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Which is better for an SQL application?

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  • Homebuilt
  • Systems
Last response: in Systems
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November 30, 2009 3:51:56 PM

It's been a bad year and next looks at least as bad so there's very little money for upgrades. Thus, I'm looking to cannibalize (or repurpose) older hardware to improve performance of our database application (back office .NET), which runs on Windows Server 2003 and Windows SQL Server 2005.

Existing server hardware is a GA-8KNXP mobo with P4 2.8 and 1GB RAM. http://www.mbreview.com/mbr-reviews/490-gigabyte-ga-8kn...

The drives are a pair of SATA I in RAID1 configuration. I can swipe another 1GB from another machine we're not using, bringing the total to 2GB. Or, if I have to, I can buy RAM to bring it to 4GB because the mobo has 6 memory slots for 4GB total.

1. Do you think there is going to be a significant difference between 2GB and 4GB?

Also, I can upgrade the CPU from 2.8 to 3.4GHz for $100. I figure adding the 1GB of RAM is a no brainer. But I don't know about adding beyond 2GB to 4GB is worthwhile, or if the CPU upgrede makes sense.

Alternatively, we're also upgrading a workstation with a Supermicro P4DC6+ mobo:
http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/860...

It has a pair of Xeon 2.2GHz CPUs but is already maxxed out with 2GB of RAM. This board is otherwise pretty nice, e.g. reliable, equipped with U160 SCSI, etc. plus it has a 10k RPM 32GB SCSI systems drive, which is pretty fast and has adequate capacity.

Either way, I have the green light to fork over for a pair of 32GB SSD to run as RAID1 regardless of what I do mobo/RAM/CPU wise.

2. What's smarter, the single 2.8 P4 CPU with 2GB/4GB RAM, or the dual Xeon with a pair of 2.2 and maxxed out at 2GB of RAM? I am leaning toward the dual Xeon despite having less RAM but don't know how to measure.

3. Also, is the SSD array in RAID1 worthwile, or should I simply re-use the 10k SCSI (I have a good performance UW 320 Adaptec SCSI board so I have that base covered.

Thoughts?

More about : sql application

a b B Homebuilt system
December 1, 2009 1:52:51 AM

According to Task Manager, what is the Commit Charge (all entries)? What is the CPU utilization at peak? That will determine if additional memory or a faster CPU will help the most.

If you can fit the DB on a 32 GB SSD, then it's quite small. A SSD (you didn't mention which one) will be much faster than a 32 GB 10K SCSI disk. Even a newer 7200 RPM SATA disk like the WD6401AALS is faster than a 32 GB 10K SCSI disk.
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a b B Homebuilt system
December 3, 2009 8:47:41 PM

The more ram the better. Our SQL 2005 machine uses 2 gigs of ram just to cache the database.

I'm not too sure about that SSD. Degration of a SSD will be pretty fast with all those I/O going on.
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