New Server - AMD or Intel

[dave.81]

Well i have a bit of cash this summer to replace our oldest server but obvously want to get the best server for the least amount of cash.

We have always bought Dell and will be sticking with them for this one too but i can get a server with a stack more HDD space with 2 quad core AMD's than the Intel's.

I guess my question is how good are the quad core AMD Opterons against the quad core Intel Xeon's?

[PeterW]

Which opteron and which xeon were you comparing?

[dave.81]

Most probably between these 2?

Quad Core Intel® Xeon® E5410, 2X6MB Cache, 2.33GHz, 1333MHz FSB
Quad Core AMD Opteron™ 2347HE, 1.9GHz, 4x512MB L2, 2MB L3 cache, 1GHz HyperTransport

[PeterW]

They are fairly comparable chips, if the operton is considerably cheaper go for that.

[FN-GM]

They are near enough the same nowa daysm, but I would go for intel xeon

[localzuk]

The current generation of Xeon chips are much better (in various ways, according to tom's hardware) than the current generation of Opterons. The next generation of AMD chips should level the playing field though.

[Ric_]

The AMD 2347HE is one of the AMD 'Highly Efficient' processors that draws only 55W of power - as opposed to the Xeon's 80W. This will save on both your running costs and cooling costs.

I believe mainboard design comes into play more with the Opteron chips - hacking an Intel board to stick an Opteron in makes it less efficient than one designed for Opterons due to the 'distance' optimisations that can be made to the memory path.