Dual Core vs Dual CPU - Which One?

[art]

Hi All,

I need to build 2 machines. One will be a web server running Apache,
and the other will be a mail server running Postfix. I'll be running
Red Hat.

I have a T1, but what I am wondering about is the speed of the machine
itself to deal with all the processing of emails and such....... the
system does in excess of 50,000 emails per day.

Anyhow, which is better for this kind of job, a dual core processor, or
a motherboard with 2 CPU's?? I would also assume memory is a big
factor??

Thanks!

 

[aryzhov]

Hi All,

I need to build 2 machines. One will be a web server running Apache,
and the other will be a mail server running Postfix. I'll be running
Red Hat.

I have a T1, but what I am wondering about is the speed of the machine
itself to deal with all the processing of emails and such....... the
system does in excess of 50,000 emails per day.

Anyhow, which is better for this kind of job, a dual core processor, or
a motherboard with 2 CPU's?? I would also assume memory is a big
factor??

I recently looked at newest multi-CPU Mboards, and could not find any
as modern as dual-core-single-CPU ones - front bus speeds are still
at 2-years-old level, built-in SCSI is UW160, not UW320, none of them
even offers onboard 1.5 GB/s SATA.
Whereas latest boards with a single AM2 socket must be much faster with

2GB/s access to memory and up to 6 onboard SATA-II 3GB/s channels.

If multitasking really becomes a concern, I'd suggest to look at
8-core SPARC-based machines (entry box starts at $3.5K).
You'll probably look at $4.5K for a reasonable configuration,
but then a single box will most likely be able to handle the load of
BOTH
your services. You can run them in separate containers (virtual hosts).

Porting Apache and Postfix content to SPARC/Solaris must be trivial.
Not sure if Fedora runs on 8-core SPARCs yet, but for sure it will
soon.
My choise would be Solaris, anyway.
Whereas Intel and AMD would certainly win on single-thread crunching,
SPARC is much better in context switching.
I have no association with Sun, being just a happy customer,
and I have no intetnion to start a flame here.

Regards,
Andrei

 

[art]

I recently looked at newest multi-CPU Mboards, and could not find any
as modern as dual-core-single-CPU ones - front bus speeds are still
at 2-years-old level, built-in SCSI is UW160, not UW320, none of them
even offers onboard 1.5 GB/s SATA.
Whereas latest boards with a single AM2 socket must be much faster with

2GB/s access to memory and up to 6 onboard SATA-II 3GB/s channels.

If multitasking really becomes a concern, I'd suggest to look at
8-core SPARC-based machines (entry box starts at $3.5K).
You'll probably look at $4.5K for a reasonable configuration,
but then a single box will most likely be able to handle the load of
BOTH
your services. You can run them in separate containers (virtual hosts).

Porting Apache and Postfix content to SPARC/Solaris must be trivial.
Not sure if Fedora runs on 8-core SPARCs yet, but for sure it will
soon.
My choise would be Solaris, anyway.
Whereas Intel and AMD would certainly win on single-thread crunching,
SPARC is much better in context switching.
I have no association with Sun, being just a happy customer,
and I have no intetnion to start a flame here.

Regards,
Andrei

Well, I'm not looking to spend $4K. I can be satisfied with a couple
of Asus motherboards, and either dual core or dual CPU, not sure which.
And I'm sure at least 1GB memory........

Right now the machines are 800mhx, 512RAM.......

 

[art]

I recently looked at newest multi-CPU Mboards, and could not find any
as modern as dual-core-single-CPU ones - front bus speeds are still
at 2-years-old level, built-in SCSI is UW160, not UW320, none of them
even offers onboard 1.5 GB/s SATA.
Whereas latest boards with a single AM2 socket must be much faster with

2GB/s access to memory and up to 6 onboard SATA-II 3GB/s channels.

If multitasking really becomes a concern, I'd suggest to look at
8-core SPARC-based machines (entry box starts at $3.5K).
You'll probably look at $4.5K for a reasonable configuration,
but then a single box will most likely be able to handle the load of
BOTH
your services. You can run them in separate containers (virtual hosts).

Porting Apache and Postfix content to SPARC/Solaris must be trivial.
Not sure if Fedora runs on 8-core SPARCs yet, but for sure it will
soon.
My choise would be Solaris, anyway.
Whereas Intel and AMD would certainly win on single-thread crunching,
SPARC is much better in context switching.
I have no association with Sun, being just a happy customer,
and I have no intetnion to start a flame here.

Regards,
Andrei

Well, I'm not looking to spend $4K. I can be satisfied with a couple
of Asus motherboards, and either dual core or dual CPU, not sure which.
And I'm sure at least 1GB memory........

Right now the machines are 800mhx, 512RAM.......