Words of Thanks

A lot of people gave us assistance with this project, and we would of course like to thank them.

Kelly Sasso, Crucial Technology


Our experience: Crucial offers excellent support and quality for barebone servers

William H. Lea, Intel US
Jerry R. Baugh, Intel US
Matty Bakkeren, Intel Netherlands
(www.intel.com)

Brett Jacobs, AMD US
Damon Muzny, AMD US
(www.amd.com)

Bob Cramblitt
Larry D. Gray
(www.spec.org)

Benchmark configuration
Here is the list of the different configurations. All servers have been flashed to the latest BIOS, and unless we add any specific comments to the contrary, the BIOS was set to default settings.

Opteron Socket F 1207 Server 1: Tyan Transport TA26 - 2932
Dual Opteron 2222 3GHz / 2224SE 3.2GHz
Tyan Thunder n3600m (S2932) - NVIDIA nForce Pro 3600 chipset
8GB (4x2GB) Crucial Registered DDR2-667 CL5 ECC
NIC: nForce Pro 3600 integrated MAC with Marvell 88E1121 Gigabit Ethernet PHY

Xeon Server 1: Intel "Bensley platform" server
2x Xeon 5160 3GHz or 2x Xeon E5345 at 2.33GHz
Intel Server Board S5000PSL - Intel 5000P Chipset
8GB (4x2GB) Crucial Registered FB-DIMM DDR2-667 CL5 ECC
NIC: Dual Intel PRO/1000 Server NIC
BIOS comment: Hardware prefetching disabled.

Client Configuration: Dual Opteron 850
MSI K8T Master1-FAR
4x512 MB Infineon PC2700 Registered, ECC
NIC: Broadcom 5705

Software
SUSE Linux SLES SP1 (Linux 2.6.16.46-smp)
MySQL 5.0.26 as shipped with SUSE SLES 10 SP1
SPECjbb2005
Sun Hotspot Java JVM 1.5.0_08
3DSMax 9
Cinebench 9.5
WinRAR 3.61

A Closer Look at AMD's Newest Offering Tyan Transport TA26
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  • Spoelie - Monday, August 6, 2007 - link

    Thanks for the clarification, I was under the impression the only real states were idle (1ghz) and full tilt (3.2ghz). Never seen any other states but all I ever use are the desktop chips, I wasn't aware CnQ could be more dynamic than that.
  • yuchai - Monday, August 6, 2007 - link

    I believe all A64 chips including the desktop ones have the different power states. For example my X2 4200+ has 4 states. 1.0, 1.8, 2.0 and 2.2 Ghz.
  • ButterFlyEffect78 - Monday, August 6, 2007 - link

    Are they talking about the barcelona?

    If not, then this is old news.

    I'm sure everyone by now knows that intels new cpu's are better then the current AMD opterons.
  • KingofFah - Monday, August 6, 2007 - link

    It really isn't. The were demonstrating the new 3.2ghz opteron. Also, this was a dual socket setup, and anand said, and everyone who monitors the server world knows, that the opterons come out ahead overall in the 4S environment.

    The more sockets, the more performance advantage opterons have on intel in the server space. This is well known. The purpose of this was to show it in the dual socket environment.
  • duploxxx - Monday, August 6, 2007 - link

    confused, no it is the stupidity of people like you that think that all Intel offerings are better then the ones for AMD.

    @anand, you're conclusion of the database world that the quadcore still rules..... where are the benchmarks?

    now it is nice to see all these benches next to each other, when are you going to combine benches, no longer servers are used for one application, they are more combined these days with more apps. Maybe its time you also have a look at vmware esx etc.... will probably give you a different look at the offerings of AMD these days.
  • clairvoyant129 - Monday, August 6, 2007 - link

    You don't have to get hostile because he does have a point. In the desktop market, Intel is clearly better unless we're talking about low end. Server market, it's still a toss up but Intel still has a lead.
  • yyrkoon - Monday, August 6, 2007 - link

    Um, you guys obviously have not been paying much attention have you ?

    1) AMD CPUs=cheaper
    2) AMD CPUs of comparrible speed perform nearly as good if not as good or better than their Intel counterparts. ie: I think you better check the last benchmarks anandtech post 'homie', because I saw a lot of AMD on top of the game benches. (6000+ vs e6600).
    3) Yes, a C2D *may* overclock better, and if it is you intention to overclock, it makes perfect sense to buy one, just be prepared to pay more for the CPU.
    4) Up until recently, or possibly still happening into the near future, AMD system boards availible often offered more features for less cost. It does seem however with the P35 Chipset, vendors are starting to come around.
    5) last, but not least, THIS article IS NOT about desktop hardware now IS IT ?! why bring some stupid lame ass coment into some place that it does not even fit ? GOd, and I thought I needed a new life . . .
  • Final Hamlet - Monday, August 6, 2007 - link

    It is these "but"s, that make the difference.
    If they exist, you can't state "all Intel CPUs" anymore, because there are exceptions.
  • ButterFlyEffect78 - Monday, August 6, 2007 - link

    I'm sorry everybody.

    English is my 2nd language so I sometimes can't always express what I want to say.

    What i meant to say is that Intel's new line of cpu's based on Core 2 duo tech. are better-(more advanced) then those based on K8 technology. If this is not true then there should not be a reason to introduce the K10 later this year to counterattack core 2 duo/quad.

    But again, I could be wrong.
  • Calin - Monday, August 6, 2007 - link

    Core2Duo technology from Intel is better overall than the K8 technology from AMD - this includes basic architecture, current improvements on the initial architecture (K8 is older and has more of those small improvements), and process/production technology.
    However, Intel lagged in introduction of Core2 based server processors, and even now their FBDIMM technology is slower and hotter (power hungry) than AMD's Opteron/DDR. Until this changes, AMD still has a market in servers, albeit not as good as before the Core2Duo Xeon processors.

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