What processor and OS are the champs right now

[Dezoris]

I searched and found some feedback, and it seems that php with the accel. mysql and vbulletin run well even on servers that don't have crazy specs. It looks as if the true problem or archilles heel of this software is Mysql.

So with that said, I have to build a server now.
I am a big fan of Intel never had a problem, but my associates feel a dual AMD XP2000 setup will do fine for the price.

So I am going to be running everything on one box, for cost reasons, and co-lo reasons.

So would a single processor P4 2.53 with 2-3gb of ram do?
Or would dual Xeon 2.2s with 2-3gb of ram do it or would the
AMD machine work best?

I want opinion based on stabilty and performance.

Also what version of Linux,
FreeBSD, BSD, Red Hat??

You tell me.
Thanks

[eva2000]

depends on how many visitors, concurrent users, posts/day etc you expect ?

my preference would be (meaning if i had anywhere near the disposable $$$ to get such a system :o ) :

dual Intel P3 Tualatin 1.4ghz with 512k L2 Cache (they outperform P4s for web serving)
2 to 4 x 512MB DDR PC2100 ECC Registered memory
2 x 36GB Maxtor Atlas III 10K scsi drives with 8MB caches (2nd disk is dedicated to mysql's installation and for location of mysql data files)
running Redhat 7.2 (not sure about 7.3) with latest 2.4.x kernel
PHP 4.1.2 with zlib and GD support
PHPA 1.3.1
MySQL-max 3.23.39a with support for innobase and Berkley databases compiled in and enabled

i don't know how well Dual AMDs perform... but anandtech uses them.

[Dezoris]

Well right now the user level is not peaking beyond 94 at a time, but this is handicapped by my current hosting, but I dont see more than 500 active users by the end of the year.

What do you think about the IDE raid controller cards running level 1 mirroring instead of SCSI we were going to run 4x80GB ata133 or ata100 160Gb for mirroring. Using either the built in OS software raid or the cards software.

The processor usage I appreciate your advice here.
Why would the P3Tuals be better than the Xeons with the 512cache? even at clock speeds of 2.2? I mean that is a big difference would the Tuals still be able to outperform the dual Xeons at that high?

I know OT.net runs dual AMDs using Xp2100s and supports 800-900 users almost all the time running a dedicated server for web and db. Could you link those that run the AMDs so I could get some opinions. I just dont want to be upgrading, you understand, my choice of hardware will stick for 1-2 years unless I start making big $$$ which is unlikely :)

Thanks dude.

[eva2000]

you might have better feedback from people actually have used such servers at

http://forums.2cpu.com/
http://www.amdmb.com/vb/
http://hardforums.com

[Dezoris]

ok I emailed them, I wish I had direct contact with the admins there. Oh well.
What do you run?

[eva2000]

Originally posted by Dezoris
ok I emailed them, I wish I had direct contact with the admins there. Oh well.
What do you run? no i mean use those forums to ask other members.. NOT email those forum's webmasters

i'm on a dual p3 866, 768mb ram, 18gb scsi server

[Dezoris]

How would the members know server configuration or issues with running and maintaing a VB?

This is an issue for the admins, don't you think?

Whats your average user load look like?
You run your mail server, db server, and http server off that box?

BTW thanks for your continued input I do appreciate it :)

[eva2000]

Originally posted by Dezoris
How would the members know server configuration or issues with running and maintaing a VB?

This is an issue for the admins, don't you think?

Whats your average user load look like?
You run your mail server, db server, and http server off that box?

BTW thanks for your continued input I do appreciate it :) no i meant their feedback on comparison between

P4 xeons and P3 tualatins in a web serving environment

my sites and forums are listed at http://fananime.com vB is at http://animeboards.com/index.php?s=

my forum's stats

and yes all mail/mysql/web is from the same server

load average is around 0.60 - 1.8 normally and when i do automated mysql database back ups it shoots to 4.0 - 16+ and highest is 30+ since i have total of 2.9GB of mysql databases (vB is 1GB in size) and i backup all databases 3 times per day

[hypedave]

Originally posted by Dezoris
I searched and found some feedback, and it seems that php with the accel. mysql and vbulletin run well even on servers that don't have crazy specs. It looks as if the true problem or archilles heel of this software is Mysql.

So with that said, I have to build a server now.
I am a big fan of Intel never had a problem, but my associates feel a dual AMD XP2000 setup will do fine for the price.

So I am going to be running everything on one box, for cost reasons, and co-lo reasons.

So would a single processor P4 2.53 with 2-3gb of ram do?
Or would dual Xeon 2.2s with 2-3gb of ram do it or would the
AMD machine work best?

I want opinion based on stabilty and performance.

Also what version of Linux,
FreeBSD, BSD, Red Hat??

