Xeon X5550 vs Six-core Opteron for database server
- by gregmac
I'm specing out a database server, and the price works out to be reasonably close between an Intel X5550 Quad-core and an AMD 2425HE (2.1Ghz) Six-core Opteron.
I've been looking for some comparisons between the two, but the only thing useful I've found is an AnandTech Review of the 2435 which compares it to Intel Xeons, but concludes they both have their place.
My load is MS SQL Server 2008, with an OLTP database that has about an equal amount of reading/writing (and it's a reasonably heavy load).
So my question is, what is going to work better in this situation, assuming the drives are the same:
Xeon X5550, with 16GB 1333Mhz RAM (Dell R510)
or an Opteron 2425HE (2.1Ghz) or 2439SE (2.8Ghz) with 16GB of 800Mhz RAM? (Dell 2970)
Note: the 2439 adds $500, but the overall pricing works out that it's not that much more than the R510. Using the 2425HE, the Dell 2970 server is slightly less than the similarly-equipped R510). If it adds a decent amount of performance, it's worthwhile to go faster.
(single CPU, in both cases).
