Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 23:31:04 -0500 From: Lanny Baron <lnb@FreeBSDsystems.COM> To: Erich Dollansky <oceanare@pacific.net.sg> Cc: Olaf Hoyer <ohoyer@ohoyer.de> Subject: Re: Multiprocessor system VS one processor system Message-ID: <1079670664.33813.72.camel@panda> In-Reply-To: <405A6537.2070607@pacific.net.sg> References: <20040318232348.BE86443D2D@mx1.FreeBSD.org> <20040319013145.P44321@gaff.hhhr.ision.net> <405A6537.2070607@pacific.net.sg>
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On Thu, 2004-03-18 at 22:12, Erich Dollansky wrote: > Hi, > > Olaf Hoyer wrote: > > > On Thu, 18 Mar 2004, Simon wrote: > > > > > >>What exactly is not easily achievable with a modern dual Xeon Intel server > >>with 20 modern SCSI harddrives and proper RAID card? that is on an old > >>E450 Sparc? have you personally done any testing to back this up? surely, > >>the chipset design of Intel boards are not up-to-par with latest Sun servers, > >>but Intel is catching up. There was just never enough demand until now. > > > > > > Yes, its an E450 with 4x400MHZ Ultrasparc 2, IIRC with 2 or 4MB 2nd > > level cache, acting as mail server, pumping several millions of emails > > around per day, with 2 million mailboxes to deliver to, being one of > > several mailhosts. > > > > Thats a region where a i386-based box won't fit easily, also the > > diagnostics regarding flaky RAM or CPU are way better with SUN than with > > most i386-based hardware. > > > > People tend to forget that the CPU clock rate of all Sun boxes is > pretty low but the I/O bandwith is much higher than the memory > bandwith of Xeon machine. > > Little things like changing a CPU while the machine is up and > running is not known to PC based servers at all. > > A PC based server is good when you have to consider the money but > will increase the risk of down-time. > That very strongly depends on what kind of pc Server you buy. A high quality Server with fully redundant power, dual or quad CPU's, dual NICs, IPMI compliant, you will have one hell of a time showing me downtime due to hardware. Yes, if the Server Board blows, it matters not if it is a Sun<tm> or PC based. But then when it comes to mission critical, a second lower cost or entry level Server as a backup or failover will keep the 'lights on'. The thing here is, how well does a company stand behind its product and how quickly (or slowly) will you get looked after is very important. Lanny > Erich -- =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Lanny Baron Proud to be 100% FreeBSD http://www.FreeBSDsystems.COM =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
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