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

[Luke S Crawford <lsc@xxxxxxxxx>]

Alexey Zagarin <zagarin@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

> Hello!
> 
> Please, help me, I'm totally lost choosing basic budget server for XEN.
> The variants are Sun (X2200 M2 or Sun X2250 M2) or maybe HP Proliant
> DL160 G5p. Or maybe some IBM server?
> Which X2200 configuration will perform better, two Opteron dual-core
> 22xx or single quad-core 23xx?
> Which one performing better nowadays, Opteron or Xeon? I know that 2-3
> years ago Opteron was the better choice for virtualization, what about
> now?
> Is Xeon 54xx better than Opteron 23xx ?

Leaving aside the small differences in virtualization technology, and the
differences in cpu power and effiency, it depends a lot on budget and 
workload.  

At least for my workload, CPU power doesn't matter very much.
(I imagine for other workloads it matters quite a lot.  But Xen handles 
oversubscribing CPU much better than it handles oversubscribing ram)  

What matters for me is how much ram I can afford. this is the problem with
HP and Dell.  Both are great if you order the low-end server, but they charge
you two to four times what kingston would charge for add-on ram.  I mean,
it's fine if you have the money and don't want the bother of setting up
your own ESD safe workstation, but it sounds like you are on a budget.  

Ram is what matters, for me at least.  And for every density step above 2gb  
you pay about 2x more per gigabyte, so the number of ram slots is key.  
I always  only buy motherboards that have 16 ram slots (or that support 
quad-rank ram, which is logically the same thing)  


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