Benchmark configuration

First of all, I like to offer my thanks to my colleague Tijl Deneut who helped me out with the complex virtualization benchmarks.

None of our benchmarks required more than 20 GB of RAM. Database files were placed on a three drive RAID0 Intel X25-E SLC 32GB SSD, with log files on one Intel X25-E SLC 32GB. Adding more drives improved performance by only 1%, so we are confident that storage is not our bottleneck.

Important note: We threw in our older results of the “Expensive Quad Sockets vs. Ubiquitous Dual Sockets” article. We are well aware that a quad Opteron system is not the natural competitor for a dual Xeon X5670 CPU setup. However, the performance of the quad socket AMD systems should give us a very rough estimate where the new octal core and twelve core Magny Cours Opterons will land. So we reused our 4 month older benchmarks to get an idea what Magny Cours is capable off.

Xeon Server 1: ASUS RS700-E6/RS4 barebone
Dual Intel Xeon "Gainestown" X5570 2.93GHz, Dual Intel Xeon “Westmere” X5670 2.93 GHz
ASUS Z8PS-D12-1U
6x4GB (24GB) ECC Registered DDR3-1333
NIC: Intel 82574L PCI-EGBit LAN
PSU: Delta Electronics DPS-770 AB 770W

Opteron Server 1 (Quad CPU): Supermicro 818TQ+ 1000
Quad AMD Opteron 8435 at 2.6GHz
Quad AMD Opteron 8389 at 2.9GHz
Supermicro H8QMi-2+
64GB (16x4GB) DDR2-800
NIC: Dual Intel PRO/1000 Server NIC
PSU: Supermicro 1000W w/PFC (Model PWS-1K01-1R)

Opteron Server 2 (Dual CPU): Supermicro A+ Server 1021M-UR+V
Dual Opteron 2435 "Istanbul" 2.6GHz
Dual Opteron 2389 2.9GHz
Supermicro H8DMU+
32GB (8x4GB) DDR2 800
PSU: 650W Cold Watt HE Power Solutions CWA2-0650-10-SM01-1

vApus/Oracle Calling Circle Client Configuration

First client (Tile one)
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83 GHz
Foxconn P35AX-S
GB (2x2GB) Kingston DDR2-667
NIC: Intel PRO/1000

Second client (Tile two)
Single Xeon X3470 2.93GHz
S3420GPLC
Intel 3420 chipset
8GB (4 x 2GB) 1066MHz DDR3

Exotic Improvements and SKUs OLTP benchmark::Oracle Charbench “Calling Circle” 
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  • yinan - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link

    Bah 6 cores. 8 sockets by 8 cores is where it is at :)
  • landerf - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link

    I always wish with these server/workstation part reviews that we could get a gaming page just for kicks. Specifically in this case I'm thinking of the upcoming dual socket EVGA board and if it will have any effect on games or if it will be only synthetics that show a benefit. I'd also like to see a modern workstation card vs it's mainstream counterpart to see if the gaming performance gap has gotten smaller or larger over the years. I think recently there's been a push to make workstation cards do better in 3d games so you can test your work on the same rig, cutting back on the number of systems.
  • GeorgeH - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link

    I'd also be curious to see the E5620 overclocked in a consumer board, as its ~$400 price fills the hole between the ~$300 i7-920/930 and the ~$600 i7-950 rather nicely.

    Intel's PR people would probably get pissed, but screw 'em.
  • jonup - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link

    I was about to post the same. There is a lot of people using Xeons in X58 and P55 boards. Some prefer the lower power consumption others beleive the Xeons oc better. Please show us the money!
  • DigitalFreak - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link

    You do realize that the 55xx/56xx series Xeons only work in dual socket motherboards?!?
  • GeorgeH - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link

    I think you've got that backwards. A dual socket motherboard needs 5-series chips, but a 5-series should work in a single socket board just fine. In general it'd be silly to run only one (a 2.66GHz W3520 costs ~$300 while a 2.66GHz X5550 costs ~$1000) but if the cheapest 32nm LGA-1366 chip is a 5-series Xeon it might be worth it.
  • jonup - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link

    But you can get E5520 @2.26GHz for $390 and get a faster QPI.
  • greylica - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link

    Blender 3D 2.50 in his Alpha 2 Stage supports 64 simultaneous Threads, and it's not hard to make benchmarks, and I am missing Blender 3D benchmarks in every processor launch, what happened with ''Blender 3D Character benchamrks'' ?
    Blender can extract blood from those ''beasts''...
  • JohanAnandtech - Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - link

    I have indeed heard more than once that Blender is getting really popular. "Alpha 2" does not sound like the software is very stable. Any suggestion to what kind of scene I should use? The scene choice is very important as the parallel rendering part must be long enough compared to some of serial parts in the process. You can mail me at johan@anandtech.com if you like. I am open to suggestions.
  • MySchizoBuddy - Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - link

    Also add HPC related benchmarks

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