Re: [Xen-users] which server to buy?

["Fajar A. Nugraha" <fajar@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 12:15 AM, Mike Williams <mike@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Monday 26 January 2009 14:45:55 Alexey Zagarin wrote:
>> I'm now only concerned about virtualization
>> capabilities of AMD vs Intel, if they are roughly equal I'll go with

AMD used to be better in virtualization since it supports x86
real-mode better than Intel so for example, it allows you to display
SUSE's pretty bootloader on HVM. However Xen 3.3 adds Full x86
real-mode emulation for HVM guests on Intel VT so Intel CPUs can be
used to run those OSes as well. Note that x86 real-mode is usually
only used during installation/early booting phase anyway, so today I'd
say they're roughly equal.

>> Xeon 5405 because it's cheaper & have more cache than Opteron.
>

Which Opteron? I think Opteron 2352 is faster and uses a little less
power while having the same price (on HP anyway) as Xeon 5405.

> I'd take Opterons for server duties over Xeons without blinking, especially
> virtualization.
>

I have a slightly different opinion. Recently (on another thread on
this list) I compared the performance of GPLPV network driver on
Windows HVM domU (which is CPU bound, and its performance mostly
depends on the speed of a single core) tested with iperf  on Intel and
AMD CPUs. Here's the result (bigger=better)

- Xeon X5450 @3GHz -> iperf = 1.4 Gbps
- Opteron 2220 SE @2.8 GHz  -> iperf = 1 Gbps

They're not exactly apple-to-apple (being from different year and
different core-per-socket), but my point is today's Xeon can match
Opteron's performance on the similar price range.

There are other considerations though, like the fact that HP's
opteron-based DL185G5 can have more memory and disk compared to
xeon-based DL-180G5.

For most requirements (e.g. general one or two quad core CPU, 4-16GB)
I'll take whichever is available for lower price and similar
performance (which tend to change on monthly basis) on my budget
range, whether Intel or AMD.

Regards,

Fajar

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