Further to my blogs on Intel and AMD CPUs I thought I would rap it all up with some (hopefully) useful comparison information.

AMDs comparison of Quad Opteron v Intel Quad Xeon

Intel and AMD have significantly differing approach for memory architecture which means that either company can pick a process suited to their architecture and perform much betters than the competition in benchmark testing.

Intel Positive
All of the system memory is available to all/each socket/core in an Intel CPU. However memory is dedicated to specific cores in an AMD CPU. Therefore if I want to use memory for core 1 activity that is assigned to core 2 in an AMD CPU I effectively have to use up two core’s for that process. This is not the case with the Intel CPU. Test that exploit these criteria favour Intel

AMD Positive
If I want to write to memory with multiple CPU/cores Intel CPUs share a common bus which is not the case with AMD CPU. Test that exploit these criteria favour AMD.

OK this labours the point a little (and is very simplistic) but you get the picture. More information here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benchmark_(computing)      

So we need an impartial (test if possible)

This site offers just such a solution

PassMark™ Software
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/common_cpus.html 

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

And from a VMware perspective you have also got VMware’s VMmark, although this is focused at complete systems. Still very useful.  
http://www.vmware.com/products/vmmark/results.html

Whilst researching my AMD CPU comparison post I found these useful AMD virtualisation  resources. I think that they will be helpful in changing opinions that have been form previously about virtualisation as a enterprise solution.

http://www.amd.com/us-en/0,,3715_15781,00.html?redir=SWOP08

VIRTUALIZING SERVER WORKLOADS
LOOKING BEYOND CURRENT ASSUMPTIONS
"And while virtualization has moved out of its traditional domain into mainstream production, conventional thinking about its capabilities and limitations still keeps many organizations from embarking on large implementations. The suitability of workloads for virtualization in production environments is often guided by assumptions that are no longer true. Because every server workload has distinct performance characteristics, understanding and taking those characteristics into consideration is necessary to determine the server’s suitability for virtualization.
Improvements in virtualization hardware and other advances in virtualization technology are making it possible to virtualize an increasingly wide range of
workloads.

In summary, organizations that decided against virtualization in the past because of concerns about CPU, memory, or I/O bottlenecks would do well to take
another look.
AMD WP Virtualizing Server Workloads.pdf

What is AMD Virtualization™ technology?

The following link has a click-able image that directs you to the appropriate section  

http://www.amd.com/us-en/0,,3715_15781_15785,00.html

As Promised here is a AMD CPU family comparison resource

Loads of information here

Desktop Orientated
http://products.amd.com/en-us/DesktopCPUResult.aspx

Select the CPUs your interested in

Then click compare to get side by side comparison

Server Orientated (Opteron)

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_8796,00.html

Same set up as desktop CPUs plus additional benchmark and architecture documentation. 

Including comparison for 1st, 2nd and 3rd Generation Opteron plus go info on AMD and Intel processor architecture

General AMD products page:

Including CPU, GPU, Motherboards (chipsets)
http://products.amd.com/en-us/default.aspx

Over the Christmas break I have realised that my good old home machine just doesn’t cut it anymore. I’ve had it for years and the gap between my work computers performance and it is just to much. I am looking at replacing it but which processor, motherboard, memory GPU etc?

Years ago when the Pentium was first released putting a machine together was a little less complex. CPU form factor was slot 1. Then AMD come along and the whole thing went mad the permutations for CPU, motherboard and RAM getting more and more complex. Added to this the GPU & additional card bus types and things get very complex indeed. Trying to build a PC that optimum spec per £/$/€ isn’t easy.

Intel’s Processor list

In the past I have simply gone for Dell (www.dell.co.uk/tv) as its easy but its always a trade off between middle of the road or big bucks e.g. I would like a quad core CPU but don’t care for the disco case or GPU that can do 20 squillian 3d rendered object per nano second  

So here is a CPU comparison from Intel (AMD to follow) to help you get to grips with processors current state of play. 

Intel (Desktop Orientated)

Very nice side by side comparison of the latest and greatest in the Intel processor family.

 http://compare.intel.com/pcc/default.aspx?familyID=1

Intel (Server Orientated)

http://ark.intel.com/ 

Select the processor by clicking the next to the processors

Then select Compare on the menu

The good thing about this site is you can also look at the chipsets that go with the processors to confirm compatibility. It removes that slight worry that the 50 hours research missed that one vital nugget of information that will make you wish you had gone for the Dell

Other Intel Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Intel_processors

I’ll do the AMD one in my next post

Happy New Year

I have just completed the Certified PlateSpin Analyst (CPSA) exam.

This is a cracking product for migration, DR, consolidation or technical refresh projects. It comes into its own where you need to maintain service with minimal interruption – hence the name

PowerConvert

http://www.platespin.com/products/powerconvert/

Basically you can take an image of a target source which can be an image, physical or virtual server and provision a destination source which can be a physical, virtual or image. Supports live file, block and VSS based imaging + offline PE based imaging of a variety of Windows and Linux OS inc (Windows NT4)

PowerRecon

They have a sister product that is used to analyse/benchmark you environment and then either provided details for consolidation or specification for migration/planning. Its very similar to VMware Capacity Planner

http://www.platespin.com/products/powerrecon/

My colleague has put together some excellent posts on practical examples:

http://vinf.net/2008/11/25/platespin-powerconvert-part-1-overview/
http://vinf.net/2008/11/26/platespin-powerconvert-part-2-p2v/
http://vinf.net/2008/12/01/platespin-powerconvert-part-3-v2p/

Interested but need assistance?

I work for a ioko if you are in-need of consultancy services around these or indeed any technical professional services get in touch with us here. We can help.

So Simon gave me some tips – eSATA II, big cache 16Mb is good and fast so 7200RPM. He pointed me at the Western Digital WD3200BEKT 2.5" 320GB 16Mb cache 7200RPM  we found it for around £65inc VAT + P&P.

So I tried the usual suspect for quality hardware at very competitive prices

Overclockers
Lambda-tek
MicroDirect
ebuyer
TechStore

They are all in the upper £65+ mark 

I managed to find it here for the princely sum of £57.82 inc Vat
http://www.drivemylaptop.co.uk/LaptopPartsList.aspx?pt=3