Intel's newest Quad Xeon MP versus HP's DL585 Quad Opteron
by Johan De Gelas on November 10, 2006 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- IT Computing
Analyses: the Xeon MP and Opteron Server
A CPU is only one aspect of choosing a server; at the end of the day it is the server that you can afford that makes you decide for one platform or another. The 4U Intel SR4850HW4 isn't very different from the SR6850HW4, so we can compare our Xeon MP test machine to the HP Opteron server.
The Xeon MP offers much more in the way of RAS features than the Opteron machine. The HP DL585 also has a few shortcomings: it does not offer any PCIe expansion slots, the SCSI controller is an old SCSI 160 model, and there are no USB ports on the front of the machine. Being able to quickly load some network drivers from a USB stick is very convenient compared to tinkering in the back of your rack.
However, the HP is the winner for memory intensive HPC applications: it can use DDR1-400 DIMMs which are quite a bit faster than the DDR2-400 FB DIMMs Intel uses. We were disappointed that both 4U designs do not offer more than 4-5 disk bays. If you are a medium sized enterprise and you have only one or a few heavy duty database applications, you can save a lot of money if you don't have to buy an external storage rack. With a RAID-1 setup for the operating system and programs, you only have two disks left to install your database on a second RAID-1 partition. Both the HP DL585 and the Intel SR4850HW4 basically force you to invest in an external storage rack in this case. Some 3U solutions like Supermicro's offer 16(!) disk bays and might be a better fit for a compute intensive transactional database. The HP and Intel machine are more suited for a HPC machine or as the host of a SAN storage rack to house a massive database/ERP system.
To make a fair comparison between the Xeon MP and AMD Opteron 8xx platforms, we decided to compare the costs of similar HP Xeon MP and HP Opteron machines, configuring them as similarly as possible.
The price disadvantage of the Xeon MP is more than $2000, which is not huge but still tangible. It is the result of the fact that you have to pay an extra $400 per Xeon CPU and $1000 for two extra memory boards. It is possible to save $1000 if you only get two memory boards, but that is not advisable. As 4GB DIMMs are extremely expensive, this means that you limit your server to 16GB (8x2GB) and that you cannot use the more advanced RAS features such as memory mirroring.
Power
How much power can we save by choosing the 95W TDP Opteron over the 150W TDP Xeon MP? We tested all machines with only one power supply running. DBS and PowerNow! were not enabled.
Both machines use huge fast turning fans which consume a lot of energy. To give you an idea of what this means, while idling the power consumption of the Xeon MP machine fluctuated between 460W and 620W. The 620W figure was generated when all the fans where turned on, while the 460W result was measured when the fans were silent. The HP DL585 did not use this on/off fan system, and consumed 520W while running idle. Once running at 100% load, the Xeon MP consumed 200W more than the Opteron machine while running SPECjbb2005. For your information, our Supermicro system consumed 310 W with 4 GB and about 360 W with 12 GB of RAM
Conclusion so far
Yes, our testing is not done. We still have to test other databases, and we are running benchmarks with Bea's JVM while you are reading this. Those benchmarks will be presented in our Clovertown - Intel's new quad core server CPU - review. In this review we focused a little more on the actual servers. So what can we conclude so far?
The Xeon 7140MP "Tulsa" is nothing less than a massive improvement over the previous Xeon 7041: it consumes less, performs a lot better (see the SPEC int/fp numbers) and is much less expensive. The new Xeon MP needs fewer optimizations than the Opteron to perform well in Java applications. Or if we look at our preliminary Bea Webrockit numbers, it performs better than the quad Opteron with a highly optimized JVM in applications with a big memory footprint (like SPECjbb2005) thanks to its massive L3 cache. In applications where the large L3 cache doesn't play a big role, the relatively poor server performance of the "NetBurst" architecture becomes visible again: our MySQL benchmark runs a lot better on the AMD Opteron and Intel's newest Core architecture Xeons. Power consumption is still rather high though, and the HP Opteron server consumed over 230W less.
In a nutshell, the new Xeon MP will have a hard time convincing people who are leaning towards an Opteron server or want the best performance/watt. But on the other hand, the decent performance and superior RAS features will keep the customers who desire high availability in the Intel camp, while the previous Xeon MP was such a poor performer that many people had no other choice than the AMD Opteron in the quad socket market.
