New Title: New opteron server w/pics (Old:Cache VS. CPU clockspeed question)

Ok - I have a very specific technical question:

I am trying to choose a configuration for a very high volume MSSQL server.
Queries include some really bad wildcard queries that we have to allow our users to run as much as it makes us want to hit them with baseball bats.

We will be using a high-performance EMC raid for storage.

I am trying to choose between:

4 - 3.0ghz hyperthreaded Xeon procs with 4mb cache each.
- or
4 - 3.6ghz hyperthreaded Xeon procs with 1mb cache each.

So - Which of these will give us better MSSQL performance?

And before it starts, I know:
EMC is not the best storage option out there.
Intel xeon is not currently the best processor architecture out there.
MSSQL is certainly not the best performing database out there.
etc...

We have very strict rules about the hardware and software of the servers we run.

So - any advice?
I'm personally leaning towards the 3.6ghz procs but I wanted to see what other people had to say.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

the more random it is the more important request fulfillment capability becomes. 4 3.6 Ghz Xeons would probably work better, but youre still going to be incredibly limited by the limited bandwidth available to the Xeon. How restrictive are your hardware requirements? Are you going with Dell? All the other major server guys offer Opteron, which is much more suited to the task.

 

Yeah - Our vendor offers AMD, but we aren't allowed to use it...

Anyway, some more specs of this box:

Windows server 2003 enterprise
MS SQL server 2000 enterprise
either 8gb or 16gb ram.

Also, we will be running a pair of 2 gigabit fiberoptic cards directly to our raids fiber switch.

 

Multiple Xeons? Cache every time.

You're trying to squeeze 4 processors down a single 800fsb and the only way you're gonna get slight efficiency is with plenty of cache. What's the use of clock speed if the cpu cant get the data?

 

I'm inclined to agree

 

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2397&p=8
cache Cheesecake (ok its a dual core opteron review but xeons are in the graph )

 

Wow - that graph is almost exactly what I want.
Thank you.

I still think I might go for clockspeed though...
The graph compares a
quad 3.3 8mb cache
with a
quad 3.6 1mb cache

My choices are -
quad 3.0 4mb cache
VS.
quad 3.6 1mb cache

Also - I'll ask my vendor if I can get 4x3.3/8mb - that would be nice. I have $63k to play with.... (not just for hardware, that's including sql enterprise and windows enterprise)

 

Damn shame you cant go for opterons

 

If I could wait 6 months, I could get 4 dual core xeons....
But, I can't wait 6 months.

 

Ok - everyone give me a woot -

We are buying the following:
HP Proliant DL585
4x AMD 880 Opteron 2.4ghz (1ghz fsb) Dual Core 1mb cache
16gb pc2700 (8x2048)
4x 72gb 10,000rpm ultra320 scsi
etc
etc
etc...

Fast box.....

 

yummy

(ps, probably a good thing you didn't go for the dual core Xeons, they're getting pretty crapy reviews.)

 

nice job! Let us know how it performs once you're done I assume that ram is ECC n all.

 

Yeah - the ram is ECC -

The NT team had to throw their 2 cents in - told purchasing that 15,000 rpm drives would be better for a DB server. By the time I was able to say that we wouldn't be storing any of the data on local drives, that all the data would be on the EMC, it was too late and the order had been completed. Oh well... Now it will have 4x 72gb 15k rpm drives (raid 5) for the local drive...

Should be delivered in about 10 days and in production in just over a month. Will give reports of just how kick@$$ it is when it's up and running.

Thanks for everyone's help.

 

nice!

oh... and don't forget the pictures.

 

Pictures coming soon....

 

hurry up, the drool bucket needs emptying soon

 

Took these with my camera phone in the recieving dock:


Here's the outside of the box....

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Not too exciting - the outside of the server...

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Front view - on the right in the front you can see the 4 15k rpm drives and on the right in the back you can see 4 very large expansion cards....

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Here's a closeup of one of those cards:
Each card has a dual core 2.4ghz opteron and 8 dimm slots. Right now, we have 2 dimm slots on each card populated with 2gb dimms. (2gb*2 slots*4 cards = 16gb)
The box can take up to 2gb*8 slots*4 cards = 64gb.... or maybe, it accepts 4gb cards.....
Whatever....

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The box will be running on the raised floor in the next couple of weeks - I will take some screenshots and see if I can push those CPUs at all.

What sort of benchmarks do you want to see it do? That pi thing? Something else?

Let me know.

 

run a sandra cpu bench, should be good

 

Changed the title to reflect amd server and pics.

 

At the rear of the case - is that two fans one on top of the other?? That doesnt help airflow.