2006 04:15:14 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.36.104.17 with HTTP; Wed, 31 May 2006 04:15:14 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 06:15:14 -0500 From: "Nikolas Britton" To: "Ewald Jenisch" In-Reply-To: <20060531093224.GA2508@aurora.oekb.co.at> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <20060531093224.GA2508@aurora.oekb.co.at> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Selecting CPU/architecture for new system? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 11:15:16 -0000 On 5/31/06, Ewald Jenisch wrote: > Hi, > > I'm currently in the process of selecting hardware for a FreeBSD > system having the main task of collecting network statistics via MRTG > or RRDtool. In addition the machine in question should be used to > collect netflow statistics plus providing a web-interface for > displaying them. > > To give you an impression about the workload to be expected: Currently > the system is a dual Xeon machine with 3GHz-CPUs reaching work loads > (top) of 7 to 9. Disk-IO btw is not the problem. > > > For the new system I thought about a 4-CPU machine, 4GB RAM - with > either 32- or 64-bit architecture. > AMD has the market cornered on 4-way and up boxes. Have you thought about a 2-way box with dual core CPUs? > Here are my questions: > > o) Should I stick with a 32-bit architecture (i386) or go for any of > the 64-architectures? > Do you need more then 4GB of RAM, if so then your only option is 64-bit. > o) Is FreeBSD 6.1 considered equally stable under the i386 > architecture as under any of the 64bit architectures? > Sure, and you can still run i386 FreeBSD on a 64-bit chip. > o) Are SMP-systems with 4 CPUs supported in i386? > Yes. > o) Are SMP-systems with 4 CPU supported in any of the 64-bit > architectures? > Yes. > o) Anything else to consider in this context? > Code compiling is very fast on AMDs chip thanks to HyperTransport and the on-die memory controller, if your task can take advantage of this AMD is your best bet. -- BSD Podcasts @: http://bsdtalk.blogspot.com/ http://freebsdforall.blogspot.com/