SEO

Hi,

I'm configuring a PowerEdge 2950III, and trying to decide what will
provide the best bang-for-buck. The server will be used strictly as a
MySQL database server running atop Red Hat Linux. Two large databases,
each about 2GB, heavy on both Inserts and Selects.

Up until recently, I had spec'd:

2 x Quad-Core Xeon 5430 @ 2.66 GHz (6 MB cache) , 1333 MHz FSB
8 GB Ram (4x2GB)
4 x 146 GB 15K SAS drives (RAID 1/1 -- first set for OS, apps, second
set for MySQL data)

....worked out to around $5,500. Now however there is a processor
promotion, such that:

1 x Quad-Core Xeon 5450 @ 3.0 GHz (6 MB cache) , 1333 MHz FSB
8 GB Ram (4x2GB)
4 x 146 GB 15K SAS drives (RAID 1/1 -- first set for OS, apps, second
set for MySQL data)

....works out to around $4,500. So what I'm wondering is, do I really
need an eight-core box, since my experience tells me that MySQL's
greatest bottleneck is disk I/O. I'm wondering if I would be better
off with just one processor to start with (are they easy to add later,
btw?), maybe add more RAM, and just save some cash.

Any thoughts or suggestions are much appreciated. I have to pull the
trigger on this soon. I was hoping they would bump the specs or drop
the prices significantly... I've been watching these for months and
there's been promo after promo... I anticipate a major update, has
anyone heard anything? (Should I wait a little longer maybe?)

Thanks.

....Rene