Expensive Quad Sockets vs. Ubiquitous Dual Sockets
by Johan De Gelas on October 6, 2009 1:00 AM EST- Posted in
- IT Computing
Benchmark Methods and Systems
It is impossible to perform the same benchmark methodology as we use with dual socket servers. We limit ourselves to our virtualization benchmarking as we are sure these tests are able to saturate 24 cores. To add some perspective, we add industry standard benchmarks such as SAP and VMware VMmark scores.
Benchmark configuration
None of our benchmarks required more than 20GB RAM. Database files were placed on a three drive RAID0 Intel X25-E SLC 32GB SSD, with log files on one Intel X25-E SLC 32GB. Adding more drives improved performance by only 1%, so we are confident that storage is not our bottleneck.
Xeon Server 1: ASUS RS700-E6/RS4 barebone
Dual Intel Xeon "Gainestown" X5570 2.93GHz
ASUS Z8PS-D12-1U
6x4GB (24GB) ECC Registered DDR3-1333
NIC: Intel 82574L PCI-EGBit LAN
PSU: Delta Electronics DPS-770 AB 770W
Xeon Server 2: Supermicro SC818TQ-1000 Chassis
2x - 4x Intel Xeon X7460 at 2.66GHz
Supermicro X7QCE
64GB (16x4GB) ATP Registered FBDIMM DDR2-667 CL 5 ECC
NIC: Dual Intel PRO/1000 Server NIC
PSU: Supermicro 1000W w/PFC (Model PWS-1K01-1R)
Opteron Server 1 (Quad CPU): Supermicro 818TQ+ 1000
Quad AMD Opteron 8435 at 2.6GHz
Quad AMD Opteron 8389 at 2.9GHz
Supermicro H8QMi-2+
64GB (16x4GB) DDR2-800
NIC: Dual Intel PRO/1000 Server NIC
PSU: Supermicro 1000W w/PFC (Model PWS-1K01-1R)
Opteron Server 2 (Dual CPU): Supermicro A+ Server 1021M-UR+V
Dual Opteron 2435 "Istanbul" 2.6GHz
Dual Opteron 2389 2.9GHz
Supermicro H8DMU+,
32GB (8x4GB) 800MHz
PSU: 650W Cold Watt HE Power Solutions CWA2-0650-10-SM01-1
vApus/DVD Store/Oracle Calling Circle Client Configuration
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
Foxconn P35AX-S
4GB (2x2GB) Kingston DDR2-667
NIC: Intel PRO/1000
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rbbot - Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - link
Surely the high price of 8GB Dimms isn't going to last very long, especially with Samsung about to launch 16GB parts soon.Calin - Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - link
8GB DIMMs have two markets: one would be upgrade from 4GB or 2GB parts in older servers, the other would be more memory in cheaper servers. As the demand can be high, it all depends on the supply - and if the supply is low, prices are high.So, don't count on the price of 8GB DIMMs to decrease soon
Candide08 - Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - link
One performance factor that has not improved much over the years is the decrease in percentage of performance gains for additional cores.A second core adds about 60% performance to the system.
Third, fourth, fifth and sixth cores all add lower (decreasing) percentages of real performance gains - due to multi-core overhead.
A dual socket dual core system (4 processors) seems like the sweet spot to our organization.
Calin - Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - link
If your load is enough to fit into four processors, then this is great. However, for some, this level of performance is not enough, and more performance is needed - even if paying four times as much for twice as much performancehifiaudio2 - Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - link
FYI the R710 can have up to 192gb of ram...12x16GB
not cheap :) but possible
JohanAnandtech - Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - link
at $300 per GB, or the price of 2 times 4 GB DIMMs, I don't think 16 GB DIMMs are going to be a big success right now. :-)wifiwolf - Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - link
for at least 5 years you meanmamisano - Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - link
Great article, just have a question about the power supplies. Why do the quad-core servers need a 1200W PSU if the highest measured load was 512W? I know you would like to have some head-room but it looks to me that a more efficient 750 - 900W PSU may have provided better power consumption results... or am I totally wrong? :)JarredWalton - Tuesday, October 6, 2009 - link
Maximum efficiency for most PSUs is obtains at a load of around 40-60% (give or take), so if you have a server running mostly under load you would want a PSU rated at roughly twice the load power. (Plus a bit of headroom, of course.)JohanAnandtech - Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - link
Actually, the best server PSUs are now at maximum efficiency (+/- 3%) between 30 and 95% load.For example:
http://www.supermicro.com/products/powersupply/80P...">http://www.supermicro.com/products/powersupply/80P...
And the reason why our quads are using 1000W PSUs (not 1200) is indeed that you need some headroom. We do not test the server with all DIMM slots filled and you also need to take in account that you need a lot more power when starting up.