Intel 6 Core Xeon or AMD 12 core Phenom

[Bleek]

If you were specifying a new Exchange 2010 server which of the above CPU would you opt for?

Dual or quad CPU is an option, cost not an issue.

 

[Marvin]

Well I guess the main question is:

Are 12 physical cores faster than 12 logical cores?

Straight up as simple as that there could only be one winner, but Intel's current architecture just seems streets ahead of AMD's, so when comparing an i5 750 and a 955 BE (at the same clock speed) the Intel has the upper hand.

The 12 Core AMD is still basically a 12 core Thuban isn't it?

I guess it depends on the clock speeds really and cost...

 

[HW91]

what about 8 core nehalem-EX?

or wait for 8 core sandy bridge socket 2011

 

[bulldog147]

wait for 8 core sandy bridge socket 2011

I bet it will cost around £1200 for 8 cores sandy bridge cpu chip

 

[Bleek]

Would Exchange 2010 make use of 24 AMD cores? We'd probably pair it with 32 or 64GB of ram. We'd have three of these for ~500 users, not massive I know, but near 100% uptime and reliability are paramount.

Cost is not an issue. Needs to be current tech and available for purchase within a month.

 

[paulselhi]

100 % uptime and reliability would probably call for fail safe cluster servers so you would want to double your expense budget

 

[Bleek]

100 % uptime and reliability would probably call for fail safe cluster servers so you would want to double your expense budget

I'm not wanting to get in to the design of it, we already have DAGs which cluster the Exchange boxes anyway. We'll have redundancy is hot spare servers at DR, exact replicas of production. There are numerous other features in 2010 that allow you to have a near backup-less environment, obviously we'll be taking them for compliance reasons.

And seriously this is a multi-billion pound operation, a hundred thousand on servers is not an issue so budget is of no concern.

 

[FrankJH]

if cost really isnt an issue go for Intel every time

I love AMD and hope their new chipsets etc really kick Intel where it hurts next year, but they really arent doing it now

Personally I would go for quad cpu capable machines with dual-cpu installed at the start, 16GB/cpu to start should be enough I would have thought

 

[paulselhi]

And seriously this is a multi-billion pound operation, a hundred thousand on servers is not an issue so budget is of no concern.

I would have thought that a multi-billion pound operation would have the inhouse expertise to answer your questions and/or the ability to get accurate information from Intel and AMD directly.. and yes i have designed server solutions for several mutli-billion pound organizations in the past and i always liased with Intel and Microsoft directly. I am, however, well out of the game now !!

 

[bulldog147]

if cost really isnt an issue go for Intel every time

I love AMD and hope their new chipsets etc really kick Intel where it hurts next year, but they really arent doing it now

Personally I would go for quad cpu capable machines with dual-cpu installed at the start, 16GB/cpu to start should be enough I would have thought

AMD stand no chance to beat Intel. As we all know that Intel are always top ahead and out performance than AMD. But, maybe one day AMD will be top, who know ?

 

[Lanz]

I doubt Exchange would use that many cores, you're better off scaling up (Ghz) rather that out (Cores) - Your provider should give you the best solution, probably better than anyone here can recommend.

 

[arknor]

AMD stand no chance to beat Intel. As we all know that Intel are always top ahead and out performance than AMD. But, maybe one day AMD will be top, who know ?

1090t beats i7930 in anything that can use 6 cores, video editing , rendering etc we did benchmarks on the forum that proved it..... even when both chips were at 4ghz

amd's 12 cores should beat a 6 core xeon in anything that can actually use 12 cores but i doubt much can

 

[Bleek]

I would have thought that a multi-billion pound operation would have the inhouse expertise to answer your questions and/or the ability to get accurate information from Intel and AMD directly.. and yes i have designed server solutions for several mutli-billion pound organizations in the past and i always liased with Intel and Microsoft directly. I am, however, well out of the game now !!

I have two thirds parties working on proposals but I wanted to know myself, I've moved away from the techy side for many years (I'm a PM) but wanted to know for myself where the current server cpu technology was at.

 

[Lanz]

I have two thirds parties working on proposals but I wanted to know myself, I've moved away from the techy side for many years (I'm a PM) but wanted to know for myself where the current server cpu technology was at.

Current trend is, not many people use these multi-core servers for single apps, You'd buy one of these 24 core servers and bung 20 VM's on it, including your exchange 2010 system.