Don't do the IBM server route. Other then that, there are too many other variables.. how much system memory in each, hdd configurations, etc.
My gut tells it would be tight between a 3.0 8MB & 3.6. Be prepared for the electric bill ;) -----Original message----- From: "Steve" [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2006 10:46:55 -0600 To: "The Hardware List" hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: [H] What's fastest ? > Am building a database server for SQL Server 2005 Enterprise edition. OS > will be Windows 2003 Server Enterprise edition. Server is probably going to > be a Dell 6850 > (http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/pedge_6850?c=uk&l=en&s=lca&~tab=specstab#tabtop) > > Although I can get older IBM servers (hence the 4MB L3 cache option below) > for a very good price. > > Basic spec is 4 CPU's, 24 GB of RAM and an external disk array. Just > wondering how much performance difference there is between the followoing > CPU's: > > 4 x Xeon MP 3.0 GHz 4MB L3 cache (400 MHz FSB ?) > 4 x Xeon MP 3.0 GHz 8 MB L3 cache (667 MHz FSB) > 4 x Xeon 3.6 GHz 1 MB L2 cache > 4 x Xeon dual core 2.6 GHz 2 x 1 MB L2 cache > > My gut reaction says the 8 MB L3 cache chips will be faster than even the > dual core chips in real world performance. Anybody else have a view ? > > Thanks, Steve > >
