Itanium 2 and Xeon..how much performance difference ?

[Fjive]

Hi guys, just want your opinion on this. How does one Itanium 2 1.5ghz compares to two Xeon 3.2ghz 533fsb 2mb cache ? In terms of processing power. Say if the machines are having the same memory and hdd setup. I'm gonna pick one to setup as DB server. Sorry but i dont have the options to go for AMD...hehehe
anyway...thanks

 

[jm0ris0n]

If its 32 bit code then the xeon will be faster. IF you will use 64-bit itanium will be faster

 

[Wingznut]

They are very different platforms, and require wholly different software.

Do you plan on using any EPIC optimized software?

 

[Fjive]

I'm only planning to use those machines as DB server...running Sql Server 2k...
that's it. Just thought that having 2 Xeons might be faster than a single Itanium 2...

 

[Sunner]

Well, unless you're talking about a Nocona Xeon the Itanium will be able to address far more memory, which will come in handy if you're talking about a large database.
Two CPU's is a good thing to have in a database though, should it be CPU bound, and I doubt even a 1.5 GHz/6 MB Itanium will be able to match 2 3.2 GHz Xeons in a whole lot of cases, they're fast, but not that fast.

Also, at least when shopping HP, the Itaniums are vastly more expensive than their Xeon boxes.
A basic rx2600 with one 1.5 GHz/6MB I2 will cost you around 10K, and that's with a mere 1 GB of RAM, you'll get a fully decked out DL380G4 plus some other goodies for that price.

 

[Wingznut]

Originally posted by: Fjive
I'm only planning to use those machines as DB server...running Sql Server 2k...
that's it. Just thought that having 2 Xeons might be faster than a single Itanium 2...

I don't have any benchmarks handy, although a google search would probably be beneficial... I doubt a pair of Xeons would beat an Itanium 2 w/SQL 2k and Windows Server 2k3.

EDIT: After drudging through a quick search, I'm not really sure which would be faster.

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: Wingznut

Originally posted by: Fjive
I'm only planning to use those machines as DB server...running Sql Server 2k...
that's it. Just thought that having 2 Xeons might be faster than a single Itanium 2...

I don't have any benchmarks handy, although a google search would probably be beneficial... I highly doubt a pair of Xeons would beat an Itanium 2 w/SQL 2k and Windows Server 2k3.

Just having two CPU's can be a big help with a database though.
Again, assuming you're CPU bound, it'd generally be preferable to have one CPU take a longer time with a large query with another free to take care of other queries meanwhile, rather than having one beefy CPU take care of the large query a bit quicker while slowing down all other queries.

But, it seems more likely to me that the database would be disk/memory bound.

Oh and I should mention that I don't know anything about SQLServer specifically since we don't run any Windows servers around here, just speaking generally