2GHz Woodcrest or 3.2GHz Depsey?

[hal9000]

I would appreciate some advise.

I am buying a number of HP DL380 G5 servers, and these come with either the woodcrest or Dempsey processors. Price wise, it is actually cheaper to use 3.2GHz Dempsey (5060) chips than the 2.0GHz Woodcrest (5130). The servers are going to be general purpose branch office servers, so largely file and domain controller services - IO thus pretty importany. I have also seen the power consumption is much less on a Woodcrest, but can't find any reviews comparing the 2 chips speed wise directly.

Can anyone advise please?

Thanks!

 

[jamesgoddard]

performance is going to be similar between the two, and as for price the lower power of the woodcrest will more than pay the small price premium over the lifetime if the server.

As for performance I got some figures from http://www50.sap.com/benchmarkdata/sd2tier.asp

HP ProLiant ML370 G5, 2 processors / 4 cores / 8 threads, Intel XEON Dual-Core 3.73 GHz, 16 KB L1 cache and 2 MB L2 cache per core = 5230 SAPS

HP ProLiant ML370 G5, 2 processors / 4 cores / 4 threads, Intel XEON Dual-Core 3 GHz, 32 KB L1 cache per core, 4 MB L2 cache per processor = 6000 SAPS

Now to tweek these for the speeds you are looking for....

5060 = 5230 / 3.73 X 3.2 = 4486
5130 = 6000 / 3 X 2 = 4000

This is only an estimate - but it looks like the 5060 will be about 10% faster then the 5130 (well when running SAP)

 

[hal9000]

Thanks for that. I found this comparison here:
[url=http://tweakers.net/reviews/646/12]http://tweakers.net/reviews/646/12 [/url] which compares woodcrest and dempsey cores. I quote:

two Woodcrest cores at 2.66GHz beat four Dempsey cores at 3,73GHz with one hand behind their backs.

This is a similar clock speed difference to what I am looking for - so I would have thought that speed wise they are at least similar. Coupled with the fact that the memory will be running at full speed (do intel chips ork like that??) due to the higher bus speed on the 5150, makes me inclined to do with the slower clocked but more efficient woodcrest.

 

[voxel]

Don't get sucked into Netburst/Dempsey. Think about the more expensive UPS you'd have to buy, the excess cooling requirements, the loud noise of the Dempsey CPU fans, higher failure rate due to heat (won't have any problems if they are kept in a ACed dust free room).

Woodcrest seems to be the smarter and more reliable choice. Just get good switches and some spare components and your servers should be fine.

 

[Batspoon]

Woodcrest of course.

 

[hal9000]

Thanks for all the advice - woodcrest it will be!

 

[drifter_888]

Hi Hal9000, I'm just curious what made you choose the HP DL380 G5. I have been trying to decide on a server for a small office as well and I guess I am trying to justify to myself the cost of an HP vs other systems such as Aberdeen. My biggest issue so far is the availibility of larger 2.5" HD. I am interested in a Raid 5 or Raid 6 configuration but need about 300+ GB of storage and ideally would like to have some headroom for future expansion. Since HP only offers a 36 and 72 GB SATA I was looking at other systems for the 3.5" formfactor HD. Reliability is still as in all servers is very much a concern but I find I can max out a DL 380 G5 for about 10K and it only gives me about 142 GB in 8 HD with Raid 6 or if I go with Aberdeen I can get roughly the same system with 300 GB of storage in 4 HD and still have 4 more for expansion at a cost of only 7K. Is the HP that much better?

 

[jamesgoddard]

Since HP only offers a 36 and 72 GB SATA

drifter_888, the part number for the 144GB SFF SAS disk for the HP DL380G5 is 431958-B21

More info if required http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12244_div/12244_div.HTML

 

[jamesgoddard]

Oh and ask Aberdeen how much 5 years 24/7 support costs, I have found the support costs from HP on the G5 servers to be very well priced.

(I just got a delivery for 4 x ML370G5's this morning FYI, each with dual 5160 and 16GB RAM - they are very well built)

 

[drifter_888]

Thanks james, 1 hr chatting with a customer service rep of hp and I still couldn't get this information. He "verified" the largest they had for the DL380 G5 was a 72 GB!

 

[drifter_888]

Any advantage over the DL380G5 over the ML380G5. Originally I was looking at the High Performance model DL380G5 Dual 5160 and 4 GB RAM.

Aberdeen doesn't give 24/7 support but they do give a 5 year warrenty and 9-5 telephone support. The server is pretty much dead at night but of course I would like to see it running in the am. My IT guy was the one that suggested the DL series for reliability. It will not be in a rack though. Unfortunately, I don't talk to the IT guy anymore ... nice guy but doing too much work elsewhere. I do value his suggestions but still .... I want to be on a budget yet I also don't want to pay for being on a budget in the long run if you know what I mean. I would like this server to last me at least 7 to 10 years.

 

[angry_ducky]

Woodcrest is faster than Depsey, it uses less power, and makes less heat. So yeah, go with Woodcrest.

 

[jamesgoddard]

Any advantage over the DL380G5 over the ML380G5.

The reason I get the ML370G5's are (and I get a fair few)

The disk capacity - double the DL380's - up to 16 disks (that’s 2.3TB with the 144's)
The memory capacity - double the DL380's - 32GB on the ML compared to 16GB on the DL*** (see below)
Space for an internal tape drive - when the drive is internal it is included with the server support contract but external units need separate support contracts!!!

Also, this should be important to you, ML's can come in tower or rack format where the DL's are rack only...

***About that memory, strictly speaking the ML takes 64GB and the DL takes 32GB - but the 4GB modules required to make this happen are stupid expensive, so unless your name ends in Gates, 32GB for the ML and 16GB for the DL are the real limits...