XeonVsPentium4

[Adeer]

I have a Xeon which runs a powerbuilder application(processor intensive) and SQLAnywhere database. It is almost 4yrs old.
It is being replaced by a pentium4. Do I stick with a XEON (ofcourse a new one ) or goahead and accept Pentium4. Please comment from your experience.
Thanx guys

 

[PlatinumGold]

have a Xeon which runs a powerbuilder application(processor intensive) and SQLAnywhere database. It is almost 4yrs old.
It is being replaced by a pentium4. Do I stick with a XEON (ofcourse a new one ) or goahead and accept Pentium4. Please comment from your experience.
Thanx guys

hmmm, u mean u have a choice between a new xeon (presumably a p4 xeon) and a regular p4??

for multitasking a xeon of comparable clockspeed will be faster than the p4.

 

[Adeer]

To be specific I have to choose between Dell Precision 340 and a low end XEON from DELL. Any changes in your suggestion?

 

[Citadel535]

I always understood Xeons to be better with databases but that was when they offered a cache advantage. The Pentium 4s and Xeons are comparable in performance since they are so similiar (no longer are the low end Xeons offering a large cache). If you are running a database server for use by people, I would recommend a low-end Xeon server still as the 340 is still a workstation and Dell typically designs their servers to be fault tolerant (to some extent).

Edit: Oh in case you are wondering the Xeons now are designed solely for multiprocessing and many Dells offer hyperthreading on their servers. We bought a Dell server at work and my boss was running around telling everyone Dell sent us a quad processor by mistake. I ...had... to correct him in front of our director that they were Xeons with hyperthreading enabled so it was 2 processors acting like 4 processors.

 

[Zap]

LOL. Hopefully your boss doesn't mind constructive criticism.

Adeer, as for P4 versus Xeon... if ALL ELSE IS EQUAL and it's just a single CPU system, IMO get the P4. If the Xeon system has better components, then get it. Now, compared to a 4 year old system, anything new would run circles around it. You mentioned specific Dell models... not being familiar with them, what's the speed of the two processors?

 

[mechBgon]

Since you say "low-end" Xeon, that rules out the Xeon MP and leaves only the Xeon proper, which is essentially a multiprocessor-enabled Pentium4. Unless the workstation is dual-capable and your apps, or combination of apps, would benefit a lot from running on a dualie AND you could talk them into buying the second CPU, then get the P4. The only other area where I could see the Xeon system making sense is if you absolutely need to use, say, 4Gb of RAM.

A P4 with Hyperthreading, using a HT-supporting OS such as WinXP Pro, could boost your multitasking performance. Then again, with WinXP Pro being about 10% slower than Win2000, you'll need the extra power just to run the OS... The 3.06GHz P4 is currently the only HT-enabled P4 on the market.

If it were me I'd insist on building my own, of course And it would be an AthlonXP 2700+ on nForce2, with large quantities of Corsair PC3500 RAM and 15,000rpm SCSI drives. To each his own...