Amd Opteron Setup...

Boris

<div class="IPBDescription">Are these chips good?</div> I know I could search elsewhere, but I find some of the people here fairly knowledgable and I want to know how these chips would work for NS servers.

Basically I'm looking at maybe just buying my own server to co-locate somewhere.

I have checked out some different setups, and it appears I can get a dual opteron MSI board, and single opteron 200 series at a decent price (upgrade to dual when needed).

I was looking at the prices of the opterons, and it seems that the 1.8GHz model (model 244) is the most economical for price vs power.
<!--QuoteBegin-From AMD website April 06+ 2005--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (From AMD website April 06 @ 2005)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->AMD Opteron™ Processor - Multiprocessors
100 Models  Price  200 Models  Price  800 Models  Price
Model 152  $637  Model 252  $851  Model 852  $1,514
Model 150  $417  Model 250  $690  Model 850  $1,165
Model 148  $278  Model 248  $455  Model 848  $873
Model 146  $218  Model 246  $316  Model 846  $698
Model 144  $178  Model 244  $209  Model 844  $698
Model 142  $163  Model 242  $163  Model 842  $698
Model 140  $163  Model 240  $163  Model 840  $698
Model 146 HE  $278  Model 246 HE  $455  Model 846 HE  $873
Model 140 EE  $278  Model 240 EE  $455  Model 840 EE  $873<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Is this 1.8GHz chip equivalent to what a 1.8GHz Xeon would be? Or is this GHz rating quite different for AMD (just like their Athlon XP 3000s for instance, which run @ 2167 MHz) and this chip runs more like a 2.8GHz Xeon.

Any clarification on the issue would be great. And does anyone use these for their NS servers?

theclam

<!--QuoteBegin-Boris+Apr 6 2005, 02:56 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Boris @ Apr 6 2005, 02:56 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Is this 1.8GHz chip equivalent to what a 1.8GHz Xeon would be? Or is this GHz rating quite different for AMD (just like their Athlon XP 3000s for instance, which run @ 2167 MHz) and this chip runs more like a 2.8GHz Xeon. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
You can't compare clockspeeds between different processor types.

I was looking at some benchmarks:
<a href='http://www.anandtech.com/IT/showdoc.html?i=1935&p=1' target='_blank'>http://www.anandtech.com/IT/showdoc.html?i=1935&p=1</a>
<a href='http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030422/' target='_blank'>http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030422/</a>
These articles are pretty old, but they show the Opteron doing quite well when compared to the Xeon. I don't have any personal experience with server performance, so I can't give you a definitive answer.

Vadakill

AMD and Intel's processors clock speeds affect their performance differently. You can't directly compare clock speeds and expect to have a fair comparison.

Before purchasing a server you need to ask yourself a few questions. Is there any reason I need to run Opteron processors instead of using the cheaper Athlon 64 chips? Do I really need to have a dual processor system since HLDS is not a threaded process? Do I have the bandwidth to run multiple high-capacity servers if I do get a Dual-proc system?

Maybe that will help guide you a bit.

Boris

I will investigate some more, but I was thinking of getting a server to first run 1 20 or so players (or 2 16 player servers), and then upgrade the dual proc part to increase the capacity to maybe 3 - 4 HLDS servers (with required ram upgrades as well...).

Bandwidth will not be an issue, as this type of server will not be sitting at my house, it will be colocated into a datacenter somewhere nearby my home.

As for HLDS not using dual procs, the idea is let the OS handle a HLDS (or two) for each proc. As I understand, this is fairly easy to do on an operating such as windows 2003 server which supports multiple procs.

I was kinda looking at the possibility of expansion versus a whole new system when I want more HLDS servers (should be cheaper, right?), that's why I was looking at dual procs. There are the MP's, the Opterons, and does any of the others have fairly reasonable priced dual setups? Can the Athlon 64's be dual? I am quite fond of AMD as they have been very good in recent years and the price for power is way better than Intel.

I will investigate furthur, but any info you guys know of, do help me out...

*NOTE: I'm not going straight to a dual proc system, rather I will have a dual proc setup and when time comes, drop the second CPU in and more RAM.