When "High-end RAS" is less important, the excellent performance of the Xeon 5160 based Supermicro 6015 server shows how much potential the Xeon DP "Clovertown" has. Clovertown is nothing more than two Xeon DP 51xx on one chip, but it could give our quad monsters a hard time. You will find out more very soon....
A CPU is only one aspect of choosing a server; at the end of the day it is the server that you can afford that makes you decide for one platform or another. The 4U Intel SR4850HW4 isn't very different from the SR6850HW4, so we can compare our Xeon MP test machine to the HP Opteron server.
| Server Feature Comparison | ||
| SR6850HW4 (Intel SR4850HW4) | HP DL585 Model 2006 | |
| Hardware | ||
| CPU | 4x Intel Xeon 70xx and 71xx | Opteron 8xx |
| Fastest CPU | Xeon MP 3.4 GHz /16MB L3 | Opteron 885 2.6 GHz |
| Max Mem Capacity | 64 GB DDR2 400 FB Dimms (16 x 4 GB) | 128 GB DDR266 32 GB DDR400 |
| Mem Type | ECC DDR2 400 | DDR400/333/266 |
| Chipset | E8501 | AMD 8000 chipset |
| RAS | ||
| ECC Memory | Yes | Yes |
| Memory RAID | Yes | No |
| Hot plug memory | Yes | No |
| Memory Sparing | Yes | No |
| Memory Mirroring | Yes | No |
| Hotswappable PCI | Yes on PCI-X 133 and PCIe | No |
| Hotswappable Fans | 6 (4) | 8 |
| Hotswappable PSU | Yes, 1+1 | Yes,1+1 |
| Integrated Onboard | ||
| Video Chip | ATI RADEON 7000 VGA PCI | ATI Rage XL |
| Video RAM | 16 MB SDRAM | 8 MB SDRAM |
| Max. Resolution | 1600x1200 | 1280x1024 |
| PCIe x16/x8 | 0/1 | 0/0 |
| PCIe x4/x1 | 4/0 | 0/0 |
| PCI-X (133/100) | 1/2 | 2/6 |
| PCI | 0 | 0 |
| USB Front | 3 | 0 |
| USB Rear | 2 | 2 |
| LAN | Intel Dual Gigabit | NC7782 Dual PCI-X Gigabit |
| Server management | Intel Server management | HP Ilo |
| Serial Ports | 1 | 1 |
| Storage | ||
| Controller | LSI Logic LSI53C1030 | HP Smart Array 5i Plus Ultra 3 |
| Cache | Optional | 64 MB BBU |
| Interface | Dual-Channel Ultra320 SCSI SCA | Dual-Channel Ultra320 SCSI SCA |
| Disks | 10 (5) | 4 |
| RAID | 0,1,1E | 0,1,1+0,5 |
| 5.25 bays | 2 | 1 |
| Dimensions & Power | ||
| Form Factor | 6U (4U) | 4U |
| Weight (kg) | 60 (40) | 30 |
| PowerSupply | 2x1570W | 2x 870W |
| . | ||
| URL | SR6850HW4 | HP DL585 2006 |
The Xeon MP offers much more in the way of RAS features than the Opteron machine. The HP DL585 also has a few shortcomings: it does not offer any PCIe expansion slots, the SCSI controller is an old SCSI 160 model, and there are no USB ports on the front of the machine. Being able to quickly load some network drivers from a USB stick is very convenient compared to tinkering in the back of your rack.
However, the HP is the winner for memory intensive HPC applications: it can use DDR1-400 DIMMs which are quite a bit faster than the DDR2-400 FB DIMMs Intel uses. We were disappointed that both 4U designs do not offer more than 4-5 disk bays. If you are a medium sized enterprise and you have only one or a few heavy duty database applications, you can save a lot of money if you don't have to buy an external storage rack. With a RAID-1 setup for the operating system and programs, you only have two disks left to install your database on a second RAID-1 partition. Both the HP DL585 and the Intel SR4850HW4 basically force you to invest in an external storage rack in this case. Some 3U solutions like Supermicro's offer 16(!) disk bays and might be a better fit for a compute intensive transactional database. The HP and Intel machine are more suited for a HPC machine or as the host of a SAN storage rack to house a massive database/ERP system.
