gentuxx wrote:
Hi all,
Just wondering if anyone here has any experience with gentoo on a 4/8
CPU server. I say "4/8" because we're looking at Xeons that'll, at a
minimum, have HT but could possibly be dual-core. I run gentoo on a
P4 w/ HT and it runs great! But I have no idea how it will scale to
this many processors. I've done some preliminary googling, but
haven't come up with much....probably using the wrong search terms.
I've been running a Dell 6650, 4 x 1.9 GHZ Xeons for about a year under
Gentoo. Linux sees it as 8 processors with the HT stuff turned on. I
sort of inherited that machine and we've never come close to pushing it,
but it's been great for Mysql which is highly threaded.
My only advice is that quad physical CPU boxes and up are much more
expensive than dual proc boxes though that seems to be changing. Make
sure you really need that sort of concentrated CPU power rather than
three or four smaller boxes. Also remember that most of your dual core
CPUs can have significantly less cache than single core CPUs. The Intels
top out at 8MB on single and 2MB on dual core from a quick look around.
On the application side you're want something highly threaded or with a
large number of processes. No point in having eight procs when six are
likely to be sitting around doing nothing.
I'll also second the AMD recommendation. A number of LAMP people have
mentioned that they're getting much better performace out of their 64bit
AMD's than the equivalent Intels. Specifically the Cnet/Gamestop guys
have been retiring three dual Xeon DL380s for each dual dual core DL385
they install.
kashani
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