How do dual Opteron 246 stack up against dual Xeon 3.06?

[digitalsm]

The Opteron 246, 2Ghz chip is out, but I have yet to see any dual processor benchmarks. How well does it stack up against dual Xeon 3.06s?

 

[stevejst]

For one, it cost nearly twice as much plus you cannot find it anywhere. And the motherboard is $500 the lowest, if you can find it.
Not too many AMD fanboys have seen it, therefore such a lack of benchmarks, but once it becomes widely available at less than $800 I see great sales coming AMD way.

 

[digitalsm]

Yes I know the Xeons 3.06s 512k Cache processors are in the $450 range and the Opteron 246s are $800-900. There are a couple places that have the 246s in stock. Also the cost of the motherboards is about the same in the $450-$550 range depending on options.

I know the best bang for the buck, when it comes to SMP, is dual Xeon 3.06s with 512K cache, I just want to know how they stack up performance wise.

 

[MDE]

The Opterons should rip the Xeons apart based on the limited benchmarks out there.

 

[stevejst]

Also the cost of the motherboards is about the same in the $450-$550 range depending on options.

You can get dual Xeon motherboard for $266 at newegg. It is a Tyan S2668AN.

The Opterons should rip the Xeons apart based on the limited benchmarks out there.

I very much doubt that.

 

[Richdog]

Originally posted by: stevejst

Also the cost of the motherboards is about the same in the $450-$550 range depending on options.

You can get dual Xeon motherboard for $266 at newegg. It is a Tyan S2668AN.

The Opterons should rip the Xeons apart based on the limited benchmarks out there.

I very much doubt that.

OverclockersUK have the opterons in stock as of last week. And the opterons also beat the Xeon's in a variety of benchmarks in dual configuration...

Opteron vs Xeon Benchmarks :beer:

 

[stevejst]

I would assume that Opteron is more potent for server tasks but it is certainly far away from "ripping off Xeon".
And given the price it is hardly attractive as an alternative.

I went through these evaluations this summer since I am frozen in a task of building a server mainly because I cannot find good prices for a 14x OR 24x Opteron and a dual motherboard. As a matter of fact Xeon looks more and more attractive to me as the alternative though initially I really wanted 64-bit processor.
I think this sentiment is across the market - resentment about promises that never materialize which is essentially what AMD is doing for 3 years already with the Hammer processor. I think most small businesses and schools cannot afford these absurd prices Opterons sell right now.

I am amused how often AMD fanboys are pulling out the argument about Opteron's performance and yet very small number of them have ever seen any.
Here is a great comment from a newegg user on that:

I bought one of these, but I can't get it to fit in my KT333 board. I tried a hammer, but it just won't go...

Seriously, where are the boards for these?

And why are there 89 reviews for a product I doubt anyone actually has purchased and installed yet?

 

[mechBgon]

You can see some enterprise benchmarks in Anand's review here. One of the most impressive is how the Opteron scales from 1P to 2P: about twice as well as Xeon. And its webserver request time and throughput are impressive too... one Opteron 244 appears to be nearly as strong as a pair of 2.8GHz Xeons here.

Anyone whining about the price of the motherboards is just being silly. Tyan Thunder K8S is $475 at Monarchcomputer.com, or $590 with dual-channel U320 SCSI. Compared to the price of a good LTO tape-backup drive, that's pocket change. Tyan's Tomcat K8S is just $220, if you want a uniprocessor Opteron server board. My take: if you have an application that NEEDS the power of dual Xeons or dual Opterons, then for heaven's sake don't be turning up your nose at the cost of good hardware, because it's probably going to pay in the long run.

 

[stevejst]

Yet again, the question of scaling ought to be about the price, don't you think so?

First Opteron 244 costs close to $700 and Xeon 2.8 GHz 512 L2 (in this comparison) costs less than $350. Even Xeon 3.06 costs less than $500. And that is THE CPU that ought to be compared to Opteron based on the performance since that is the CPU with twice bigger cache than the one Anand tested in the review, and that is the CPU this thread is about.

The question about price is very important and not irrelevant as you would like to put it. Beside quad Opteron prices for a single processor are $1,200 and up.

Tyan's Tomcat K8S is just $220, if you want a uniprocessor Opteron server board

Yes, that is absolutely the cheapest board to find. My question is why would I want a single Opteron board? I cannot find much reason for that since in that case I can simply use 3.0 GHz HT Pentium server that will outperform all current Opterons short of 246 that is not yet available in the retail anyway.
At this point I consider buying Opteron 14x very unattractive and I believe that the guys in AMD know that very well.

With the current prices on Opterons and the multiprocessor Opteron boards I think Opteron is attractive only for high computing games in science labs where the money spent comes out of taxpayer's pocket. The reality is that if AMD wants to put dent in Intel's grip on server market they'll have to make a serious price drop first.

 

[mechBgon]

A 3.06GHz Xeon with 1MB of L2 cache is more like $800: Axiontech. Yes, you can get the 512kB-L2 version for under $500, though. Or if you know where you can get the 1MB version for closer to $500, I'd be interested to see.

On the last server estimate I priced up, the board, CPUs and memory came to about 20% of the total price (including the OS and CALs). If you want to save money on the up-front cost, though, it's up to you how you want to do it Personally, I'd be considering the dual 240's or dual 242's.

Incidentally, I see Newegg now has the 142's and 144's in stock, as well as the :Q842 and 844:Q, if anyone's interested: link!

 

[stevejst]

If you have money to burn and Fortune 500 business in your portfolio here is a relevant comparison with dual Opterons, dual Xeons (the newest ones with L3), and all sorts of other configurations.
Only I doubt that anybody in Fortune 500 intends to overclock.

A 3.06GHz Xeon with 1MB of L2 cache is more like $800

Yes, you are correct on that one, my error. You can get it for less than $750 at pagecomputer.com though. Axiontech is not exactly the most reliable/cheapest place (neither is pagecomputer for that matter).

 

[stevejst]

All I actually want is a bottom price on a single Opteron 244 and a low cost reliable dual Opteron board. Lower than $800 for both. I won't actually pay for that but that is the max in the budget I can deal with. Later on I'd add another Opteron. At this point that seems more of a science fiction. The reason I am still waiting is that damn 64-bit server that I really want to brag about.
I was really thinking about single Opteron board (just for bragging) but that really makes me feel bad. Cheating others is not nice to start with but lying yourself really sucks.