To make a fair comparison between the Xeon MP and AMD Opteron 8xx platforms, we decided to compare the costs of similar HP Xeon MP and HP Opteron machines, configuring them as similarly as possible.
| Price Comparison | ||
| Server | HP ProLiant DL580 G4 3.20GHz | HP ProLiant DL585 G2 2.4GHz - Rack Server |
| CPUs | 4x Intel Xeon MP 7130 M | 4x AMD Opteron 8216 DC |
| Memory | 4 Memory boards x 2 x 1 GB DDR2-400 | 8x 1 GB DDR2-667 |
| Storage | HP Smart Array P400/256 PCIe Controller | HP Smart Array P400/512 Controller with battery |
| NIC | HP Dual embedded NC371i Gigabit | HP Dual embedded NC371i Gigabit |
| PSU | Dual 910/1300W power supplies | Dual 910/1300W hot plug power supplies |
| DVD | SlimLine DVD-ROM Drive (8x/24x) Option Kit | SlimLine DVD-ROM Drive (8x/24x) Option Kit |
| Price | $15,343 | $13,184 |
The price disadvantage of the Xeon MP is more than $2000, which is not huge but still tangible. It is the result of the fact that you have to pay an extra $400 per Xeon CPU and $1000 for two extra memory boards. It is possible to save $1000 if you only get two memory boards, but that is not advisable. As 4GB DIMMs are extremely expensive, this means that you limit your server to 16GB (8x2GB) and that you cannot use the more advanced RAS features such as memory mirroring.
Power
How much power can we save by choosing the 95W TDP Opteron over the 150W TDP Xeon MP? We tested all machines with only one power supply running. DBS and PowerNow! were not enabled.
| Power Requirements | ||
| System | Configuration | Max / Idle Power Usage (100% / <1% CPU load, W) |
| HP DL585 | 4 CPUs - 16 GB RAM | 657 / 520 |
| Intel Xeon MP 7130M | 4 CPUs - 16 GB RAM | 885 / 460 (620) |
Both machines use huge fast turning fans which consume a lot of energy. To give you an idea of what this means, while idling the power consumption of the Xeon MP machine fluctuated between 460W and 620W. The 620W figure was generated when all the fans where turned on, while the 460W result was measured when the fans were silent. The HP DL585 did not use this on/off fan system, and consumed 520W while running idle. Once running at 100% load, the Xeon MP consumed 200W more than the Opteron machine while running SPECjbb2005. For your information, our Supermicro system consumed 310 W with 4 GB and about 360 W with 12 GB of RAM
Conclusion so far
Yes, our testing is not done. We still have to test other databases, and we are running benchmarks with Bea's JVM while you are reading this. Those benchmarks will be presented in our Clovertown - Intel's new quad core server CPU - review. In this review we focused a little more on the actual servers. So what can we conclude so far?
The Xeon 7140MP "Tulsa" is nothing less than a massive improvement over the previous Xeon 7041: it consumes less, performs a lot better (see the SPEC int/fp numbers) and is much less expensive. The new Xeon MP needs fewer optimizations than the Opteron to perform well in Java applications. Or if we look at our preliminary Bea Webrockit numbers, it performs better than the quad Opteron with a highly optimized JVM in applications with a big memory footprint (like SPECjbb2005) thanks to its massive L3 cache. In applications where the large L3 cache doesn't play a big role, the relatively poor server performance of the "NetBurst" architecture becomes visible again: our MySQL benchmark runs a lot better on the AMD Opteron and Intel's newest Core architecture Xeons. Power consumption is still rather high though, and the HP Opteron server consumed over 230W less.
In a nutshell, the new Xeon MP will have a hard time convincing people who are leaning towards an Opteron server or want the best performance/watt. But on the other hand, the decent performance and superior RAS features will keep the customers who desire high availability in the Intel camp, while the previous Xeon MP was such a poor performer that many people had no other choice than the AMD Opteron in the quad socket market.
When "High-end RAS" is less important, the excellent performance of the Xeon 5160 based Supermicro 6015 server shows how much potential the Xeon DP "Clovertown" has. Clovertown is nothing more than two Xeon DP 51xx on one chip, but it could give our quad monsters a hard time. You will find out more very soon....
