[BlueOnyx:04523] Re: Aventurin{e} Servers

[Chris Gebhardt - VIRTBIZ Internet]

Michael Stauber wrote:
> Hi Colin,
> 
>> 2. AMD or Intel? Which processors give the most 'bang per buck'?
> 
> I'd go Intel for that one. 

Well this is bound to open a whole new can of worms, but in many cases I 
actually prefer the AMDs.   Especially with regard to some of the newer 
configs, I've found that dollar-for-dollar the AMDs will tend to 
outperform the Intel gear at a lower operating cost.  I've not done any 
actual bench testing with scientific reporting, but based on "feel", 
I've found the AMD gear generally creates somewhat less waste heat.  The 
less heat that is created, the less your cooling fans have to extract 
that from the chassis, and the less air conditioning you have to apply 
to the server room.

> However: If you can, look into a dedicated RAID hardware controller for best 
> performance and use it to configure the RAID as you see fit. Onboard 
> controllers usually have a worse performance than a good dedicated hardware 
> controller and disk IO is the #1 bottleneck these days.

Completely agreed.  STAY AWAY from the onboard RAID controllers.   The 
temptation is there because it looks so good on paper.  And the price is 
usually right.  Every time I've given in to the temptation, I've been 
sorry.  I'm embarrassed to say I tried it again recently with what 
should have been a very nice setup from Supermicro.  BZZZZZZ!  Wrong.

-- 
Chris Gebhardt
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