You tell me.
Thanks


go for either the P4 or the Duron, slap Windows 2000 on it, apply your patches calles it a day and install your forum on it, im a heavy Intel guru, and product dealer, not trying to slap AMD in the face, but I dont think they are ready to enter the hosting field yet, they still have bugs with major ISP Applications and not trying to do anything at the moment to fix it

[jphilipson]

The last few servers I have purchased are AMD athlon XPs and they perform beautifully. There was a good article comparing Athlons as server chips and Xeons/pentiums on anandtech...can't seem to find it right now. But the results were impressive, thats what initially steered me towards the Athlons, and I have to say I am not dissappointed so far :).

[eva2000]

proof than P3 dual setup faster than Xeons -> http://www.theinquirer.net/25050202.htm :)

[SloppyGoat]

I don't have many members yet, but my board is very active. I've been told by quite a few people that it's the fastest they've seen.

Hardware:

ABIT KT7A (no RAID)
Duron 800
512M SDRAM
Cheesy Maxtor DiamondMax 10G
Running W2K Server/PHP4.1.2 with gzip

It ain't bad at all for what it is. Of course, we'll see what happens when I get more members. ;) I'll definitely stick with AMD though. :cool: Intel performs more processes to get the same work done. Sure they're fast, but the real world performance speaks for itself. My main box has a T-Bird 1.4@1.6. ;)

[jphilipson]

Well i have a duron 1 Ghz with a few baords on it, and it stinks... problem is the limited cache on the duron.

[TI Master]

I'm running a PC-Chips dual P3 mainboard with 512MB PC133, Apache 1.3.24 w/mod_gzip, PHP 4.1.2, MySQL on FreeBSD 4.5 and the server is quite zippy.

The hard drives are dual 40GB IBM Deskstar ATA100 drives on a Promise Fasttrak100 controller in a RAID mirror.

My site, www.dealhunting.com , has typically a max of 30-40 concurrent users (highest ever was in the mid-200's) and the load average rarely exceeds 0.10, even with other processes running on the box.

[SloppyGoat]

Originally posted by jphilipson
Well i have a duron 1 Ghz with a few baords on it, and it stinks... problem is the limited cache on the duron.

The CPU ain't your problem. Unless you have a horribly busy board, you're not even using the full potential of your CPU anyway. My measley 800 hardly even has to do anything. What kind of mobo are you using? It's not like vB is extremely CPU intensive or anything. I'd imagine I might run into a problem if I had 500 members online at once.

[jphilipson]

Originally posted by SloppyGoat


The CPU ain't your problem. Unless you have a horribly busy board, you're not even using the full potential of your CPU anyway. My measley 800 hardly even has to do anything. What kind of mobo are you using? It's not like vB is extremely CPU intensive or anything. I'd imagine I might run into a problem if I had 500 members online at once.

Its a friends server that I manage for him from time to time, he has like 6 boards hosted on it, performance is terrible. And yes, durons crap under pressure.. I have p3's doing a hell of alot more and they run great.

[SloppyGoat]

Ah, I see. 6 boards! That must be a load. :eek: Yeah, I don't think I'd even attempt using a Duron for any real extreme loads, such as multiple sites like that. ;)

[AWS]

I have 2 dual AMD servers and one p3 1GHz and the AMD outperforms the p3 by far.

Don't use ide, raid or otherwise. It will be fine at first but once the site gets busy ide will eat up processor power and won't leave much for mysql. I went through it. My site slowed to a crawl and the bottleneck was the ide chain. I switched to scsi raid 10 with 18 4.3 gig IBM drives. These were 5400RPM scsi and even with them performance of the server was much better. I have u160 now on one server and juct picked up a FC-AL array with 18 9gig fiber channel drives. Once I get my FC controller delivered and I put it online the site will be future ready.
Use scsi, stay away from ide.

[SloppyGoat]

5400RPM SCSI???? I've never heard of such slow SCSI HDD's. That's slower than my 7200 IDE's! I guess the wider cables make all the difference, eh? What kind of transfer rate so you get out of those? Were you using ATA100 IDE's before?

[alexi]

the issue with IDE vs. SCSI isn't neccesarily transfer rate, it is processor usage. IDE drives draw heavily upon the CPU and as the site gets busy that will become a real problem. All of the SCSI processing is done on the controller card.

[jphilipson]

Originally posted by alexi
the issue with IDE vs. SCSI isn't neccesarily transfer rate, it is processor usage. IDE drives draw heavily upon the CPU and as the site gets busy that will become a real problem. All of the SCSI processing is done on the controller card.

agree with that, but also, throughput is faster too.

[alexi]

OH no argument, more throughput is better!

[jphilipson]

Lets just end this now, and have a drink to the fantastic scsi :)

[alexi]

I'm always up for a drink! While we are at it let's have a drink for each drive in a SCSI RAID level 10 Array

[jphilipson]

ummmmm level ten...that means ten drinks lol

[alexi]

not neccsarily you can do a raid 10 with 6 drives...still wouldn't drive after :-)