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
88 Comments
View All Comments
Maxtah - Thursday, April 2, 2020 - link
Добрый день! Услуга https://xn--82-6kc.xn--p1ai/">аренда авто Сиферополь в нынешнее время самое востребованное предложение на полуострове. Забронировав у нас машину Вы можете поехать на море, в горы, в лес, на экскурсии, не боясь заразиться вирусом! С 2-го апреля, наш автопрокат запускает акцию бесплатная подача авто в симферопольский аэропорт. Акция действует до 30 апреля на аренду авто в Крыму любого автомобиля из нашего парка. https://а82.рф/avto/#bookit/">Забронироватьcontractorbug - Thursday, April 2, 2020 - link
General service provider manhattanThe role of General building and construction New York is to move to the consumer the whole location as a whole, as well as not such as separately conducted job. Of particular importance is the role of the overall specialist during the large-scale construction of flats of domestic style, commercial complexes, business centers.
https://grandeurhillsgroup.com/">general contractor;
Industrial buildings.
Today, the checklist of construction companies consists of numerous corporate interior design. An entrepreneur as well as a consumer can devote a great deal of time-solving on all company issues. A even more sensible remedy is actually to entrust this duty to General development NY.
labedroominjes - Saturday, April 4, 2020 - link
https://labedroom.com/">Farmhouse bedroomWant refresh your external interior? Check out the innovations products home from our compilation, in which represented as goods with bright floral patterns and colors and products with chic texture and finish metallic. Poof for the garden is rightfully considered integral attribute of each housing. In the online store you can purchase reliable furniture for any house. Famous international company will deliver in HOLLYWOOD to you all furniture at any time working day.Price lists, which provides web shop office furniture SANTA MONICA nice all visitor.As a rule small price may cause few questions in a relationship good quality. The catalog which filled numerous items office furniture composes just quality enterprise products.
Stooma - Saturday, April 4, 2020 - link
Скажем, вы обладатель нового вебсайта, который имеет приятный дизайн, удобную навигацию и нужную для участников рекламную информацию. Но до сих пор нет участников на вашем сайте. Что делать? Те, кто имеют свой бизнес мы поможем вам создать облачный сервис. Кого хошь спроси, ни одно настоящее либо виртуальное предприятие не может продвигаться самостоятельно. Определенной торговой компании необходимо подмога в приобретении популярности, а во Мировой компьюторной сети без нее безусловно не обойтись из-за яростной конкурентной борьбы.Мы занимаемся разработкой форумов. Наши сотрудники готовы запустить полноценный проект в течение семи суток. Сверх оформления рабочих интернет-ресурсов, мы предоставляем перечень работ технической службы: уместное продление хостинга и домена, добавление контента на сайт, публикация известий. Наши услуги помогут вам стать лидером на горизонтах всемирной паутины.https://apistudio.ru">продвижение сайта в сша
Если вам нужно продвижение или создание сайта - пишите на sales@apistudio.ru
seoovals - Monday, April 6, 2020 - link
Производственная компания в Самаре может помочь начать свой бизнес online, который охватывает в себя повышение узнаваемости бренда, продвижение, исследование рынка, рекламу, взаимоотношения с клиентами и настройку процессов, стратегию, которые бы объединяли online-дело с офлайн-услугами. Больше 10 фирм кооперируются с нашей фирмой. Наши сотрудники проводят: Контент. Постоянное создание свежего контента помогает занимать более высочайшие позиции, давая поисковым системам большее количество страниц для индексации, а аудитории - больше факторов для перехода на ваш собственный сайт. Местное SEO. Оптимизация наполнения. Впоследствии сбора ключевых слов оптимизируем страницы вашего сайта, затем, чтобы сфокусироваться вокруг собранных слов. Поисковая оптимизация(сео): пользуемся карты сайта,адаптивный дизайн и структурированные данные,скорость сайта, с тем чтобы поднять ваш личный показатель. Создание гиперссылок. Yandex придает большее вес web сайтам с различными гиперссылками на них. Разбор ключевых слов. Определяем ключевые определения и первостепенные слова, которые конкретно ваша целевая интернет-аудитория использует в целях поиска услуг, продуктов и тем, сопряженных с данной фирмой.[size=6]https://samarawebstudio.ru/">Заказать сайт самара[/size]
На данный момент мы несомненно помогли многочисленным фирмам в таких направлениях как: туризм и отдых недвижимость онлайн-банкинг информационные технологии компьютеры мебель, бытовая техника розничная торговля. Нам удалось реорганизовать процессы, увеличить их трафик, продажи, улучшить связь. Приглашаем вас к сотрудничеству с нами. Мы продвинем ваш собственный онлайн-проект в ТОП Яндекс и google.
