[gentoo-user] {OT} AMD Barcelona vs. Intel Harpertown (also 10k vs 15k RPM)

[gentoo-user] {OT} AMD Barcelona vs. Intel Harpertown (also 10k vs 15k RPM)

[Grant]

I'm trying to decide between an AMD Barcelona or an Intel Harpertown
quad-core CPU for a web/database server.  The Intel would have a 5%
lower clock speed.  I've read that Harpertown outperforms Barcelona
(by 20%?), but that the quad-core implementation isn't as good on the
Harpertown.  It's surprisingly difficult to get comparative benchmarks
on these at similar clock speeds.  Does anyone know which of these
should perform better in a web/database server?  I support AMD on my
non-critical systems, but I need performance for this server.

I'm also trying to decide between a 2.5" 10k HD vs. a 3.5" 15k HD.
I've read that the 15k yields about a 20% I/O performance boost so I
think I'll go for it.  I won't be using RAID at all.

- Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} AMD Barcelona vs. Intel Harpertown (also 10k vs 15k RPM)

[Daniel Troeder]

On Sun, 2009-07-19 at 07:46 -0700, Grant wrote:
> I'm trying to decide between an AMD Barcelona or an Intel Harpertown
> quad-core CPU for a web/database server.  The Intel would have a 5%
> lower clock speed.  I've read that Harpertown outperforms Barcelona
> (by 20%?), but that the quad-core implementation isn't as good on the
> Harpertown.  It's surprisingly difficult to get comparative benchmarks
> on these at similar clock speeds.  Does anyone know which of these
> should perform better in a web/database server?  I support AMD on my
> non-critical systems, but I need performance for this server.
> 
> I'm also trying to decide between a 2.5" 10k HD vs. a 3.5" 15k HD.
> I've read that the 15k yields about a 20% I/O performance boost so I
> think I'll go for it.  I won't be using RAID at all.
> 
> - Grant

> I won't be using RAID at all.
If uptime is of no concern to you, then why even bother about speed?

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} AMD Barcelona vs. Intel Harpertown (also 10k vs 15k RPM)

[Grant]

>> I'm trying to decide between an AMD Barcelona or an Intel Harpertown
>> quad-core CPU for a web/database server.  The Intel would have a 5%
>> lower clock speed.  I've read that Harpertown outperforms Barcelona
>> (by 20%?), but that the quad-core implementation isn't as good on the
>> Harpertown.  It's surprisingly difficult to get comparative benchmarks
>> on these at similar clock speeds.  Does anyone know which of these
>> should perform better in a web/database server?  I support AMD on my
>> non-critical systems, but I need performance for this server.
>>
>> I'm also trying to decide between a 2.5" 10k HD vs. a 3.5" 15k HD.
>> I've read that the 15k yields about a 20% I/O performance boost so I
>> think I'll go for it.  I won't be using RAID at all.
>>
>> - Grant
>
>> I won't be using RAID at all.
> If uptime is of no concern to you, then why even bother about speed?

Of course uptime is a concern, but it needs to be put into perspective.

Let's assume that without RAID, the hard drive in use fails every 3
years and causes 24 hours of downtime with good backups.  That's a
loss of .09% uptime over 3 years.  If the server makes $100,000/year
(and the same amount every day), that's a loss of $273 over 3 years.
However, my host wants $105/month for a second 15k hard drive and RAID
controller card.  The cost of that over 3 years is $3,780.

Plus I like to keep things simple and RAID is another layer to learn,
install, and maintain.  Plus RAID isn't foolproof:

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/10/21/2126252&from=rss
http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=162

Any opinions on Barcelona vs. Harpertown or 10k vs. 15k?

- Grant