You also want to consider any whitebox opteron system being on the
compatibility list of your storage vendor, as well as RedHat, etc. With
EMC you can file an RPQ via your sales contacts to get it approved,
though not sure how lengthy/painful that process might be, or if it's
gonna be worth it.

Read the article devoted to the v40z on anandtech.com.

I am also trying to get a quad-Opteron versus the latest quad-XEON from
Dell (6850), but it's hard to justify a difference between a 15K dell
versus a 30k v40z for a 5-8% performance gain (read the XEON Vs. Opteron
Database comparo on anandtech.com)...

Thanks,
Anjan


-----Original Message-----
From: Geoffrey [mailto:esoteric@3times25.net]
Sent: Sunday, May 08, 2005 10:18 PM
To: Mischa Sandberg
Cc: pgsql-performance@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: [PERFORM] Whence the Opterons?

Mischa Sandberg wrote:
> After reading the comparisons between Opteron and Xeon processors for
Linux,
> I'd like to add an Opteron box to our stable of Dells and Sparcs, for
comparison.
>
> IBM, Sun and HP have their fairly pricey Opteron systems.
> The IT people are not swell about unsupported purchases off ebay.
> Anyone care to suggest any other vendors/distributors?
> Looking for names with national support, so that we can recommend as
much to our
> customers.

Monarch Computer http://www.monarchcomputer.com/

They have prebuilt and custom built systems.

--

Until later, Geoffrey

---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
TIP 5: Have you checked our extensive FAQ?

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faq


---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
TIP 6: Have you searched our list archives?

http://archives.postgresql.org

Anjan Dave wrote:
> You also want to consider any whitebox opteron system being on the
> compatibility list of your storage vendor, as well as RedHat, etc. With
> EMC you can file an RPQ via your sales contacts to get it approved,
> though not sure how lengthy/painful that process might be, or if it's
> gonna be worth it.
>
> Read the article devoted to the v40z on anandtech.com.
>
> I am also trying to get a quad-Opteron versus the latest quad-XEON from
> Dell (6850), but it's hard to justify a difference between a 15K dell
> versus a 30k v40z for a 5-8% performance gain (read the XEON Vs. Opteron
> Database comparo on anandtech.com)...
>
> Thanks,
> Anjan
>

15k vs 30k is indeed a big difference. But also realize that Postgres
has a specific benefit to Opterons versus Xeons. The context switching
storm happens less on an Opteron for some reason.

I would venture a much greater benefit than 5-8%, more like 10-50%.

John
=:->

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Fedora - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iD8DBQFCf4AbJdeBCYSNAAMRAtESAJ0aYD5575f1F2b7vIbSY/wJaAPWTQCgt8oe
3gNXJoSGlAXNNPQQyNjk1zw=
=fwp+
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----