teleinspPax - Friday, April 10, 2020 - link
Делая упор на длительный навык в решении этого вопроса и квалифицированную бригаду специалистов, по , оборудование скважины, очистка дренажа, https://belgvod.ru">телеинспекция артезианских скважин, очистка дренажной канализации, прочистка дренажной канализации, очистка водоподъёмных труб, очистка трубопроводов высоким давлением и тому подобное. Эти услуги обширно чаще всего используют во всевозможных ориентациях, например таких как ирригация, сельское хоз-то, комерческий или жилой комплекс. Вся наша бригада спецов владеет большим практическим опытом в данных областях, все это помогает нашей международной компании выполнять эти сервисы такие услуги как ремонт скважины, оборудование скважины, замена глубинных насосов, ремонт артезианской скважины, установка пьезометрических трубок, поставка водоподъёмных труб, очистка водоподъёмных труб, поставка скважинных трубс полной отдачей и очень быстро. Представляемые услуги ценятся абсолютно всеми нашими клиентами за их быстрое совершение и лучшую ценовую политику.Matthewker - Friday, April 10, 2020 - link
https://novostroyka63.ru/">Цена под фундаментСоздание дома вашей мечты - это оригинальная возможность, спланировать и претворить в жизнь нечто воистину уникальное во всех отношениях. Возведение фундамента - это в целом первоначальная модель ремонта, в процессе которой домик строится. При расчете замена фундамента под старым деревянным домом цена предусматривается весьма много факторов. Средняясумма возведения домов фундамента составляет приблизительно от 10$ за кв.метр . Погреб сможет умножить итоговую стоимость каждого объекта недвижимости, предоставляя необходимое помещение ради организации хранения и порой рабочее пространство. Наша профессиональная команда по конструированию и возведенью фундамент под памятник на кладбище цена может помочь выстроить жилище, о котором вы всегда мечтали. От начала до конца наша специализированная компания в Череповец позаботимся о всех без исключения процессах, чтобы заказчику не довелось тревожиться о деталях. Специализированная международная компания в Киселевск несет юридическую ответственность за проект, а не вы, именно поэтому организация в Борисоглебск имеют интерес в том, затем чтобы довести до конца строительство коттеджа быстрее и эффективнее. Узнайте о сваи винтовые для фундамента цены в вытегре у спспециалистовециалистов корпорации.
NathanDal - Thursday, April 16, 2020 - link
Hi guys, just came across your wonderful website and would like to share some free userful resource.The Best free online https://keepvid.ch/pt/youtube-to-mp3">YouTube mp3 tools.
New https://flvto.ch/de/youtube-converter">youtube converter website.
The Best and stable https://2conv.ch/">YouTube Downloader
New https://ytmp3.ch/">youtube to mp3 website.
Alternative to https://makemkv.jp/">makemkv in Japan.
MarinaGaike - Friday, April 24, 2020 - link
http://eppayroll.com/__media__/js/netsoltrademark....http://www.indice.com/redir.asp?pagina=https://www...
http://flycanadian.com/__media__/js/netsoltrademar...
http://www.johnscreekendodontics.us/__media__/js/n...
m335z
Keepvid597x - Saturday, May 2, 2020 - link
Hello, just would like to share some useful information and websites, hope that will be helpful. Thanks!The Best https://topten.ai/video-enhancer-review/">Video Enhancer Software reviews 2020.
The Best free online https://keepvid.ch/en3/">YouTube Downloader tools.
New https://flvto.ch/de/">youtube converter website.
The Best and stable https://2conv.ch/">YouTube video Downloader
New https://ytmp3.ch/">YouTube to mp3 website