Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 06:15:14 -0500 From: "Nikolas Britton" <nikolas.britton@gmail.com> To: "Ewald Jenisch" <a@jenisch.at> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Selecting CPU/architecture for new system? Message-ID: <ef10de9a0605310415l7b6ffb09t3845df11207e699d@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <20060531093224.GA2508@aurora.oekb.co.at> References: <20060531093224.GA2508@aurora.oekb.co.at>
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On 5/31/06, Ewald Jenisch <a@jenisch.at> wrote: > Hi, > > I'm currently in the process of selecting hardware for a FreeBSD > system having the main task of collecting network statistics via MRTG > or RRDtool. In addition the machine in question should be used to > collect netflow statistics plus providing a web-interface for > displaying them. > > To give you an impression about the workload to be expected: Currently > the system is a dual Xeon machine with 3GHz-CPUs reaching work loads > (top) of 7 to 9. Disk-IO btw is not the problem. > > > For the new system I thought about a 4-CPU machine, 4GB RAM - with > either 32- or 64-bit architecture. > AMD has the market cornered on 4-way and up boxes. Have you thought about a 2-way box with dual core CPUs? > Here are my questions: > > o) Should I stick with a 32-bit architecture (i386) or go for any of > the 64-architectures? > Do you need more then 4GB of RAM, if so then your only option is 64-bit. > o) Is FreeBSD 6.1 considered equally stable under the i386 > architecture as under any of the 64bit architectures? > Sure, and you can still run i386 FreeBSD on a 64-bit chip. > o) Are SMP-systems with 4 CPUs supported in i386? > Yes. > o) Are SMP-systems with 4 CPU supported in any of the 64-bit > architectures? > Yes. > o) Anything else to consider in this context? > Code compiling is very fast on AMDs chip thanks to HyperTransport and the on-die memory controller, if your task can take advantage of this AMD is your best bet. -- BSD Podcasts @: http://bsdtalk.blogspot.com/ http://freebsdforall.blogspot.com/
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