From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from lists.gentoo.org ([140.105.134.102] helo=robin.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1IrONB-0004Wn-N5 for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Mon, 12 Nov 2007 01:45:58 +0000 Received: from robin.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.14.2/8.14.0) with SMTP id lAC1i6m5015209; Mon, 12 Nov 2007 01:44:06 GMT Received: from ciao.gmane.org (main.gmane.org [80.91.229.2]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.14.2/8.14.0) with ESMTP id lAC1i6pW015204 for ; Mon, 12 Nov 2007 01:44:06 GMT Received: from list by ciao.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.43) id 1IrOLG-0006nW-J5 for gentoo-amd64@lists.gentoo.org; Mon, 12 Nov 2007 01:43:58 +0000 Received: from ip68-231-12-179.ph.ph.cox.net ([68.231.12.179]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Mon, 12 Nov 2007 01:43:58 +0000 Received: from 1i5t5.duncan by ip68-231-12-179.ph.ph.cox.net with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Mon, 12 Nov 2007 01:43:58 +0000 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: gentoo-amd64@lists.gentoo.org From: Duncan <1i5t5.duncan@cox.net> Subject: [gentoo-amd64] Re: Planning a new box - AMD Opteron or Intel Xeon? Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2007 01:43:48 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: References: <20071110081152.4065e4db@mandalor.homelinux.net> <20071110095206.7a73544e@mandalor.homelinux.net> <20071111053814.06ce20f3@mandalor.homelinux.net> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-amd64@gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-amd64@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: ip68-231-12-179.ph.ph.cox.net User-Agent: Pan/0.132 (Waxed in Black) Sender: news X-Archives-Salt: 161ae1a2-24e1-46d4-b4f7-bd36df739071 X-Archives-Hash: 3d99d9ced1ee60eda50b0ebd007bca58 "Conway S. Smith" posted 20071111053814.06ce20f3@mandalor.homelinux.net, excerpted below, on Sun, 11 Nov 2007 05:38:14 -0700: > Well, I've been looking at the new Barcelona Opteron 2300 series, which > have 4 cores each & can be used in dual socket motherboards, for a total > of 8 cores in the system. The 2 or 4 cores in an Athlon X2 system > really would be sufficient for my needs, but then my current box is > still pretty much sufficient for my needs. This new box I'm planning is > more about my wants, and I look at 8 cores & think "I want!" For general workstation use, including Gentoo, 4 cores should be about enough for now. Same with 4 gig of memory. I went with 8 gig memory, but if I had it to do over I'd stick with 4 gig and get the dual-cores sooner. The more cores you get, the more things have to parallelize in ordered to use them. It's coming, but really isn't there yet. There are too many makefiles that haven't been designed with massive parallelization in mind. Of course, there are applications where 8-core is useful. Just not for general Gentoo desktop/workstation use, IMO. A pair of 30" Apple Cinema (like 2900x1600 or some such, resolution) or comparable LCDs and a decent GPU (or set of GPUs) to run them seems better use of that sort of money, to me, and what I'm looking at for next upgrade after my eyes (lasik). -- Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. "Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman -- gentoo-amd64@gentoo.org mailing list