Xeon 7500 Windows Server SQL Server Question

???? What do you mean?
Anyways:
The Intel Xeon 7500s are really meant for mission critical work, not for your normal DB work. So, if you run a mission critical DB, you may want to use it. HOWEVER, realize as of yet, 2008 R2 DOESN'T support many of the "features" adopted from the Itanium line on the Nehalem EX 7500. In any case, again, depending on your budget/needs the new Dell servers using this chip in a 2P set up may make more sense.

For more info: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3648/xeon-7500-dell-r810/...

Hey Tanner this is what I found with a quick search...

Choosing a new platform or upgrading an existing platform for running vital applications has a significant impact on your entire organization, from IT personnel and end users to customers, partners, and others. IT managers must weigh all the options carefully, with an eye on ensuring scalable performance, advanced reliability, and virtualization, while extracting a greater return on IT investments in today’s economic climate.

The combination of servers based on the Intel Xeon processor 7500 series and Windows Server 2008 R2 is a result of more than 20 years of collaboration between Intel and Microsoft. Through this partnership, Intel and Microsoft remain dedicated to delivering performance, reliability, and scalability for mission critical computing. This combination offers some new opportunities for customers in the following areas:

RISC/UNIX Migration: With the latest Intel Xeon processor 7500 series–based servers running Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 R2, enterprises can migrate their mission critical applications from RISC/UNIX/-based platforms with confidence and enjoy significant cost savings without sacrificing performance or scalability.

Server Refresh: They can also upgrade from previous Intel and Windows platforms to increase reliability, performance and productivity and reap the benefits of new virtualization and energy-saving technologies, with the combination of Windows Server 2008 R2 and Intel Xeon 7500 series processor-based servers.

Also ran across a YouTube video that might help answer your questions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeS4qmwxTBE

Shadow, I think Newhalem is the R2 update, one in the same, not sure though.

????
Nehalem is the CPU arch for the i7.

R2 is the OS, as in Windows Server 2008 R2. AFAIK, Windows doesn't currently support the new RAS "feature" set found on the Xeon 7500. AFAIK, the ONLY Windows version that support RAS are the Server 2008 R2 for IA64 aka Itanium CPU only, not the x86-64. Perhaps you may want to provide a link to verify that Server 2008 R2 x64 supports full RAS of the Xeon 75xx?